glorious reward And 3 as near at hand And then say to thy soul Come on my soul come on Seest thou the joy set before thee the Crowns of glory ready to be set on thy head by the hand of a righteous God Oh what compare is there betwixt those Sufferings and that Glory Propound to your selves the best patterns and examples Rule 10 Keep your eye upon the Cloud of Witnesses these are of special use to beget holy courage Heb. 12.1 Jam. 5.10 Who would be afraid to enter the Lists and grapple with that Enemy that he hath seen so often foiled and that by poor weak Christians To this end I cannot but judge these choice Collections in thy hands singularly usefull Oh converse frequently with these Worthies who being dead yet speak to thee and have beaten the path before thee CHAP. VIII Discovering the necessity of an Heart mortified to all Earthly and Temporal Enjoyments in order to the right managing of a suffering condition with several Directions for the attaining thereof THE next thing wherein your actual readiness for Bonds or Death consisteth is in the mortification of your Affections to all Earthly Interests and Enjoyments even the best and sweetest of them Till this be done in some measure you are not fit to be used in any such service for the Lord 2 Tim. 2.21 The living World is the very Life of Temptations The travailing pains of Death are stronger and sharper upon none than those that are full of Sense and Self As you see in Nature what Conflicts and Agonies strong and lively persons suffer when they die When others in whom Nature is decay'd and spent before-hand die away without half that pain even as a Bird in the shell Corruption in the Saints is like the Sap in green Wood which resisteth the fire and will not burn well till it be dryed up Prepared Paul had an Heart mortified in a very high degree to all the Honour and Riches of the World accounting them all but Trifles Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 4.3 4. The need of this will be evinced by these five Considerations 1. Unless the Heart be mortified to all Earthly enjoyments they will appear great and glorious things in your eye and estimation and if so judge what a Task you will have to deny and leave them all in a suffering hour It is Corruption within that puts the Luster and Glory upon things without It 's the Carnal Eye onely that gazes admiringly after them 2 Cor. 5.16 And hence the Lust is put to express the Affection 1 John 2.16 because all that inordinate affection we have to them arises from our high estimation of them and that estimation from our Lusts that represent them as great and glorious Therefore certainly it will be difficult if not impossible to deny them till they have lost their glory in your Eye and that they will never do till those Lusts within you that put that Beauty and Necessity upon them be first crucified As for instance What a Glory and Necessity doth the Pride of Men put upon the Honour and Credit of the World so that they will rather choose to die than survive it but to a mortified Soul it 's a small matter 1 Cor. 4.3 So for Riches how much are they adored till our Lusts be mortified and then they are esteemed but Dung and Dross Phil. 3.8 'T is our Corruption that paints and gilds over these things When these are crucified those will be lightly esteemed 2. Mortification of Corruptions is that which recovers an healthful state of Soul Sin is to the Soul what a Disease is to the Body and Mortification is to sin what Physick is to a Disease Hence those that are but little mortified are in a comparative sense called Carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 and Babes vers 2. in respect of weakness Now suffering Work being some of the Christians hardest Labour and Exercise he cannot be fitted for it until his Soul be in an healthful state A sickly man cannot carry heavy Burdens or endure hard Labours and Exercises The sick Souldier is left behind in his Quarters or put into the Hospital whilest his Fellows are dividing the spoils and obtaining glorious Victories in the Field To this sense some expound Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but of ye through the Spirit mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Where as Death is put to note a languishing state of Soul whilest Mortification is neglected So Life is put to express an healthful and comfortable state vivere pro valere so that upon this account also the necessity of it appears 3. Your Corruptions must be mortified else they will be raging and violent in the time of Temptation and like a Torrent sweep away all your Convictions and Resolutions It 's sin unmortified within that makes the Heart like Gun-powder so that when the Sparkles of Temptation fly about it and they fall thick in a suffering hour they do but touch and take Hence the Corruptions of the World are said to be through Lust 2 Pet. 1.4 With these internal unmortified Lusts the Tempter holds correspondence and these be the Traytors that deliver up our Souls into his hands 4. Unless you be diligent and successful in this Work though you should suffer yet not like Christians you will but disgrace Religion and the Cause for which you suffer For it 's not simple suffering but suffering as a Christian that reflects Credit on Religion and finds acceptation with God If you be envious fretful discontented and revengeful under your sufferings what Honour will this bring to Christ Is not this altogether unlike the Example of your Lord Isa 53.7 and the behaviour of suffering Saints 1 Cor. 4.13 Yet thus it will be if your Pride Passion and Revenge be not first subdued For what are the breakings forth of such distempers of Spirit but as the flushes of Heat in the Face from an ill-affected Liver Most certain it is that all these Evils are in your Natures 〈◊〉 and as certain it is they will rise like Mud and filth from the bottome of a Lake when some eminen◠Trial shall rake you to the bottome Natura vexat◠prodit seipsam 5. Lastly Mortification must be studied and ply'd with diligence else you will find many Longings and Hankerings after Earthly Enjoyments and Comforts which will prove a snare to you What is sin but the corrupt and vitiated appetite of the Creature to things that are Earthly and sensual relishing more sweetness and delight in them than in the blessed God And what is Sanctification but the rectifying of these inordinate affections and placing them in their proper Object A regenerate and mortified Christian tasts not half that sweetness in forbidden fruits that another doth Set but Money before Judas and see how eagerly he catches at it What will ye give me and I will betray him Set but Life Liberty or any such Bait before an unmortified Heart and
ply your preparation-work close then 3. This will best answer the Grace of God in affording you such choice helps and advantages as you have enjoyed How long have you enjoyed the free liberty of the Gospel shining in its luster among you This Sun which to some other Nations hath not risen and to divers on whom it hath shined yet it is but as a Winters Sun remote and its Beams but feeble But you have lived as it were under the Line It hath been over your heads and shed its richest influences upon you Yea Gods Ministers who are not onely appointed to be Watchmen Ezek. 3.17 but Trumpeters to discover danger Numb 10.8 these have faithfully warned you of a day of trouble and given you their best assistance to make you ready for it And is not their joy yea life bound up in your stability in such a day of Tryal Doth not every one of them call upon you in the words of the Apostle Phil. 4.1 Therefore my Brethren dearly Beloved and longed for my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved Will it not cut them to the very heart if after all their spending labours among you they still leave you unready Enemies still to the Cross of Christ impossible to be reconciled and perswaded to suffering-work for Christ I remember I have read of the Athenian Codrus who being informed by the Oracle that the people whose King should be slain in battail should be Conquerours He thereupon disrobed himself and in a disguise went into the Enemies Quarters that he might steal a death to make his people victorious Oh! how glad would your Ministers be if you might conquer and overcome in the day of temptation whatever become of their lives and liberties Yea and if they be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of your Faith they can rejoyce and joy with you all Such is their zeal and longing after your security and welfare But if still you remain an unready people and do become a prey to temptation Oh how inexcusable will you be 4. Remember how ready the Lord Jesus was to suffer the hardest and vilest things for you He had a bitter cup put into his hands to drink for you into which the wrath both of God and man was squeezed out Dolor Christi fuit major omnibus doloribus Aquin. Never had man such sufferings to undergo as Christs Whether you consider 1 the dignity of his persou who was in the form of God and might have stood upon his peerage and equality with him he is the sparkling Diamond of Heaven Acts 7.56 The Darling of the Fathers Soul Isa 42.1 glorious as the onely begotten of the Father John 1.14 yea glory it self James 2.1 yea the very brightness of glory Heb. 1.3 He is the deliciae Christiani orbis fairer then the Sons of men And for him to be so debased below so many thousands of his own Creatures become a worm and no man this was a wonderful humiliation It was Jeremiah's lamentation that such as were brought up in Scarlet embraced Dunghills that Princes were hanged up by the hands and the faces of Elders were not reverenced But what was that to the humiliation of the Lord of glory Or 2 that he suffered in the prime and flower of his years when full of life and sense and more capable of exquisite sense of pain then others Aquinas For he was optimae complexionatus of a singular constitution and all the while he hanged on the Tree his sense of pain not at all blunted or decayed Mark 15.37 39. Or 3 the manner of his death It was the death of the Cross which was as a Rack to Christ for in reference to the distention of his members upon the Cross is that spoken Psal 22.17 I may tell all my bones Or 4 That all this while God hid his face from him When Stephen suffered he saw the Heavens opened The Martyrs you see here were many of them ravished and transported with extasies of joy in their sufferings but Christ in the dark He suffered in 〈◊〉 Soul as well as in his Body and the sufferings of his Soul were the very Soul of his sufferings It was the Fathers wrath that lay so heavy on him as to put him into such an agony that an instance was never given of the like in nature For he sweat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great drops or clodders of blood which fell from his Body to the ground Luke 22.44 It amazed him and made him very heavy See Mark 14.33 yea sorrowful even to death Matth. 26.38 And yet as bitter as the Cup was he freely and willingly drank it up John 18.11 prepared himself to be offered up a sacrifice Psal 40.6.7 gave his back to the Smiters Isa 50.6 yea longed exceedingly for the time till it came Luke 12.50 Now if Christ so cheerfully prepared and addrest himself to such sufferings as these for you should you not prepare your selves to encounter any difficulty or hardship for him O my Brethren Doth not this seem a just and fair inference to you from the sufferings of Christ for you 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind Oh trifle no longer feed not your selves with fancies and groundless presumptions of immunity and peace but foresee difficulties and fit your selves to bear them CHAP. XIV Containing the last use of the point by way of support and comfort to poor trembling souls who do take pains to make themselves ready for sufferings but yet finding such strength in Satans temptations and their own corruptions fear that all their labour is in vain and that they shall faint and utteriy Apostatize when theis Troubles and Tryals come to an height IN the last place If it be such a blessed thing to be ready for Bonds or Death for Christ this may minister much comfort to such souls who though they cannot say as Paul here did that they are ready yet are at work daily upon their own hearts to make them ready and strive in the use of all means to conquer those corruptions that hinder it and improve those Graces in which it mainly consisteth O poor soul what ever present unreadiness or indisposition thou findest and complainest of in thine own heart yet thy condition is safe Oh but I cannot be satisfied in that Ob. I fear I shall be over-borne by Temptations when they come to an height I have such experience of the Deceits and Treacherousness of my own heart that it seems impossible to me to do as these blessed souls did when I come to the like Tryals It s well thou suspectest thine own heart Sol. and tremblest in thy self this sear will keep thee waking when others are securely sleeping It was a good saying of a Reverend Minister Mr A.H. now with God He that fears to flinch shall never flinch for fear It 's true seeming grace
Stork in the Heavens the Swallow Turtle and Crane observe their Seasons of departing and returning upon the approach of the Winter and Spring and that by a natural instinct whereby they prolong their lives which else must perish But though God hath made Man wiser then the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Earth which by instinct will quit colder Climates or run to the Hedg when Winter or Storms approach yet the Heavens may be astonished at this to see Nature cast by sinne so far below it self and that in reasonable Creatures But now if this be fore-seen then there is a singular advantage in a mans hand either to use the means of preventing those approaching Calamities Zeph. 2.3 or if it cannot be prevented yet to take Sanctuary in Christ Mic. 5.5 to run to the Promises and Attributes Esa 26. ult and so have a good Roof over his Head while the Storm falls and the Weather is tempestuous abroad And therefore certainly this Preparation is an excellent thing Whatever the Spirit of God speaks in the commendation of fore-seeing Evils is with respect to this Duty of preparing for them for fore-sight of Evils without preparation rather increases then diminishes the misery 6. A sixth Excellency of Preparation lies in the influence that it hath into a Christians stability in the evil day You cannot but know that your stability in that critical hour of Temptation is a choice and singular Mercy in as much as all you are worth in the other World depends upon your standing then Rev. 21.7 8. Rom. 2.6 7. Luke 22.28 Neither can you be ignorant how much you are like to be tryed and put to it then whether you respect the Enemy that engages you Eph. 6.12 or your own weakness who have been so often foiled in lesser tryals Jer. 12.5 All the Grace you have will be little enough to keep the Field and bear you up from sinking and therefore it cannot but be a blessed thing to be able to stand and cope with the greatest difficulties in such a nick of triall as that will be Now he that expects to do this must put on the whole Armour of God See Ephes 6.12 13 14. There 's no expectation of standing in the evil day except your feet be shod that is your Wills prepared with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace It is true that our ability to stand is not from our own inherent grace for by his strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. 2.9 and yet it is as true that without grace both inherent in us and excited and prepared for action we cannot expect to stand For these two Grace inherent in us and Grace exciting and assisting without are not opposed but co-ordinated Grace in us is the Weapon by which our Enemy falls but then that Weapon must be managed by the Hand of the Spirit Well then look upon this as a choice mercy which tends so much to your stability 7. A seventh Excellency of a prepared Heart is that it is a very high testification of our love to Jesus Christ when we thus shew our willingness to take our Lot with him and follow him whereever he goes What an high expression of love was that of Ruth to her Mother Naomy I will not go back but where thou lodgest I will lodge and where thou goest I will go 'T is excellent when a Soul can say to Christ as Ittai to David 2 Sam. 15.21 Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be whether in Death or in Life even there also will thy Servant be This is love indeed to cleave to him in a time of such distresses and dangers This is love which the Waters cannot quench nor the Flood drown Cant. 8.6 Probatio amoris est exhibitio operis If you love Christ indeed shew your love by some fruits of it and surely this is a very choice fruit and proof of it There be many that profess a great deal of love to Christ but when it comes to this Touch-stone it appears false and counterfeit but a meer flourish when no danger is near But that Soul which buckles on the Shooe of Preparation to follow him through Thorns and Briars and over the Rocks and Mountains of Difficulties and Troubles loves him indeed Jer. 2.2 3. Beloved it 's one of the choicest Discoveries of your love to your Master Christ yea it is such a testification of love to him as Angels are not capable of They shew their love by their readiness to do his Will in the execution of which they fly as with Wings Ezek. 1.24 But you onely have the happiness of testifying your love by your readiness to suffer for him and is not this excellent 8. When the Heart is prepared for the worst Sufferings it 's an Argument that your Will is subdued to the Will of God for till this be done in a good measure you cannot stand ready to suffer for him But now to have the Will subdued by Grace to the Will of God is a very choice and excellent frame indeed for in this the main power of Grace lieth Look in what Faculty the chief Residence and strength of sinne was in the same the chief Residence and power of Grace after Conversion is also Now it is in the Will that the strength and power of sinne before Conversion lay See Joh. 5.40 Psal 81.11 Jer. 44.16 17. And indeed it was the Devils strong Hold which in the Day of Christs Power he storms and reduces to his Obedience Psal 110.3 Oh what a blessed thing is this the Will rules the Man it hath the Empire of the whole Man it commands the Faculties of the Soul imperio politico and it commands the Members of the Body imperio despotico Now to have Christ and Grace rule that which rules and commands your inner and outer Man too is no small Mercy And a better Evidence that it is so cannot be given than this that you stand ready or do seriously prepare your selves to suffer the hardest things for Christ If your Will can like that Work it 's an Argument Grace hath conquered and subdued indeed 9. This Preparation of Heart to Duty is an excellent thing because God is so abundantly pleased with it that he oftens excuses them from sufferings in whom he finds it and accepts it as if the service had been actually done So Abraham Gen. 22.12 he was ready to offer up his Isaac's life to God but God seeing his Servants heart really prepared and ready for that difficult service and high point of Self-denial provided himself another Sacrifice instead of Isaac Abraham shall have his Isaac back again and that with advantage for he hath with him not onely a choice Experiment of his love to God but Gods high approbation of him and acceptation of his Offering It was all one in respect of Divine acceptance as if he had bin slain and so the Scripture represents it Jam. 2.21 And in this sense
anothers right 1 Cor. 6.19 and that he must neither live nor act ultimately for himself but for Christ Rom. 14.7 Heb. 13.7 8. Phil. 1.20 He is no more as a Proprietor but a Steward of all he hath and so holds out upon these terms to lay it out or lay it down as may best serve his Masters ends and glory All that he is or hath is by Grace subordinated to Christ and if once subordinated then no more opposed to him subordinata non pugnant This is it that makes him say I care not what becomes of me or mine so Christ may be glorified Let Christ be mâ—gnifiâ—d in my body whether it be by life or by death Phil. 1.20 By Conversion Christ enters the soul 2 Cor. 10.5 as an Army doth an Enemies Garrison by Storm and when he is possest of it by Grace he presently divides the whole spoil of Self betwixt himself and his Church This is the first thing that evinces the necessity of a Work of Grace to prepare the heart for Sufferings 2. And then in the next place It is as evident that a man can never be fit to suffer hard Things for Christ until his Spirit be enlarged raised and ennobled so that he be able to despise Dangers and look Difficulties in the face That low and private Spirit must be removed and a publick Spirit must possess him If a man be of a feeble and effeminate Spirit every petty Danger will daunt and sink him Delicacy and Tenderness is as unsuitable to a Christian as to a Souldier 2 Tim. 2.3 They that mean to enter into the Kingdome of God must resolve to make their way through that brake of Troubles betwixt them and it 2 Tim. 3.12 They that will be crowned with Victory must stand to it and play the men as that word imports 1 Cor. 16.13 Look over all the Sacred and Humane Histories and see if you can find a man that ever honoured Christ by Suffering that was not of a raised and noble Spirit and in some measure able to contemn both the allurements and threats of men So those three noble Jews Dan. 3.16 17. so Moses Heb. 11.27 and so our Apostle Acts 20.24 and the same heroick and brave Spirit was found in the succeeding Ages amongst the Witnesses of Christ When Valence the Empercur endeavoured to draw Basil from the Faith by Offers of Preferment Offer these things said he to Children when he threatned him with torments Threaten these things said he to your Purple Gallauts that live delicately And the same Basil relating the Story of the fourty Martyrs saith That when great Honours and Preferments were offered them to draw them from Christ their answer was Why offer you these small things of the world to us O Emperour when you know the whole world is contemned by us So Luther Money could not tempt him nor the fear of man daunt him Let me said he in his Letter to Staupicius be accounted proud covetous a murtherer guilty of all vices rather then of wicked silence and cowardize in the Cause of Christ Thus you see to to what an height and holy greatness the Spirits of suffering Saints in all Ages have â—een raised But now it is Grace that thus raises the Spirits of men above all the smiles and honours frowns and fears of men and no other principle but Grace can do it There is indeed a natural stoutness and generosity in some which may carry them far as it 's said of Alexander that when any great danger approached him his courage would rise and he would say Jam periculum par animo Alexandri here is a danger fit for Alexander to encounter so Pompey when disswaded from a dangerous Voyage answered Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam It 's necessary that I go not that I live But this being fed onely by a natural Spring can carry a man no higher then Nature and will flag at last If applause and the observation of the world supply it not it quickly ebbs and fails But as Grace raises men much higher so it maintains it even when there is nothing to encourage without when forsaken of all Creatures and visible supports 2 Tim. 4.10 and this it doth three wayes 1 By guiding him that hath a view of far greater things which shrinks up all temporary things and makes them appear but trifles and small matters Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.18 By Grace a man rises with Christ Col. 3.1 It sets him upon his high places and thence he looks down upon things below as very poor and inconsiderable The great Cities of Campania seem but little spots to them that stand on the top of the Alps. 2 By teaching him to value and measure all things by another Rule then he was wont to do He did once measure life liberty riches honours by sense and time and then they seemed great things and it was hard to deny them Or thus to slight them but now he values and measures all by Faith and Eternity and esteems nothing great and excellent but what hath a reference to the Glory of God and an influence into Eternity 3 Grace raises and ennobles the Spirit thus because it is the Divine nature 't is the Spirit of Christ infused into a poor Worm which makes a strange alteration on him transforms him into another manner of person as much difference betwixt hir Spirit now and what it was as betwixt the Spirit of a Child that is filled with small matters and taken up with toyes and of a grave States-man that is daily imployed about the grand affairs of a Kingdome 3. A man can never suffer as a Christian till his will be subjected to the Will of God He that suffers involuntarily and out of necessity not out of choice shall neither have acceptance nor reward from God Of necessity the will must be subjected a man can never say Thy will be done till he can first say Not my will But it is Grace onely that thus conquers and subjects the will of man to Gods Psal 110.3 This is it that exalts Gods Authority in the Soul and makes the heart to stoop and tremble at his Commands 'T is this which makes our will to write its fiat at the foot of every Command and its placet under every Order it receives from God No sooner was Grace entred into the soul of Paul but presently he cries out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 The Will is to the Soul what the Wheels are to the Chariot and Grace to is the Will what Oyl is to those Wheels When we receive the Spirit of Grace we are said to receive an Unction from the holy One 1 John 2.20 and then the Soul is made as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6.12 Non tardat uncta rota it runs freely after the Lord and chearfully addresseth it self to every Service 4. A man can never suffer as a Christian untill his heart be
should you decline even a violent death for Christ when as the bitterness of death is past and there is no Hell following the pale Horse It cannot separate you from Christ Rom. 8.38 Sixthly Think what a death Christ suffered for you in which the fulness of the Wrath both of God and Man met together so that he was sore amazed yet with desire did he desire it for your sakes 7. Lastly Think what a life you shall have with Christ as soon as this is deliver'd up to and for him 2 Tim. 2.12 It is but wink and you shall see God Oh that these things might provoke you to folâ—â— on and ply the Work of Mortification CHAP. IX Therein is opened the singular advantage that suffering-Saints have by their skill and in-sight into the Methods and Mysteries of Sathans Temptations some of those Wiles of Sathan opened and Rules for the avoiding of the danger briefly described THE hazards and dangers of Christians in times of Persecution arise not so much from their Sufferings as from the Temptations that always attend and are by Satan planted upon their Sufferings for the most part Sufferings and Temptations go together Heb. 11.37 And therefore it behoves such as are or expect to be called to Sufferings to dive into the Mysteries of Temptations and be well acquainted with the Enemies Designs upon them So was Paul and so he supposes all others to be that ingage in the same Cause We are out ignorant of his Devices 2 Cor. 2.11 There is a manifold advantage redounding to suffering Saints thereby 1. He that is well acquainted with the Methods of Temptation will be the better able to descry the first approaches and beginnings of it and a Temptation discovered is more then half conquered It is a special Artifice of Satan to shuffle in his Temptations as undiscernably as may be into the Soul for he knows that in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird Prov. 1.17 And therefore he ordinarily makes a suffering season to be a tempting season because as sufferings do like Fire to Iron make it impressive and operable so they do ordinarily put the Soul into an hurry and distraction and so gives him an advantage to tempt the Soul with less suspicion and greater success But now a skilfull Christian that is acquainted with his Wiles will discern when he begins to enter into temptation aâ— Christs expression is Luke 22.46 and so checquâ— the Temptation in its first Rise when it 's weakest and most easily broken Doubtless one Reason why so many fall by Temptation is because it 's goâ— within them and hath prevailed far before it be discovered to be a Temptation 2. He that is well acquainted with Satans Methods of tempting will not onely discern it sooneâ— than another but also knows his Work and Duty and how to manage the Conflict with it which is a great matter There are many poor Souls that labour under strong Temptations and know not what to do They go up and down complaining from Christian to Christian whilest the Judicious Christian plyes the Throne of Grace with strong Criesâ— See 2 Cor. 12.8 keeps up his Watch Luke 22.46 countermines the Temptation by assaulting that Corruption by endeavours of Mortification which Satan assaults by Temptation 1 Cor. 9.27 3. Lastly To name no more he that is best acquainted with the Mystery of Temptation and can maintain his ground against that he shall be the persevering Christian under Persecutions and the victorious Christian over them Here lies the main Design of Satan in raising Persecution against the Saints It is not so much their Bloud that he thirâ— steth after as their Fall by Temptation and all Persecutions are designed by him to introduce hiâ— Temptations These work upon our Fear and Fear drives us into his Trains and Snares Prov. 29.25 The Devils Work in raising Persecution is but as the Fowlers work in beating the Bush in the Night when the Net is spread to take the Birds which he can affright out of their Coverts He that understands this is not easily moved by the strongest Opposition from his Place and Duty and so is like to prove the most constant and invincible Christian in Times of Persecution Oh then how necessary is it that since all Persecutions are intended as means to promote Temptation and that skill and insight into these Designs of Sathan so advantages us to frustrate his Designs in both I say how necessary is it that you should be all instructed wherein the strength of Temptation lies as also how to resist those strong and dangerous Temptations which your Sufferings onely are intended to usher in and make way for It will not be unseasonable or impertinent then in this Chapter to shew you First wherein the force and efficacy of Temptations lyeth Secondly what you are to do when in a suffering hour such Temptations shall assault you And first 1 Qu. Wherein doth the efficacy and power of Temptation lie Sol. I answer It lies principally in three things 1. In the kind and nature of the Temptation 2. From the Craft and Policy of Satan in managing them 3. From that secret Correspondency that Satan hath with our own Corruptions 1. It lies in the kind and nature of the Temptation it self For it 's most certain that all Temptations are not alike forcible and dangerous Some are ordinarily more successful then others and such are these that follow 1. Strange and unusual Temptations I mean noâ— such as none have been troubled with before us for there is not a Dart in his Quiver but hath been let fly at the Breasts of other Saints before it was levelled at ours 1 Cor. 10.13 But by strange and unusual I mean such as the People of GOD are but rarely troubled with and possibly we were never exercised with before These are the more dangerous because they daunt and amaze the Soul and ordinarily beget despondency even as some strange Disease would do that we know not what to make of 2. Mark them for most dangerous Temptation that are adapted and suited to your proper sin or constitution-evil For certainly that is the most dangerous Nick and Crisis of Temptation when it tryes a man there Now if he be not truly gracious he falls by the Root irrecoverably Luke 22.5 6. Or if sincere yet without special assistance and extraordinary vigilance he falls scandalously 2 Sam. 11.2 compared with 1 Sam. 16.12 3. When it is a Spiritual Temptation which rises undiscernably out of a Christians Duties This is the less suspected because Temptations usually come from the strength and livelyness of Corruptions but this from the Slaughter and Conquests we make of them Duties and enlargements in them which are the Poyson of other Lusts proves the Food and Fewel of this 1 Cor. 4.7 8. And how much the more covert and close any Temptation is by so much the more dangerous it is 2. The strength and efficacy of