least slip to no lesse then hell Yet there are certaine favourable temperaments of circumstances which may if not excuse yet extenuate a fault such as age complexion custome profit importunity necessity which are justly pleadable at the barre both of God and the conscience and are sufficient to rebate the edge of divine severity p. 335. March the 14. 1646. I Have perused this Treatise intituled Satans fiery darts quenched in which I find so many excellent helps for the strengthning of the Christians faith the repelling of Temptations and the comforting of afflicted consciences in the day of triall that I judge it well worthy to be printed and published JOHN DOWNAME TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The first Decade Temptations of Impiety Satans fiery darts quenched I. DECADE I. TEMPTATION Foolish sinner thou leanest upon a broken reed whiles thou reposest all thy trust in a crucified Saviour Repelled BLasphemous Spirit It is not the ignominy of the Crosse that can blemish the honour of my Saviour Thou feelst to thy endlesse pain and regret that he who would die upon the tree of shame hath triumph't victoriously over death and all the powers of hell The greater his abasement was the greater is the glory of his mercy He that is the eternall God would put on man that he might work mans redemption and satisfie God for man Who but a man could suffer and who but a God could conquer by suffering It is man that had sinned it is God that was offended who but he that was God man could reconcile God unto man He was crucified through weaknesse yet he liveth and triumpheth in the power of his omnipotent God-head Neither was it so much weaknesse to yeeld unto death as it was power to vanquish it yea in this very dying there was strength For here was no violence that could force him into his grave who should offer it I and the Father are one saith that word of Truth and in Unity there can be no constraint And if the persons be divers He thought it no robbery to be equall with God the Father and there is no authority over equals and for men or Devils what could they do to the Lord of life I lay down my life saith the Almighty redeemer that I might take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to â—â—ke it againe Oh infinitenesse both of power and mercy met in the center of a willing death Impudent tempter doest thou not remember thine owne language The time was indeed when thou couldst say If thou be the Son of God but when thou foundest thy self quelled by that divine power and saw'st those miraculous works fall from him which were only proper to an infinite God-head now thou wert forced to confesse I know who thou art even the holy one of God and againe Jesus the Son of the most high God and yet againe What have we to do with thee Jesus the Son of God art thou come to torment us before the time Lo then even in the time of his humane weakness thou couldst with horrour enough acknowledge him the Sonne of the most high God and dar'st thou now that he sits crowned with celestiall glory disparage his ever-blessed Deity Thy malice hath raised up as in the former so in these later daies certaine cursed imps of hereticall pravitie who under the name of Christians have wickedly re-crucified the Lord that bought them not sparing to call into question the eternall Deity of him whom they dare call Saviour whom if thou hadst not steeled with an hellish impudence certainly they could not professe to admit the word written and yet the whiles deny the personall Word How clear testimony doth the one of them give to the other when thou presumedst to set upon the Son of God by thy personall temptations he stopt thy mouth with a Scriptum est how much more shall these Pseudo-Christian agents of thine be thus convinced Surely there is no truth wherein those Oracles of God have beene more clear and punctuall Are we not there required to beleeve in him as God upon the promise of eternall life under the paine of everlasting condemnation Are we not commanded to baptize in his name as God Is not the holy Ghost given as a seale to that baptisme Are we not charged to give divine honour to him Is not this required and reported to be done not only by the Kings of the earth but by the Saints and Angels in heaven Is he not there declared to be equall with God Is he not there asserted to be one with the Father Doth he not there challenge a joynt right with the Father in all things both in heaven and earth Are not the great works of divine power attributed to him Hath not he created the earth and man upon it have not his hands stretched out the heavens hath not he commanded all their host Are not all the Attributes of God his Is he not eternall Is it not he of whom the Psalmist Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdome is a right scepter Is not he the Father of eternity the first and the last have not his goings forth been from everlasting Had not he glory with the Father before the world was Is not he the Word which was in the beginning the word that was with God and the word that was God Is he not infinite and incomprehensible Is it not he that filleth all things that was in heaven whiles he was on earth Is he not Almighty even the mighty God who upholds all things by the word of his power Yea is he not expresly stiled the Lord Jehovah The Lord of hosts God blessed for ever The true God and eternall life The great God and Saviour The Lord of glory Hath he not abundantly convinced the world of his Godhead by those miraculous works which he did both in his owne person whiles he was here on earth and by the hands of his followers works so transcending the possibility of nature that they could not be wrought by any lesse then the God of nature as ejecting of Devils by command raising the dead after degrees of putrefaction giving eyes to the borne blind conquering death in his own resuscitation ascending gloriously into heaven charming the winds and waters healing diseases by the very shadow of his transient disciples Yea tell me by what power was it that thine Oracles wherby all the world was held in superstition were silenced What-power whereby the Gospel so opposite to flesh and bloud hath conquered the world and in spight of all the violence of Tyrants and oppugnation of rebellious nature hath prevailed Upon all these grounds how can I do lesse then cry our with the late-believing
were extant As it was onely the Spirit of the most high God in Daniel that could fetch back and give an account of a vision fore-passed All the Soothsayers and Magicians confesse this a work of no lesse then divine omniscience And as for things future the predictions of this word of things to be done after many hundreds yea some thousands of years the events having then no pre-existence in their causes being accordingly accomplished show it to proceed from an absolute unfailing and therefore infinite prescience And whereas there are two parts of this word The Law and the Gospel The Law is more exact then humane braines can reach unto meeting with those aberrations which the most wise and curious Law-givers could not give order for extending it selfe to those very thoughts which nature knows not to accuse or restrain The Gospel is made good as by the signes and wonders wrought in all the primitive ages so by the powerfull operation that it hath upon the soul such as the word of the most prudent man on earth or of the greatest Angel in heaven should in vain hope to parallel And whereas the pen-men of both these were Prophets and Apostles The Prophets are sufficiently attested by the Apostles to be men holy inspired by the Holy Ghost the Apostles are abundantly attested by the Holy ghost powred out upon them in their Pentecost besides variety of tongues enabling them to do such miraculous works as astonished convinced their very enemies To these may be added the perfect harmony of the Law the Gospel the Law being a prefigured gospel the gospel a law consummate both of them lively setting forth Christ the redeemer of the world both future exhibited Neither is it lightly to be esteemed that this word hath been by holy men in all ages received as of sacred and divine authority men whose lives and deaths have approved them eminent Saints of God who have not only professed but sealed with their bloud this truth which they had learned from him that was rapt into the third heaven That all Scripture is given by inspiration of God a truth which cannot but be contested by their own hearts which have sensibly found the power of this word convincing them of sin working effectually in them a lively faith and unfaigned conversion which no humane means could ever have effected Lastly it is a strong evidence to my soule that this is no other then the word of a God that I find it so eagerly opposed by thee and all thy malignant instruments in all ages Philosophers both naturall and morall and politique have left large Volumes behind them in their severall professions all which are suffered to live in peace and to enjoy their opinions with freedome and leave but so soon as ever this sacred book of God looks forth into the world hell is in an uproar and raises all the forces of malice and wit and violence against it Wherefore would it be thus if there were not some more divine thing in these holy leaves then in all the monuments of learned humanity But the protection is yet more convictive then the opposition that not withstanding all the machinations of the powers of darknesse this word is preserved intire that the simplicity of it prevails against all worldly policy that the power of it subdues all nations and triumphs over all the wickednesse of men and devils it is proof enough to me that the God of heaven is both the author and owner and giver of it Shortly then Let my soul be built upon this rocky foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Let thy storms rise and thy flouds come and thy winds blow and beat upon it it shall mock at thy fury and shall stand firme against all the rage of hell III. TEMPTATION Art thou so sottish to suffer thy understanding to be captivated to I know not what divine authority proposing unto thee things contrary to sense and reason and therefore absurd and impossible Be thou no other then thy self a man and follow the light and guidance of that which makes thee so right Reason and what soever disagrees from that turn it off as no part of thy beliefe to those superstitious bigots which are willing to lose their reason in their faith and to bury their brains in their heart Repelled WIcked tempter thou wishest me to my losse wo were to me if I were but a man and if I had no better guide to follow then that which thou call'st Reason it is from nature that I am a man it is from grace that I am a man regenerate Nature holds forth to me as a man the dim and weak rush-candle-light of carnall reason The grace of regeneration shows me the bright torch-light yea the sun of divine illumination Thou bid'st me as a man to follow the light of reason God bids me as a regenerate man to follow the light of faith whether should I beleeve whether should I listen to It is true that reason is the great gift of my Creator and that which was intended to distinguish us from brute creatures but where is it in the originall purity to be found under heaven Surely it can now appear to us in no other shape then either as corrupted by thy depravation or by Gods renovating grace restored as it is marred by thee even naturall truths are too high for it as it is renued by God it can apprehend and imbrace supernaturall verities It is regenerate reason that I shall ever follow and that will teach me to subscribe to all those truths which the un-erring Spirit of the holy God hath revealed in his sacred word how ever contrary to the ratiocination of flesh and bloud Onely this is the right reason which is illuminated by Gods spirit and willingly subjected to faith which represents to me those things which thou suggestest to me for unreasonable and impossible as not faisible only but most certain That in one Deity there are three most glorious persons distinguished in their subsistences not divided in their substance That in one person of Christ the Mediator there are two natures divine and humane not converted into each other not confounded each with other That the Creator of all things should become a creature That a creature should be the mother of him that is her God how ever they be points which carnall reason can not put over yet they are such as reason illuminate and regenerate can both easily and most comfortably digest Great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh What mystery were there in godlinesse if the deepest secrets of religion did lie open to the common apprehension of nature My Saviour who is truth it self hath told me that no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him and with the same breath gives thanks to his heavenly Father that he hath hid these
in despaire persecuted but not forsaken cast downe but not destroyed Of the Jewes five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In journying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by my owne countrymen in perils by the heathen c. In wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakednesse Yea which was worse then all these dost thou not heare him say There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me Dost thou not too well know for thou wert the maine actor in those wofull Tragedies what cruell torments the blessed Martyrs of God in all ages have undergone for their holy profession None upon earth ever found Gods hand so heavy upon them none upon earth were so dear to heaven The sharpnesse therefore of my pangs can be no proofe of the displeasure of my God Yea contrarily this visitation of mine what ever thou suggestest is in much love and mercy Had my God let me loose to my owne waies and suffered me to run on carelesly in a course of sinning without check or controll this had been a manifest argument of an high and hainous displeasure God is grievously angry when he punishes sinners with prosperity for this shows them reserved to a fearfull damnation but whom he reclaims from evil by a severe correction those he loves there cannot be a greater favour then those saving stripes When wee are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Besides the manner of the infliction speaks nothing but mercy for what a gentle hand doth my God lay upon me as if he said I must correct thee but I will not hurt thee what gracious respites are here what favourable inter-spirations as if God bade me to recollect my selfe and invited me to meet him by a seasonable humiliation This is not the fashion of anger and enmity which ayming only at destruction indevours to surprise the adversary and to hurry him to a sudden execution Neither is it a meer affliction that can evince either love or hatred all is in the attendants and entertainment of afflictions Where God means favour he gives together with the crosse an humble heart a meek spirit a patient submission to his good pleasure a willingnesse to kisse the rod and the hand that wields it a faithfull dependence upon that arme from which he smarts and lastly an happy use and improvement of the suffering to the bettering of the soule who so finds these dispositions in himselfe may well take up that resolution of the sweet singer of Israel It is good for me that I have been afflicted I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in very faithfulnesse hast afflicted me Contrarily where God smites in anger those stroakes are followed and accompanied with wofull symptomes of a spirituall maladie either a stupid senslesnesse and obdurednesse of heart or an impatient murmuring at the stripes saucy and presumptuous expostulations fretting and repining at the smart a perverse alienation of affection and a rebellious swelling against God an utter dejection of spirit and lastly an heartlesse despaire of mercy Those with home thou hast prevailed so far as to draw them into this deadly condition of soule have just cause to thinke themselves smitten in displeasure but as for me blessed be the name of my God my stripes are medicinall and healing Let the righteous God thus smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle that shall not break my head VI. TEMPTATION Away with these superstitious feares and needlesse scruples wherewith thou fondly troublest thy selfe as if God that sits above in the circle of heaven regarded these poore businesses that passe here below upon earth or cared what this man doth or that man suffereth Dost thou not see that none prosper so much in the world as those that are most noted for wickednesse and dost thou see any so miserable upon earth as the holiest Could it be thus if there were providence that over looks and over-rules these earthly affairs Repelled THe Lord rebuke thee Satan Even that great Lord of heaven and earth whom thou so wickedly blasphemest wouldst thou perswade me that he who is infinite in power is not also infinite in providence He whose infinite power made all creatures both in heaven above and in earth beneath shall not his infinite providence govern and dispose of all that he hath made Lo how justly the spirit of wisdome calls thee and thy clients fools brutish things They say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall not he see he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know It was no limited power that could make this eye to see this eare to heare this heart to understand and if that eye which he hath given us can see all things that are within our prospect and that eare that he hath planted can heare all sounds that are within our compasse and that heart that he hath given us can know all matters within the reach of our comprehension how much more shall the sight and hearing and knowledge of that infinite Spirit which can admit of no bounds extend to all the actions and events of all the creatures that lie open before him that maâ—e them It is in him that we live and move and have our being and can we be so sottish as to think we can steale a life from him which he knows not of or a motion that he discerneth not That word of his by whom all creatures were made hath told me that not one sparrow two whereof are sold for a farthing can fall to the ground without my heavenly Father yea that the very hairs of our heads though a poor neglected excrement are all numbred and can there be any thing more sleight then they How great care must we needs think is taken of the head since not an haire can fall unregarded The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth down and lifteth up He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them Even Rabshakeh himselfe spake truer then he was aware of Am I now comne up without the Lord against this place No certainly thou insolent blasphemer thou couldst not move thy tongue nor wag thy finger against Gods inheritance
judgest doubtfully of thine owne waies It is not for thee to beginne first at heaven and then to descend to earth this course is presumptuous and damnable What are those secret and closed bookes of Gods eternall decree and preordination unto thee They are onely for the eyes of him that wrote them The Lord knoweth them that are his Look if thou wilt upon the outer seale of those Divine secrets and read Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Thy way lies from earth to heaven The revealed wil of God by which onely wee are to be regulated is Repent beleeve obey and thou shalt be saved live and dye in thy sinnes impenitent unbeleeving thou shalt be damned According to this rule frame thou thy courses and resolutions and if thou canst be so great an enemy to thine own soule as determinately to contemne the meanes of salvation and to tread wilfully in the paths of death who can say other but thou art faire for hell But if thou shalt carefully use and improve those good meanes which God hath ordained for thy conversion and shalt thereupon find that true grace is wrought in thy soule that thou abhorrest al evill waies that thou dost truly beleeve in the Lord Iesus and heartily purposest and indevourest to live holily and conscionably in this present world thou maiest now as assuredly know thy name written in heaven as if thou hadst read it in those eternal characters of Gods secret counsell Plainely it is not for thee to say I am predestinate to life therefore thus I shall doe and thus I shall speed but contrarily thus hath God wrought in me therefore I am predestinate Let me doe well it cannot but be well with mee Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good Let me doe my utmost diligence to make my calling and election sure I am safe and shall be happy But if thou hast been mis-carried to lewd courses and hast lived as without God in the world whiles thou dost so thy case is fearefull but who allowed thee to â—it judg upon thine own soule and to passe a peremptory doome of necessary damnation upon thy selfe Are not the meanes of grace Gods blessed ordinances stil held forth unto thee Doth not God still gratiously invite thee to repentance Doth not thy Saviour stand ready with his armes spread abroad to receive thee into his bosome And canst thou be so desperately and presumptuously mercilesse to thy selfe as to say I shall be damned therefore I will sinne Thou canst not be so wicked but there may be a possibility of thy reclamation whiles God gives thee respite there may be hope Be not thou so injurious to thy selfe as to usurpe the office both of God and the Devill of God in passing a finall judgment upon thy selfe of the Devill in drawing thy selfe into damnation Returne therefore O sinner and live break off thy sinnes by repentance and be saved But if otherwise know that Gods decree doth neither necessitate thy sin nor thy damnation Thou maist thank thy selfe for both Thy perdition is of thy selfe O Israel V. TEMPTATION Why wilt thou be singular amongst and above thy neighbours to draw needlesse censures upon thy self Be wise and do as the most Be not so over-squemish as not to dispense with thy conscience in some small matters Lend a lye to a friend swallow an oath for feare be drunke sometimes for good fellowship falsify thy word for an advantage serve the time frame thy selfe to all companies thus thou shalt be both warme and safe and kindly respected Repelled PLausible tempter what care wouldest thou seeme to take of my ease and reputation that in the mean time thou mightst run away with my soule Thou perswadest mee not to be singular amongst my neighbours it shall not be my fault if I bee so If my neighbours bee good and vertuous I am with and for them let mee be hissed at to goe alone but if otherwise let me rather go upright alone then halt with company Thou tellst mee of censures they are spent in vaine that would disharten mee from good or draw me into evill I am too deep rooted in my resolutions of good then to be turnd up by every slight wind I know who it is that hath said Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my names sake Let men take leave to talk their pleasure in what I know I do wel I am censure-proofe Thou bidst me bee wise and doe as the most These two cannot agree together Not to follow the most but the best is true wisdome My Saviour hath told me that the many goe in the broadway which leadeth to destruction and it is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill whiles I follow the guidance of my God I walk confidently as knowing I cannot goe amisse as for others let them look to their own feet they shall be no guides of mine Thou bidst me dispense with my conscience in small matters I have learnt to call nothing small that may offend the Majesty of the God of heaven Dispensations must onely proceed from a greater power Onely God is greater then my conscience where he dispenseth not it were a vaine presumption for me to dispense with my selfe And what are those small matters wherein thou solicitest my dispensation To lend a ly to a friend why dost thou not perswade mee to lend him my soule Yea to give it unto thee for him It is a sure word of the wise man The mouth that lyeth slayeth the soule How vehement a charge hath the God of truth layd upon me to avoid this sinne which thou the father of lies wouldst draw me unto What marvell is it if each speak for his own He who is truth it selfe and loveth truth in the inward parts justly calles for it in the tongue Laying aside lying saith the Spirit of God speak every man truth with his neighbour Thou who art a lying Spirit wouldst be willing to advance thine own brood under the faire pretence offriendship But what shall I to gratifie a friend make God mine enemy shall I to rescue a friend from danger bring destruction upon my selfe Thou shalt destroy them that speake leasings saith the Psalmist Without shall be every one that loveth or maketh lies If therefore my true attestation may availe my friend my tongue is his but if he must be supported by falshood my tongue is neither his nor mine but is his that made it To swallow an oath for fear No tempter I can let down none such morsels an oath is too sacred too awfull a thing for me to put over out of any outward respects against my conscience If I sweare the Oath is not mine it is Gods and the revenge will be his whose the offence is It
p. 100. X. Temptation Thou art more nice then needs your Preachers are too strait-laced in their opinions and make the way to heaven narrower then God ever meant it Tush man thou maist be saved in any religion Is it likely that God will be so cruell as to cast away all the world of men in the severall varieties of their professions and save onely one poor handfull of Reformed Christians Away with these scruples A generall Beliefe and a good meaning will serve to bring thee to heaven without these busie disquisitions of the Articles of faith p. 114. II. DECADE I. Temptation WEre it for some few sins of ignorance or infirmity thou might'st hope to find place for mercy but thy sins are as for multitude innumerable so for quality haynous presumptuous unpardonable With what face canst thou look up to heaven and expect remission from a just God p. 127. II. Temptation Alas poor man how willing thou art to make thy self beleeve that thou hast truly repented whereas this is nothing but some dump of melancholy or some relenting of nature after too much expence of spirits or some irksome discontentment after a satiety and wearinesse of pleasure or some slavish shrinking in upon the expectation of a lash True penitence is a spirituall businesse an effect of that grace which was never incident into thy bosome p. 138. III. Temptation Thou hast small reason to beare thy selfe upon thy repentance it is too sleight seconded with too many relapses too late to yeeld any true comfort to thy soule p. 145. IV. Temptation Tush what dost thou please thy selfe with these vaine thoughts If God cared for thee couldst thou be thus miserable p 155. V. Temptation Foolish man how vainly dost thou flatter thy self in calling that a chastisement which God intends for a judgment in mistaking that for a rod of fatherly correction which God lays on as a scourge of just anger and punishment p. 165. VI. Temptation Away with these superstitious feares and needless scruples wherewith thou fondly troublest thy selfe as if God that sits above in the circle of heaven regarded these poor businesses that are done upon earth or cared what this man doth or that man suffereth Dost thou not see that none prosper so much in the world as those that are most noted for wickednesse dost thou se any so miserable upon earth as the holiest Could it be thus if there were a providence that over-looks and over-rules these earthly affairs p. 173. VII Temptation If God be never so liberall in his promises and sure in performances of mercy to his owne yet what is that to thee Thou art none of his neither canst lay any just claim to his Election p. 195. VIII Temptation Alas poor man how grosly deludest thou thy selfe Thou talkest of thy faith and bearest thy selfe high upon this grace and think'st to doe great matters by it whereas the truth is thou hast no faith but that which thou mis-callest so is nothing else but meer presumption p. 208. IX Temptation Thou thoughtst perhaps once that thou hadst some tokens of Gods favour but now thou canst not but find that he hath utterly forsaken thee and withdrawing himselfe from thee hath given thee up into my hands into which thy sins have justly forfaited thee p. 216. X. Temptation Had God indeed ever given thee any sure testimonies of his love thou mightst perhaps pretend to some reason of comfort and confidence But the truth is God never loved thee he may have cast upon thee some common favours such as he throwes away upon reprobates but for the tokens of any speciall love that he beares to thee thou never didst never shalt receive any froÌ„ him p. 2â—6 III. DECADE I. Temptation THou hast hitherto thus long given entertainment to thy sin and no inconvenience hath ensued No evill hath befallen thee thy affaires have prospered better then thy scrupulous neighbours Why shouldst thou shake off a companion that hath been both harmlesse and pleasant Go on man sin fearlesly thou shalt speed no worse then thou hast done Go on and thrive in thine old course whiles some precisely conscientious beg and starve in their innocency p. 237. II. Temptation Sin still thou shalt repent soon enough when thou canst sin no more Thine old age and death-bed are fit seasons for those sad thoughts It will go hard if thou canst not at the last have a mouthfull of breath left thee to cry God mercy And that is no sooner askt then had Thou hast to do with a God of mercies with whom no time is too late no measure too sleight to be accepted p. 246. III. Temptation Thou art one of Gods chosen Now God sees no sin in his elect none therefore in thee neither maist thou then take notice of any sin in thy self or needest any repentance for thy sin p. 256. IV. Temptation Thou maist live as thou listest Thy destiny is irreversible If thou be predestined to life thy sins cannot damne thee for Gods election remaineth certaine If thou be ordained to damnation all thy good endevours cannot save thee Please thy selfe on earth thou canst not alter what is done in heaven p. 271. V. Temptation Why wilt thou be singular amongst and above thy neighbours to draw needlesse censures upon thy self Be wise and do as the most Be not so over-squemish as not to dispense with thy conscience in some small matters Lend a lye to a friend swallow an oath for feare be drunke sometimes for good fellowship â—alsify thy word for an advantage serve the time frame thy selfe to all companies thus shalt thou be both warme and safe and well respected p. 284. VI. Temptation It is but for a while that thou hast to live and when thou art gone all the world is gone with thee Improve thy life to the best contentment Take thy pleasure whiles thou maist p. 297. VII Temptation It is for common wits to walk in the plain road of opinions If thou wouldst be eminent amongst men leave the beaten track and tread in new paths of thine owne Neither let it content thee to guide thy steps by the dim lanterns of the Antient he he is no body that hath not new lights either to hold out or follow p. 306. VIII Temptation Pretend religion and doe any thing what face is so foule as that Maske will not cleanly cover seem holy and be what thou wilt p. 315. IX Temptation Why shouldst thou lose any thing of thy height Thou art not made of common mold neither art thou as others If thou knowst thy self thou art more holy more wise better gifted more inlightned then thy neighbours Justly therefore maist thou over look the vulgar of Christians with pity contempt censure and beare thy selfe as too good for ordinary conversation go apart avoid the contagion of common breath p. 323. X. Temptation However the zeale of your scrupulous Preachers is wont to make the worst of every thing and to damne the
disciple My Lord and my God Malignant spirit thou dost but set a face of checking me by my Saviours Crosse thou knowest and feel'st that he was the Chariot of his Triumph whereupon being exalted he dragged all the powers of hell captive after him making a show of them openly to their confusion and his glory Thou knowst that had it not been for that Crosse those infernall regions of thine had been peopled with whole mankind a great part whereof is now delivered out of thy hands by that victorious redemption Never had heaven been so stored never had hell been so foyled if it had not been for that Crosse And canst thou think to daunt me with the mention of that Crosse which by the eternall decree of God was determined to be the means of the deliverance of all the soules of the elect Dost thou not hear the Prophet say of old He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he striken And he made his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death He hath poured out his soule unto death and he was numbred with the transgressors and he â—arâ— the sin of many Didst thou not hear my Saviour himself after his glorious resurrection checking Cleopas and his fellow-traveller for their ignorance of this predetermination O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Yea lastly when had my Saviour more glory then in this very act of his ignominious suffering and crucifixion It is true there hangs the Son of man despicably upon the tree of shame He is mocked spit upon buffered scourged nail'd revil'd dead now have men and Devils done their worst But this while is the son of God acknowledged and magnified in his almighty power both by earth and heaven The Sun for three hours hides his head in darknesse as hating to behold this tort offered to his Creator the earth quakes to bear the weight of this suffering The rocks rend in peeces the dead rise from their graves to see and wonder at and attend their late dying and now risen Saviour The vayle of the Temple tears from the top to the bottome for the blasphemous indignity offered to the God of the Temple And the Centurion upon sight of all this is forced to say Truly this was the son of God And now after all these irrefragable attestations his Easter makes abundant amends for his passion There could not be so much weaknesse in dying as there was power in rising from death His resurrection proves him the Lord of life and death and shews that he died not out of necessity but will since he that could shake off the grave could with more ease have avoided death Oh then the happy and glorious conquest of my blessed Saviour declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead Go now wicked spirit and twit me with the Crosse of my Saviour That which thou objectest to me as my shame is my onely glory God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of my Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world II. TEMPTATION Still thou hast upon all vocasions recourse to the Scriptures as some divine Oracles and think'st thou maist safely build thy soul upon every Text of that written word as inspired from heaven whereas indeed this is nothing but an humane devise to keep men in awe and never came neerer heaven then the brains of those Politicians that invented it Repelled WIcked Spirit when thou presumedst personally to tempt my Saviour and hadst that cursed mouth stopped by him with an It is written thou daredst not then to raise such a blasphemous suggestion against this word of truth Successe in wickednesse hath made thee more impudent and now thou art bold to strike despitefully at the very root of religion But know that after all thy malicious detractions this word shall stand when heaven and earth shall vanish and is that whereby both thou and all thy complices shall be judged at that great day It is not more sure that there is a God then that this God ought to be served and worshipped by the creature Neither is it more sure that God is then that he is most wise most just most holy This most wise just and holy God then requiring and expecting to be served and worshipped by his Creature must of necessity have imparted his will to his creature how and in what manner he would be served and what he would have man to believe concerning himselfe and his proceedings Else man should be left to utter uncertainties and there should be a failing of those ends which the infinite wisdome and justice hath proposed to it selfe There must be therefore some word of God wherein he hath revealed himselfe to man and that this is and must be acknowledged to be that onely word it is clear and evident for that there neither was nor is nor can be any other word that could or durst stand in competition or rivality with this word of the Eternall God and if any other have presumed to offer a contestation it hath soone vanished into contempt and shame Moreover this is the only word which God ownes for his under no lesse stile then Thus saith the Lord which the son of God hath so acknowledged for the genuine word of his eternall Father as that out of it as such he hath pleased to refell both thy suggestions and the malicious arguments of his Iewish opposites It drives wholly at the glory of God not sparing to disparage those very persons whose pens are imployed in it in blazoning their owne infirmities in what they have offended which could not have been if those pens had not been guided by an higher hand It discovers and oppugnes the corruptions of nature which to meer men are either hid or if revealed are cherished and upheld it laies forth the misery and danger of our estate under sin and the remedies and means of our deliverance which no other word hath ever pretended to undertake Besides that there is such a Majesty in the stile wherein it is written as is unimitable by any humane author whatsoever the matter of it is wholly divine ayming altogether at purity of worship and integrity of life not admitting of any the least mixture either of Idolatry superstition or of any plausible enormities of life but unpartially laying forth Gods judgements against these and whatever other wickednesses This word reveals those things which never could be known to the world by any humane skill or industry as the Creation of the world and the order and degrees of it and the course of Gods administration of it from the beginning thousands of years before any records of history
for fond credulity Had I to doe with no greater power then thine or then any Angels in heaven that is meerely finite I might well be censured for too light beleefe in giving my assent to so difficult a truth but now that I have to doe with omnipotence it is no lesse then blasphemie in thee to talk of impossibility Doe not thy very Mahumetan vassals tell thee that the same power which made man can as well restore him and canst thou be other then apposed with the question of that Jew who asked whether it were more possible to make a mans body of water or of earth All things are alike easie to an infinite power It is true The resuscitation of the body from its dust is a supernaturall work yet such as whereof God hath beene pleased to give us many images and prefigurations even in nature it selfe In the face of the earth doe we not see the image of death in winter season and in the spring of a cheerfull resurrection Is not the life of all herbs flowers trees buried in the earth during that whole dead season and doth it not rise up againe with the approching Sun into stemmes and branches and send forth blossomes leaves fruits in all beautifull variety What need we any other then the Apostles instance Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare graine it may chance of wheat or of some other graine but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own body Lo it must be rottenesse and corruption that must make way for a flourishing increase If I should come to a man that is ignorant of these fruitfull productions of the earth and shewing him a little naked grayne should tell him This which thou seest shall rot in the ground and after that shall rise up a yard high into divers stalkes and every stalk shall beare an eare and every eare shall yeild twenty or thirty such graines as it selfe is or shewing him an akorne should say this shal be buried in the earth and after that shall rise up twenty or thirty foot high and shall spread so far as to give comfortable shade to an hundred persons Surely I should not win beleefe from him yet our experience daily makes good these ordinary proofes of the wonderful providence of the Almighty Or should I shew a man that is unacquainted with these great marvells of nature the small seed of the Silk-worme lying scattered upon a paper and seemingly dead all winter long and should tell him these little atomes so soon as the mulberry tree puts forth will yeild a worme which shall work it selfe into so rich a house as the great Princes of the earth shall be glad to shelter themselvs with after that shall turn to a large flye and in that shape shall live to generate then speedily die I should seem to tell incredible things yet this is so familiar to the experieÌ„ced that they cease t owoÌ„der at it If from these vegetables we shall cast our eyes upon some sensitive creatures Do we not see snayles and flyes some birds lye as senslesse and livelesse all the winter time yet when the spring comes they recover their wonted vivacity Besides these resemblances have we not many clear instances and examples of our resurrection Did not the touch of Elishaes bones raise up the partner of his grave Was not Lazarus called up out of his sepulcher after four daies possessâ—ion and many noysome degrees of rottenesse Were not the graves opened of many bodies of the Saints W ch slept Did not they arise and come out of their graves after my Saviours resurrection and go into the holy city and appeare unto many Besides examples have we not an all sufficient pledg of our certaine rising againe in the victorious refurrection of the Lord of life Is not he our head Are not we his members Is not he the first fruits of them that slept Did not he conquer death for us Can the head be alive and glorious whiles the limmes doe utterly perish in a finall corruption Certainely then if we beleeve that Iesus dyed rose again even so them also which sleep in Iesus wil God bring with him And if there were no more that one argument wherewith my Saviour of old confounded thy Sadduces lives still to confound thee God is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob But God is not the God of the dead but of the living The soule alone is not Abraham whole Abraham lives not if the body were not to be joyned to that soule Neither is it onely certain that the resurrection will be but also necessary that it must be neither can the contrary consist with the infinite wisdome goodnesse justice mercy of the Almighty For first how can it stand with the infinite goodnesse of the all-wise God that the creature which he esteemes dearest and loves best should be the most miserable of all other man is doubtlesse the best piece of his earthly workmanship holy men are the best of men Were there no resurrection surely no creature under heaven were so miserable as the holiest man The basest of brute creatures find a kind of contentment in their being and were it not for the tyranny of man would live and dye at ease And others of them in what jollity and pleasure do they wear out their time As for wicked men who let the reynes loose to their licentious appetite how doe they place their heaven here below and glory in this that they are yet somewhere happy But for the mortifyed christian were it not for the comfort and amends of a resurrection who can expresse the miserie of his condition He beates down his body in the willing exercises of sharp austerity and as he would use some sturdy slave keeps it under holding short the appetite oftentimes even from lawfull desires so as his whole life is little other then a perpetuall penance And as for his measure from others how open doth he ly to the indignities oppressions persecutions of men how is he trampled upon by scornful malignity how is he reputed the off-scouring of the world how is he made a gazing stock of reproch to the world to Angels and to men Did there not therefore abide for them the recompence of a better estate in another world the earth could afford no match to them in perfect wretchednesse which how far it abhorreth from that goodnesse which made all the world for his elect and so loves them that he gave his owne Son for their redemption let any enemy besides thine accursed selfe judge How can it stand with the infinite justice of God who dispenseth due rewards to good and evill to retribute them by halves The wages of sin is death the gift
not the great day of the Lord shall the all-wise and righteous Arbiter of the world decree and reverse Hath he not from eternity determined and set this day Wherein we must all appear before the judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evill That there is therefore such a day of the Lord in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up wherein the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God is no lesse certaine then that there is an heaven from whence he shall descend All thy cavill is concerning the time Thou and thine are ready to say with the evill servant in the Gospell my Master defers his comming And was not this wicked suggestion of thine foretold many hundred yeares agoe by the prime Apostle and by the same pen answered Hath he not told thee that our computations of time are nothing to the infinite That one day with the Lord is as a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares as one day Hath he not told us that this mis-construed slacknesse is in mans vaine opinion not in Gods performance He is slack to man that coms not when he is lookt for he is really slack that comes not when he hath appointed to come Had the Lord broken the day which he hath set in his everlasting counsel thou mightst have some pretence to cavill at his delay but now that he onely overstayes the time of our misgrounded expectation â—he doth not slacken his pace but correct our errour It is true that Christians began to look for their Saviour betimes insomuch as the blessed Apostles were fayne to perswade their eyes not to make such haste putting them in mind of those great occurrences of remarkable change that must befall the Church of God in a generall apostasie the revelation of the great Antichrist before that great day of his appearance And the prime Apostle sends them to the last dayes which are ours for those scoffers which shall say Where is the promise of his comming If they lookt for him too soon we cannot expect him too late He that is Amen will be sure to be within his owne time when that comes he that should come will come and not tarry In the meane while not onely in the just observation of his owne eternall decree but in much mercy doth he prolong his returne mercy to his elect whose conversion he waits for with infinite patience it is for their sake that the world stands The Angel that was sent to destroy Sodom could tell Lot that he could doe nothing till that righteous man were removed no sooner was Lot entred into Zoar then Sodome is on a flame mercy even to the wicked that they may have ample leisure of repentance Neither is it any small respect that the wise and holy God hath to the exercise of the faith and hope and patience of his deare servants upon earth faith in his promises hope of his performances and patience under his delayes whereof there could be no use in a speedy retribution In vaine therefore dost thou who fearest this glorious Judge will come too soone go about to perswade me that he will not come at all I beleeve and know by all the foregoing signes of his appearance that he is now even at the threshold Lo he commeth he commeth for the consummation of thy torment and my joy I expect him as my Saviour tremble thou at him as thy Judge who shall fully repay to thee al those blasphemies which thine accursed mouth hath dared to utter against him VII TEMPTATION If there must be a resurrection and a judgment yet God is not so rigid an exactor as to call thee to account for every petty sin those great Sessions are for hainous malefactors God is too mercifull to condemn thee for small offences be not thou too rigorous to thy self in denying to thy selfe the pleasure of some harmelesse sinnes Repelled FAlse tempter there is not the least of those harmelesse sinnes which thou wilt not be ready to aggravate against me one day before the dreadfull tribunall of that infinite justice those that are now small will be then hainous and hardly capable of remission thy suggestions are no meet measures of the degrees of sin It is true that there are some sinnes more grievous then others there are faults there are crimes there are flagitious wickednesses If some offences be foule others are horrible and some others irremissible but that holy God against whose onely majesty sin can be committed hath taught me to call no sin small The violation of that Law which is the rule of good cannot but be evill and betwixt good and evill there can be no lesse then an in finite disproportion It is no smal proofe of thy cunning that thou hast suborned some of thy religious panders to proclaime some sinnes veniall and such as in their very nature merit pardon Neither thou nor they shall be Casuists for me who have heard my God say Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Sin must be greater or lesse according to the value of the command against which it is committed there is as my Saviour hath rated it a least Commandement and there are mo points then one in that least Command now the Spirit of truth hath told me that whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all And shall he that is guilty of the breach of the whole Law escape with such ease I am sure a greater Saint then I can ever hope to be hath said If I sin thou markest me and wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity and old Eli as indulgent as he was to his wicked sonnes could tell them If one man sin against another the Judge shall judg him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him What need is there thou sayest of any intreaty Gods mercy is such that he will pardon thy sinnes unasked neither will he ever stick at small faults Malignant spirit how fain wouldst thou have Gods mercy and justice clash together but thou shalt as soon wind thy selfe out of the power of that justice and put thy selfe into the capacity of that mercy as thou shalt set the least jarre between that infinite justice and mercy It is true it were wide with my soule if there were any limits to that mercy That mercy can doe any thing but be unjust it can forgive a sinner it cannot incourage him forgive him upon his penitence when he hath sinned not incourage him
mine infirmity thine infirmity sure enough O Asaph to make question of the veracity and unfailablenesse of the sure mercies and promises of the God of truth Well was it for thee that thy God not taking advantage of thy weaknesse puts forth his gracious hand and staies thee with the seasonable consideration of the years of the right hand of the most high with the remembrance of the works of the Lord and of his wonders of old these were enough to teach thee the omnipotent power the never-failing mercy of thy maker and redeemer In no other plight through the impetuousnesse of this temptation was the man after Gods owne heart whiles he cried out I was greatly afflicted I said in my haste all men are liers the men that he mis-doubted were surely no other then Gods prophets w ch had foretold him his future prosperity peaceable setlement in the throne these upon the cross occurrences he met with is he ready to censure as lyers and through their sides what doth he but strike at him that sent them But the word was not spoke in more haste then it was retracted I believed therefore I spake and then sense of mercies doth so overtake the sense of his sufferings that now he takes more care what to retribute to God for his bounty then he did before how to receive it pitches himselfe upon that firme ground of all comfort Oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid Thou hast loosed my bonds Here shall I stay my soul against all thy suggestions of distrust O thou malicious enemy of mankind building my self upon that steddy rock of Israel whose word is I am Jehovah I change not Thou tel'st me of deliverances promised yet ending in utter mis-carriages of provisions vanished into want Why dost thou not tell me that even good men die These promises of earthly favours to the godly declare to us the ordinary course that God pleaseth to hold in the dispensation of his blessings which he so ordereth as that generally they are the Lot of his faithfull ones for the incouragement and reward of their services and contrarily his judgements befall his enemies in part of payment But yet the great God who is a most free agent holds fit to leave himselfe at such liberty as that sometimes for his own most holy purposes hee may change the scene which yet he never doth but to the advantage of his owne so as the oppressions wrongs which are done to them turn favours The Hermite in the story could thank the thiefe that rob'd him of his provision for that he helpt him so much the sooner to his journies end and indeed if being stripped of our earthly goods we be stored with spirituall riches if whiles the outward man perisheth the inward man be renewed in us if for a little bootlesse honour here we be advanced to an immortall glory if we have exchanged a short and miserable life for a life eternally blessed finally if we lose earth and win heaven what cause have we to be other then thankfull whereto we have reason to adde that in all these gracious promises of temporall mercies there is ever to be understood the exception of expedient castigation and the meet portage of the Crosse which were it not to be supplied Gods children should want one of the greatest proofs of his fatherly love towards them which they can read even written in their own bloud and can blesse God in killing them for a present blessednesse So as after all thy malice Gods promises are holy his performances certain his judgments just his servants happy X. TEMPTATION Thou art more nice then needs Your preachers are too strait-laced in their opinions and make the way to heaven narrower then God ever meant it Tush man thou maist be saved in any religion Is it likely that God will be so cruell as to cast away all the world of men in the severall varieties of their professions and save only one poor handfull of reformed Christians Away with these scruples A generall belief and a good meaning will serve to bring thee to heaven without these busie disquisitions of the Articles of faith Repelled IT is not for good that thou makest such liberall tenders to my soule thou well know'st how ready mans nature is to lay hold on any just liberty that may be allowed him and how repiningly it stoops to a restraint but this which thou craftily suggestest to mee wicked spirit is not liberty it is licentiousnesse Thou tell'st me the way to heaven is as wide as the world but the spirit of truth hath taught me that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it I know there is but one truth and one life and one way to that life and I know who it was that said I am the way the truth and the life He who is one of these is all My Saviour who is life the end of that way is likewise the way that leads unto that end neither is there any way to heaven but he All that is besides him is by-pathes and errour And if any Teacher shall enlarge or straiten this way Christ let him be accursed And if any Teacher shall presume to chalk out any other way then Christ let him be accursed Tell not me therefore of the multitudes of men and varieties of religions that there are in the world If there were as many worlds as men and every of those men in those worlds were severed in religion yet I tell thee there is but one heaven and but one gate to that heaven and but one way to that gate and that one gate and way is Christ without whom therefore there can be no entrance It is thy blasphemy to charge cruelty upon God if he do not that whereof thou wouldst most complaine as the greatest loser set heaven open on all sides to whatsoever commers Even that God and Saviours which possesseth and disposeth it hath told us of a strait gate and a narrow way and few passagers In vaine dost thou move me to affect to be more charitable then my redeemer He best knows what he hath to do with that mankind for whom he hath paid so dear a price Yet to stop thy wicked mouth that way which in comparison of the broad world is narrow in it selfe hath a comfortable latitude Christ extendeth himselfe largely to a world of believers This way lies open to all no nation no person under heaven is excluded from walking in it Yea all are invited by the voice of the Gospel to tread in it and whosoever walks in it with a right foot is accepted to salvation How far it may please my Saviour to cōmunicate himselfe to men in an implicite way of beliefe and what place those generall and involved apprehensions of the redeemer may find for mercy at the
with a deniall of lawfull contentments have I not thereupon tasked my selfe with the harder duties of obedience and doe I not now resolve and carefully indeavour to walke conscionably in all the wayes of God Maligne therefore how thou wilt my repentance stands firme against all thy detractions and is not more impugned by thee on earth then it is accepted in heaven III. TEMPTATION Thou hast small reason to bear thy self upon thy repentance it is too slight seconded with too many relapses too late to yeild any true comfort to thy soule Repelled NOr thus can I be discouraged by thee malicious spirit The mercy of my God hath not â—et any stint to the allowed measure of repentance Where hath he ever said Thus farre shall thy penitence come else it shall not be accepted It is truth that he calls for not measure That happy thief whom my dying Saviour rescued out of thy hands gave no other proofe of his repentance but We are justly here and receive due reward of our deeds yet was admitted to attend his Redeemer from his Crosse to his Paradise Neither do we heare any words from penitent David after his foule crimes but I have sinned Not that any true penitent can be afraid of too much compunction of heart and is ready to dry up his teares too soone rather pleasing himselfe with the continuance and paine of his own smart but that our indulgent father who takes no pleasure in our misery is apt to wipe away the teares from our eyes contenting himself only w th the syncernesse not the extremity of our contrition Thy malice is altogether for extreams either a wild security or an utter desperation that holy and mercifull Spirit who is a professed lover of mankind is ever for the meane so hating our carelesnesse that he will not suffer us to want the exercises of a due humiliation so abhorring despaire that he abides not to have us driven to the brinke of that fearfull precipice As for my repentance therefore it is enough for me that it is sound and serious for the substance yet withall thanks be to that good Spirit that wrought it it is graciously approveable even for the measure I have heartily mourned for my sinnes though I pined not away with sorrow I have broken my sleep for them though I have not watered my couch with my teares and next to thy selfe I have hated them most I have beaten my brest though I have not rent my heart and what would I not have done or given that I had not sinned Tell not me that some worldly crosses have gone nearer to my heart then my sins and that I have spent more teares upon the losse of a sonne then the displeasure of my heavenly father The father of mercies will not measure our repentance by these crooked lines of thine he knows the flesh and bloud we are made of and therefore expects not we should have so quick a sense of our spirituall as of our bodily affliction it contents him that we set a valuation of his favour above all earthly things and esteeme his offence the greatest of all evils that can befall us and of this judgement and affection it is not in thy power to bereave my soule As for my relapses I confesse them with sorrow and shame I know their danger and had I not to do with an infinite mercy their deadlinesse Yet after all my confusion of face and thine enforcement of justice my soul is safe for upon those perilous recidivations my hearty repentance hath made my peace The long-suffering God whom I have offended hath set no limits to his remission After ten miraculous signes in Egypt his Israel tempted him no lesse then ten times in the wildernesse yet his mercy forbore them not rewarding their reiterated sin with deserved vengeance Hath not that gracious Saviour of mankind charged us to forgive our offending brother no lesse then seventy times seven times and what proportion is there between our mercy and his Could'st thou charge mee with incouraging my selfe to continue my sin upon this presumption of pardon thou hadst cause to boast of the advantage but now that my remorse hath been syncere and my falls weak my God will not with-hold mercy from his penitent that hath not only confessed but forsaken his sin As for the late season of my repentance I confesse I have highly wronged and hazarded my soule in the delay of so often required and so often purposed a worke and given thee faire advantages against my selfe by so dangerous a neglect but blessed be my God that he suffer'd not these advantages to be taken I had been utterly lost if thou hadst surprized me in my impenitence but now I can look back upon my perill well passed and defie thy malice No time can be prejudiciall to the king of heaven no season can be any barre either to our conversion or his mercifull acceptance It is true that latenesse gives shrewd suspitions of the truth of repentance but where our repentance is true it cannot come too late Object this to some formall soules that having lavisht out the whole course of their lives in wilfull sensuality profanenesse thinke to make an abundant amends for all on their death-beds with a fashionable Lord have mercy These whom thou hast mockt and drawn on with a stupid security all their days may well be upbraided by thee with the irrecoverable delay of what they have not grace to seek but that soule which is truly touched with the sense of his sin and in an humble contrition makes his addresse to God and interposes Christ betwixt God and it selfe is in vain scarred with delay and finds that his God makes no difference of houres Do I not see the Prodigall in the Gospel after he had run himselfe quite out of breath means yet at the last cast returning and accepted I do not hear his father austerely say Nay unthrift hadst thou come whiles thou hadst some bags left I should have welcomed thy returne as an argument of some grace and love but now that thou hast spent all and necessity not affection drives thee home keep off and starve but the good old man runs and meets him and falls on his neck and kisses him and calls for the best robe and the fatted calfe Thus thus deals our heavenly Father with us wretched sinners if after all refuges vainly sought and all gracious opportunities carelesly neglected we shall yet have sincere recourse to his infinite mercy the best things in heaven shall not be too good for us IV. TEMPTATION Tush What doest thou please thy selfe with these vaine thoughts if God cared for thee couldst thou be thus miserable Repelled AWay thou lying Spirit I am afflicted but it is not in thy power to make me miserable And did I yet smart much more wouldst thou perswade me to measure the favour of my God by these outward events Hath not the
Spirit of Truth taught me that in these externall matters All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and cleane and to the uncleane to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath But if there were any judgement to be passed upon these grounds the advantage is mine I smart yea I bleed under the hand of my heavenly father Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Lo there cannot e so much paine in the stripes as there is comfort in the love of him that layes them on He were not my father if he whip't me not Truth hath said it If ye be without chastisements ye are bastards and not sonnes He cannot but love me whiles he is my father and let him fetch bloud on me so he love me After all thy malice let me be a bleeding son to such a father whiles thy base-borne children enjoy their ease Impudent tempter how canst thou from my sufferings argue Gods disfavour when thou knowest that he whom God loved best suffered most The eternall Sonne of his love that could truly say I and the Father are one indured more from the hand of that his heavenly Father then all the whole world of mankind was capable to suffer Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for oue transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all What poore flea bitings are these that I am afflicted with in respect of those torments which the Sonne of God under went for me Thou that sawest the bloudy sweat of his agony the cruell tortures of his crucifixion the pangs of worse then death the sense of his Fathers wrath our curse dost thou move me whom he hath bought with so dear a price to murmur and recoyle upon divine providence for a petty affliction Besides this is the load which my blessed Saviour hath with his owne hands laid upon my shoulders If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse daily and follow me Lo every Crosse is not Christs each man hath a crosse of his owne and this crosse he may not think to tread upon but he must take up and not once perhaps in his life but daily and with that weight on his neck he must follow the Lord of life not to his Tabor only but to his Golgotha And thus following him on earth he shall surely overtake him in heaven for if we suffer with him we shall also reigne with him It is still thy policy O thou envious Spirit to fill mine eyes with the crosse and to represent nothing to my thoughts but the horror and paine of suffering that so thou may'st drive me to a languishing dejectednesse of spirit and despaire of mercy But my God hath raised and directed mine eyes to a better prospect quite beyond thine which is a crowne of glory I see that ready to be set upon my head after my strife and victory which were more then enough to make amends for an hell upon earth In vaine should I hope to obtaine it without a conflict how should I overcome if I strive not These struglings are the way to a conquest After all these assaults the foyle shall bee thine and mine shall be the glory and triumph The God of Truth hath said it Be faithfull to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Thine advantage lies in the way mine in the end the way of affliction is rugged deep stiffe dangerous the end is faire and greene and strewed with flowers No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby What if I be in paine here for a while The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us It is thy maliciousnesse that would make the affliction of my body the bane of my soule but if the fault be not mine that which thou intendest for a poyson shall prove a cordiall Let patience have her perfect work and I am happy in my sufferings For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Lo it doth not only admir of glory but works it for us so as we are infinitely more beholden to our paine then to our ease and have reason not onely to be well apayd but to rejoyce in tribulations knowing That Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed Tell mee if thou canst which of those Saints that are now shining bright in their heaven hath got thither un-afflicted How many of those blessed ones have indured more then my God wil allow thee to inflict upon my weaknesse Some more and some lesse sorrowes all some yea many so true is that word of the chosen vessell That through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdome of God By this then I see that I am in my right way to that blessednesse I am travelling towards Did I find my self in the smooth pleasant and flowry path of carnall ease and contentment I should have just reason to think my selfe quite out of that happy road Now I know I am going directly towards my home the abiding City which is above So far therefore are my sufferings from arguing me miserable that I could not be happy if I suffered not V. TEMPTATION Foolish man how vainly dost thou flatter thy selfe in calling that a chastisement which God intends for a judgment in mistaking that for a rod of fatherly correction which God laies on as a scourge of just anger and punishment Repelled IT is thy maliciousnesse O thou wicked spirit ever to mis-interpret Gods actions and to sclander the footsteps of the Almighty But notwithstanding all thy mischievous suggestions I can read mercy and favour in my affliction neither shall it be in the power of thy temptation to put me out of this just construction of my sufferings For what Is it the measure of my smart that should argue Gods displeasure How many of Gods dearlings on earth have indured more What say'st thou to the man with whom the Almighty did once challenge and foyle thee the great patterne of patience was not his calamity as much beyond mine as my graces are short of his Dost thou not heare the man after Gods owne heart say Lord remember David and all his troubles Dost thou not hear the chosen vessell who was rapt up into the third heaven complaine We are troubled on every side yet not distressed perplexed but not
without the providence of that God who returned answer to thy proud Master the King of Assyria I know thy abode and thy going out and thy comming in and thy rage against me Thy rage and thy tumult is come up into my ears therefore I will put an hooke in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest So true is that word of Elihu His eyes are upon the waies of man and he soeth all his goings there is no darknesse nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Seconded by the holy Psalmist The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth Neither is this divine providence confined onely to man the prime peece of this visible creation but it extends it self to all the workmanship of the Almighty O. Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome hast thoumade them all the earth is full of thy riches So is the great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts these wait all upon thee that thou maist give them their meat in due season thou givest it them they gather thou openest thy hand they are filled with good The young Lyons roar after their prey and seek their meat from God The ravens neither sow nor reap noâ— have any store-house or barne yet God feedeth them The Lillies toyle not nor spâ—â— yet the great God cloaths them with more then Salomons glory Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this In whose hand is the soule of every living thing and the breath of all mankind What dost thou then O thou false spirit thinke to choak divine providence with the smalnesse and multitude of objects as if quantities or numbers could make any difference in the Infinite as if one drop of water were not all one to the Almighty with the whole deep One corne of sand with the whole masse of the earth as if that hand which graspeth the large circumference of the highest heaven could let slip the least flye or worme upon earth When thou feelest to thy paine that this eye of omniscience and this hand of power reaches even to thy neither most hell and sees and orders every of those torments wherewith thou art everlastingly punished and at pleasure puts bounds to thy malicious indevours against his meanest creatures upon earth Thou tellest me of the wickedest mens prosperity This is no new dart of thine but the same which thou hast throwne of old at many a faithfull heart Holy Job David Jeremie felt the dint of it not without danger but without hurt It is true Wicked men flourish what marvell is this The world loves his owne Doth any man wonder to see the weeds overtop the good herbes They are natives to that soyle whereto the other are but strangers Wicked men prosper It is all the heaven they are like to have and yet alas at the best it is but a wofull one how intermixed with sorrows and discontentments how full of uncertainties how certain of ruine and confusion It is a sure and sad interchange whereof Father Abraham minds the man who was now more full of torment then formerly of wealth Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The wicked man prospers but how long I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himselfe like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not I sought him but he could not be found The wicked prosper Alas their welfare is their judgement God doth not owe them so much favour as to afflict them They walk on mertily towards a deadly precipice The just God lets them alone and will not so much as molest their jollity with a painfull check The wicked thrive in the world How should they do other Mammon is the God they serve and what can he doe lesse then blesse them with a miserable advantage for thus their wealth is made to them an occasion of falling The prosperity of fools shall destroy them The wicked prosper Let me never prosper if I envy them Do not I see their day coming Do not I know that they are meerly fed up to the slaughter Wherefore do the cram'd fowles and fatted Oxen fare better then their fellows Is it out of favour or is it that they are designed to the dresser Amnon is feasted with his brethren those that serve him see death in his face Belshazzar triumphs in mirth and carouseth freely in the sacred vessels The hand writes upon the wall Thy dayes are numbred thy kingdome finished The revelling of the wicked is but a lightning before an eternall death Thou tell'st me on the the contrary that the godly are persecuted afflicted tormented It is true None knows it better then thy selfe who under the permission of the most High art the author of all their sufferings It is thou the red Dragon that standest ready to devoure the masculine issue of Gods Church It is thou that when the persecuted woman flees into the wildernesse powrest out of thy mouth after her flouds of water to drowne her It is thou that inspirest Tyrants w th rage against the innocent Saints of God and actuatest their hellish cruelty But when thou hast all done the most wise and mighty arbiter of heaven turnes all this to the advantage of his deare ones upon earth The bloud of the Martyrs doth and shall prove the seed of the Church whereof every grain yeelds thirty sixty an hundred fold Neither had the Church of God been so numerous if there had been lesse malice in thy prosecution And as for those severall Christians that have undergone the worst of thy fury they are so far from finding cause of complaint that they rejoyce and triumph in the happy issue of their intended miseries They can say to thee as Joseph said of old to his once-envious brethren Thou thoughtst evill against us but God meant it unto good they had not now sate so gloriously crowned in the highest heaven if thou hadst not persecuted them unto bloud None are so afflicted thou saist as the godly True their Saviour hath told them before hand what to trust to In the world ye shall have tribulation Have they any reason to looke for better measure then their blessed redeemer If the world hate you saith he ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Now welcome welcome that hate that is raised from our deare Saviours love and election
Wo were us if we were not thus hated Let the world hate and hurt us thus still so we may be the favorites of heaven None fare so ill on earth as the godly both living and dead The dead bodies of Gods servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven the flesh of his Saints unto the beasts of the field their bloud have they shed like water and there was none to bury thē They are become a reproach to their neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about them Oh the poor impotent malice of wicked spirits and men What matters it if our carcasses rot upon earth whiles our souls shine in heavenly glory What matters it if for a while we be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men whiles the Son of God hath assured us of an eternall royalty To him that over-commeth will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his throne None are so ill intreated as the godly It is true for none are so happy as they Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Who would not endure wrongs a while to be everlastingly recompenced Here is not place onely for patience but for joy and that exceeding in respect of a reward so infinitely glorious It is no marvell then if we be bidden to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us these are the men that are our great Benefactors though full sore against their wills contribute to our eternall blessednesse The wicked triumph whiles the righteous are trampled upon What marvell we are in a middle region betwixt heaven and hell but nearer to this latter which is the place of confusion It is but staying a while and each place will be distinctly peopled with his owne there is a large and glorious heaven appointed for the everlasting receptacle of the just an hell for the godlesse till then the eternall wisdome hath determined for his most holy ends to give way to this confused mixture and to this seeming-inequality of events How easie were it for him to make all heaven but he hath a justice to glorifie as well as a mercy and in the mean time it is the just praise of his infinite power wisdome goodnesse that he can fetch the greatest good out of the worst of evils All things go crosse here the righteous droop the wicked flourish The end shall make amends for all The world is a stage every man acts his part the wise compiler of this great interlude hath so contrived it That the middle Scenes show nothing but intricacy and perplexednesse the unskilfull spectator is ready to censure the plot and thinks he sees such unpleasing difficulties in the carriage of affaires as can never be reconciled but by that time he have sate it out he shall see all brought about to a meet accordance and all shut up in a happy applause Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The world is an Apothecaries shop wherein there are all manner of drugs some poysonous others cordiall An ignorant that comes in and knows only the quality not the use of those receits will straight be ready to say What do these unwholsome simples these dangerous mineralls these deadly juices here But the learned and skilfull artist knows how so to temper all these noxious ingredients that they shall turn Antidotes and serve for the health of his patient Thus doth the most high and holy God order these earthly though noxious compositions to the glory of his great name and to the advantage of his chosen So as that suggestion wherewith thou meant'st to batter the divine providence of the Almighty doth invincibly fortifie it his most wise permission and powerfull over-ruling of evill actions and men through the whole world to his owne honour the benefit of his Church VII TEMPTATION If God be never so liberall in in his promises and sure in performances of mercy to his own yet what is that to thee thou art none of his neither canst lay any just claime to his election Repelled HOw boldly can I defie thee O thou lying spirit whiles I have the assurance of him who is the word of Truth How confidently dare I challenge thee upon that unfailing testimony which shall stand till heaven and earth shall passe Ye that have believed in Christ are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Lo here a double assurance which all the powers of hell shall in vaine labour to defeat The Almighties Scale and his Earnest both made and given to the believer and therefore to me In spight of all temptations I believe and know whom I have believed I can accuse my faith of weaknesse thou canst not convince it of untruth and all the precious promises of the Gospel and all the gracious ingagements of God are made not to the measure but to the truth of our beliefe and why should not I as truly know that I relie upon the word of my Saviour as I know that I distrust and reject thine Since then I am a subject truly capable of this mercy what can hinder me from enjoying it Cheare thy selfe up therefore O my soule with this undefeisible confidence that thou hast Gods seale and his earnest for thy salvation Even an honest man will not be lesse then his word but if his hand have seconded his tongue he holds the obligation yet stronger but if his seale shall be further added to his hand there is nothing that can give more validity to the graunt or contract yet even of the value of Seales there is much difference The Seale of a private man carries so much authority as his person the seale of a Community hath so much more security in it as there are more persons interessed But the signet of a King hath wont to be held to all purposes authenticall as we find to omit Ahab in the signatures of Ahasuerus and Darius Who desires any better assurance for the estate of him and his posterity then the Great Seale And behold here is no lesse then the great seale of heaven for my election and salvation Ye are sealed with the spirit of promise But lest thou shouldest plead this to be but a graunt of the future and therefore perhaps upon some intervenient mis-deamures or unkindnesse taken reversible know that here is yet further
not pityed us Thou hast covered thy selfe with a cloud that our prayer should not passe thorough Doubtlesse then God so sees sin in his elect that he both more notes and hates sin more in his dearest children then in any other Upon this impious supposition of Gods not seeing sin in his chosen wouldst thou raise that hellish suggestion that a man must see no sin in himselfe no repentance for sin Then which what wider gappe can be opened to a licentious stupidity For that a man should commit sinne as Lot did his incest not knowing that hee doth the fact what is it but to bereave him of his senses To commit that fact which he may not know to be sin what is it but to bereave him of reason not to be sorry for the sin he hath commited what is it but to bereave him of grace How contrary is this to the mind and practise of al Gods Saints Holy Iob could say How many are mine iniquities and sinnes make me to know my transgression and my sinne and at last when God had wrought accordingly upon his heart I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Penitent David could say I acknowledg my transgression and my sin is ever before me and elsewhere I will declare mine iniquity and be sorry for my sin and Solomons suppliant that would hope for audience in heaven must know the plague of his own heart carry on therefore thy deluded clients in a willing ignorance of their finnes and a secure regardlesnesse of their repentance for me I will ransack my heart for my secret sinnes and finde no peace in my soule till it bee truly sensible of my owne repentance and Gods remission IV. TEMPTATION Thou maist live as thou listest Thy destiny is irreversible If thou be predestined to life thy sins cannot damne thee for Gods election remaineth certaine If thou be ordained to damnation all thy good endevours cannot save thee Please thy selfe on earth thou canst not alter what is done in heaven Repelled THe suggestion is pernicious and such as that Satans quiver hath not many shafts more deadly for where ever it enters it renders a man carelesly desperate and utterly regardlesse either of good or evill bereaving him at once both of grace and wit The story tells us of a great Prince tainted with this poyson whom his wise Physician happily cured for being called to the sicke bed of him whom he knew thus dangerously resolved in stead of medicine he administers to his patient this just conviction Sir you are conscious of your stiffe opinion concerning predestination why doe you send to mee for the cure of your sicknesse Either you are predestinated to recover and live or else you are in Gods decree appointed to dye If you be ordained to live and recover you shall live though you take noe helps of physick from me but if to dye all my art and meanes cannot save you The convinced Prince saw and felt his errour and recanted it as well perceiving how absurd and unreasonable it is in whatsoever decree of either temporall or spiritual good to sever the means from the end being both equally determined and the one in way to the other The comparison is cleare and irrefragable Gods decree is equally both certaine and secret for bodily health and life eternall The meanes appointed are food and medicine for the one and for the other repentance fait◠obedience In the use of these we may live we cannot but dye in their neglect were it any other then madnesse in mee to relye upon a presupposed decree willingly forbearing the while the means whereby it is brought about To say If I shall live I shall live though I eat not If I shall dye though I eate I shall not live therefore I will not eate but cast my self upon Gods providence whether to dye or live In doing thus what am I other then a selfe murderer It is a prevailing policy of the Devill so to work by his temptations upon the heart of man that in temporall things he shall trust to the meanes without regard to the providence of the God that gives them In spirituall he should cast himself upon the providence of a God without respect to the meanes whereby they are effected whereas if both these goe not together we lose either God or our selves or both It is true that if God had peremptorily declared his absolute will concerning the state or event of any creature we might not indevour or hope to alter his decree If God have said to a Moses Goe up to the Mount and dye there it is not for that obedient servant of God to say Yet I will lay up some years provision if perchance I may yet live Although even thus in the minatory declarations of Gods purpose because we know not what conditions may be secretly intended we may use what meanes we may for a diversion The Ninivites heard that expresse word from Ionah Yet fourty daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed and though they beleeved the Prophet yet they betooke themselves to an universall humiliation for the prevention of the judgement David heard from the mouth of Nathan The child that is born unto thee shall surely dye Yet he besought God and fasted and lay all night upon the earth and could say Who can tell whether God will bee gracious to mee that the child may live good Hezekiah was sick unto death and heares from Isaiah Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live yet he turnes his face to the wall and praies and makes use of his bunch of figges and recovers But where the counsell of God is altogether secret without the least glimpse of revelation for a man to passe a peremptory doome upon himselfe and either thereupon wilfully to neglect the knowne meanes of his good or to run willingly upō those courses which will necessarily work his destruction it is the highest degree of madnesse that can be incident into a reasonable creature The father of mercies hath appointed meanes of the salvation of mankind which lye open to them if they would not be wanting to themselves but especially to us who are within the bosome of his Church he hath held forth saving helpes in abundance What warnings what reproofes what exhortations what invitations what intreaties what importunities hath he forborn for our conversion what menaces what afflictions what judgments hath he not made use of for the prevention of our damnation Can there be now any man so desperately mad as to shut heaven gates against himselfe which the mercifull God leaves open for him or as to breake open the gates of hell and rush violently into the pit of destruction which God had latched against him Thou sayst If I be predestin'd to life my sinnes cannot damne me Man thou beginnest at the wrong end in that thou takest thy first rise at Gods eternall counsails and then
is a charge to be trembled at Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God I am the Lord And if the word of charge be so dreadfull what terrour shall we find in the word of judgment Lo God sweares too and because there is no greater to sweare by he swears by himself As I live surely mine oath that he hath despised and my Covenant which he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his owne head It was one of the words that were delivered in fire and smoak and thunder and lightning in Sinai The Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine I dare not therefore feare any thing so much as the displeasure of the Almighty and to dye for will neither take an unlawfull oath nor violate a just one As for that sociable excesse whereto thou temptest me how ever the commonness of the vice may have seemed to abate of the reputation of hainousnes in the opinion of others yet to me it representeth it so much more hatefull as an universall contagion is more grievous then a local I cannot puchase the name of good fellowship with the losse of my reason or with the price of a curse Dayly experience makes good that word of Solomon that Wine is a mocker robbing a man of himselfe and leaving a beast in his roome And what woes do I heare denounced against those that rise up earely in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue till night til the wine inflame them If any man thinke he may pride himselfe in a strong brain and a vigorous body Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine men of strength to mingle strong drinkes Let the Iovialists of the world drink wine in bowles and feast themselves without feare let me never joyne my selfe with that fellowship where God is banisht from the companie Wouldst thou perswade me to falsifie my word for an advantage what advantage can be so great as the conscience of truth and fidelity That man is for Gods tabernacle that sweareth to his owne hurt and changeth not Let me rather lose honestly then gaine by falshood and perfidiousnesse Thou biddest me serve the time So I will doe whiles the time serves not thee but if thou shalt have so corrupted the time that the whole world is set in wickednesse I will serve my God in opposing it gladly will I serve the time in all good offices that may tend to rectifie it but to serve it in a way of flattery I hate and scorn I shall willingly frame my selfe to all companies not for a partnership in their vice but for their reclamation from evil or incouragement in good The chosen vessell hath by his example taught me this charitable and holy pliablenesse Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self a servant unto all that I might gain the more To the Jewes I became as a Jew that I might gaine the Jewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law To the weake I became weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by al means save some My onely scope shall be spirituall gaine for this will I like some good Merchant trafique with all nations with all persons But for carnall respects to put my selfe like the first matter into all formes to be demure with the strictly-severe to be debaucht with the drunkard with the Atheist profane with the Bigot superstitious what were this but to give away my soule to every one save to the God that ownes it and whiles I would be all to be nothing and to professe an affront to him that hath charged me be not conformed to this world Shortly let me be despicable and starve and perish in my innocent integrity rather then be warme and safe and honoured upon so evill conditions VI. TEMPTATION It is but for a while that thou hast to live and when thou art gone all the world is gone with thee Improve thy life to the best contentment Take thy pleasure whiles thou maist Repelled Even this was the very noâ—e of thine old Epicurean clients Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die I acknowledg the same dart and the same hand that flings it a dart dipped in that deadly poison that causeth the man to dye laughing a dart that pierceth as deeply into the sensuall heart as it easily retorted by the regenerate These wilde inferences of sensuality are for those that know no heaven no hell but to me that know this world to be nothing but a thorow-fare to eternity either way they abhorre not from grace onely but from reason it selfe In the intuition of this immortality what wise man would not rather say my life is short therefore it must bee holy I shall not live long let me live well so let mee live for a while that I may live for ever These have been still the thoughts of gracious hearts Moses the man of God after he hath computed the short periods of our age and confined it to fourescore yeares so soon is it cut off and we fly away inferres with the same breath So teach us to number our daies that we may apply our hearts to wisdome As implying that this holy Arithmeticke should be an introduction to Divinity that the search of heavenly wisdome should be the true use of our short life and the sweet singer of Israel after he hath said Behold thou hast made my daies as a span long mine age is nothing to thee findes cause to look up from earth to heaven And now Lord what wait I for surely my hope is even in thee He that desired to know the measure of his life findes it but a span and recompences the shortnesse of his continuance with hopes everlasting as the tender mercy of our God pities our frailtie remembring that we are but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not againe So our frailty supports it selfe with the meditation of his blessed eternity My daies saith the Psalmist are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grasse But thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance to all generations As therefore every man walketh in a vain shadow in respect of his transitorinesse so the Good man in respect of his holy conversation can say I will walke before the Lord in the Land of the living and knowes himselfe made for better ends then vaine pleasure I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord It is for them who have their portion