from the justice of our God unto his mercy What can we feare when his very justice yeilds remission That justice relates to his gracious promise of pardon to the penitent whiles I do truly repent therefore his very justice necessarily infers mercy and that mercy forgivenesse Think not therefore O thou malicious spirit to affright me with the mention of Divine Justice Wo were me if God were not as just as mercifull yea if he were not therefore mercifull because he is just mercifull in giving me repentance just in vouchsafing me the promised mercy and forgivenesse upon the repentance which he hath given me After all thy hainous exaggerations of my guilt it is not the quality of the sin but the disposition of the sinner that damns the soule If we compare the offensive acts of a David and a Saul it is not easie to judge whether were more foul thou which stirred'st them up both to those odious sinnes madest account of an equall advantage against both but thine ayme failed thee the humble and true penitence of the one saved him out of thy hands the obdurednesse and false-heartednesse of the other gave him up as a prey to thy malice It is enough for me that though I had not the grace to avoid my sinnes yet I have the grace to hate and bewaile them that good spirit which thought not good to restraine me from sinning hath beene graciously pleased to humble me for sinning Yea such is the infinite goodnesse of my God to my poor soule that those sins which thou hast drawn me into with an intent of my utmost prejudice and damnation are happily turned through his grace unto my greatest advantage for had it not been for these my sinfull miscarriages had I ever attained to so cleare a sight of my owne frailty and wretchednesse so deep a contrition of soule so reall experience of temptation so hearty a detestation of sin such tendernesse of heart such awe of offending so fervent zeale of obedience so sweet a sense of mercy so thankfull a recognition of deliverance What hast thou now gained O thou wicked spirit by thy prevalent temptations What Trophees hast thou cause to erect for thy victory and my soyle Couldst thou have won me to a trade of sinning to a resolution in evill to a pleasure as in the commission so in the memory of my sin to a glorying in wickednesse then mightst have taken the advantage of snatching mee away in a state of unrepentance thou mightst have had just cause to triumph in thy prey but now that it hath pleased my God to shew me so much mercy as to check me in my evill way to work in me an abhorring of my sin and of my selfe for it and to pull me out of thy clutches by a true and seasonable repentance thou hast lost a soule and I have found a Saviour Thou maist upbraid me with the foulnesse of my sins I shall blesse God for their improvement II. TEMPTATION Alas poore man how willing thou art to make thy selfe believe 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 business an effect of that grace which was never incident into thy bosome Repelled MAlicious tempter it is my no small happinesse that thou art not admitted to keep the key of my heart or to look into my brest to see what is in my bosome and therefore thou canst not out of knowledge passe any censure of my inward dispositions onely wilt be sure to suggest the worst which the falser it is the better doth it become the father of lies But that good spirit which hath wrought true repentance in my heart witnesseth together with my heart the truth of my repentance Canst thou hope to perswade me that I do belie or mis-know my own grief Do not I feele this heart of mine bleed with a true inward remorse for my sinnes Have I not poured out many hearty sighs and tears for mine offences Do I not ever looke backe upon them with a vehement loathing and detestation Have I not with much anguish of soule confessed them before the face of that God whom I have provoked Think not now to choak me with a Cain or Saul or Judas which did more and repented not to fasten upon me a worldly sorrow that worketh Death No wicked one after all thy depravations this grief of mine looks with a farre other face then theirs and is no other then a Godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of theirs was out of the horror of punishment mine out of the sense of displeasure their 's for the doom and execution of a severe Judge mine for the frownes of an offended father theirs attended with a wofull despaire mine with a weeping confidence their 's a preface to Hell mine an introduction to salvation And since thou wilt needs disparage and mis-call this godly disposition of mine Lo I challenge this envie of thine to call it to the Test and to examine it thoroughly whether it agree not with those unfayling rules of the sympcomes and effects of the sorrow which is according to God Hath not here been a true carefulnesse as to be freed and acquitted from the present guilt of my sin so to keep my soul unspotted for the future both to work my peace with my God and to 〈◊〉 it Hath not my heard earnestly laboured to cleare it selfe before God not with shuffling excuses and flattering mitigations but by humble and syncere confessions of my owne vilenesse Hath not my brest swell'd up with an angry indignation at my sinfull mis-carriages have I not seriously rated my selfe for giving way to thy wicked temptations Have I not trembled not only at the apprehension of my owne danger by sin but at the very suggestion of the like offence have I not been kept in awe with the jealous feares of my miserable frailties lest I should be againe ensnared in thy mischievous ginnes Have I not felt in my selfe a servent desire above all things to stand right in the recovered favour of my God and to be strengthned in the inner man with a further increase of grace for the preventing of future sins and giving more glory to my God and Saviour Hath not my heart within me burn'd with so much more zeale to the honour and service of that Majesty which I have offended as I have more dishonoured him by my offence hath it not been inflamed with just displeasure at my selfe and all the instruments means of my mis-leading Lastly have I not falne foule upon my selfe for so easie a seduction have I not chastised my self with sharp reproofs have I not held my appetite short and upon these very grounds punished it
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
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
were extant As it was onely the Spirit of the most high God in Daniel that could fetch back and give an account of a vision fore-passed All the Soothsayers and Magicians confesse this a work of no lesse then divine omniscience And as for things future the predictions of this word of things to be done after many hundreds yea some thousands of years the events having then no pre-existence in their causes being accordingly accomplished show it to proceed from an absolute unfailing and therefore infinite prescience And whereas there are two parts of this word The Law and the Gospel The Law is more exact then humane braines can reach unto meeting with those aberrations which the most wise and curious Law-givers could not give order for extending it selfe to those very thoughts which nature knows not to accuse or restrain The Gospel is made good as by the signes and wonders wrought in all the primitive ages so by the powerfull operation that it hath upon the soul such as the word of the most prudent man on earth or of the greatest Angel in heaven should in vain hope to parallel And whereas the pen-men of both these were Prophets and Apostles The Prophets are sufficiently attested by the Apostles to be men holy inspired by the Holy Ghost the Apostles are abundantly attested by the Holy ghost powred out upon them in their Pentecost besides variety of tongues enabling them to do such miraculous works as astonished convinced their very enemies To these may be added the perfect harmony of the Law the Gospel the Law being a prefigured gospel the gospel a law consummate both of them lively setting forth Christ the redeemer of the world both future exhibited Neither is it lightly to be esteemed that this word hath been by holy men in all ages received as of sacred and divine authority men whose lives and deaths have approved them eminent Saints of God who have not only professed but sealed with their bloud this truth which they had learned from him that was rapt into the third heaven That all Scripture is given by inspiration of God a truth which cannot but be contested by their own hearts which have sensibly found the power of this word convincing them of sin working effectually in them a lively faith and unfaigned conversion which no humane means could ever have effected Lastly it is a strong evidence to my soule that this is no other then the word of a God that I find it so eagerly opposed by thee and all thy malignant instruments in all ages Philosophers both naturall and morall and politique have left large Volumes behind them in their severall professions all which are suffered to live in peace and to enjoy their opinions with freedome and leave but so soon as ever this sacred book of God looks forth into the world hell is in an uproar and raises all the forces of malice and wit and violence against it Wherefore would it be thus if there were not some more divine thing in these holy leaves then in all the monuments of learned humanity But the protection is yet more convictive then the opposition that not withstanding all the machinations of the powers of darknesse this word is preserved intire that the simplicity of it prevails against all worldly policy that the power of it subdues all nations and triumphs over all the wickednesse of men and devils it is proof enough to me that the God of heaven is both the author and owner and giver of it Shortly then Let my soul be built upon this rocky foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Let thy storms rise and thy flouds come and thy winds blow and beat upon it it shall mock at thy fury and shall stand firme against all the rage of hell III. TEMPTATION Art thou so sottish to suffer thy understanding to be captivated to I know not what divine authority proposing unto thee things contrary to sense and reason and therefore absurd and impossible Be thou no other then thy self a man and follow the light and guidance of that which makes thee so right Reason and what soever disagrees from that turn it off as no part of thy beliefe to those superstitious bigots which are willing to lose their reason in their faith and to bury their brains in their heart Repelled WIcked tempter thou wishest me to my losse wo were to me if I were but a man and if I had no better guide to follow then that which thou call'st Reason it is from nature that I am a man it is from grace that I am a man regenerate Nature holds forth to me as a man the dim and weak rush-candle-light of carnall reason The grace of regeneration shows me the bright torch-light yea the sun of divine illumination Thou bid'st me as a man to follow the light of reason God bids me as a regenerate man to follow the light of faith whether should I beleeve whether should I listen to It is true that reason is the great gift of my Creator and that which was intended to distinguish us from brute creatures but where is it in the originall purity to be found under heaven Surely it can now appear to us in no other shape then either as corrupted by thy depravation or by Gods renovating grace restored as it is marred by thee even naturall truths are too high for it as it is renued by God it can apprehend and imbrace supernaturall verities It is regenerate reason that I shall ever follow and that will teach me to subscribe to all those truths which the un-erring Spirit of the holy God hath revealed in his sacred word how ever contrary to the ratiocination of flesh and bloud Onely this is the right reason which is illuminated by Gods spirit and willingly subjected to faith which represents to me those things which thou suggestest to me for unreasonable and impossible as not faisible only but most certain That in one Deity there are three most glorious persons distinguished in their subsistences not divided in their substance That in one person of Christ the Mediator there are two natures divine and humane not converted into each other not confounded each with other That the Creator of all things should become a creature That a creature should be the mother of him that is her God how ever they be points which carnall reason can not put over yet they are such as reason illuminate and regenerate can both easily and most comfortably digest Great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh What mystery were there in godlinesse if the deepest secrets of religion did lie open to the common apprehension of nature My Saviour who is truth it self hath told me that no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him and with the same breath gives thanks to his heavenly Father that he hath hid these
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
spirit answered by the returns of an humble and thankfull obedience here is not love onely but intirenesse What other is that poor measure of love which our wretched meannesse can return unto our God but a weak reflection of that fervent love which he bears unto us It is the word of Divine Wisdome I love them that love me and the disciple of love can tell us the due order of love We love him because he first loved us The love of God therefore which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us is an all-sufficient conviction of Gods tender love unto us My heart tels me then that I love God truly though weakly God tels me that he embraceth me with an everlasting love which thy malice may snarle at but can never abate TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The third Decade Temptations of Allurement 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 innocence Repelled IT is right so as wise Salomon observd of old Because sentence against an evil worke is not executed speedily therfore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evill Wicked spirit What a deadly fallacy is this which thou puttest upon miserable soules Because they have aged in their sins therefore they must die in them because they have lived in sin therefore they must age in it because they have prospered in their sin therefore they must live in it whereas all these should be strong arguments to the contrary There cannot be a greater proofe of Gods disfavour then for a man to prosper in wickednesse neither can there be a more forcible inducement to a man to forsake his sin then this that he hath entertain'd it What dost thou other in this then perswade the poor sinner to despise the riches of the goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering of God which should lead him to repentance and after his hardnesse and impenitent heart to treasure up unto himselfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God What an horrible abuse is this of divine mercy That which is intended to lead us to repentance is now urged by thee to draw us from repentance Should the justice of God have cut off the sinner in the flagrance of his wicked fact there had been no roome for his penitence and now God gives him a faire respite for his repentance thou turnest this into a provocation of sinning Let the case for the present be mine If sin have so far bewitcht me as to win me to dally with it must I therefore be wedded to it or if I be once wedded to it through the importunity of Temptation shall I be tyed to a perpetuall cohabitation with that fiend and not free my self by a just divorce Because I have once yeilded to be evill must I therefore be worse Because I have happily by the mercy of my God escaped hell in sinning shall I wilfully run my self headlong into the pit by continuing in sin No wicked one I know how to make better use of Gods favour and my own miscarriages I cannot reckon it amongst my comforts that I prospered in evill Let obdured hearts blesse themselves in such advantages but I adore that goodnesse that forbore me in my iniquity neither dare provoke it any more Thinke not to draw me on by the lucky successe of my sin which thou hast wanted no indeavour to promote Better had it been for me if I had fared worse in the course of my sinning but had I been yet outwardly more happy do I not know that God vouchsases his showers his sun-shine to the fields of those whose persons he destines to the fire Can I be ignorant of that which holy Iob observed in his time That the Tabernacles of the wicked prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly That they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go downe to the grave and as the Psalmist seconds him There are no bands in their death but their strength is firme They are not in trouble like other men therefore pride compasseth them about as achaine And let these jolly men brave it out in the glorious pompe of their unjust greatnesse The same eyes that noted their exaltation have also observed their downefall They are exalted for a little while saith Job but they are gone and brought low they are taken out of the way as all others and cut off as the tops of the ears of corne And in his answer to Zophar Where are the dwelling places of the wicked Have ye not asked them that go by the way and do ye not know their tokens That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath The eyes of the wicked even those scornfull and contemptuous eyes which they have cast upon Gods poor despised ones shall faile and they shall not escape and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost How false an inference then is this whereby 〈◊〉 goest about to delude â—y soule Thou hast hitherto prospered in thy wickedness therefore thou shalt prosper in it still and ever To morrow shall be as yesterday and more abundant As if the just God had not set a period to iniquity As if he had not said to the most insolent sinner as to the raging Sea Here shalt thou stay thy proud waves How many rich Epicures have with Crassus sup't in Apollo and broken their fast with Beelzebub the prince of Devils How many have lien downe to sleep out their furfeit and have waked in hell Were my times in thy hand thou wouldst not suffer me long to enjoy my sin and forbeare the seizure of my soule but now they are in the hands of a righteous God who is jealous of his owne glory he will be sure not to over-pass those hours which he hath set for thy torment or my account Shortly therefore I will withdraw my foot from every evil way and walk holily with my God however I speed in the world Let me with the conscientious men beg or starve in my innocence rather then thrive in my wickednesse and get hell to boot II. TEMPTATION Sin still thou shall 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 maist not at the last have a mouthfull of breath left thee to cry God mercy And that is no
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
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