satisfaction It is true were we strangers to a Saviour his righteousnesse could have no relation to us but now that wee are incorporated into him by a lively faith his graces his merits are so ours that all thy malice cannot sever them I even I who sinned in the first Adam have satisfied in the second The first Adams sinne was mine The second Adam was made sin for me I made my selfe sinfull in the first Adam and in my selfe My Christ is made to me of God righteousnesse and redemption The curse was my inheritance Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of the Law being made a curse for me that I might be made the righteousnesse of God in him It is thy deep envy thus to grudg unto man the mercy of that redemption which was not extended to thy self but in despight of all thy snarling and repining wee are safe Being justified by faith wee have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ IX TEMPTATION How confidently thou buildest upon a promise and if thou have but a word for it mak'st thy selfe sure of any blessing whereas thou maist know that many of those promises which thou accountest sacred and divine have shrunk in the performance How hath God promised deliverance to those that trust in him yet how many of his faithfullest servants have miscarried what liberall promises hath he made of provision for those that wait upon him yet how many of them have miserably perished in want Repelled BLasphemous spirit that which is thine own guise thou art ever apt to impute unto the holy one of Israel It is indeed thy manner to draw on thy clients with golden promises of life wealth honour and to say as once to my Saviour All these will I give thee when thou neither mean'st nor canst give any thing but misery and torment As for my God whom thou wickedly slanderest his just title is Holy and true his promises are Amen as himself Thy Balaam could let fall so much truth that God is not a man that he should lie nor the sonne of man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good Cast thine eyes back upon his dealings with his Israel a people unthankfull enough and deny if thou canst how punctuall he was in all his proceedings with them Heare old Joshua now towards his parting professe Behold this day I am going the way of all flesh ye know in your hearts in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed therof Heare the same truth attested many ages after by the wifest King Blessed be the Lord saith he that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised There hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant And lest thou shouldst cavil that perhaps God takes greater liberty to himself in matter of his promises under the Gospel then he formerly did under the Law Let me challenge thy malice to instance in any one absolute promise which God hath made since the beginning of the world unto this day which he hath failed to performe It is not I grant uneasie to name divers conditionate ingagements both of favours and judgements wherein God hath been pleased to vary from his former intimations and such alteration doth ful-well consist with the infinite wisdome mercy and justice of the Almighty for where the condition required is not performed by man how just is it with God either to with-hold a favour or to inflict a judgement or where he sees that an outward blessing promised such a disposition of the soul as it may meet withall may turn to our prejudice and to our spirituall losse how is it other then mercy to withdraw it and in stead thereof to gratifie us with a greater blessing undesired In all which even our own reason is able to justifie the Almighty for can we think God should be so obliged to us as to force favours upon us when we will needs render our selves uncapable of them or so tied up to the punctuality of a promise as that he may not exchange it for a better The former was Eli's case who received this message from the man of God sent to him for that purpose The Lord God of Israel saith I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith Be it far from me for them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed God meant the honour of the Priesthood to the family of Eli but what was it in so absolute termes that how ever they dishonored God yet God was bound to honour them All these promises of outward favours do never other then suppose an answerable capacity in the receiver like as the menaces of judgement how ever they sound do still intend the favourable exception of a timely prevention by a serious repentance And though there be no expresse mention of such condition in the promises and threatnings of the Almighty yet it is enough that he hath once for all made knowne his holy intentions to this purpose by his Prophet At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evill in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them The message of Hezekiah's death and Niniveh's destruction was in the letter absolute but in the sense and intention conditionate with such holy and just reservations are all the promises and threats of the Almighty in these temporall regards whiles they alter therefore he changeth not but for his spirituall ingagements that word of his shall stand everlastingly I will not suffer my faithfulnesse to faile My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth Indeed this is the Tentation wherewith thou hast formerly set some prime Saints of God very hard How doth the holy Psalmist hereupon break out into a dangerous passion Will the Lord cast off for ever and will be favorable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he shut up his tender mercies in displeasure Lo the man was even falling yet happily recovers his feet And I said this is
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
it were not a spirit How evidently then doth the present estate of my soul convince thee of the future Al operations proceed from the formes of things and every thing works as it is Canst thou now denye that my soule whiles it is within me can and doth produce such actions as have no derivation from the body no dependence on the body for however in matter of sensation it sees by the eyes and heares by the eares and imagines by those fantasmes that are represented unto it yet when it comes to the higher works of intellectuall elevations how doth it leave the body below it raising to it selfe such notions as wherein the body can challenge no interest how can it now denude and abstract the thing conceived from all consideration of quantity quality place and so work upon its owne object as becomes an active spirit Thou canst not be so impudent as to say the body doth these things by the soule or that the soule doth them by the ayd concurrence of the body and if the soule doth them alone whiles it is thus clogged how much more operative shall it be when it is alone separated from this earthen lump And if the very voice of nature did not so sufficiently confute thee that even thine owne most eminent heathens have herein taken part against thee living and dying strong assertors of the soules Immortality how fully might thine accursed mouth be stopped by the most sure words of divine truth Yea wert thou disposed to play at some smaller game and by thy damnable clients to plead not so much for the utter extinction as for the dormition of the soule those oracles of God have enough to charme thee and them and can with one blow cut the throat of both those blasphemies That penitent theefe whose soule thou madest full account of when he was led to his execution which yet my dying Saviour snatcht out of thy hands could hear comfortably from those blessed lips This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise shal we think this malefactor in any other in any better conditiō then the rest of Gods Saints Doth not the chosen vessel tel us that upon the dissolution of our earthly house of this Tabernacle we have a building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens Presently therfore after our flitting hence we have a being that glorious who can think of a being in heaven without a ful sense of joy Doth not our Saviour tell us that the soul of poor Lazarus was immediately carried by Angels into Abrahams boome The damned glutton knew so wel that he was not layd there to sleep that he sues to have him sēt on the message of his refrigeration Did not the beloved disciple when he was in Pathmos upon the opening of the fifth feale see under the altar the Soules of them that were slaine for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Did he not heare them cry How long Lord holy and true What Shall wee think they cryed in their sleep Did he not see and heare the hundred forty four thousand Saints before the throne harping and singing a new song to the praise of their God Canst thou perswade us they made this heavenly musick in their sleep Doth he not tell us most plainely from the mouth of one of the heavenly Elders that those which stood before the throne the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands were they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the throne shal dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountaines and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes This service both day and night and 〈◊〉 leading forth can suppose nothing lesse then a perpetuall waking Neither is this the happy condition of holy Martyrs and Confessors only but is common to all the Saints of God in what ever profession Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord How should the dead be blessed if they did not live to know themselves blessed What blessednesse can be incident into those that either are not at all or are senselesse They rest but sleepe not they rest from their labours not from the improvement of their glorified faculties Their works followthē yea and overtake them in heaven to what purpose should their works follow the if they lived not to injoy the comfort of their works This is the estate of all good soules in despight of all thine infernall powers and what becomes of the wicked ones thou too well knowest Dissemble thou how thou wilt those torments and hide the sight of that pit of horrour from the eyes ofthy sinfull followers He that hath the keyes of hell and of death hath given us intimation enough Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather feare him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Neither is he more able out of his omnipotence then willing out of his justice to execute this righteous vengeance on the impenitent and unbeleevers Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evill In vaine therefore dost thou seek to delude me with these pretences of indemnity and annihilation since it cannot but stand with the mercy and justice of the Almighty to dispose of every soule according to what they have beene and what they have done To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternall life But unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath shortly after all thy devillish suggestions on the one part The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them On the other In flaming fire shal vengeance be taken on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power V. TEMPTATION Put case that the soule 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 al the degrees of putrefaction and annihilation shall at last returne to it selfe againe and recover the former shape and substance Dost thou not apprehend the impossibility of this so absurd assertion Repelled NO Tempter it is true and holy faith which thou reproachest
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
they find none Thou tell'st me of new lights I ask whence they rise I know who it was that said I am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darknesse but shall have the light of life and I know that light was the true light of whom holy David spake long before Thou art my lampe O Lord and the Lord wil lighten my darkenesse and in thy light shall we see light Those that doe truly hold forth this light shall be my guides and I shall follow them with all confidence and shall find the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day As for any new light that should now break forth and shine upon our waies certainely it is but darknesse such a light as Bildad prophesied of long agoe The light of the wicked shall be put out and the sparke of his fire shall not shine The light shall be darknesse in his Tabernacle and his Candle shall be put out with him So as the seduced followers of these new lights may have just cause to take up that complaint of the Prophet We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightnesse but we walk in darknesse we grope for the wall like the blinde wee stumble at noone day as in the night Shortly then that light which the father of lights hath held forth in his will revealed in his word as it hath been interpreted by his holy Church in all ages shal be my guide till I shall see as I am seen as for any other lights they are but as those wandring fires that appear in damp marishes which lead the travailer into a ditch VIII TEMPTATION Pretend religion and doe any thing what face is so foule as that Maske will not cleanly cover seem holy and be what thou wilt Repelled YEa there thou wouldest have mee this is that deadly dart wherewith thou hast slain millions of soules Hence it is that the Mahumetan Saints may commit publique filthinesse with thanks Hence that corrupt Christians bury such abominable crimes in their cowls Hence that false professors shroude so much villanies under the shelter of piety Hence that the world abounds with so many sheep without wolves within faire tombes full of inward rottennesse filthy dunghills covered over with snow rich herse-clothes hiding ill-sented carkasses broken potsheards covered with silver drosse Hence that the adversaries of Iudah offer to Zerobabel their aid in building the Temple The harlot hath her peace offerings Absolom hath his vow to pay Herod will worship the infant Iudas hath a kisse for his Master Simon Magus will be a Convert Ananias and Sapphira will part with all The Angell of the church of Sardis will pretend to live The beast hath hornes like a Lamb but speakes like a dragon in a word the wickedest of men will counterfeit Saints and false saints are very Devills for so much more eminent as the vertue is which they would seeme to put on so much the more odious is the simulation both to God and man now the most eminent of all vertues is holinesse whereby we both come nearest unto God and most resemble him of all creatures therefore out of hell there is none so loathsome to God as the hypocrites that upon a double provocation both for doing of evil for doing evil under a colour of good the face that the wicked man sets upon his sin is worse then the sin it self Bring no more vain oblations saith the Lord incense is an abomination to mee the new moones and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemne meeting Your new Moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to be are them How faine wouldst thou therefore draw mee into a double condemnation both for being evill and seeming good both w ch are an abomination to the Lord Doe I not hear him say For as much as this people draw neare me with their mouth and with their lips doe honour mee but have removed their hearts from me therefore behold I will proceed to doe a marvellous work amongst this people even a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdome of the wise shall perish Doe I not heare him say by his prophet Jeremiah They will deceive every one his neghbour and will not speake the truth Their tongue is an arrow shot out it speaketh deceit one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he layeth his wait shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord shall not my soule be avenged of such a nation as this Indeed this is the way to beguile the eyes of men like our selves for who would mistrust a mortifyed face an eye and hand lift up to heaven a tongue that speakes holy things but when we have to doe with a searcher of hearts what madnesse is it to think there can be any wisdome or understanding or counsail against the Lord Woe bee to them therefore that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us Woe bee to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsell but not of mee that cover with a covering but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin Shall I then cleanse the out-side of the cup whiles I am within full of extortion excesse shall I fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse shall I under pretence of long prayers devoure widowes houses shal I put on thy forme and transfigure my selfe into an Angell of light shall not the all-seeing eye of the righteous God find me out in my damnable simulation Hath not he said wil make it good Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much sope yet thine iniquity is marked before mee Hath not my Saviour who shall be our Judge said Therefore thou shalt receive the greater damnation Can there be any heavier doom that can fall from that awfull mouth then Receive thy portion with hypocrites Let those therefore that are ambitious of an higher roome in hell maintaine a forme of Godlinesse and deny the power of it face wickednesse with piety stalke under religion for the aimes of policy juggle with God and the world case a devill with a saint and row towards hell whiles they looke heaven-ward For me All the while my breath is in me the spirit which God gives mee is in my nostrills I shall walke in mine uprightnesse All false waies and false semblances shal my soule utterly abhorre that so at the parting my rejoiceing may be the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity
the more need therefore to be opposed and reformed Hence was that vehement charge of God to his Israel After the doings of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk after their ordinances Ye shall keep mine Ordinance that ye commit not any of these abominable customes which were committed before you and that ye defile not your selves therein I am the Lord your God It is too true that the bonds of Custome are so strong and close that they are not easily loosed in so much as Custome puts on the face of another nature Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evill How stifly did the men of Judah after all the dreadfull threatnings of the Prophet hold to their Idolatrous customes which they had learn't in Egypt Wee will burne incense to the Queen of heaven and poure out drink-offerings to her as wee have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem It is with ill customes as with diseases which if they grow inveterate are so much the harder to be cured but shall I therefore hug my malady because I have long had it because it will not part away with ease Shall I bid a theefe welcome because he had wont to rob me Shortly then so far is an ill custome from extenuating my sin as that it aggravates it Neither shall I offend the lesse because I offend with more but rather double it both as in my act and as in my imitation in following others amisse and in helping to make up an ill precedent for others following of me As for the profit that may accrew by sinning let those carnall hearts value it that have made the world their God To me the greatest gain this way is losse Might I have that house-full of gold and silver that Balaam talke of or all those kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them which thou shewedst to my Saviour what are all these to the price of a sin when they meet with a man that hath learnt from the mouth of Christ What profit shall it be to a man if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule Importunity is wont to be a prevalent suitor How many have been dragg'd to hell by the force of others solicitations who never else meant to have trod in those pathes of death What marvell is it if that which moved the unjust judge to do right against the bent of his will be able to draw the weak sinner awry But if in these earthly angariations one mile according to our Saviours counsel may bring on another yet in spirituall evill ways no compulsion can prevaile upon a resolved spirit It is not the change of stations nor the building of twice seven altars nor the sacrificing of seven bullocks and seven rams that can win a true Prophet of God to curse Israel The Christian heart is fixed upon sure grounds of his own never to be removed If therefore his father sue to him if his mother weep and wring and kneele and beseech him by the womb that bore him and the brests that gave him suck if his crying children cling about his knees and crave his yeildance to some advantageous evill or his declining some bitter sufferings for the cause of Christ he can shake them off with an holy neglect and say What do you weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus None of these things move me neither count I my life deare unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy And if any soule be so weak as to be led rather by the earnest motions of others then by his owne setled determinations he shall find no other ease before the Tribunal of heaven then our first Parents did in shifting the guilt of their sin the man to the woman the woman to the serpent In the meane while that word shall ever stand with me inviolable My son if sinners entise thee consent thou not Lastly what can be the necessity which may either induce to sin or excuse for sinning What can the world do to make me say I must doe evill Losse restraint exile paine death are the worst that either malice can do or patience suffer These may put me hard to the question but when all is done they must leave me free either to act or indure I need not therefore sin since there is a remedy against sin suffering It is true that we are in the hands of a most gracious and indulgent God who considers what we are made of pities our infirmities and knows to put a difference betwixt wilfull rebellion and weak revolt his mercy can distinguish of offenders but his justice hath said Without shall be the fearfull Finally then howsoever these circumstantiall temperaments may receive pardon after the fact for the penitent at the mercy-seat of heaven yet none of them can be pleadable at the bar of divine justice And if any sinner shall hearten himselfe to offend out of the hopes and confidence of these favorable mitigations the comfort that I can give him is that he may howle in hell with thee for his presumption FINIS M r Hannibal Gammon of Cornwall Temptations of Impiety Temptations of Discouragement Temptations of Allurement 2 Cor. 13. 4. Philip. 2. 6. Joh. 10. 17 18. Matth. 4. 3 6. Mar. 1. 24. Mar. 5. 7. Mat. 8. 20. a Joh. 3. 13 18. b Joh. 18. c Mat. 28. 29. Act. 2. 35. d 10. 48. e Psal 22. 27. f Psal 72. 11 15. g Rev. 5. 11 12. 4. 9 11. h Philip. 2. 6. i Joh. 10. 30. 1 Joh. 5. 7. k Joh. 16. 15. 17. 19. l â—sa 45. 12. Psal 33. 6. 102. 26. m Psal 45. 6 7. n Esa 9. 6. o Revel 1. 17. p Micah 5. 2. q Joh 17. 5. r Joh. 1. 1. Å¿ Ephes 4. 10. t Joh. 3. 13. u Rev. 1. 8. x Esa 9. 6. y Esa 40. 3. 45. 21 22. z Esa 45. 13. Esa 6. 3. a Rom. 9. 5. b 1 Joh. 5. 20. c Tit. 2. 13. d 1 Cor. 2. 8. Joh. 20. 28. Colos 2. 15. Esa 53. 8 9. Esa 53. 12. Luke 24. 25 26. Luke 23. 35 36. Mat. 27. 51. Mat. 27. 54. Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 6. 14. Dan. 2. 11. Rom. 7. 7. 2 Tim. 3. 15. 2 Pet. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Mat. 7. 24 25. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Mat. 11. 27. Mat. 11. 25. Rom. 16. 25 26. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Esa 55. 8 9. Luk. 23. 42. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Luc. 16. 22. Revel 6. 9. Revel 14. 1 3. Revel 7. 14. 1. 16. 17. Revel 14 13. Revel 1. 18.
disciple My Lord and my God Malignant spirit thou dost but set a face of checking me by my Saviours Crosse thou knowest and feel'st that he was the Chariot of his Triumph whereupon being exalted he dragged all the powers of hell captive after him making a show of them openly to their confusion and his glory Thou knowst that had it not been for that Crosse those infernall regions of thine had been peopled with whole mankind a great part whereof is now delivered out of thy hands by that victorious redemption Never had heaven been so stored never had hell been so foyled if it had not been for that Crosse And canst thou think to daunt me with the mention of that Crosse which by the eternall decree of God was determined to be the means of the deliverance of all the soules of the elect Dost thou not hear the Prophet say of old He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he striken And he made his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death He hath poured out his soule unto death and he was numbred with the transgressors and he â—arâ— the sin of many Didst thou not hear my Saviour himself after his glorious resurrection checking Cleopas and his fellow-traveller for their ignorance of this predetermination O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Yea lastly when had my Saviour more glory then in this very act of his ignominious suffering and crucifixion It is true there hangs the Son of man despicably upon the tree of shame He is mocked spit upon buffered scourged nail'd revil'd dead now have men and Devils done their worst But this while is the son of God acknowledged and magnified in his almighty power both by earth and heaven The Sun for three hours hides his head in darknesse as hating to behold this tort offered to his Creator the earth quakes to bear the weight of this suffering The rocks rend in peeces the dead rise from their graves to see and wonder at and attend their late dying and now risen Saviour The vayle of the Temple tears from the top to the bottome for the blasphemous indignity offered to the God of the Temple And the Centurion upon sight of all this is forced to say Truly this was the son of God And now after all these irrefragable attestations his Easter makes abundant amends for his passion There could not be so much weaknesse in dying as there was power in rising from death His resurrection proves him the Lord of life and death and shews that he died not out of necessity but will since he that could shake off the grave could with more ease have avoided death Oh then the happy and glorious conquest of my blessed Saviour declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead Go now wicked spirit and twit me with the Crosse of my Saviour That which thou objectest to me as my shame is my onely glory God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of my Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world II. TEMPTATION Still thou hast upon all vocasions recourse to the Scriptures as some divine Oracles and think'st thou maist safely build thy soul upon every Text of that written word as inspired from heaven whereas indeed this is nothing but an humane devise to keep men in awe and never came neerer heaven then the brains of those Politicians that invented it Repelled WIcked Spirit when thou presumedst personally to tempt my Saviour and hadst that cursed mouth stopped by him with an It is written thou daredst not then to raise such a blasphemous suggestion against this word of truth Successe in wickednesse hath made thee more impudent and now thou art bold to strike despitefully at the very root of religion But know that after all thy malicious detractions this word shall stand when heaven and earth shall vanish and is that whereby both thou and all thy complices shall be judged at that great day It is not more sure that there is a God then that this God ought to be served and worshipped by the creature Neither is it more sure that God is then that he is most wise most just most holy This most wise just and holy God then requiring and expecting to be served and worshipped by his Creature must of necessity have imparted his will to his creature how and in what manner he would be served and what he would have man to believe concerning himselfe and his proceedings Else man should be left to utter uncertainties and there should be a failing of those ends which the infinite wisdome and justice hath proposed to it selfe There must be therefore some word of God wherein he hath revealed himselfe to man and that this is and must be acknowledged to be that onely word it is clear and evident for that there neither was nor is nor can be any other word that could or durst stand in competition or rivality with this word of the Eternall God and if any other have presumed to offer a contestation it hath soone vanished into contempt and shame Moreover this is the only word which God ownes for his under no lesse stile then Thus saith the Lord which the son of God hath so acknowledged for the genuine word of his eternall Father as that out of it as such he hath pleased to refell both thy suggestions and the malicious arguments of his Iewish opposites It drives wholly at the glory of God not sparing to disparage those very persons whose pens are imployed in it in blazoning their owne infirmities in what they have offended which could not have been if those pens had not been guided by an higher hand It discovers and oppugnes the corruptions of nature which to meer men are either hid or if revealed are cherished and upheld it laies forth the misery and danger of our estate under sin and the remedies and means of our deliverance which no other word hath ever pretended to undertake Besides that there is such a Majesty in the stile wherein it is written as is unimitable by any humane author whatsoever the matter of it is wholly divine ayming altogether at purity of worship and integrity of life not admitting of any the least mixture either of Idolatry superstition or of any plausible enormities of life but unpartially laying forth Gods judgements against these and whatever other wickednesses This word reveals those things which never could be known to the world by any humane skill or industry as the Creation of the world and the order and degrees of it and the course of Gods administration of it from the beginning thousands of years before any records of history
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
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
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
in despaire persecuted but not forsaken cast downe but not destroyed Of the Jewes five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In journying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by my owne countrymen in perils by the heathen c. In wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakednesse Yea which was worse then all these dost thou not heare him say There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me Dost thou not too well know for thou wert the maine actor in those wofull Tragedies what cruell torments the blessed Martyrs of God in all ages have undergone for their holy profession None upon earth ever found Gods hand so heavy upon them none upon earth were so dear to heaven The sharpnesse therefore of my pangs can be no proofe of the displeasure of my God Yea contrarily this visitation of mine what ever thou suggestest is in much love and mercy Had my God let me loose to my owne waies and suffered me to run on carelesly in a course of sinning without check or controll this had been a manifest argument of an high and hainous displeasure God is grievously angry when he punishes sinners with prosperity for this shows them reserved to a fearfull damnation but whom he reclaims from evil by a severe correction those he loves there cannot be a greater favour then those saving stripes When wee are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Besides the manner of the infliction speaks nothing but mercy for what a gentle hand doth my God lay upon me as if he said I must correct thee but I will not hurt thee what gracious respites are here what favourable inter-spirations as if God bade me to recollect my selfe and invited me to meet him by a seasonable humiliation This is not the fashion of anger and enmity which ayming only at destruction indevours to surprise the adversary and to hurry him to a sudden execution Neither is it a meer affliction that can evince either love or hatred all is in the attendants and entertainment of afflictions Where God means favour he gives together with the crosse an humble heart a meek spirit a patient submission to his good pleasure a willingnesse to kisse the rod and the hand that wields it a faithfull dependence upon that arme from which he smarts and lastly an happy use and improvement of the suffering to the bettering of the soule who so finds these dispositions in himselfe may well take up that resolution of the sweet singer of Israel It is good for me that I have been afflicted I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in very faithfulnesse hast afflicted me Contrarily where God smites in anger those stroakes are followed and accompanied with wofull symptomes of a spirituall maladie either a stupid senslesnesse and obdurednesse of heart or an impatient murmuring at the stripes saucy and presumptuous expostulations fretting and repining at the smart a perverse alienation of affection and a rebellious swelling against God an utter dejection of spirit and lastly an heartlesse despaire of mercy Those with home thou hast prevailed so far as to draw them into this deadly condition of soule have just cause to thinke themselves smitten in displeasure but as for me blessed be the name of my God my stripes are medicinall and healing Let the righteous God thus smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle that shall not break my head VI. TEMPTATION Away with these superstitious feares and needlesse scruples wherewith thou fondly troublest thy selfe as if God that sits above in the circle of heaven regarded these poore businesses that passe here below upon earth or cared what this man doth or that man suffereth Dost thou not see that none prosper so much in the world as those that are most noted for wickednesse and dost thou see any so miserable upon earth as the holiest Could it be thus if there were providence that over looks and over-rules these earthly affairs Repelled THe Lord rebuke thee Satan Even that great Lord of heaven and earth whom thou so wickedly blasphemest wouldst thou perswade me that he who is infinite in power is not also infinite in providence He whose infinite power made all creatures both in heaven above and in earth beneath shall not his infinite providence govern and dispose of all that he hath made Lo how justly the spirit of wisdome calls thee and thy clients fools brutish things They say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall not he see he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know It was no limited power that could make this eye to see this eare to heare this heart to understand and if that eye which he hath given us can see all things that are within our prospect and that eare that he hath planted can heare all sounds that are within our compasse and that heart that he hath given us can know all matters within the reach of our comprehension how much more shall the sight and hearing and knowledge of that infinite Spirit which can admit of no bounds extend to all the actions and events of all the creatures that lie open before him that maâ—e them It is in him that we live and move and have our being and can we be so sottish as to think we can steale a life from him which he knows not of or a motion that he discerneth not That word of his by whom all creatures were made hath told me that not one sparrow two whereof are sold for a farthing can fall to the ground without my heavenly Father yea that the very hairs of our heads though a poor neglected excrement are all numbred and can there be any thing more sleight then they How great care must we needs think is taken of the head since not an haire can fall unregarded The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth down and lifteth up He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them Even Rabshakeh himselfe spake truer then he was aware of Am I now comne up without the Lord against this place No certainly thou insolent blasphemer thou couldst not move thy tongue nor wag thy finger against Gods inheritance
Wo were us if we were not thus hated Let the world hate and hurt us thus still so we may be the favorites of heaven None fare so ill on earth as the godly both living and dead The dead bodies of Gods servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven the flesh of his Saints unto the beasts of the field their bloud have they shed like water and there was none to bury thē They are become a reproach to their neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about them Oh the poor impotent malice of wicked spirits and men What matters it if our carcasses rot upon earth whiles our souls shine in heavenly glory What matters it if for a while we be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men whiles the Son of God hath assured us of an eternall royalty To him that over-commeth will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his throne None are so ill intreated as the godly It is true for none are so happy as they Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Who would not endure wrongs a while to be everlastingly recompenced Here is not place onely for patience but for joy and that exceeding in respect of a reward so infinitely glorious It is no marvell then if we be bidden to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us these are the men that are our great Benefactors though full sore against their wills contribute to our eternall blessednesse The wicked triumph whiles the righteous are trampled upon What marvell we are in a middle region betwixt heaven and hell but nearer to this latter which is the place of confusion It is but staying a while and each place will be distinctly peopled with his owne there is a large and glorious heaven appointed for the everlasting receptacle of the just an hell for the godlesse till then the eternall wisdome hath determined for his most holy ends to give way to this confused mixture and to this seeming-inequality of events How easie were it for him to make all heaven but he hath a justice to glorifie as well as a mercy and in the mean time it is the just praise of his infinite power wisdome goodnesse that he can fetch the greatest good out of the worst of evils All things go crosse here the righteous droop the wicked flourish The end shall make amends for all The world is a stage every man acts his part the wise compiler of this great interlude hath so contrived it That the middle Scenes show nothing but intricacy and perplexednesse the unskilfull spectator is ready to censure the plot and thinks he sees such unpleasing difficulties in the carriage of affaires as can never be reconciled but by that time he have sate it out he shall see all brought about to a meet accordance and all shut up in a happy applause Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The world is an Apothecaries shop wherein there are all manner of drugs some poysonous others cordiall An ignorant that comes in and knows only the quality not the use of those receits will straight be ready to say What do these unwholsome simples these dangerous mineralls these deadly juices here But the learned and skilfull artist knows how so to temper all these noxious ingredients that they shall turn Antidotes and serve for the health of his patient Thus doth the most high and holy God order these earthly though noxious compositions to the glory of his great name and to the advantage of his chosen So as that suggestion wherewith thou meant'st to batter the divine providence of the Almighty doth invincibly fortifie it his most wise permission and powerfull over-ruling of evill actions and men through the whole world to his owne honour the benefit of his Church VII TEMPTATION If God be never so liberall in in his promises and sure in performances of mercy to his own yet what is that to thee thou art none of his neither canst lay any just claime to his election Repelled HOw boldly can I defie thee O thou lying spirit whiles I have the assurance of him who is the word of Truth How confidently dare I challenge thee upon that unfailing testimony which shall stand till heaven and earth shall passe Ye that have believed in Christ are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Lo here a double assurance which all the powers of hell shall in vaine labour to defeat The Almighties Scale and his Earnest both made and given to the believer and therefore to me In spight of all temptations I believe and know whom I have believed I can accuse my faith of weaknesse thou canst not convince it of untruth and all the precious promises of the Gospel and all the gracious ingagements of God are made not to the measure but to the truth of our beliefe and why should not I as truly know that I relie upon the word of my Saviour as I know that I distrust and reject thine Since then I am a subject truly capable of this mercy what can hinder me from enjoying it Cheare thy selfe up therefore O my soule with this undefeisible confidence that thou hast Gods seale and his earnest for thy salvation Even an honest man will not be lesse then his word but if his hand have seconded his tongue he holds the obligation yet stronger but if his seale shall be further added to his hand there is nothing that can give more validity to the graunt or contract yet even of the value of Seales there is much difference The Seale of a private man carries so much authority as his person the seale of a Community hath so much more security in it as there are more persons interessed But the signet of a King hath wont to be held to all purposes authenticall as we find to omit Ahab in the signatures of Ahasuerus and Darius Who desires any better assurance for the estate of him and his posterity then the Great Seale And behold here is no lesse then the great seale of heaven for my election and salvation Ye are sealed with the spirit of promise But lest thou shouldest plead this to be but a graunt of the future and therefore perhaps upon some intervenient mis-deamures or unkindnesse taken reversible know that here is yet further
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
safe for this though more uncomfortable wait thou upon Gods leisure with all humble submission the event shall be happy when the distemper is once over thou shalt returne to thy true relish of Gods mercy when thine heavenly father shall smile upon thee and take thee up in his armes thou wilt see love in his late stripes when those dead ashes shall be removed and the gleeds of grace stirred up againe in thee thou shalt yeild both light and warmth when the Sun of righteousnesse shall approch to thee and with his comfortable beams draw up the sap into the branches thou shalt blossome and flourish In the meane time feare nothing only believe and thou shalt see the salvation of the Lord Thy soule is in surer hands then thine owne yea then of the greatest Angel in heaven far out of the reach of all the powers of hell For our life is hid with Christ in God Hid not lost not laid open to all eyes but hid hid where Satan cannot touch it cannot find it even with Christ in the heaven of heavens Feare not therefore O thou feeble soule any utter dereliction of thy God Thou art bought with a price God paid too deare for thee and is too deeply ingaged to thee to lose thee willingly and for any force to be offered to the Almighty what can men or Devils do And if that malignant spirit shall challenge any forfeiture plead thou thy full redemption It is true the eternall and inviolable law hath said Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them and the soule that sinneth shall die Death and curse is therefore due to thee But thou hast paid both of these in thy blessed redeemer Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Where sin abounded grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace raigne through righteousnesse unto eternall life by Iesus Christ our Lord It is all one to pay thy debt in thine owne person and by thy surety Thy gracious suerty hath staked it down for thee to the utmost farthing Be confident therefore of thy safe condition thou art no lesse sure then thine adversary is malicious X. TEMPTATION Had God ever given thee any sure testimonies of his love thou might'st perhaps pretend to some reason of comfort and confidence But the truth is God never loved thee he may have cast upon thee some common favours such as he throwes away upon reprobates but for the tokens of any speciall love that he bears to thee thou never didst never shalt receive any from him Repelled THis is language well-befitting the professed make-bate betwixt God and man but know O thou false tempter that I have received sure and infallible testimonies of that speciall love which is proper to his elect First then as I have to do with a bountiful God who where he loves there he inriches so I have received most precious gifts from his hands such as do not import a common and ordinary beneficence w ch he scatters promiscuously amongst the sons of men but such as carry in them a dearnesse and singularity of divine favour even the greatest gifts that either he can give or man receive For first he hath given me his spirit the spirit of Adoption whereby I can call him Father for the assurance whereof The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Deny if thou canst the invaluablenesse of this heavenly gift and if thy malice cannot detract from the worth but from the propriety yeelding it to be great but denying it to be mine know O thou envious spirit that here is the witnesse of two spirits combined against thine Were the testimonies single surely I had reason to believe my owne spirit rather then thine which is a spirit of errour but now that the spirit of God conjoines his inerrable testimony together with my spirit against thy single suggestion how just cause have I to be confident of my possession of that glorious and blessed gift Neither is that good spirit dead or dumb but vocall and operative it gives mee a tongue to call God Father it teacheth me to pray it helpeth mine infirmities and maketh intercession for me with groanings which cannot be uttered It worketh effectually in me a sensible conversion Even when I was dead in sins and trespasses God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved me hath by this spirit of his quickned me together with Christ and hath raised me up together with him By the blessed effects therefore of this regenerating Spirit happily begun in my soule I find how rich a treasure the Father of mercies hath conveighed into my bosome Besides my life shows what is in my heart it was a gracious word that God spake to his people of old and holds for ever I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes I will also save you from all your uncleannesses The spirit of God can never be severed from obedience If the heart be taken up with the holy Spirit the feet must walke in Gods statutes both heart and life must be freed from all wilfull uncleannesses I feel that God hath wrought all this in me from him it is that I do sincerely desire indevour to make straight steps in all the ways of God and to avoid and abhor all those foule corruptions of my sinfull nature Flesh and bloud hath not would not could not work this in me The Spirit therefore of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwels in me And if this be not a pledge of his dearest love heaven cannot yeeld one Moreover he hath bestowed upon mee another gift more worth then all the world his own son the son of his love the son of his nature by eternall generation Whom he hath not only given for me in a generality with the rest of mankind but hath by a speciall donation conveighed unto me and as it were put into my bosome in that he hath enabled me by a lively faith to bring him home unto my soule and hath thus by a particular application made him mine so as my soule is not more mine then he is my soules And having given me his son he hath with him given me all things If there can be greater tokens of love then these let me want them Besides his gifts his carriage doth abundantly argue his love were there a strangenesse betweene God and my soule I might well feare there were no other then overly respects from him towards me but now when I find he doth so freely and familiarly converse with his servant and so graciously imparts himself to me renuing the daily testimonies of his holy presence in the frequent motions of his good
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
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
judgest doubtfully of thine owne waies It is not for thee to beginne first at heaven and then to descend to earth this course is presumptuous and damnable What are those secret and closed bookes of Gods eternall decree and preordination unto thee They are onely for the eyes of him that wrote them The Lord knoweth them that are his Look if thou wilt upon the outer seale of those Divine secrets and read Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Thy way lies from earth to heaven The revealed wil of God by which onely wee are to be regulated is Repent beleeve obey and thou shalt be saved live and dye in thy sinnes impenitent unbeleeving thou shalt be damned According to this rule frame thou thy courses and resolutions and if thou canst be so great an enemy to thine own soule as determinately to contemne the meanes of salvation and to tread wilfully in the paths of death who can say other but thou art faire for hell But if thou shalt carefully use and improve those good meanes which God hath ordained for thy conversion and shalt thereupon find that true grace is wrought in thy soule that thou abhorrest al evill waies that thou dost truly beleeve in the Lord Iesus and heartily purposest and indevourest to live holily and conscionably in this present world thou maiest now as assuredly know thy name written in heaven as if thou hadst read it in those eternal characters of Gods secret counsell Plainely it is not for thee to say I am predestinate to life therefore thus I shall doe and thus I shall speed but contrarily thus hath God wrought in me therefore I am predestinate Let me doe well it cannot but be well with mee Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good Let me doe my utmost diligence to make my calling and election sure I am safe and shall be happy But if thou hast been mis-carried to lewd courses and hast lived as without God in the world whiles thou dost so thy case is fearefull but who allowed thee to â—it judg upon thine own soule and to passe a peremptory doome of necessary damnation upon thy selfe Are not the meanes of grace Gods blessed ordinances stil held forth unto thee Doth not God still gratiously invite thee to repentance Doth not thy Saviour stand ready with his armes spread abroad to receive thee into his bosome And canst thou be so desperately and presumptuously mercilesse to thy selfe as to say I shall be damned therefore I will sinne Thou canst not be so wicked but there may be a possibility of thy reclamation whiles God gives thee respite there may be hope Be not thou so injurious to thy selfe as to usurpe the office both of God and the Devill of God in passing a finall judgment upon thy selfe of the Devill in drawing thy selfe into damnation Returne therefore O sinner and live break off thy sinnes by repentance and be saved But if otherwise know that Gods decree doth neither necessitate thy sin nor thy damnation Thou maist thank thy selfe for both Thy perdition is of thy selfe O Israel V. TEMPTATION Why wilt thou be singular amongst and above thy neighbours to draw needlesse censures upon thy self Be wise and do as the most Be not so over-squemish as not to dispense with thy conscience in some small matters Lend a lye to a friend swallow an oath for feare be drunke sometimes for good fellowship falsify thy word for an advantage serve the time frame thy selfe to all companies thus thou shalt be both warme and safe and kindly respected Repelled PLausible tempter what care wouldest thou seeme to take of my ease and reputation that in the mean time thou mightst run away with my soule Thou perswadest mee not to be singular amongst my neighbours it shall not be my fault if I bee so If my neighbours bee good and vertuous I am with and for them let mee be hissed at to goe alone but if otherwise let me rather go upright alone then halt with company Thou tellst mee of censures they are spent in vaine that would disharten mee from good or draw me into evill I am too deep rooted in my resolutions of good then to be turnd up by every slight wind I know who it is that hath said Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my names sake Let men take leave to talk their pleasure in what I know I do wel I am censure-proofe Thou bidst me bee wise and doe as the most These two cannot agree together Not to follow the most but the best is true wisdome My Saviour hath told me that the many goe in the broadway which leadeth to destruction and it is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill whiles I follow the guidance of my God I walk confidently as knowing I cannot goe amisse as for others let them look to their own feet they shall be no guides of mine Thou bidst me dispense with my conscience in small matters I have learnt to call nothing small that may offend the Majesty of the God of heaven Dispensations must onely proceed from a greater power Onely God is greater then my conscience where he dispenseth not it were a vaine presumption for me to dispense with my selfe And what are those small matters wherein thou solicitest my dispensation To lend a ly to a friend why dost thou not perswade mee to lend him my soule Yea to give it unto thee for him It is a sure word of the wise man The mouth that lyeth slayeth the soule How vehement a charge hath the God of truth layd upon me to avoid this sinne which thou the father of lies wouldst draw me unto What marvell is it if each speak for his own He who is truth it selfe and loveth truth in the inward parts justly calles for it in the tongue Laying aside lying saith the Spirit of God speak every man truth with his neighbour Thou who art a lying Spirit wouldst be willing to advance thine own brood under the faire pretence offriendship But what shall I to gratifie a friend make God mine enemy shall I to rescue a friend from danger bring destruction upon my selfe Thou shalt destroy them that speake leasings saith the Psalmist Without shall be every one that loveth or maketh lies If therefore my true attestation may availe my friend my tongue is his but if he must be supported by falshood my tongue is neither his nor mine but is his that made it To swallow an oath for fear No tempter I can let down none such morsels an oath is too sacred too awfull a thing for me to put over out of any outward respects against my conscience If I sweare the Oath is not mine it is Gods and the revenge will be his whose the offence is It
in this life who have made their belly their God and the world their heaven to place their felicity in these carnall delights Gods secret ones injoy their higher contentments Thy loving kindnesse is better then life saith the Prophet Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more then they had in the time that their corne and their wine increased Miserable worldlings who walke in the vanitie of their mindes being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousnesse to work all uncleanenesse with greedinesse What wonder is it if as their life is meerely brutish so the happinesse that they affect is no other then bestiall and if they snatch at those vanishing shadowes of pleasure which a poore momentany life can afford them according to the improvement of our best faculties so is our felicity The best facultie of brute creatures is their sense they therefore seeke their happinesse in the delectation of their senses Mans best facultie is reason he places his happinesse therefore in the delights of the mind in the perfection of knowledg and height of speculation The Christians best sacultie is faith his felieity therefore consists in those things which are not perceptible by sense not fadomeable by reason but apprehensible by his faith which is the evidence of things not seen either by the eye of sense or reason and as his felicity so is his life spirituall To mee to live is Christ saith he that was rapt into the third heaven I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee Our life is hid with Christ in God and When Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Lo then when the worldling dies his life dies with him and to him the world is gone with both but when I die to nature I have a life that lives still a life that cannot die a life that both is and makes mee glorious It is not for mee therefore to hunt after these unsatisfying and momentany pleasures which perish in their use and shut up in repentance but to lay up those sure comforts which shall never have an end but after this transitory life shall accompany mee to eternity Tell not mee therefore of taking my full scope to the pleasures of sinne I know there is an hell and I looke for an heaven upon this short moment of my life depends everlastingnesse Let me therfore be carefull to bestow this short life as that I may be sure to avoid eternity of torments and to lay up for eternity of blessednesse 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 is no body that hath not new lights either to hold out or follow Repelled VVIcked tempter I know thou wouldst have me go any waies save good were those new waies right thou wouldst never perswade me to walk in them now I have just reason to mis-doubt and shun those paths which thou invitest me unto both as private and as new It is enough that they are my owne for canst thou think to bring me to believe my selfe wiser then the whole Church of God Who am I that I should over-know not the present world of men only but the eminent Saints and learned Doctors of all former ages Why should I not rather suspect my owne judgement then oppose theirs When the Church in that heavenly marriage-song inquires of the great shepheard of our souls Tell me O thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noone for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions she receives answer If thou know not O thou fairest among women go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepheards tents Lo the tracks of the flock and the tents of the shepheards are my direction to find my Saviour if I turn aside I misse him and lose my selfe It is more then enough that those waies are new for truth is eternall and that is therefore most true that comes nearest to eternity as contrarily novelty is a brand of falshood and errour Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your soules Far be it from me then that I should be guilty of that contempt whereof the Prophet with the same breath accuseth his Jewes But they said We will not walk therein It is a fearfull word that I heare from the mouth of the same Prophet Because my people have forgotten me and have caused them to stumble in their waies from the antient paths in a way not cast up I will scatter them as with an East wind before the enemy I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity Wo is me for these heavy times wherein it is not the least part of our sin nor the least cause of our miseries that we have stumbled from the ancient pathes into the untrodden waies of schisme and errour and find not the face but the back of our God turned to us in this day of our calamity O God thou art just we cannot complain that have made our selves miserable It is true where our forefathers have manifestly started aside like a broken bow and having corrupted their wayes have burnt incense to vanity we must be so far from making their precedent a warrant for our imitation as that we hear God say to us Be ye not like unto your fathers Walk not in the statutes of your forefathers neither observe their judgements For those that turne aside to crooked waies the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity But where wee see them walke with a right foot in the holy waies of God and continue stedfastly in the faith which was once delivered to the Saints we have reason to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises that walking in their waies we may attaine to their end the salvation of our soules Let me see those steps wherein the holy Prophets have trod those wherein the blessed Apostles have traced the Prophets those wherein the Primitive Fathers and Martyrs have followed the Apostles those wherein the godly and learned Doctors of the succeeding ages have followed those primitive Fathers and if I follow not them let me wander and perish It is for true men to walke in the Kings high-way theeves suspected persons crosse over through by-paths and make way where