crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that loue him It is commanded by God practised by Christ yeelded to by the Saints assigned by Gods prouidence and good for vs ech way We are Gods trees we shall groe better by pruning Gods pomander smell better by rubbing Gods spice he more profitable by bruising and Gods conduits we are the better by running Let vs suffer afflictions they are momentany in respect of time fauors if we respect Gods loue and a meanes to bring vs to the kingdome of God If they did consume vs we might wish them an end but they doe purge vs let vs be content They are Gods fan we are Gods wheat they are Gods boulter we are Gods meale they are Gods flame we are Gods bush they are Gods cords we are Gods sacrifice they are Gods fornace we are Gods gold The wheat will not be good without the fan nor the meale without the boulter nor the bush without the flame nor the sacrifice without the cords nor the gold without the fornace they are trials not punishments if we be sonnes punishments not trials if we be slaues Let vs then beare them they will haue an end ioy will follow they shew vs our weekenesse they moue vs to pray they shew we are in the path way to heauen and make vs contemne this present world By them we learne to repent vs of sinne past to take heed of sinne present and to foresee sinne to come By them we receiue Gods spirit are like to Christ are acquainted with Godspower haue ioy in deliuerance know benefit of prosterity made more hardy to suffer and haue cause to practise many excellent vertues They cause vs as one saith to seeke out Gods promise the promise to seeke faith faith to seeke praier and praier to finde God Seeke and yee shall finde call and he will answer waite and he will come I am to write an Epistle I must not be long Iobs messengers came not so fast on him but Iobs afflictions may come as fast vpon vs. Hath Dauid slain a Beare he shall encounter with a Lion hath he killed a Lion he must fight with Goliah hath he subdued Goliah he must make a rode vpon the Philistims are the Philistims conquered Saul wil assault him Remember Dauids troubles and feresee what may be our troubles The more righteous we are the more manifold are our troubles and he better we are the better we may indure them But as our troubles are many so are our deliuerances many God will deliuer vs out of all He that deliuered Noah from the floud Lot from Sodome Iacob from Esau Ioseph from Potiphar Moses from Pharaoh Israel from Egypt Dauid from Saul Eliah from Achab Elisha from the Syrians Naaman from his leprosie Hezechiah from the plague the three children from the fire Daniel from the Lions Ioseph from Herod the Apostles from the Iewes and Christ from the Diuell he euen he will either deliuer vs from trouble or comfort vs in trouble or mitigate troubles when they come vpon vs. He he hath promised to doe it and he that hath promised is able to do it And this he doth sometimes by no meanes sometimes by small meanes sometimes by ordinary meanes sometimes by extraordinarie sometimes contrarie to all meanes By no meanes be cured a creeple at Bethesda by small meanes he fed fiue thousand in the desert by ordinary meanes he was brought from the pinnacle by meanes extraordinary he was prouided for in hunger and contrarie to all meanes were the three children preserued in the fornace of fire I haue good cause to thinke of Gods gracious deliuerance being my selfe deliuered from a great trouble Since the time I was vnkindly dismissed from my poore charge where I would haue continued if malice had not hindred me I haue liued in an end of this City dangerously in respect of the sicknesse poorely in regard of maintenance and painfully in respect of my ministerie yet till this time hath the Lord deliuered me and as Paul said he will deliuer me if that he see it be best for me Let man therefore comfort himselfe in the Lord after two daies he will reuiue vs and the third day he will raise vs vp againe Heauiensse may endure for a night but ioy will come in the morning Doubtlesse there is a reward for the righteous verily God retaineth not his wrath for euer Could he ouercome the world and can he not ouercome many troubles in the world Yea let one plague follow another as one quaile sings to another yet as the viper leaped on Paules hand and forthwith leaped off againe so one trouble shall leape vpon the righteous and anon leap off againe though he fall he shall rise againe the righteous shall not be forsaken for euer if he hath deliuered vs from the guilt of our sinnes he will deliuer vs from the punishment of our sinnes Let vs then therefore be patient in trouble constant in hope rooted in loue let vs waite and he will come call and he will heare beleeue and he will performe repent vs of our euill committed against him and he will repent of his euils intended against vs. He is ouer vs by his prouidence about vs by his Angels in vs by his spirit with vs by his word vnder vs by his power and vpon vs by his Sonne In him is our helpe from him is our comfort by him is our victory and for him is our trouble In thee haue I trusted saith a king who euer was confounded that trusted in the Lord said a friend and as Elkanah was to Hannah in stead of many sons so God is to his in stead of many comforters Of other comforters we may say as Iob did of his frinds Silly comforters are you all They will leaue vs as mice doe a ruinous house but the Lord like Ruthe to Naomi will neuer leaue vs nor forsake vs Especially in the houre of death which is in remembrance bitter to great men in that houre of death he will be with vs and command his Angels to take charge of our soules the earth to be as a bed for our bodies that so the one may goe into glory the other reserued in hope of like glorie and be made one day like vnto the glorious body of Christ Iesus Thus right Honorable you haue seene the righteous in affliction as Israel was in Babylon and that the Lord like Zorobabel is ready to deliuer them Though in troubles Christs seemes as in the ship to sleepe yet in deliuerance he awakes as a man out of sleepe and as a Giant refreshed with wine He will rebuke
of his members who are but weake sinfull men Again in baptisme a man giues vp his name vnto God promising therein for euer to renounce all seruice to the Diuell the flesh and the world and contrariwise to beleeue in God and to serue him and this vow being thus made it is the will of God he should be tempted that in the schoole of temptation he might learn to practise his baptisme But here most men wil say they neuer felt by experience in themselues the trueth of this doctrine for they haue not perceiued any such combate in themselues though they haue bene baptized many yeres agone Answ. Such men whatsoeuer they be haue indeed the outward baptisme of water but they neuer yet receiued the inward baptisme of the spirit they weare Christs liuery but as yet they do seruice vnto Satan And though they haue been made partakers of the seales of the couenant yet still they abide within the kingdome of darkenesse for Christ heere teacheth by his owne example that all those who haue receiued the inward baptism of the spirit whereby they haue effectually put off sinne and put on the Lord Iesus are as sure to be tempted by Satan as himselfe was therefore let such persons as neuer yet felt in themselues this spiritual conflict now begin to reform their liues and to performe their vow of baptisme and they shal vndoubtedly find in themselues the truth of this doctrine That all that are baptized into Christ shal be tempted of the Diuell So long as the children of Israel continued vnder Pharaos bondage they were not pursued by his army but when they set their faces toward the land of Canaan then presently he makes after them with all his might and malice euen so while men liue in sinne and submit themselues to Satans spirituall bondage he will suffer all things to be in peace with them but if once they set their hearts on the heauenly Canaan and giue themselues syncerely to Gods seruice then will he with all his force pursue them meet them with armies of temptations to turne them backe into their olde way of sinne againe The silly bird that is in the snare or vnder the net so long as she lieth still feeles no harme but when she stirs offers to get away then begins her paine and the more she striues the more she finds her selfe ensnared So fareth it with silly men while they liue in sinne securely they are not troubled with Satans temptations but when they beginne to leaue their badde courses and settle themselues to serue the Lord then presently the Diuel seeks to spread his net to intangle them in his snare The consideration whereof must teach vs to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation and as Paul saith to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the assaults of the Diuell Ephes. 6. 11. Secondly in that our Sauiour Christ after his solemne inauguration into his mediatorship was immediatly to go to be tempted we learn that all those that are set apart by God to any speciall calling euen at their verie entrance thereinto must looke for temptations This befell the head and therefore all the members must reckon for it When Moses was first called to be the guide and conducter of Gods people out of Egypt hauing slaine an Egyptian in defence of one of his brethren vpon knowledge of the fact he was fain to flie from Pharaos court into the land of Madian and there to liue a shephers life for many yeres with his father in law Iethro And Dauid was no sooner appointed by God to be king ouer his people Israel but Saul began to persecute him and so continued all his dayes And our Sauiour Christ hauing called his Apostles to their office of preaching his kingdome tooke them soone after to the sea and there falling asleepe suffered their ship to be so tossed with waues in a great tempest that they looked for nothing but present drowning so as they cried out Master saue vs we perish And this the Lord doth in great wisedome for the good of his children first to teach them that no man is able of himselfe to carry himselfe in any acceptable course of his calling without Gods speciall assistance and grace Secondly to stir vp in them those good gifts and graces which he hath formerly bestowed on them as the feare of his name the loue of his maiesty the gifts of prayer faith patience and many other which he would haue tried in the entrance of their callings and exercised in the continuance therein vnto the end Thirdly seeing Christ begins his propheticall office of treaching his church with temptations This should admonish all Ministers of the word that howsoeuer all Gods people must prepare themselues against Satans temptations yet they must doe it aboue the rest for looke as in a pitched field the enemy aimeth principally at the standerd-bearer euen so Satan and his instruments do among all Gods people bend their greatest forces against the ministers of Christ which holde vp his scepter and display his banner in the preaching of the Gospel When Iehoshuah the high priest stood before the Lord Satan stood at his right hand to resist him Zak. 3. 1. And when Ahab went to fight against the king of Syriah Satan became a lying spirit in the mouth of 400. prophets mo 1. King 22. 22. This is that great red dragon that with his taile drew downe the third part of the starres of heauen that is of the ministers and preachers of the word and cast them to the earth Reuel 12. 13. 4. This is he that desired to winnow the Disciples as wheat Luk. 22. 31. And as the king of Aram said of Ahab fight not against small nor great but against the king of Israel only 1. King 22. 31. So Satan fighteth not against any so much as the Prophets of Israel the ministers of the Church Fourthly in that Christ is tempted before he go to preach we learne that it is good and profitable for Gods ministers to be exercised with temptations euen of satan himselfe that for sundry causes first that they may know what temptations meane Secondly that they may be the more able to minister helpe and comfort to those that are tempted Thirdly to make them vnderstand the word of God aright for many places of Scripture can not so well be vnderstood by bare study onely as by temptations therewithall and it is true which one sayth well Reading meditation prayer and temptation make a diuine II. Circumstance The author or efficient cause of Christes going foorth to wit the Holy ghost noted in these words was led by the spirit The word led in the originall signifieth thus much that Iesus was carried apart by the spirit which must not bee vnderstood of any locall transportation of his bodie from the riuer
like Yea by this temptation to presumption Satan oft preuailes with the better sort for if a man fauour the trueth and giue himselfe to know religion in any sort the Diuell will straight way go about to perswade him that that which he doth is sufficient to his saluation thus wil keepe him from vsing further means to come by the certaine knowledge of his election and full affiance in Christ Iesus to become a perfect man in Christ which is the end of Gods holy ministery Ephes. 4. 13. whereunto we should giue all diligence 2. Pet. 1. 10. See the truth heereof in the fine foolish virgins who carried burning lamps but tooke no oile with them neuer minding that till it was too late and so doe most men content themselues with the blazing lampe of an outward profession neuer looking for the oile of grace till the time of grace he past The vse Heereby then wee are all taught in speciall maner to beware of presumption this is the common snare of the Diuel wherein he intangles many a soule It is true indeed that he oft preuailes by bringing men to desperation but a thousand perish through presumption almost for one by desperation for despaire is a painfull thing to flesh and bloud and as the Diuell knowes well doth sometimes turne to a mans more sound conuersion but to presume is sweet and pleasant to the flesh and most agreeable to mans corrupt nature in regard whereof wee ought to keepe out heart with all watch ward as Dauid praieth Keepe thy seruant from presumptuous sinnes Ps. 19. 13. Againe obserue the order of Satans temptations by comparing this with the former There he sought to ouerthrow Christs faith to bring him to distrust the trueth of Gods word vttered from heauen but finding hee could not that way preuaile heere he takes the cleane contrary course and seekes to bring him to presume This serues to discouer vnto vs the deepe guile and subtilty of the Diuell that can so cunningly turn himselfe from one extreame vnto another And looke as he dealeth here with Christ the head so doth hee continue towards all his members if he cannot bring them to one extreame he will assay them hard in the other If hee cannot bring a man to couetousnesse and keepe his heart to the loue of money then let him beware of riot and prodigality Is a man giuen to pleasures and delight and an length is depriued of them then let him beware the Diuell swallow him not vp with ouermuch griefe as he sought to do with the incestuous person of Corinth Doth a man come to loue religion that formerly was giuen to loosenesse of life then if it be possible the Diuell will carrie him to schisme heresie The Diuel cannot abide that a man should keepe the meane according to Gods word Isay 30. 21. He would haue our first parents to be Gods or no body Gene. 3. 5. And so still he laboureth to bring a man to some extreame We therefore in all estates during life must labour to keepe the golden meane as Christ heere did neither doubting on the one hand nor presuming on the other but retaining still that blessed faith whereby his blessed heart was firmly setled in these assaults Thus much for Satans drift Now come to the words of this temptation If thou be the sonne of God then cast thy selfe downe that is shew by this miracle that thou art the sonne of God Marke here the Diuell perswades him not to shew himselfe to be the sonne of God by doctrine in the execution of his ministerie but Cast thy selfe downe shew a miracle wherein we may beholde the very liuely image of that naturall disposition which is in all impenitent persons they affect Christes miracles but they care not for his doctrine Herod longed to see Christ and was glad of his comming when Pilate sent him yet not to heare his doctrine for that he could not endure els he would not haue imprisoned Iohn and also put him to death but he hoped to see a miracle The wicked Iewes desire a signe that put Christ to death for his doctrine yet if be will come downe from the crosse and so miraculously saue himselfe then they will beleeue Mark 15. 32. And this venom of the olde serpent hath poisoned the hearts of many students in the Scriptures who care not at all to ground themselues in the fundamentall points of religion as faith and repentance and yet are woonderfull eager after quidditles and difficulties wherein may appeare some outward shew of wit and learning like the hypocriticall Pharisies that would tithe mint and rue and yet passe ouer iudgement and the loue of God Luk. 11. 42. And the cause hereof is the want of sound grace for naturall men indeed can not sauour the things of the spirit of God the knowledge of Christ crucified seemes foolishnesse vnto them Secondly the Diuell tooke occasion of his former temptation from Christs infirmitie of hunger but perceiuing Christs sure faith in his fathers word by his gratious answer to that assault heere he borrowes his temptation from that profession of his faith as if he should say thou seemest to be resolued of the trueth of thy fathers word that thou art the sonne of God and if that be true indeed then shew it by this miracle Cast thy selfe downe Heere then behold another tricke of Satan if he cannot preuaile by assaults drawen from our infirmities then will he assay vs by temptations drawen from Gods good gifts and graces in vs If he cannot keepe a man in ignorance that hath good gifts of wit memory then will hee seeke from his knowledge to puffe him vp with pride and so mingling his poison with Gods good gifts doth cause many a one to become a bane to Gods church that otherwise might haue prooued an excellent instrument therein as might easily be shewed in sundry particulars Thirdly heere marke how Satans malice is restrained and his power limited By Gods permission he is able to carrie Christ from the wildernes to Ierusalem and there to set him in a most dangerous place on a wing of the temple the thing hee now desireth is his destruction by casting downe head long but that he can not doe and therefore perswades Christ to cast himself down wherein we see the speciall prouidence of God ouer Christ Iesus in all these temptations restraining his enemy in the thing he most desired And the same prouidence doth he still continue ouer his Church for the effectuall preseruation of Christs members in all their temptations The Diuels vnwearied desire drift is to bring contentions hurliburlies and ruines into all societies in Church and Common-wealth therfore the peace and tranquillity of these is and so must bee acknowledged a notable fruit of Gods blessed prouidence restraining the spite and malice of Satan Againe hence it is euident that in temptation Satan cannot go beyond the permission of