of God is eternall life both these are given to the man not to the soule The body is copartner in the sin it must therefore share in the torment it must therefore be raysed that it may be punished Eternity of joy or paine is awarded to the just or to the sinner how can the body be capable of either if it should finally perish in the dust How can it stand with the infinite mercy of God who hath given his Sonne intirely for the ransome of the whole man and by him salvation to every beleever that he should shrink in his gracious performances making good onely one part of his eternall word to the spirituall halfe leaving the bodily part utterly forlorne to an absolute corruption Know then O thou wicked one that when all the rabble of thine Athenian scoffers and Atheous Sadduces and carnall Epicureans shall have mis-spent all their spleene my faith shall triumph over all their sensuall reason and shall afford me sound comfort against all the terrors of death frō the firme assurance of my resurrection and shall confidently take up those precious words which the mirror of patience wished to be written in a book and graven with an iron pen in the rock for ever I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God and my soule shall set up her rest in that triumphant conclusion of the blessed Apostle This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ VI. TEMPTATION If the soule must live and the body shall rise yet what needest thou to affright thy selfe with the terrours of an universall judgement Credulous soule when shall these things be Thou talkest of an awfull Judge but where is the promise of his comming These sixteene hundred yeares hath he beene lookt for and yet he is not come and when will he Repelled THy damned scoffers were betimes foreseene to move this question even by that blessed Apostle whose eyes saw his Saviour ascending up to his glory and who then heard the Angell say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven What dost thou and they but make good that sacred truth which was delivered before so many hundred generations Dissemble how thou wilt That there shall be a generall assise of the world thou knowest and tremblest to know what other couldst thou meane when thou askedst my Saviour that question of horror Art thou come to torment us before the time That time thou knowest to be the day in which God will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead How clear attestation have the inspired Prophets of God given of old to this truth The ancientest Prophet that ever was Henoch the seventh from Adam in the time of the old world foretels of this dreadful day Behold the Lord commeth with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him From the old world is this verity deduced to the new and through the succession of those holy Seers derived to the blessed Apostles and from them to the present generation Yea the sacred mouth of him who shall come down and sit as Judge in this awfull tribunall hath fully laid forth not the truth onely but the manner of this universall judicature The Sonne of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard divideth his sheep And if this most sure word of the Prophets Apostles yea and of the eternall son of God be not enough conviction to thee yet to my soul they are an abundant confirmation of this main point of my Christian faith that from heaven he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead Indeed thus it must be How many condemned innocents have in the bitternesse of their souls appealed from that unrighteous bar of men to the supreame Judge that shall come those appeals are entred in heaven and sued out how can it stand with divine Justice that they should not have a day of hearing As for mean oppressors there are good laws to meet with them and there are higher then the highest to give life of execution to those lawes but if the greatest among men offend if there were not an higher then they what right would at last be done Those that have the most power and will to doe the greatest mischiefe would escape the fairest And though there be a privy Sessions in heaven upon every guilty soule immediatly upon the dissolution yet the same justice which will not admit publique offences to be passed over with a private satisfaction thinks fit to exhibite a publique declaration of his righteous vengeance upon notorious sinners before men and Angels So as those very bodies which have been ingaged in their wickednesse shall be in the view of the whole world sent downe to take part of their torment and indeed wherefore should those bodies be raised if not with the intent of a further disposition either to joy or paine Contrarily how can it consist with the praise of that infinite justice that those poore Saints of his which have been vilified and condemned at every barre persecuted afflicted tormented and have passed through all manner of painful ignominious deaths should not at the last be gloriously righted in the face of their cruell enemies Surely faith the Apostle it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels What is it O thou wicked spirit whereto thou art reserved in chaines of darknesse Is it not the judgement of the great day what is it whereto the manifestation of all hidden truthes and the accomplishment of all Gods gracious promises are referred Is it
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
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
for fond credulity Had I to doe with no greater power then thine or then any Angels in heaven that is meerely finite I might well be censured for too light beleefe in giving my assent to so difficult a truth but now that I have to doe with omnipotence it is no lesse then blasphemie in thee to talk of impossibility Doe not thy very Mahumetan vassals tell thee that the same power which made man can as well restore him and canst thou be other then apposed with the question of that Jew who asked whether it were more possible to make a mans body of water or of earth All things are alike easie to an infinite power It is true The resuscitation of the body from its dust is a supernaturall work yet such as whereof God hath beene pleased to give us many images and prefigurations even in nature it selfe In the face of the earth doe we not see the image of death in winter season and in the spring of a cheerfull resurrection Is not the life of all herbs flowers trees buried in the earth during that whole dead season and doth it not rise up againe with the approching Sun into stemmes and branches and send forth blossomes leaves fruits in all beautifull variety What need we any other then the Apostles instance Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare graine it may chance of wheat or of some other graine but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own body Lo it must be rottenesse and corruption that must make way for a flourishing increase If I should come to a man that is ignorant of these fruitfull productions of the earth and shewing him a little naked grayne should tell him This which thou seest shall rot in the ground and after that shall rise up a yard high into divers stalkes and every stalk shall beare an eare and every eare shall yeild twenty or thirty such graines as it selfe is or shewing him an akorne should say this shal be buried in the earth and after that shall rise up twenty or thirty foot high and shall spread so far as to give comfortable shade to an hundred persons Surely I should not win beleefe from him yet our experience daily makes good these ordinary proofes of the wonderful providence of the Almighty Or should I shew a man that is unacquainted with these great marvells of nature the small seed of the Silk-worme lying scattered upon a paper and seemingly dead all winter long and should tell him these little atomes so soon as the mulberry tree puts forth will yeild a worme which shall work it selfe into so rich a house as the great Princes of the earth shall be glad to shelter themselvs with after that shall turn to a large flye and in that shape shall live to generate then speedily die I should seem to tell incredible things yet this is so familiar to the experieÌ„ced that they cease t owoÌ„der at it If from these vegetables we shall cast our eyes upon some sensitive creatures Do we not see snayles and flyes some birds lye as senslesse and livelesse all the winter time yet when the spring comes they recover their wonted vivacity Besides these resemblances have we not many clear instances and examples of our resurrection Did not the touch of Elishaes bones raise up the partner of his grave Was not Lazarus called up out of his sepulcher after four daies possessâ—ion and many noysome degrees of rottenesse Were not the graves opened of many bodies of the Saints W ch slept Did not they arise and come out of their graves after my Saviours resurrection and go into the holy city and appeare unto many Besides examples have we not an all sufficient pledg of our certaine rising againe in the victorious refurrection of the Lord of life Is not he our head Are not we his members Is not he the first fruits of them that slept Did not he conquer death for us Can the head be alive and glorious whiles the limmes doe utterly perish in a finall corruption Certainely then if we beleeve that Iesus dyed rose again even so them also which sleep in Iesus wil God bring with him And if there were no more that one argument wherewith my Saviour of old confounded thy Sadduces lives still to confound thee God is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob But God is not the God of the dead but of the living The soule alone is not Abraham whole Abraham lives not if the body were not to be joyned to that soule Neither is it onely certain that the resurrection will be but also necessary that it must be neither can the contrary consist with the infinite wisdome goodnesse justice mercy of the Almighty For first how can it stand with the infinite goodnesse of the all-wise God that the creature which he esteemes dearest and loves best should be the most miserable of all other man is doubtlesse the best piece of his earthly workmanship holy men are the best of men Were there no resurrection surely no creature under heaven were so miserable as the holiest man The basest of brute creatures find a kind of contentment in their being and were it not for the tyranny of man would live and dye at ease And others of them in what jollity and pleasure do they wear out their time As for wicked men who let the reynes loose to their licentious appetite how doe they place their heaven here below and glory in this that they are yet somewhere happy But for the mortifyed christian were it not for the comfort and amends of a resurrection who can expresse the miserie of his condition He beates down his body in the willing exercises of sharp austerity and as he would use some sturdy slave keeps it under holding short the appetite oftentimes even from lawfull desires so as his whole life is little other then a perpetuall penance And as for his measure from others how open doth he ly to the indignities oppressions persecutions of men how is he trampled upon by scornful malignity how is he reputed the off-scouring of the world how is he made a gazing stock of reproch to the world to Angels and to men Did there not therefore abide for them the recompence of a better estate in another world the earth could afford no match to them in perfect wretchednesse which how far it abhorreth from that goodnesse which made all the world for his elect and so loves them that he gave his owne Son for their redemption let any enemy besides thine accursed selfe judge How can it stand with the infinite justice of God who dispenseth due rewards to good and evill to retribute them by halves The wages of sin is death the gift
in his resolution to sin If thou Lord shouldest marke iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is forgivenesse with thee that thou maist be feared I know therefore whither to have my recourse when I have offended my God even to that throne of grace where there is plenteous redemption free and full remission I heare the heavenly voice of him that saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins but I dare not offend because his grace aboundeth justly doth the Psalmist make the use and effect of his mercy to be our feare we must feare him for his mercyes and for his judge ments love him so far am I from giving my selfe leave to sin because I have to doe with a mercifull God as that his judgements have not so much power to drive me as his mercies have to draw me from my dearest sinnes As therefore my greatest sinnes are not too bigge for his mercy to remit so my least sinnes are great enough to deserve his eternall displeasure He that shal come to be Judge at those great Assises hath told us that even of eve ry idle word that men shal speak they shal give an acccount What can be sleighter then the wind of our words and what words more harmelesse then those which have no evill quality in them though no good such are our idle words yet even those may not passe without an account and if our thoughts be yet lesse then they even those must so try us as either to accuse or excuse us and if evill may condemne us Think not therefore to draw me into sin because it is little The wages of sin is death here is no stint of quantities If sin be the work death is the wages Perswade me now if thou canst that there is a little death for a little sin perswade me that there is a lesser infinitenesse and a shorter eternity til the great Judge of the world reverse his most just sentence I shall looke upon every sin as my death and hate thee for the cause of both But as thy suggestion shall never move me to take liberty to my selfe of yeilding to the smallest sin so the greatnesse of my most hainous sin shall not daunt me whiles I rely upon an infinite mercy even my bloodiest sinnes are expiated by the blood of my Saviour that my all-sufficient surety hath cleared all my scores in heaven In him I stand fully discharged of all my debts and shall after all thy wicked temptations hold resolute as not to commit the least sin so not feare the greatest VIII TEMPTATION What a vaine imagination is this wherewith thou pleasest thy selfe that thy sins are discharged in another mans person that anothers righteousnesse should be thine that thine offences 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 bloody satisfaction of a Saviour 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 Repelled NAy rather these are blasphemies not fit to fall from any but a malignant Devill what is this but to flatter man that thou maist sclander God Is not the anger of a just God deservedly kindled against man for sin Do not our iniquities separate between us our God Do not our sins hide his face from us that he will not hear Are we not all by nature the childrē of wrath Doth not the wrath of God come for sin upon the children of disobedience Doth not every willing sinner after his hardnesse and impenitent heart teasure up unto himself lest he should not have enough wrath against the day of wrath the revelation of the just judgment of God why do not thy Socinian clients go about to perswade us as wel that God is not angry with thee though he torment thee perpetually and hold thee in everlasting chaynes under darknesse what proofes can we have of anger but the effects of displeasure was it not from hence that man was driven out of Paradise was it not from hence that both he and we in him were adjudged to death as it is written By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned yea not only to a temporal death but By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation Thou who art the dreadfull executioner knowest too wel who it is that had the power of death over those who through the feare of death were all their lives long subject unto bondage Under this wofull captivity did we lye sold under sinne vassals to it and death and thee till that one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus was pleased to give himselfe a ransome for all that he might redeem us from all iniquity who by his owne blood entred in once into the holy place making an eternall redemption for us Lo it is not doctrine and example it is no lesse then blood the blood of the Sonne of God shed for our redemption that renders him a perfect Mediator and cleanseth us from all sin He hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law from the power of darknes hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present us holy unblameabl unreproveable in his sight He it is that bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sinnes should live unto righteousnesse So abundant and cleare testimony hath God beene pleased to give to the infinite merit and efficacy of the bloody satisfaction of his Sonne Iesus made for us that wert thou not as unmeasurably impudent as malicious thou couldst not indeavour to out-face so manifest a truth Thinke not to beate mee off from this sure saving hold by suggesting the improbability of anothers satisfaction and obedience becomming mine what is more familiar then this Our sins are debts so my Saviour hath styled them how commona a thing is it for debts to be set over to anothers hand how ordinary for a bond to be discharged by the surety If the debt then be paid for me and that payment accepted of the Creditor as mine how fully am I acquitted Indeed thou dost no other then sclander our title The righteousnesse wherby wee stand just before our God is not meerly anothers it is by application ours it is Christs and Christ is ours He is our Head we as members are united to him and by vertue of this blessed union partake of his perfect obedience and
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