not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God I have had my conversation in the world 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 and avoid the contagion of common breath Repelled IF pride were thy ruine wicked spirit how faine wouldst thou make it mine also This was thy first killing suggestion to our first parents in paradise soone after thine owne fall as if it had been lately before thy owne case Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evill That which thou foundest so deadly to thy selfe thou art enviously willing to feoffe upon man that if through thy temptation Pride may compasse him about as a chaine he may beare thee company in those everlasting chaines wherein thou art reserved under darknesse to the judgement of the great day Thou well knowest that the ready way to make me odious unto God is to make me proud of my selfe Pride and arrogancy and the evill way doth he hate The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty saith the Prophet He hath scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts saith the blessed Virgin God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble saith the Apostle The Lord will destroy the house of the proud saith Salomon and his father David before him Thine eyes are upon the haughty that thou maist bring them downe Downe indeed even to the bottome of that pit of perdition Make me but proud therefore I am thine Sure I am God will not owne me and if I could be in heaven with this sin would cast me downe headlong into hell Thou bidst me not to lose any thing of my height Alas poore wretched dwarfe that I am what height have I if I have but grace enough to know and bewaile my owne misery and nothingnesse it is the great mercy of my God Who maketh mee to differ from another and what have I that I have not received and if I have received it why should I glory in it as my owne Whatsoever thou perswadest me let me rather lose of my height then adde to my stature and affect too high a pitch That humility is rewarded with honour this pride with ruine It is the word of truth himselfe Whosoever shall exalt himselfe shall be abased and he that shall humble himselfe shall be exalted The way then to lose my whole height yea my being is to be lifted up in and above my selfe for though I should build my nest as high as the Eagle or advance a throne among the stars yet how soone shall he cast me downe into the dust yea without my repentance into the nethermost hell Thou telst me that which the Pharisee said of himselfe I am not as others True for I can say with the chosen vessell that I am the chiefe of sinners Thou wouldst bring me into an opinion that I am more holy and more wise then my neighbours I am a stranger to other mens graces I am acquainted with my owne wants Yea I so well know my own sinfulness and folly that I hang downe my head in a just shame for both I know that he who was holier then I could say I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and he that was wiser then I could say Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy All the holinesse that I have attained unto is to see and lament my defects of holinesse and all my wisdome is to descry and complaine of my own ignorance and foolishnesse Am I better gifted then another Thou art an ill judge of either who enviest the gifts of both But if I be so they are gifts still and such gifts as the donour hath not absolutely given away from himselfe to me but hath given or lent them rather to me for an improvement to his owne use which I have no more reason to be proud of then the honest factor of his masters stock received by him not for possession but for trafique Am I more inlightned then others the more do I discerne my owne darknesse and the more do I find cause to be humbled under the sense of it But if the greater light which thou saist is in me were not of an humane imagination but of divine irradiation what more reason should I have to be proud of it then that in this more temperate clime I have more sun shine then those of Lapland and Finland and the rest of those more northerne nations so much the more reason have I to be thankfull none to be proud Why should I therefore over-looke the meanest of my fellow Christians who may perhaps have more interest in God then my selfe for it is not our knowledge that so much indeares us to God as our affections perhaps he that knows lesse may love more and if he had been blessed with my means would have known more Neither is it the distribution of the Talents that argues favour but the grace to imploy them to the benefit of the giver if he that received the one Talent had gained another he had received more thanks then he that upon the receit of five Talents had gained one The Spirit breathes where it listeth and there may lie secret graces in the bosome of those who passe for common Christians that may find greater acceptation in heaven then those whose profession makes a fairer ostentation of holinesse I can pity therefore those that are ignorant and apparently gracelesse but for those that professe both to know and to love Christ whiles their lives deny not the power of godlinesse I dare not spend upon them either my contempt or censure lest whiles I judge wrongfully I be justly judged much lesse dare I separate my self from their communion as contagious Thou knowest how little it were to thine advantage that I should be perswaded to depart from the Tents of the notoriously wicked and to have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darknesse as too well understanding that evill conversation corrupts good manners and that a participation in sin drawes on a partnership in judgement Neither know I whether thou shouldst gaine more by my joyning with evill society or my separating from good infection follows upon the one distraction upon the other Those then which cast off their communion with Christ and his Church whether in doctrine or practise I shall avoid as the plague soone and far But those who truly professe a reall conjunction with
satisfaction It is true were we strangers to a Saviour his righteousnesse could have no relation to us but now that wee are incorporated into him by a lively faith his graces his merits are so ours that all thy malice cannot sever them I even I who sinned in the first Adam have satisfied in the second The first Adams sinne was mine The second Adam was made sin for me I made my selfe sinfull in the first Adam and in my selfe My Christ is made to me of God righteousnesse and redemption The curse was my inheritance Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the Law being made a curse for me that I might be made the righteousnesse of God in him It is thy deep envy thus to grudg unto man the mercy of that redemption which was not extended to thy self but in despight of all thy snarling and repining wee are safe Being justified by faith wee have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ IX TEMPTATION How confidently thou buildest upon a promise and if thou have but a word for it mak'st thy selfe sure of any blessing whereas thou maist know that many of those promises which thou accountest sacred and divine have shrunk in the performance How hath God promised deliverance to those that trust in him yet how many of his faithfullest servants have miscarried what liberall promises hath he made of provision for those that wait upon him yet how many of them have miserably perished in want Repelled BLasphemous spirit that which is thine own guise thou art ever apt to impute unto the holy one of Israel It is indeed thy manner to draw on thy clients with golden promises of life wealth honour and to say as once to my Saviour All these will I give thee when thou neither mean'st nor canst give any thing but misery and torment As for my God whom thou wickedly slanderest his just title is Holy and true his promises are Amen as himself Thy Balaam could let fall so much truth that God is not a man that he should lie nor the sonne of man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good Cast thine eyes back upon his dealings with his Israel a people unthankfull enough and deny if thou canst how punctuall he was in all his proceedings with them Heare old Joshua now towards his parting professe Behold this day I am going the way of all flesh ye know in your hearts in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed therof Heare the same truth attested many ages after by the wifest King Blessed be the Lord saith he that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised There hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant And lest thou shouldst cavil that perhaps God takes greater liberty to himself in matter of his promises under the Gospel then he formerly did under the Law Let me challenge thy malice to instance in any one absolute promise which God hath made since the beginning of the world unto this day which he hath failed to performe It is not I grant uneasie to name divers conditionate ingagements both of favours and judgements wherein God hath been pleased to vary from his former intimations and such alteration doth ful-well consist with the infinite wisdome mercy and justice of the Almighty for where the condition required is not performed by man how just is it with God either to with-hold a favour or to inflict a judgement or where he sees that an outward blessing promised such a disposition of the soul as it may meet withall may turn to our prejudice and to our spirituall losse how is it other then mercy to withdraw it and in stead thereof to gratifie us with a greater blessing undesired In all which even our own reason is able to justifie the Almighty for can we think God should be so obliged to us as to force favours upon us when we will needs render our selves uncapable of them or so tied up to the punctuality of a promise as that he may not exchange it for a better The former was Eli's case who received this message from the man of God sent to him for that purpose The Lord God of Israel saith I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith Be it far from me for them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed God meant the honour of the Priesthood to the family of Eli but what was it in so absolute termes that how ever they dishonored God yet God was bound to honour them All these promises of outward favours do never other then suppose an answerable capacity in the receiver like as the menaces of judgement how ever they sound do still intend the favourable exception of a timely prevention by a serious repentance And though there be no expresse mention of such condition in the promises and threatnings of the Almighty yet it is enough that he hath once for all made knowne his holy intentions to this purpose by his Prophet At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evill in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them The message of Hezekiah's death and Niniveh's destruction was in the letter absolute but in the sense and intention conditionate with such holy and just reservations are all the promises and threats of the Almighty in these temporall regards whiles they alter therefore he changeth not but for his spirituall ingagements that word of his shall stand everlastingly I will not suffer my faithfulnesse to faile My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth Indeed this is the Tentation wherewith thou hast formerly set some prime Saints of God very hard How doth the holy Psalmist hereupon break out into a dangerous passion Will the Lord cast off for ever and will be favorable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he shut up his tender mercies in displeasure Lo the man was even falling yet happily recovers his feet And I said this is
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
so divine a work whereas presumption comes with ease it costs nothing no strife no labour to draw forth so worthlesse and vicious a disposition yea rather corrupt nature is forward not only to offer it to us but even to force it upon our admission and it is no small maistery to repell it True faith struggles with infidelity this Iacob is wrestling with this Esau in the womb of the soule and if at any time the worse part through the violence of a temptation get the start of the better the hand laies hold on the heel and suffers not it selfe to be any other then insensibly prevented but recovers the light ere the suggestion can be fully compleated and at last so far prevails that the elder shall serve the younger This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Whereas presumption is ever quiet and secure not fearing any perill not combating with any doubt pleasing it selfe in its owne ease and safety and in the confidence of a perpetuall prosperity can say I shall never be moved True faith wheresoever it is purifieth the heart and will not suffer any known sin to harbour there and is ever attended with care awfulnesse love obedience Whereas presumption impures the soule and works it to boldnesse obduration false joy security senslesnesse True faith grows daily like the graine of mustard-seed in the Gospel which from small beginnings arises to a tall and large-spreading plant presumption hath enough and sits down contented with its own measure applauding the happinesse of its own condition True faith like gold comes out pure from the fire of Temptation and like to sound friendship is most helpfull in the greatest need Presumption upon the easiest triall vanisheth into smoak and drosse and is never so sure to faile us as in the evill day So then this firme affiance of mine being grounded upon the most sure promises of the God of Truth upon frequent use and improvement of all holy means after many bickerings with thy motions of unbelief being attended with holy and purifying dispositions of the soule and gathering still more strength and growing up dayly towards a longed-for perfection and which now thy experience convinces thee to be most present and comfortable in the hour of Temptation is true faith not as thou falsly suggestest a false presumption It is true my unworthinesse is great but I have to do with an infinite mercy so as my wretched unworthinesse doth but heighten the glory of his most mercifull pardon and acceptation Shortly then where there is a divine promise of free grace and mercy a true apprehension and embracing of that promise a warrant and acceptance of that apprehension a willing relyance upon that warrant a sure knowledge and sense of that relyance there can be no place for presumption This is the case betwixt God and my soule His word of promise and warrant that cannot deceive me is He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life My owne heart irrefragably makes out the rest which is the truth of my apprehension relyance knowledge Mine therefore is the faith the presumption in casting sclander upon the grace of Gods spirit is thine owne IX TEMPTATION Thou thoughtest 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 himself from thee hath given thee up into my hands to which thy sins have justly forfaited thee Repelled BE not discouraged O thou weak soule with this malicious suggestion of the enemy Thou art not the first nor the holiest that hath been thus assailed So hard was the man after Gods owne heart driven with this Temptation that he cries out in the bitternesse of his soul Will the Lord cast me off for ever and will he be favourable no more hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Is his mercy cleane gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore Thy case was his for the sense of the desertion why should not his case be thine for the remedy Mark how happily and how soon he recovers himself And I said This is my infirmity But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember the wonders of old I will meditate of all thy works Lo how wisely and faithfully David retreats back to the sure hold of Gods formerlyexperimented mercies and there finds a sensible reliefe He that when he was to encounter with the proud Giant could before-hand arme himselfe with the proof of Gods former deliverances and victories Thy servant slew both the lyon and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistim shall be as one of them now animates himself after the temptation against the spirituall Goliah with the like remembrance of Gods ancient mercies and indearments to his soule as well knowing that what ever we are God cannot but be himself God is not as a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end Hast thou therefore formerly found the sure testimonies of Gods favour to thee in the reall pledges of his holy Graces live thou still whiles thou art thus besieged with temptations upon the old store know that thou hast to do with a God that can no more change then not be Satan cannot be more constant to his malice then thy God is to his everlasting mercies He may for a time be pleased to withdraw himself from thee but it is that he may make thee so much more happy in his re-appearance It is his owne word For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer In the case wherein thou now art thou canst be no meet Judge either of Gods respects to thee or thine owne condition Can the aguish palate passe any true judgement upon the tast of liquors Can the child entertaine any apprehension of his parents favour whiles he is under the lash Can any man looke that the fire should give either flame or heat whiles it lies covered with ashes Can any man expect fruit or leaves from the tree in the midst of winter Thou art now in a fit of temptation thou art now smarting under the rod of correction thy faith lies raked up under the cold ashes of a seeming desertion the vegetative life of thy soul is in this hard season of thy triall drawne inward and run downe to the root thine estate is never the lesse
safe for this though more uncomfortable wait thou upon Gods leisure with all humble submission the event shall be happy when the distemper is once over thou shalt returne to thy true relish of Gods mercy when thine heavenly father shall smile upon thee and take thee up in his armes thou wilt see love in his late stripes when those dead ashes shall be removed and the gleeds of grace stirred up againe in thee thou shalt yeild both light and warmth when the Sun of righteousnesse shall approch to thee and with his comfortable beams draw up the sap into the branches thou shalt blossome and flourish In the meane time feare nothing only believe and thou shalt see the salvation of the Lord Thy soule is in surer hands then thine owne yea then of the greatest Angel in heaven far out of the reach of all the powers of hell For our life is hid with Christ in God Hid not lost not laid open to all eyes but hid hid where Satan cannot touch it cannot find it even with Christ in the heaven of heavens Feare not therefore O thou feeble soule any utter dereliction of thy God Thou art bought with a price God paid too deare for thee and is too deeply ingaged to thee to lose thee willingly and for any force to be offered to the Almighty what can men or Devils do And if that malignant spirit shall challenge any forfeiture plead thou thy full redemption It is true the eternall and inviolable law hath said Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them and the soule that sinneth shall die Death and curse is therefore due to thee But thou hast paid both of these in thy blessed redeemer Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Where sin abounded grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace raigne through righteousnesse unto eternall life by Iesus Christ our Lord It is all one to pay thy debt in thine owne person and by thy surety Thy gracious suerty hath staked it down for thee to the utmost farthing Be confident therefore of thy safe condition thou art no lesse sure then thine adversary is malicious X. TEMPTATION Had God ever given thee any sure testimonies of his love thou might'st 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 bears to thee thou never didst never shalt receive any from him Repelled THis is language well-befitting the professed make-bate betwixt God and man but know O thou false tempter that I have received sure and infallible testimonies of that speciall love which is proper to his elect First then as I have to do with a bountiful God who where he loves there he inriches so I have received most precious gifts from his hands such as do not import a common and ordinary beneficence w ch he scatters promiscuously amongst the sons of men but such as carry in them a dearnesse and singularity of divine favour even the greatest gifts that either he can give or man receive For first he hath given me his spirit the spirit of Adoption whereby I can call him Father for the assurance whereof The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Deny if thou canst the invaluablenesse of this heavenly gift and if thy malice cannot detract from the worth but from the propriety yeelding it to be great but denying it to be mine know O thou envious spirit that here is the witnesse of two spirits combined against thine Were the testimonies single surely I had reason to believe my owne spirit rather then thine which is a spirit of errour but now that the spirit of God conjoines his inerrable testimony together with my spirit against thy single suggestion how just cause have I to be confident of my possession of that glorious and blessed gift Neither is that good spirit dead or dumb but vocall and operative it gives mee a tongue to call God Father it teacheth me to pray it helpeth mine infirmities and maketh intercession for me with groanings which cannot be uttered It worketh effectually in me a sensible conversion Even when I was dead in sins and trespasses God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved me hath by this spirit of his quickned me together with Christ and hath raised me up together with him By the blessed effects therefore of this regenerating Spirit happily begun in my soule I find how rich a treasure the Father of mercies hath conveighed into my bosome Besides my life shows what is in my heart it was a gracious word that God spake to his people of old and holds for ever I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes I will also save you from all your uncleannesses The spirit of God can never be severed from obedience If the heart be taken up with the holy Spirit the feet must walke in Gods statutes both heart and life must be freed from all wilfull uncleannesses I feel that God hath wrought all this in me from him it is that I do sincerely desire indevour to make straight steps in all the ways of God and to avoid and abhor all those foule corruptions of my sinfull nature Flesh and bloud hath not would not could not work this in me The Spirit therefore of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwels in me And if this be not a pledge of his dearest love heaven cannot yeeld one Moreover he hath bestowed upon mee another gift more worth then all the world his own son the son of his love the son of his nature by eternall generation Whom he hath not only given for me in a generality with the rest of mankind but hath by a speciall donation conveighed unto me and as it were put into my bosome in that he hath enabled me by a lively faith to bring him home unto my soule and hath thus by a particular application made him mine so as my soule is not more mine then he is my soules And having given me his son he hath with him given me all things If there can be greater tokens of love then these let me want them Besides his gifts his carriage doth abundantly argue his love were there a strangenesse betweene God and my soule I might well feare there were no other then overly respects from him towards me but now when I find he doth so freely and familiarly converse with his servant and so graciously imparts himself to me renuing the daily testimonies of his holy presence in the frequent motions of his good
he do such an act yet in him it is no sin If the latter it must be either for the defect of his omniscience or upon a willing connivence In each of these there is grosse errour in some of them blasphemy For first what can be more evident then that the holiest of Gods elect upon earth fall and that not infrequently into sin Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin was the just challenge of wise Salomon and his father before him said no lesse There is none that doeth good no not one And elswhere Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults We all saith the Prophet Esay putting himself into the number have like sheep gone astray we have turned every one to his owne waies And wherefore were those legall expiations of old by the bloud of their sacrifices but for the acknowledged sins both of Priests and people Perswade us if thou canst that our election exempts us from being men for certainly whiles we are men we cannot but be sinners So sure is that Parenthesis of Salomon There is no man that sinneth not as that If we say we have no sin we both deceive our selves and make God a lier What then That which in it self is sin is it not sin in the Elect Doth evill turne good as it falls from their person where did the holy God infuse such vertue into any creature Surely so deadly is the infection of sin that it makes the person evill but that the holinesse of the person should make the sin lesse evill is an hellish monster of opinion Yea so far is it from that as that the holinesse of the person addes to the haynousnesse of the sin The adultery had not been so odious if a David had not committed it nor the abjuration of Christ so grievous if it had not fallen from him that said Though all men yet not I Sin is sin even in an Angel and the worse for the eminence of the actor For what is sin but the transgression of the law in whomsoever whersoever therefore Transgression is there is guilt And such the best of all Gods Saints have acknowledged lamented in themselves Wo is me saith the Prophet Esay for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips The evill that I would not doe that I doe saith the chosen vessel Yea in many things saith St. James we offend all It is true that as the beloved Disciple hath taught us He that is borne of God sinneth not Not that he may not fall into the same act of sin with the most carnall man but that he sins not in the same manner The one sins with all his heart with the full sway of his will the other not without a kind of renitency The one makes a trade of his sin the other steps onely aside through the vehemence of a Temptation The one sins with an high hand the other out of meer infirmity The one walks on securely and resolutely as obfirmed in his wickednesse the other is smitten with a seasonable remorse for his offence The one delights and prides himselfe in his sin the other as he sinned bashfully so he hates himself for sinning The one grows up daily to a greater height of iniquity the other improves his sin to the bettering of his soule But this difference of sin as it makes sin unmeasurably sinfull in the worst men so it doth not quite anull it in the holiest It is their sin still though it raigne not in them though it kill them not Whiles then there cannot but be sin in the Elect is it possible that God should not see it there Is there any thing in heaven or earth or hell that can be hid from his all-seeing eyes where should this sin lurk that he should not espy it Do not the secrets of all hearts lie open before him Are not his eyes a flame of fire Is it not expresly noted as an aggravation of evill Iudah did evill in the sight of the Lord And Our transgressions faith Isaiah are multiplied before thee It is out of his infinite holinesse that he cannot abide to behold sin but it is out of his absolute omniscience that there is no sin which he beholds not and out of his infinite justice that he beholds no sin which he hates not Is it then for that sin hath no being as that which is onely a failing and privation of that rectitude and integrity which should be in us and our actions without any positive entity in it selfe upon this ground God should see no sin at all no not in the wickedest man upon earth and whereas wicked men do nothing but sin it should follow that God takes no notice of most of the actions that are done in the world whereof the very thought were blasphemy Since then it cannot bee out of defect of knowledge that God sees not the sinnes of his elect is it out of a favourable connivence that he is willing not to see what he sees surely if the meaning be that God sees not the sinnes of the penitent with a revengefull eye that out of a mercifull indulgence he will not prosecute the sins whereof we have repented with due vengeance but passes them by as if they had not been we do so gladly yeeld to this truth that we can never blesse God enough for this wonderfull mercy to poore sinners it is his gracious word which we lay redy hold upon I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sinnes But if the meaning be that God beares with sin because theirs that he so winkes at it as that he neither sees nor detests it as it falls from so deare actors it is no other then a blasphemous charge of injustice upon the holy one of Israel Your iniquities faith Isaiah speaking of Gods chosen people have separated between you and your God and your sinnes have hid his face from you that he will not hear who was dearer to God then the man after his own heart yet when he had given way to those foule sinnes of adultery and murder Nathan tells him from God Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Vriah the Hittite to be thy wife Thus saith the Lord Behold I will raise up evill against thee out of thine owne house c. How full and clear is that complaint of Moses the man of God We are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sinnes in the light of thy countenance And Ieremy to the same purpose We have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us thou hast slaine thou hast
they find none Thou tell'st me of new lights I ask whence they rise I know who it was that said I am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darknesse but shall have the light of life and I know that light was the true light of whom holy David spake long before Thou art my lampe O Lord and the Lord wil lighten my darkenesse and in thy light shall we see light Those that doe truly hold forth this light shall be my guides and I shall follow them with all confidence and shall find the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day As for any new light that should now break forth and shine upon our waies certainely it is but darknesse such a light as Bildad prophesied of long agoe The light of the wicked shall be put out and the sparke of his fire shall not shine The light shall be darknesse in his Tabernacle and his Candle shall be put out with him So as the seduced followers of these new lights may have just cause to take up that complaint of the Prophet We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightnesse but we walk in darknesse we grope for the wall like the blinde wee stumble at noone day as in the night Shortly then that light which the father of lights hath held forth in his will revealed in his word as it hath been interpreted by his holy Church in all ages shal be my guide till I shall see as I am seen as for any other lights they are but as those wandring fires that appear in damp marishes which lead the travailer into a ditch 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 Repelled YEa there thou wouldest have mee this is that deadly dart wherewith thou hast slain millions of soules Hence it is that the Mahumetan Saints may commit publique filthinesse with thanks Hence that corrupt Christians bury such abominable crimes in their cowls Hence that false professors shroude so much villanies under the shelter of piety Hence that the world abounds with so many sheep without wolves within faire tombes full of inward rottennesse filthy dunghills covered over with snow rich herse-clothes hiding ill-sented carkasses broken potsheards covered with silver drosse Hence that the adversaries of Iudah offer to Zerobabel their aid in building the Temple The harlot hath her peace offerings Absolom hath his vow to pay Herod will worship the infant Iudas hath a kisse for his Master Simon Magus will be a Convert Ananias and Sapphira will part with all The Angell of the church of Sardis will pretend to live The beast hath hornes like a Lamb but speakes like a dragon in a word the wickedest of men will counterfeit Saints and false saints are very Devills for so much more eminent as the vertue is which they would seeme to put on so much the more odious is the simulation both to God and man now the most eminent of all vertues is holinesse whereby we both come nearest unto God and most resemble him of all creatures therefore out of hell there is none so loathsome to God as the hypocrites that upon a double provocation both for doing of evil for doing evil under a colour of good the face that the wicked man sets upon his sin is worse then the sin it self Bring no more vain oblations saith the Lord incense is an abomination to mee the new moones and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemne meeting Your new Moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to be are them How faine wouldst thou therefore draw mee into a double condemnation both for being evill and seeming good both w ch are an abomination to the Lord Doe I not hear him say For as much as this people draw neare me with their mouth and with their lips doe honour mee but have removed their hearts from me therefore behold I will proceed to doe a marvellous work amongst this people even a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdome of the wise shall perish Doe I not heare him say by his prophet Jeremiah They will deceive every one his neghbour and will not speake the truth Their tongue is an arrow shot out it speaketh deceit one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he layeth his wait shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord shall not my soule be avenged of such a nation as this Indeed this is the way to beguile the eyes of men like our selves for who would mistrust a mortifyed face an eye and hand lift up to heaven a tongue that speakes holy things but when we have to doe with a searcher of hearts what madnesse is it to think there can be any wisdome or understanding or counsail against the Lord Woe bee to them therefore that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us Woe bee to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsell but not of mee that cover with a covering but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin Shall I then cleanse the out-side of the cup whiles I am within full of extortion excesse shall I fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse shall I under pretence of long prayers devoure widowes houses shal I put on thy forme and transfigure my selfe into an Angell of light shall not the all-seeing eye of the righteous God find me out in my damnable simulation Hath not he said wil make it good Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much sope yet thine iniquity is marked before mee Hath not my Saviour who shall be our Judge said Therefore thou shalt receive the greater damnation Can there be any heavier doom that can fall from that awfull mouth then Receive thy portion with hypocrites Let those therefore that are ambitious of an higher roome in hell maintaine a forme of Godlinesse and deny the power of it face wickednesse with piety stalke under religion for the aimes of policy juggle with God and the world case a devill with a saint and row towards hell whiles they looke heaven-ward For me All the while my breath is in me the spirit which God gives mee is in my nostrills I shall walke in mine uprightnesse All false waies and false semblances shal my soule utterly abhorre that so at the parting my rejoiceing may be the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity
the more need therefore to be opposed and reformed Hence was that vehement charge of God to his Israel After the doings of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk after their ordinances Ye shall keep mine Ordinance that ye commit not any of these abominable customes which were committed before you and that ye defile not your selves therein I am the Lord your God It is too true that the bonds of Custome are so strong and close that they are not easily loosed in so much as Custome puts on the face of another nature Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evill How stifly did the men of Judah after all the dreadfull threatnings of the Prophet hold to their Idolatrous customes which they had learn't in Egypt Wee will burne incense to the Queen of heaven and poure out drink-offerings to her as wee have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem It is with ill customes as with diseases which if they grow inveterate are so much the harder to be cured but shall I therefore hug my malady because I have long had it because it will not part away with ease Shall I bid a theefe welcome because he had wont to rob me Shortly then so far is an ill custome from extenuating my sin as that it aggravates it Neither shall I offend the lesse because I offend with more but rather double it both as in my act and as in my imitation in following others amisse and in helping to make up an ill precedent for others following of me As for the profit that may accrew by sinning let those carnall hearts value it that have made the world their God To me the greatest gain this way is losse Might I have that house-full of gold and silver that Balaam talke of or all those kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them which thou shewedst to my Saviour what are all these to the price of a sin when they meet with a man that hath learnt from the mouth of Christ What profit shall it be to a man if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule Importunity is wont to be a prevalent suitor How many have been dragg'd to hell by the force of others solicitations who never else meant to have trod in those pathes of death What marvell is it if that which moved the unjust judge to do right against the bent of his will be able to draw the weak sinner awry But if in these earthly angariations one mile according to our Saviours counsel may bring on another yet in spirituall evill ways no compulsion can prevaile upon a resolved spirit It is not the change of stations nor the building of twice seven altars nor the sacrificing of seven bullocks and seven rams that can win a true Prophet of God to curse Israel The Christian heart is fixed upon sure grounds of his own never to be removed If therefore his father sue to him if his mother weep and wring and kneele and beseech him by the womb that bore him and the brests that gave him suck if his crying children cling about his knees and crave his yeildance to some advantageous evill or his declining some bitter sufferings for the cause of Christ he can shake them off with an holy neglect and say What do you weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus None of these things move me neither count I my life deare unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy And if any soule be so weak as to be led rather by the earnest motions of others then by his owne setled determinations he shall find no other ease before the Tribunal of heaven then our first Parents did in shifting the guilt of their sin the man to the woman the woman to the serpent In the meane while that word shall ever stand with me inviolable My son if sinners entise thee consent thou not Lastly what can be the necessity which may either induce to sin or excuse for sinning What can the world do to make me say I must doe evill Losse restraint exile paine death are the worst that either malice can do or patience suffer These may put me hard to the question but when all is done they must leave me free either to act or indure I need not therefore sin since there is a remedy against sin suffering It is true that we are in the hands of a most gracious and indulgent God who considers what we are made of pities our infirmities and knows to put a difference betwixt wilfull rebellion and weak revolt his mercy can distinguish of offenders but his justice hath said Without shall be the fearfull Finally then howsoever these circumstantiall temperaments may receive pardon after the fact for the penitent at the mercy-seat of heaven yet none of them can be pleadable at the bar of divine justice And if any sinner shall hearten himselfe to offend out of the hopes and confidence of these favorable mitigations the comfort that I can give him is that he may howle in hell with thee for his presumption FINIS M r Hannibal Gammon of Cornwall Temptations of Impiety Temptations of Discouragement Temptations of Allurement 2 Cor. 13. 4. Philip. 2. 6. Joh. 10. 17 18. Matth. 4. 3 6. Mar. 1. 24. Mar. 5. 7. Mat. 8. 20. a Joh. 3. 13 18. b Joh. 18. c Mat. 28. 29. Act. 2. 35. d 10. 48. e Psal 22. 27. f Psal 72. 11 15. g Rev. 5. 11 12. 4. 9 11. h Philip. 2. 6. i Joh. 10. 30. 1 Joh. 5. 7. k Joh. 16. 15. 17. 19. l â—sa 45. 12. Psal 33. 6. 102. 26. m Psal 45. 6 7. n Esa 9. 6. o Revel 1. 17. p Micah 5. 2. q Joh 17. 5. r Joh. 1. 1. Å¿ Ephes 4. 10. t Joh. 3. 13. u Rev. 1. 8. x Esa 9. 6. y Esa 40. 3. 45. 21 22. z Esa 45. 13. Esa 6. 3. a Rom. 9. 5. b 1 Joh. 5. 20. c Tit. 2. 13. d 1 Cor. 2. 8. Joh. 20. 28. Colos 2. 15. Esa 53. 8 9. Esa 53. 12. Luke 24. 25 26. Luke 23. 35 36. Mat. 27. 51. Mat. 27. 54. Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 6. 14. Dan. 2. 11. Rom. 7. 7. 2 Tim. 3. 15. 2 Pet. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Mat. 7. 24 25. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Mat. 11. 27. Mat. 11. 25. Rom. 16. 25 26. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Esa 55. 8 9. Luk. 23. 42. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Luc. 16. 22. Revel 6. 9. Revel 14. 1 3. Revel 7. 14. 1. 16. 17. Revel 14 13. Revel 1. 18.