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heaven_n	earth_n	new_a	place_n	7,675	5	5.8515	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96272	Two sermons one against adultery, the other of the nature, art, and issue of the Christian warfare : with a discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man / by Nathanael Whaley ...	Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.; Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709. A discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1533A; ESTC R43579	50,933	141

Means and Overtures of Grace to his own malicious and destructive Purposes in making the word of Life a savour of Death 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Cor. 4.4 and blinding the Minds of them that believe not least the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them And when with all his Powers of Darkness he cannot extinguish this glorious Light he sets up new Lights and apish Revelations against it to dazle the minds of ignorant and unstable Persons while he winds them into his Interests and through a Mist of obscure and a Maze of wild and intricate Doctrines leads them into damnable Errors 2 Pet. 2.1 by which as St. Peter speaks they bring upon themselves swift Destruction I might add that this subtile Enemy of ours frequently plays upon us from our own Castles in the Air our vain Imaginations and foolish Fancies our high Conceits of our own Gifts and Attainments our Ambitious and towring Hopes of earthly Grandeur and Felicity with all the inchanting Delights and Gayeties of an Vtopian Paradice our vexatious Fears of merely contingent or improbable Accidents our groundless Confidence and Security in all the Flatteries of a sinfull course and be that never so long or sinfull our fallacious reckoning on a Death-Bed Repentance after it The Truth is the main Strength and Interest of Satan lies in our selves in our weak and shallow Judgment of Things and disorderly Wills and Affections towards them Our Understandings are easily misled with the Glare of sensible Objects and the Lusts which war in our Members Jam. 4.1 against the Dictates of our Reason and Conscience are a strong Party on the Enemies side ready on every Instigation of his to challenge their lawless Liberties and to betray our Souls into his merciless hands And this has been a growing Accession to the power of Satan ever since the Defection of our first Parents he has gain'd all the ground that we lost by our fall and has so many Confederate Lusts in all the weak parts of our Nature that where-ever almost he chuses to assault us he is sure to find a well-affected Party within our selves to promote his banefull and malicious Designs upon us To this end he is very exact in observing our Complexions Educations and Customs out of which he easily spells our Inclinations and then applies his Temptations to our particular Likings and Aversions and so follows Nature in the way she is most dispos'd to wander and prevaricate in This is a signal Instance of the fatal Craft and Sagacity of our Enemy to which I will only add two or three remarkable Advantages the Devil has to ripen his dark Designs and accomplish his wicked and destructive Projects The first is 1. The silence of his Attacks which he usually begins and carries on without the least Noise or Signal of War when he is minded to do us the greatest Mischief For tho' his Motions are sometimes rapid and furious as when he raises a Storm of Persecution in the Church yet generally speaking they are so very soft and insensible that without a strict and mighty Care 't is hardly possible to discern them from the Motions of our own Luk. 9.55 or in all cases from the placid and gentle Breathings of the Divine Spirit So that commonly the War is begun before ever we are aware of our Enemy and the Devil is busie with us while he is farthest from our Thoughts and we think of nothing less than of serving his Designs and Interests nay it may be while we think the contrary and are verily perswaded we are doing God Service Acts 26.9 Joh. 16.2 And thus he at once conceals his Enmity to us flatters our Infirmities and pleases our Fancies prevents our Vigilance animates his own Party within us sets the Battle in array and many times steals the Victory before we have any Mistrust or Intimation of his tampering with us or the least warning from him to put our selves into a Posture of Defence against him 2. His restless and indefatigable Diligence in laying his Snares contriving new Plots and Devices and improving all Accidents and Advantages to compass his pernicious Purposes He is continually going to and fro in the Earth and walking up and down in it Job 1.7 Traversing all the ways that go down to Hell or lead up to Heaven and beating out untrodden and nearer Paths to ruin than Man himself left to his own happier Ignorance could possibly have devised to his own Destruction He is never weary of ill-doing he is always moving and coasting about intruding into all Places and Companies listening to every Word and prying into every Corner to spy out opportunities of hatching Mischief This is his manner of Life and in this Posture St. Peter describes him 1 Pet. 5.8 Your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour No Place not Paradice it self no Person not the purer Son of God could escape him The Sanctuary is no priviledg'd Place the Society of our Blessed Saviour on Earth Mar. 8.33 no certain Defence to his domestick and best-beloved Disciples the miraculous Gift of the Holy Ghost which cast the Devil out of his miserable Vassals 2 Cor. 12.7 1 Cor. 10.13 could not secure the Enjoyer from his Assaults and Treacheries His Temptations are common to Men even the devoutest Votaries at the Throne of Grace nor does the special Presence of God in the place where his Honour dwelleth Job 1.6 always protect us from this insolent Intruder into his holy Assemblies Rev. 12.10 In short he is so impudent as to accuse the Children of God before him and renew his Encounters after the most shamefull Baffles yea so maliciously bent upon our Destruction that he tugs at it Night and Day sullies our Dreams and defiles our Recreations perplexes our Business and distracts our Devotions a thousand Snares he lays about our Tables and our Beds neither allowing himself nor us any rest till he either despairs of Success or glories in our ruin 3. His great Artifice in deceiving us with false Appearances and raising our Expectations of delicious Pleasures and Profits from extremely bitter and losing Practices He has a wonderfull Art in laying beautifull Colours on the most deformed and pernicious Actions and hiding the Sting while we tast the Sweet of his disguised Dainties This is indeed his sovereign and most successfull Policy to amuse our Minds with Images of things which are not and entertain our Fancies with gay and winning Objects all the way he is leading us to ruin By this Decoy he draws off our Attention from the Truth and Reality of things and so leaves us to embrace the Shadows and rue the consequence of our Folly and Rashness I will not undertake to determine how far the Devil is chargeable with the Crimes which he tempts us to but this I doubt not may be truly said That whenever

enslave our imperial Faculties to sensual and Diabolical Lusts and so for ever make our selves miserable by it We are safe in the hottest Battles and Encounters of our Spiritual Adversaries so long as we are true and faithfull to the Rights and Interests of our rational Nature i.e. so long as we judge nothing but what is right and choose nothing but what is virtuous and good Neither can we complain that we have no power to correct the Levity of our Thoughts and Fancies or to order and regulate our outward Actions There is nothing so free as Thought or more evident than that the Mind of Man has power within it self to shift the Scene of its Contemplations and divert from one Imagination to another as often as it pleases A man may think of Hell when he is tempted and of the all-seeing Eye before he ventures upon unchast Embraces And so the Organs of Sense and Motion the immediate Causes of outward Actions are very much in our Power and by guarding these Inlets of Lust and Vanity we certainly avoid the strongest and most dangerous Temptations to Sin and Folly help to starve our inbred Coruptions and cut of all Communication with the Enemy that is so much concern'd to relieve and cherish them And these are all the Natural Faculties which are requisite to defend and secure us against Temptations 2. We may be sure of all the supernatural Aids and Assistances which are necessary to enable us to make a vigorous and effectual Resistance For since we are so much weakned by our Fall and by indulging our carnal and corrupt Affections have extremely spoil'd the natural Tone and Rectitude of our Faculties 't is apparent that we are never likely of our selves i.e. merely by our own Strength and Constancy to stand the mighty Shock of Temptations which at every turn of our Lives and Fortunes are ready to assault us and that the Grace of God is as necessary to animate and enforce our Endeavours as our Resistance is to baffle and overcome the Temptations we are assaulted with Now as in Reason we may hope that God will not refuse to assist us against the impious Power and Tyranny of Satan in Vindication of his undoubted Right and Title to our Service so to raise our Confidence in him he has expresly declared that his Grace is sufficient for us yea to make us more than Conquerors 2 Cor. 12 9. that he will give his holy Spirit to them that ask it Rom. 8.37 Luk. 11.13 1 Joh. 3.8 and hath sent his own Son from Heaven on purpose to destroy the Works of the Devil To this end the Captain of our Salvation sent forth his Heraulds into the World set up his Standard and displayed his Banners to the Nations appointing all that came to him or that should believe in his Name to be listed into one Army or Church Militant on Earth under the Conduct of such Generals and Officers as should receive a Commission from him Vnder the Broad Seal of Heaven As my Father hath sent me so send I you John 20.21 Then to animate his Followers he enter'd the Lists with the Prince of Darkness by dying vanquisht all-conquering Death and having spoiled Principalities and Powers Col. 2.15 he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them by his glorious Resurrection Now these are the highest Assurances we can have that God hath taken us into his holy Protection and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above our ability 1 Cor. 10.13 but will according to his Promise when we are beset with any Temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it Which implies that his Providence watches over the Motions of our Enemies that they are dispos'd to tempt us above our Strength and that he hath set them their Bounds which they cannot pass viz. that Measure of Strength which he is alwaies ready to supply us with and then it must be our own fault if we don't make a happy End of this sharp and tedious War and follow our glorious Leader into endless Triumphs 'T is true that all the Promises of victorious Grace depend upon our earnest Prayers and Endeavours to acquit our selves like Good Souldiers of Jesus Christ But surely if we may have Grace for Asking and Victory for Fighting for it we cannot desire either upon easier Terms For now all we Want falls within the verge of our Power and if we lose the Victory we know who to thank for it The Spirit that is in us is greater saith St. John than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 And while we keep him on our side we may Justly Glory in this Happy Confederacy by virtue of which we can do all things that Omnipotency it self guided by Infinite Wisdom can do for us I come now to shew 3. By what means we may effectually resist the Assaults and Temptations of the Devil It was an Infinite Condescension in God to offer us an Alliance by the Me●iation of his Son when our Impotency was the meer effect of our Folly and Enmity to him And as in this respect we have all imaginable Reason to adore the Divine Goodness towards us so it is our apparent Interest and Policy to embrace the Terms and observe the Orders our great Patron and Ally hath prescribed to us And the rather because there is a Mighty Noise and Combustion in the World which Serves the Devil under the specious pretence of Resisting him There are those that inveigh heartily against him whose Ill Word he does not much value and with Armed Zeal and Orthodoxy lay about them at a wonderful rate as if they would drive all the Powers of Darkness before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Herod Hist lib 1. p. 71 72. and carry their Conquests to the very Gates of Destruction Like that foolish People in Caria of whom the Historian reports that to drive away their strange Gods they Arm●d themselves and went up in Battel array to the Bordering Mountains beat and stabb'd the Air with their Doughty Weapons and to Crown so brave an Act of Defiance proclaimed the Banishment of those Intruding Deities Eph 6.12 Spiritual Wickednesses are not to be quell'd with Martial Force or with Giddy and Popular Tumults They laugh like the Leviathan in Job at the shaking of the Spear Job 41. ●9 and are never better pleased than to see Men Tilting with Luciferian Pride and Fierceness at one onothers ●ollies and Opinions quarrelling with every thing they Dislike in Others and mistaking the true seat of War which certainly is in every man's Breast and will find him work enough while there is a Devil to tempt him or but one Treacherous and Unmortified Lust within him And no less Absurd and Ridiculous is it to encounter the Devil with senseless and hideous Forms of Words Spells and other Magical Rites Or to Accost him with such Wooden Artillery as

us drawing upon our selves There is nothing surer than that God who looks thro' all the Natures and comprehends all the Reasons of Things has always some wise and unanswerable Reasons for every thing he does or does not do or permits the doing of by others in the World and then I am sure nothing can be more reasonable than for us to acquiesce in all his Permissions as well as in all the Disposals of his Providence and not think our selves wise enough to mend the Wisdom and Rectitude of them A wise and good Man wants no Argument to convince him that any thing is wise or just so far as infinite Wisdom is concern'd in the Doing or Permission of it 2. That the great Beauty and Wisdom of Providence and the most natural and equitable Rule of Government consists in governing the several Orders of Beings according to their respective Natures and then to rule a free Agent by mere Force and Compulsion to give Man a Liberty of Choice and not permit the exercise of it must needs derogate from the Wisdom and Beauty of his Providence because this is to govern his Creature contrary to the Nature he himself had given him i.e. contrary to the natural and most equitable Rule of Government For why were we made free if our Creator did not intend to leave us to our Choice Is any Man the better for being forc't to do a good Action or violently restrained from a bad A forced Obedience can never deserve a Reward or improve the least habit of Virtue or Goodness in us both which depend upon the free and ingenuous Motions of the Will exerting its own Liberty and following the Light of Reason and Revelation which is the true and only Perfection of it Now if a forc't Obedience could be no real Advantage to us then it could not be expected from the Goodness of God that he should have over-ruled the Will and supprest the noblest Principle he had planted in the Mind of Man only to extort a thankless Obedience from him But you will say might not this have prevented his Fall I answer Man had certainly sinned if he had not freely performed that easie and reasonable Obedience his Maker required of him and if he had there would have been no occasion of God's over-ruling his Will and therefore there can be no Reason to object against his not doing of it But suppose at last that God had done this and that Man had been under a Necessity of being innocent or rather of not sinning there could then have been no such thing as true Virtue and Obedience in the best Estate that ever the World was in which is such a character of the Paradisiacal State and the Wisdom of the Divine Government as can never be reconciled to the essential Properties of either 3. Lastly It is a palpable Contradiction to the Divine Perfections to suppose that the Goodness of God should oblige him to act contrary to the Rules of his Wisdom or that God should abridge our first Parents of the Liberty of tasting the forbidden Fruit upon the Penalty of Death on purpose to prove their Obedience to him and while they stood upon their Trial render it utterly useless by his own Act i.e. by determining their Wills contrary to the Freedom and Inclination of them To Conclude There is one Meditation which methinks should be sufficient of its self to revive the Spirits and dispell the Doubts and Fears of all disconsolate Christians concerning the Creation of Men and Angels and the Carriage of the Divine Providence towards them viz. that there is an innumerable Company of blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven continually adoring the glorious Constellation of Divine Attributes admiring and celebrating in joyfull Hymns and Anthems the indissoluble Union and harmonious Consistency of them while we short-sighted Mortals dwelling in a dark and pensive Vale under the Clouds of Melancholy and Ignorance are apt to fancy an unnatural War and Incongruity between them and vainly disquiet and perplex our selves about them In Heaven we know there is and must be a right and perfect Understanding between all the blessed Inhabitants of that holy Place and that there as one that had been there tells us we shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 and the mean while we may comfort our selves with this that the excellent Spirits above do all find their Happiness in God's infinite Goodness to them and are able to answer all Objections that we or any of his Creatures are able to frame against it FINIS Some Books printed for B. Aylmer THirty Nine Sermons upon the Fifth Chapter of St. Matthew being part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount By Anthony Horneck D. D. late Preacher at the Savoy To which is prefix'd his Life writ by the Bishop of Bath and Wells In two Vol. in 8vo The Council of Trent no Free Assembly more fully discover'd by a Collection of Letters and Papers of the learned Dr. Vargas and other great Ministers who assisted at the said Synod in considerable Posts Published from the Original Manuscripts in Spanish which were procured by the Right Honourable Sir William Trumball's Grand-Father Envoy at Brussels in the Reign of King James the First With an Introductory Discourse concerning Councils shewing how they were brought under Bondage to the Pope By Michael Geddes L. L. D. and Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Sarum In 8 vo A brief State of the Socinian Controversie concerning a Trinity in Unity By Jsaac Barrow D. D. late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge In 24 ' s. Price two Pence stitcht