hands of God he only knows that shall judge this I am sure of that without this Saviour there can be no salvation That in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him That he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life As therefore we do justly abhor that wild scope of all religions which thou suggestest so we do willingly admit a large scope in one true religion so large as the author of it hath thought good to allow For we have not to do with a God that stands upon curiosities of beliefe or that upon pain of damnation requires of every believer an exquisite perfection of judgment concerning every capillar veyne of Theologicall truth it is enough for him if we be right for the main substance of the body He doth not call rigorously for every stone in the battlements it sufficeth for the capacity of our salvation if the foundation be hold in tire It is thy sclander therefore that wee confine Truth and blessednesse to a corner of Reformed Christians no wee seek and find it every where where God hath a Church and Gods Church we know to be Universall Let them be Abassines Cophties Armeniant Georgians Jacobites or what ever names either sclander or distinction hath put upon them if they hold the foundation firme howsoever disgracefully built upon with wood hay stubble wee hold them Christs we hold them ours Hence it is that the new Jerusalem is for her beauty and uniformity set forth with 12 precious gates though for use and substance one for that from all coasts of heaven there is free accesse to the Church of Christ and in him to life and glory He who is the Truth and the life hath said This is eternall life to know thee and him whom thou hast sent This knowledge which is our way to life is not alike at tained of all fome have greater light and deeper insight into it then others That mercy which accepts of the least degree or the true apprehension of Christ hath not promised to dispense with the wilfull neglect of those who might know him more clearly more exactly Let those carelesse soules therefore which stand indifferent betwixt life and death upon thy perswasion content themselves with good meanings and generalities of beliefe but for me I shall labour to furnish my self with all requisite truths and above all shall aspire towards the excellency of the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The second Decade Temptations of Discouragement 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 Repelled EVen with the face of an humble penitent justly confounded in himself in the sense of his owne vilenesse but awfully confident in a promised mercy Malicious tempter how like thou art to thy selfe when thou wouldst draw me on to my sins then how small sleight harmlesse plausible they were now thou hast fetch 't me in to the guilt of those foule offences they are no lesse then deadly and irremissible May I but keep within the verge of mercy thou canst not more aggravate my wickednesse against me thē I do against my selfe thou canst not be more ready to accuse then I to judge and condemn my selfe Oh me the wretchedest of all creatures how do I hate my selfe for mine abominable sins done with so high a hand against such a Majesty after such light of knowledge such enforcements of warning such indearments of mercy such reluctations of spirit such check of conscience what lesse then hell have I deserved from that infinite justice Thou canst not write more bitter things against me then I can plead against my owne soule But when thou hast cast up all thy venome and when I have passed the heaviest sentence against my selfe I who am in my selfe utterly lost and forfeited to eternall death in despight of the gates of hell shall live and am safe in my Almighty and ever-blessed Saviour who hath conquered Death and hell for me Set thou me against my selfe I shall set my Saviour against thee urge thou my debts I show his full acquittance Sue thou my bonds I shall exhibit them cancell'd and nayled to his crosse presse thou my horrible crimes I plead a pardon sealed in heaven Thou tell'st me of the multitude and hainousnesse of my sins I tell thee of an infinite mercy and what are numbers and magnitudes to the infinite To an illimited power what difference is there betwixt a mountaine and an ant-heape betwixt one and a million were my sins a thousand times more and worse then they are there is worth abundantly enough in every drop of that precious blood which was shed for my redemption to expiate them Know O tempter that I have to doe with a mercy which can die my scarlet sins white as snow make my crimson as wooll whose grace is so boundlesse that if thou thy selfe hadst upon thy fall been capable of repentance thou hadst not everlastingly perished The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works And if there be a sin of man unpardonable it is not for the insufficiency of grace to forgive it but for the incapacity of the subject that should receive remissision Thou feel'st to thy paine and losse wherefore it was that the eternall sonne of God Jesus Christ came into the world Even to save sinners and if my owne heart shall conspire with thee to accuse me as the chiefe of those sinners my repentance gives me so much the more claim and interest in his blessed redemption Let me be the most laden with the chaines of my captivity so I may have the greatest share in that all-sufficient ransome And if thou who art the true fiery serpent in this miserable wildernesse hast by sin stung my soul to death let me as I do with penitent and faithfull eyes but look up to that brazen serpent which is lift up far above all heavens thy poyson cannot kill cannot hurt me It is the word of eternall truth which cannot faile us If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Lo here not mercy only but justice on my side The spirit of God saith not only if we confesse our sins he is mercifull to forgive our sins as he elswhere speaks by the pen of Salomon but more he is faithfull and just to forgive our sins Our weaknesse and ignorance is wont to flie
an actuall conveyance of this mercy to me in that here is an Earnest given me before-hand of a perfect accomplishment An earnest that both binds the assurance and stands for part of payment of that great sum of glory which abides for me in heaven This seale I shew this earnest I produce so as my securance is unfailable And that thou maist not plead this Seale to be counterfeit set on only with a stamp of presumption and self-love know that here is the true and cleare impression of Gods spirit in all the lines of that gracious signanature a right though weak illumination of mind in the true apprehension of heavenly things sincerity of holy desires truth of inchoate holiness unfainedness of Christian charity constant purposes and indeavours of perfect obedience And as for my earnest it can no more disappoint me then the hand that gave it My soule is possessed with true how ever imperfect grace and what is grace but the beginning of glory and what is glory but the consummation of grace What should I regard thy cavils whiles I have these pledges of the Almighty It is not in thy power malicious spirit to sever those things which Gods eternall decree hath put together Our calling and election are thus conjoyned from eternity All the craft and force of hell cannot divorce them Whom he did predestinate them also he called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justifieth them also he glorifieth It is true that outwardly many are called but few chosen but none are inwardly called which are not also chosen in which number is my poore soule whereto God hath shewed mercy in singling it out of this wicked world into the liberty of the sons of God For do not I find my selfe sensibly changed from what I was am I not evidently freed from the bondage of those naturall corruptions under which thou heldst mo miserably captiv'd Do I not hate the courses of my former disobedience Do I not give willing eare to the voice of the Gospel Do I not desire and indeavour to conforme my selfe wholly to the will of my God and Saviour Do I not heartily grieve for my spirituall faylings Do not I earnestly pray for grace to resist all thy temptations Do not I cordially affect the means of grace and salvation Do I not labour in all things to keep a good conscience before God and men Are not these the infallible proofs of my calling and the sure and certaine fruits of mine election Canst thou hope to perswade me that God will bestow these favours where he loves not that he wil repent him of such mercies That he will lose the thanks and honour of so gracious proceedings Suggest what thou wilt I am more then confident that he who hath begun this good work in me will perform it untill the day of Jesus Christ Do not I heare the chosen vessel tell his Thessalonians that he knows them to be elected of God And upon what grounds doth he raise this assurance For saith he our Gospel came not to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost That which can assure us of another mans election may much more secure us of our owne the entertainment successe of the Gospel in our souls Lo that blessed word hath wrought in me a sensible abatement of my corrupt affections and hath produced an apparent renovation of my mind and hath quickned me to a new life of grace and obedience this can be no work of nature this can be no other then the work of that Spirit whereby I am sealed to the day of redemption My heart feels the power of the Gospel my life expresses it maugre all thy malice therefore I am elected When the gates of hell have done their worst none of Gods children can miscarry For if children then they are heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ Now as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God and this is the direction that I follow There are but three guides that I can be led by my own will thy suggestions the motions of Gods spirit For my owne will I were no Christian if I had not learn'd to deny it where it stands opposite to the will of my God as for thy suggestions I hate and defie them they are onely therefore the motions of that good Spirit which I desire to follow and if at any time my owne frailty have betraied me to some aberrations my repentance hath overtaken my offence and in sincerity of heart I can say with an holier man I have gone astray like a sheep seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandements All thy malice therefore cannot rob me of the comfort of mine adoption It is no marvell if thou who art all enmity canst not abide to heare of love but God who is love hath told me that love is of God and that every one that loveth is borne of God and that by this we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren now my heart can irrefragably witnesse to me that I love God because he is good infinitely good in himself and infinitely good to me and that I love good men because they are his sons my brethren I am therefore as surely passed from death to life as if I had set my foot over the threshold of heaven VIII TEMPTATION Alas poor man how grosly deludest thou thy selfe thou talk'st 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 Repelled IS it any wonder that thou should'st sclander the graces of God who art ever ready to calumniate the giver No tempter Canst thou challenge this faith of mine which thou censurest to be thine owne worke such it should be if it were presumption Were it presumption would'st thou oppose it would'st thou not foster and applaud it as thine The presumption is thine who darest thus derogate from the gracious work of the Almighty and fasten sin upon the holy Spirit Mine is faith yet so mine as that it is his that wrought it There is not more difference betwixt thee and an Angel of light then betwixt my faith and thy presumption True faith such is mine after all thy sclanderous suggestions is grounded upon sound knowledge and that knowledge upon an infallible word Whereas presumption rests only upon opinion and conceit built upon the sands of self-love Whence it is that the most ignorant are ever the most presumptuous when the knowing soule sees what dangers it is to encounter and provides for them with an awfull resolution True faith never comes without carefull and diligent use of meanes The word sacraments praier meditation are but enough with their conjoyned forces to produce
VERA EFFIGIES-REVERENDI DO NI IOSEPHI HALL NORWICI EPIS COPI This Picture represents the Forme where dwells A Mind which nothing but that Mind excells There 's Wisdome Learning Witt there Grace Love Rule over all the rest enough to prove Against the froward Conscience of this Time The Reverend Name of BISHOP is no Crime W. M. sculâ—â—it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SATANS FIERY DARTS QUENCHED OR TEMPTATIONS REPELLED In three DECADES For the help comfort and preservation of weak Christians in these dangerous times of Errour and Seduction By I. H. D. D. B. N. LONDON Printed by M. F. for N Butter And are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the Bishops-head and Golden-Lyon and in Corn-hill by N. Brooks 1647. To the Christian Reader Grace and Peace SOme few months are past since a worthy and eminent Divine from the West once part of my charge earnestly moved mee to undertake this taske of Temptations seconding his Letters with the lines of a deare intercessour from those parts Upon the first view I sleighted the motion returning only this answer That I remembred this work was already so compleatly performed by the reverend and learned M r Downame in his Christian warfare as that who so should meddle with this subject should but seem to gleane after his sickle But when I had sadly considered the matter my second thoughts told me that there is no one point of Divinity wherein many pens have not profitably laboured in severall formes of discourse and that the course which I was solicited unto was in a quite different way of Tractation namely to furnish my fellow-Christians with short and punctuall answers to the particular suggestions of our great enemy and that our deplored age had rifely yeelded publicke Temptations of Impiety which durst not looke forth into the world in those happy daies I was thereupon soon convinced in my selfe how usefull and beneficiall such a Tractate might be to weak soules and embraced the motion as sent from God whose good hand I found sensibly with me in the pursuance of it I therefore cheerfully addressed my self to the work wherein what I have assaied or done I humbly leave to the judgement of others with onely this that if in this Treatise my decrepit hand can have let fall any thing that may be to the service of Gods Church to the raising up of drooping hearts to the convincing of blasphemous errours to the preventing of the dangerous insinuations of wickednesse I desire to be thankfull to my good God whose grace hath been pleased to improve those few sands that remaine in my glasse to so happy an advantage That God the father of all mercies fetch from these poor labours of his weake servant much glory to his own name and much benefit to the souls of his people And may the same God be pleased to stir up the hearts of all his faithfull ones that shall through his goodnesse receive any help by these wel-meant indeavours to interchange their prayers with and for me the unworthiest of his Ministers that I may finish the small remainder of my course with joy Amen From my Cottage at Higham near Norwich Feb. 12. 1646. A List of the hellish Temptations here Repelled I. DECADE I. Temptation FOolish sinner thou leanest upon a broken reed whiles thou reposest all thy trust in a crucified Saviour Pag. 1. II. Temptation Still thou hast upon all occasions recourse to the Scriptures as some divine Oracles and think'st thou maist safely build thy soule 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 nearer heaven then the braines of those Politicians that invented it p. 17. 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 therfore 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 whatsoever 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 braines in their heart p 29. IV. Temptation In how vain and causelesse awe art thou held of dangers threatned to thy soule and horrors of punishment after this life whereas these are nothing but politique bugs to affright simple and credulous men Sinne freely man and feare nothing Take full scope to thy pleasures After this life there is nothing The soule dies together with the body as in brute creatures There is no further reckoning to bee made p. 40. V. Temptation Put case that the soul after the departure from the body may live but art thou so foolishly credulous as to beleeve that thy body after it is moldred into dust and resolved into all its elements having passed through all the degrees of putrefaction and annihilation shall at last return to it selfe again and recover the former shape and substance Dost thou not apprehend the impossibility of this so absurd assertion p. 54. VI. Temptation If the soule must live and the body shall rise yet what needst thou affright thy selfe with the terrors of an universall judgement Credulous soule when shall these things be Thou talkst of an awfull Iudge but where is the promise of his comming These sixteen hundred years hath he been look't and yet he is not come and when will he p. 69. VII Temptation If there must be a resurrection and a judgement yet God is not so rigid an Exactor as to call thee to account for every petty sin Thâ—se great Sessions are for haynous malefactors God is too mercyfull to condemne thee for small offences Be not thou too rigorous to thy self in denying to thy selfe the pleasure of some harmlesse sinnes p. 83. VIII Temptation What a vaine imagination is this wherewith thou pleasest thy self that thy sins are discharged in another mans person that anothers righteousnesse should be thine that thine offence should be satisfied by anothers punishment Tush they abuse thee that perswade thee God is angry with mankind which he loves and favours or that his anger is appeased by the bloudy satisfaction of a Saviour and that thou standest acquitted in heaven by that which another hath done and suffered These are fancies not fit to find place in the heads of wise men p. 91. 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 mayst know that many of those promises which thou accountest sacred and divine have sbrunk in the performance How hath God promised deliverance to those that trust in him yet how many of his faithfull servants have mis-carried What liberall promises hath he made of provision for those that wait upon him yet how many of them have miserably perished in want
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
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
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
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