have parted with the magnificent state and pompe of Pharaohs Court where Hee might have wallowed in varietie of all worldly delights and to take part with His afflicted Brethren of a world of miseries in a vast and roaring Wildernesse There was never carnall man since the Creation but in such a Case would have followed the Court and forsaken Gods people Hester a weake Woman could never possibly have holden out against the fury of so mighty a Favourite the hazarding of Her high Place the favour of so great a King and even life it selfe had She not been upholden by an extraordinary strength from Heaven No great Woman in the World wanting Grace would ever have runne such an hazard but have suffered the servants of God to sinke or swimme so that She might swimme downe the Current of the times without crossing and enjoy the present without perill It was a 〈◊〉 temptation 〈◊〉 â—â—nathan and a very 〈…〉 Dilemma Either leave to adhere to David or resolve to lose a Kingdome But the hope of an earthly Crowne could not hire Him to hold His peace and betray the innocency of His heavenly Friend And Ionathan answered Saul his Father and said unto Him Wherefore shall Hee bee slaine What hath Hee done The dread of dis-countenance from two angry Kings whose indignation is as the roaring of a Lyon was a terrible Motive to have made Michajah temporize not a Server of the Times and His owne turne in the World but would in this Case have tuned His Pipe to Ahabs pleasure especially encouraged by the flattering concurrence of so many false prophets But the sight of the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth sitting upon His Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by Him infused such an holy fortitude into the spirit of this Man of God that no greatnesse terrour or Majesty of any crowned Potentate could possibly daunt His courage or dash Him out of countenance And therefore Hee answeres with a resolution as high as Heaven and out of a sacred pang of seraphicall zeale As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord saith unto mee that will I speake So that Hee may discharge a good conscience and doe as God would have Him Hee is at a Point That Message which thâ—â—lmighty had put into His mouth must 〈…〉 Him to a centur◠〈…〉 from so 〈…〉 owne Coate to a suspicion of dis-loyalty for crossing so peremptorily the Kings Plot to smiting both with the fist of wickednesse and taunts of the tongue from His fellow Seers Nay tho His faithfull dealing throw Him into a Dungeon there to bee fed with the Bread of affliction and Water of affliction untill the full wrath of an enraged prophane King fall upon Him to the uttermost Thus let the World say what it will whatever flesh and blood suggest to the contrary Howsoever unsanctified great Ones storme and disdaine yet assuredly every true Friend to Iesus Christ must bee content farre rather to bee dis-courted then desert a good cause or not to defend the innocency of a gracious Man tho in disgrace and to speake for Gods people tho Haman rage to roote them out quite as a company of singular exorbitant fellowes who serve God as they list and keepe not the Kings Lawes As is unanswerably evident by the precedency of these newly named noble and holy Saints I confesse this may seeme precise Doctrine and a divine Paradox to all the great Masters of pleasure and Minions of luxury and pride whose blood runnes fresh in their veines and marrow is yet strong in their bones Nay who having attained the height of their ambitious aimes sit now aloft in the very top of their un-blessed bravery and greatnesse drunke with the pleasant wine of worldly prosperitie and holding in scorne the holy preaching of the good way the syncerity of the servants of Christ and society of the Brotherhood Yet I can assure them in the Word of Life and Truth the now embracement and practise of precise walking will incomparably more comfort them upon their Dying-Beds in that great and last encounter with all infernall powers about the immortality blisse and glory or the endlesse and unsupportable paines and misery of their Soules then if they had been the sole and soveraigne Commanders of all the Kingdoms of the Earth all their life long But no marvell in the meane time that as the Spirit of truth tells us and punctually to my purpose Not many Wise men after the flesh nor many Mighty not many Noble are called Not for any impossibility For the irresistable might of the Spirit worketh upon whom it will and some Great Men are good but by reason of the difficulty Being beset with such variety and strength of temptations they are rarelier and hardlier wrought upon by the Word and woone out of Satans en-snarements High roomes temporary happines abilities above ordinary so puffe them up and transport them beyond themselves with such a deale of Selfe-love Selfe-opinion Self-prizing that their proud and obstinated spirits will by no meanes stoope to the simplicity of the Gospell â—â—gularitie of the Saints and the foolishnesse of preaching But if at any time they heare of a Nathan Ieremy Amos Chrysostome Latimer c. They are very loth to lend their attention lest thereby they should bee made Melancholike put in mind of the Evill day tormented before their time But if they have the patience They are ready to startle in their seates and whisper One to an Other You see now these preciser Fellowes would damne us all to Hell Let us breake their bonds asunder and cast away their Cordes from us Such adoe there is and a world of worke to bring such noble Bedlams into their right minds and to fright such Idolizers of their owne sufficiencies and wilfull graspers of their gilded Fetters from their admired follies and honorable servitude 3. Thirdly a gracious Man about a Royall Person is a goodly Sight full well worth even a Kings Ransome For never any except himself truly feare the great God of Heaven can possibly bee cordially and conscionably serviceable to any of our earthly Gods A Principle so cleare and unquestionable that no Man of understanding and Master of his owne Wits except himselfe be notoriously obnoxious can have the face to deny it Please they may bee politically plausible flatter extremely and represent themselves to ordinary observation as the onely Men for loyalty and love But if wee could search and see their hearts wee should find them then most laborious to serue themselves and advance their owne ends when they seeme most zealous for their Soveraignes service Ahitophel in the Sunne-shine of peace and calmenesse of the Kingdomes time did accommodate himselfe to the present both in Consultations of State and religious conformitie But no sooner had this hollow-hearted man espied a dangerous tempest raysed by Absoloms un-naturall treachery but Hee turned Traytor to his naturall Lord when Hee
the spirit of a man saith Salomon will sustaine all His other infirmities but a wounded spiâ—rit who can beare Yet His soule though Hee was the Prince of glory and Lord of Heaven and earth upon the Crosse was even as a scorched Heath without so much as any drop of comfort either from heaven or earth The grievous weight of all the sinnes of all his Children the least of which had bin enough to have pressed them downe into the bottome of Hell lay now heavy upon him The powers of darkenesse were let loose to afflict Him Hee wrastled even with the fierce wrath of His Father and all the forces of the infernall kingdome with such anguish of heart that in the Garden it wrung out of his pretious Body a Sweat as it were great drops of blood falling downe to the ground with such agony of spirit that upon the Crosse Hee cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee And the measure of all these sufferings and sorrowes were so past all measure that all the creatures save sinfull Men onely both in heaven and earth seemed to bee amazed and moved with them The Sun in the heavens drew in his beames unwilling as it were to see the spotlesse blood of the Son of God spilt as water upon the ground The Earth it selfe shrunk and trembled under it The very Rocks rent asunder as if they had sense and feeling of His intolerable and save by Himselfe vnconquerable paines The whole frame of Nature seemed astonished at the mournefull Complaint of the Lord of the Whole World These and farre more then these or then can bee exprest our blessed Saviour being Son of the most high God endured for no other end but to ransome us from the bondage of Sathan and of Hell in a thirsting desire of saving all Penitent sinners And to offer himselfe freely a most glorious and everlasting Husband to all those who with broken and beleeving hearts cast themselves into His bosome Such admirable and unutterable perfections beauties indowments sufferings and inflamed affections as these in the heavenly Suter unto our sinnefull Soules doth mightily aggravate the hainous and horrible sinne of refusing Him Thus and in this manner would I have the Men of God to magnifie inlarge and represent to the hearts of their Hearers all the excellencies of Iesus Christ with the worth merit and efficacy of His blood To set out to the utmost they can possibly the glory of the Gospell with all the riches of mercy goodnesse and free grace revealed and offered therein c. So that they tell them withall That Iesus Christ takes none but such as are willing to take upon them His yoke That hee gives himselâ—e to none but such as are ready to sell all in the sense I have said that they may enjoy his blessed selfe That the glorious grace of the Gospell shines savingly to none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World That those whose Soules are cleansed by the blood of Iesus Christ from all sinne are onely such as walke in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and workes of darkenesse discovered to them by the light of Gods holy Booke and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty injoyned therein In a word That as that Fountaine opened to the house of David for sinne and for uncleanesse I meane the blood of that immaculate Lambe Iesus Christ the holy and the righteous doth turne all the sinnes even the very scarlet and crimson of a truly broken heart and every true Mourner in Zion into snow and wooll so it will never wash away the least sinfull staine from the proud heart of any unhumbled Pharisee That hereby no strangers unto the love and life of godlinesse may bee deceived by appropriating unto themselves any of these glorious things which are onely proper to the sealed Fountaine but onely conceive of them as excellent motives to cause them to come in I would have the Preaching of Christ fill the soule of every true harted Nathanael every time with unspeakeable and glorious joy with all those Euangelical pleasures which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man But I would have it onely make every unregenerate Man sensible of what infinite blessednesse Hee bereaves Himselfe by continuing a Rebell that thereupon Hee may bee moved to make hast out of His present Hell into this new heaven so fairely opened and freely offered unto Him Besides pressing the law promising mercy proposing Christ c. to stirre men in their naturall states to make them entertaine thoughts of comming in to humble them in the sight of the Lord under the heavy burden of all their sinnes assure them also of pardon in case they will leave Sathans service and so prepare them for Christ Let Gods Ministers lay hold upon all warrantable wayes which they shall find and feele out of their Ministeriall experience and holy wisedome to be availeable and prevaile for that purpose So that the worke bee done in truth And that they doe not like the Divels dawbers deceive them to the eternall ruine and damnation of their Soules by telling them that they have Christ already and are safe enough for salvation whereas indeed as yet there is no such matter Such points as these are woont to make attentive naturall men to startle in their seates to looke about them something more then ordinarily To wit to divide the precious from the vile To distinguish that One true happy state of grace from all states of unregeneratnesse and all kinds of Hypocrisie to tell them out of the Booke of God How farre a Man may goe in generall graces and doing many things c. and yet come short of Heaven To deliver Markes of sincere Professours of a saving Faith of true repentance of a sound conversion c. But I would have this done with a great deale of spirituall wisedome and heavenly understanding with much godly discretion and caution least thereby either the formall Professour may bee incouraged or the weakest Christian disheartned To discourse of the fewnesse and scarcity of those which shall bee saved and that even under the light and within the sound of the Gospell See Math. 20.16 Many are called but few chosen Consider the Parable of the Sower Mat. 13. There is but one good soile upon which the seed of the word falls prosperously but three reprobate grounds as it were upon which it is lost as water upon the ground See my first Doctr. upon Gen. 6.8 c. Thus let the Men of God acquaint themselves with such Points as they conceive the likeliest and most pregnant to pierce their Hearers hearts and come closest to their Consciences that so by the helpe of God they may pull them out of Hell And there are some
and soulelesse earth upon which wee tread may teach us to rest and depend upon God in such a Case It is a mighty and massy body planted in the middest of the thinne aire and hangs upon just nothing in the world but only upon Gods Word By that alone it is there established unmooveably keepes his place most steadily never stirs an ynch from it It hath no props or pillars to uphold it no barres or beames to fasten it nothing to stay and support it but the bare Word of God alone Hee upholdeth all things by the Word of his power saith the Apostle Heb. 1.3 And yet not all the creatures in the world can shake it or make it tremble Bee it so then that thy Faith hath lost it's hold-fast that for the present thou findest no feeling no encouragements of joy and peace in beleeving no sensible pawnes and pledges of Gods wonted favour c. Yet for all this cast thy selfe upon the sure Word of that mighty God who hath established all the ends of the earth and reared such a great and goodly building where there was no foundation and questionlesse thou shalt bee more then infinitely everlastingly safe and setled like mount Zion which cannot bee removed but abideth for ever 3. In failings of new-obedience Thou puts thy sonne into imploiment sets him about thy businesses He improves the utmost of his skil strength and indeavour to doe thee the best service hee can and please thee if it were possible to perfection But yet comes short of what thou desires and failes in many particulars and therefore he weepes and takes-on and is much troubled that hee can give no better contentment Now tell mee thou whose heart is warmed with the tendernesse of a Fathers affection whether thou wouldest not bee most ready and willing to pardon and passe-by all defects and failings in this kinde Nay I know thou wouldest rejoyce and blesse God that hee had given thee a Child so obedient willing and affectionate Proportionably thy heavenly Father sets thee on worke To beleeve repent pray read the Scriptures heare the Word conferre meditate love the Brethren sanctifie his Sabbaths humble thy selfe in daies of fasting and praier poure out thy soule day and night as the times require in compassion fellow-feeling and strong cries for the Afflictions of Ioseph the destruction of the Churches and those Bretheren of thine which have so long laine in blood and teares to bee industrious and serious in all workes of justice mercy truth c. And thou goest about these blessed businesses with an upright heart and in obedience unto God but the several performances comes far short of what his Word requires and thy heart desires and thereupon thou mournes and grieves and afflicts thy soule in secret because thou canst not come-off with more power and life nor bring that glory unto God in thy Christian walking which so many mercies meanes and such a ministery may exact at thy hands In this case now of these involuntary failings and humble disposition of thy heart therefore bee most assured thy All-sufficient Father will spare thee as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him Nay and with so much more kindnesse and love as the heavens are higher then the earth and God greater then man 4. In case of a spirituall Desertion A Father solacing himselfe with his little Child and delighting in it's pretty and pleasing behaviour is woont sometimes to step aside into a corner or behind a dore upon purpose to quicken yet more it 's love and longing after him and try the impatiency and eagernesse of it's affection In the meane time hee heares it cry run about and call upon him and yet hee stirres not but forbeares to appeare not for want of compassion and kindnesse which the more it takes-on the more abounds but that it may dearelier prize the Fathers presence that they may meete more merrily and rejoyce in the enjoyment of each other more heartily Conceive then and consider to thine owne exceeding comfort that thy heavenly Father deales just so with thee in a spiritual desertion He sometimes hides his face from thee and withdrawes his quickning and refreshing presence for a time not for want of loue for hee loves thee freely He loves thee with an everlasting love hee loves thee with the very same love with which He loves Iesus Christ And that deare Son of his loves thee with the same love his Father loves him But to put more heate and life into thine affections towards him and heavenly things To cause thee to relish communion with Iesus Christ when thou enjoyest it more sweetely to preserve it more carefully to joy in it more thankefully and to shunne more watchfully whatsoever might rob thee of it To stirre up all the powers of thy soule and all the graces of God in thee to seeke his face and favour againe with more extraordinary and universall seriousnesse and industry For we finde with pleasure possesse with singular contentment and keepe with speciall care what we have sought with paine Wee may see this in the Spouse Cantic 3.1 c. under the pressure of a grievous Desertion Ponder every particular By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and goe about the Citty in the streetes and in the broad wayes I will seeke him whom my soule loveth I sought him but I found him not The Watchmen that goe about the city found mee to whom I said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him goe untill I had brought him to my mothers house and into the chamber of her that conceived mee I charge yee O yee daughters of Ierusalem by the Roes and by the Hindes of the field that yee stirre not up nor awake my Love till hee please And lastly that when the comfortable beames of Gods lightsome countenance shall break out againe upon thy soule and thy Beloved is returned thou maist sing that triumphant song of Faith most joyfully I am my Beloveds my Beloved is mine Desertions then delaies of this nature are fruites of thy heavenly Fathers love and ought to bee no discouragements unto thee at all holding thy integrity His love thereby is intended towards thee by the restraint of the influence as it were and sense of it from thy soule as a Brooke growes big by damming it up for a while And thy love is more enflamed towards him when thou now feeles by the want of it what an heaven upon earth it is to have his face shine upon thee with it's quickning refreshing presence and that a sensible embracement of Iesus Christ in the armes of thy Faith is the very life of the soule as the Soule is the life of the Body the Crowne of all sweet
perswaded Gods bowels of compassionate tender-heartednesse and love did yearne within him towards Iob with more dearenesse and delight at that cry Tho he slay mee yet will I trust in him then at any time else even in the Spring of his spirituall prosperity or fullest tide of most heavenly feelings Here then is comfort more then thy heart can hold if thou wilt bee counselled by the Prophets that thou maist prosper For when thou thinkest that all is gone that thou art a lost man and utterly forsaken even in the depth of thy spirituall darkenesse thou being so spiritually disposed as I have said and which thou canst not deny I say even then and thou oughtest so to apprehend and believe the love of God is as it were doubled towards thee much more endeared by reason of thy distresse and cannot hold but breakes out many times into extraordinary pangs and expressions thereof As wee may see Isa. 54.11 Oh! thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted c. And into profession of resolution and waiting to do us good which he will super-abundantly performe in the best time Behold I will lay thy stones with faire colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires Ibid. And therefore will the Lord waite that hee may bee gracious unto you and therefore will hee bee exalted that he may have mercy upon you For the LORD is a God of iudgment Blessed are all they that wait for him Isa. 30.18 Retiring the effects and exercise of our love from him whom wee love dearely makes it returne with redoubled fervour into our owne bosomes and there growes into a more vehement flame which never rests untill it breake out againe with dearer pangs upon the beloved Party Even as when the Sunne suffers an Eclipse and it's beames are driven backe and reflected from the face of the Moone interposed directly betweene it and our sight so that they shine not upon us then is the heate and light thereof multiplied and much intended toward the Fountaine which afterwards is shed downe upon us againe more amiably and acceptably when the darkenesse is done And let us further take notice that Christ our eldest Brother blessed for ever deales with us in such Cases as Ioseph a type of him in many respects dealt with his brethren hee frown'd upon them handled them roughly and frighted them extremely onely to humble them thorowly but in the meane time and midst of his menacing carriage his heart was so full of naturall affection that hee was enforced by the excesse thereof to turne aside and weepe and so returne to them againe And hee turned himselfe about from them and wept and returned to them again Gen. 42.24 So the Sonne of God as well as God the Father thorow him tho sometimes in a little wrath hee hide his face from us yet as hee will certainely after a small moment gather us with great mercies so in the meane time Hee is afflicted and most tenderly affected towards us in all our afflictions See Isa. 63.9 7. Seventhly Thinke it not strange that thou art fallen into this kinde of spirituall affliction as tho some strange thing or that which doth or may not befall the dearest servants of God had happened unto thee For herein thou becomes conformable to as holy Men as ever the world had Iob David Heman Luther c. Nay to the Sonne of God himselfe From whose example and precedency let the Christian even in the darkest horror of a spirituall desertion when hee is afraid lest God hath forsaken him fetch abundance of comfort and support out of such considerations as these 1. Christ himselfe was in the same Case Besides a numberlesse variety of most barbarous cruelties inflicted upon his blessed body by the mercilesse and implacable malice of the Iewes and by consequent sympathy upon his glorious soule Hee suffered also in soule immediately intolerable and save by himselfe unconquerable torments and paine Hee grapled with the fiercest wrath of his Father for our sins and sweat blood under the sense of his angry countenance Nay this Crosse upon his soule infinitely more waighty then that which hee carried upon his shoulders toward Calvarie did not onely cause streames of great bloody drops to fall downe to the ground but also prest from him that heavy groane Mat. 26.38 My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death and that last rufull bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee cap. 27.46 If Christ Iesus himselfe then blessed for ever the Son of the Fathers love the Prince of glory Nay the glory of heaven and earth the brightnesse of everlasting light c. In whom hee professeth himselfe to bee well-pleased and for whose sake onely hee loves all the sonnes of Men which shall be saved was thus plunged into a matchlesse Depth of unknowne sorrowes and most grievous desertion Let no Christian cry out in the like spirituall desolation but ever immeasurably short of his and in his feare of being forsaken that his Case is singular desperate irrecoverable For the onely deare innocent Sonne of God was farre worse in this respect and in greater extremity then hee is can or ever shall bee 2. Secondly Amongst other ends for which the Lord Iesus drunke so deepe and the very dregs of that bitterest Cup of his dearest Fathers heaviest indignation this was one That by a particular and personall passing thorow that infinite Sea those extremest dreadfull horrours of divine wrath for our sinnes which we all most justly deserved and would have caused any meere Creature to have sunke downe under it into the bottome of hell and by an experimentall feare and feeling of that bitter and bloody Agony which melted as it were his blessed soule into that mournefull Cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee The comfortable influence of the Deity being for the time in some sort restrained and retired from the humane nature that it might bee capable and sensible of that anger and angvish which would have holden both Men and Angels and all created Natures under everlasting calamity and woe I say that by his owne sense and experience of such painefull passages hee might learne and know with a more fellow-feeling and pittifull heart to commiserate his poore afflicted Ones in their spirituall desertions and with a softer and more compassionate hand to bind up their bleeding soules with his sweetest Balme of tender-heartednesse and love when in such horrible depths they shall thirst and long and gaspe for drops of mercy and his Fathers pleased face For in that hee himselfe hath suffered being tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.18 A woman which hath her selfe with extraordinary torture tasted the exquisite paines of Childe-birth is woont to bee a great deale more tenderly and mercifully affected to an other in like case then she that never tried what it is to be terrified with the suddennesse
of his pride vers 23. The Ecclesiasticall story reports that the loathsome and dreadfull end of Arrius that execrable enemie to Iesus Christ was hastned by the prayers of the good and orthodoxe Bishop Alexander who wrastled with God in earnest deprecations against him all the night before Doe you not thinke that Gardiner went sooner into his Grave for his cruelty towards Professours of the truth by their groanes against him and by the cry of the bloud of that glorious Paire of Martyrs at Oxford which hee so insatiably thirsted after Let all those then that tread in these mens paths tremble at their ends And if no better motive will mollifie their doggednesse yet at least let their love unto the world themselves and sensuall waies take them off and restraine them from this persecuting rage least it set on worke the prayers of Gods people and so they bee taken away before their time and cut off from a temporary supposed heaven of earthly pleasures to a true everlasting Hell of unspeakeable torments sooner then otherwise they should 13. The hearts and tongues of all good men and friends to the Gospell are fill'd with much glorious joy and heartiest songs of thankesgiving at the downefall of every raging incurable Opposite when the revenging hand of God hath at length to the singular advancement of the glory of his justice singled out and paide home remarkeably any impenitent Persecutour and implacable enemie See for this purpose The song of â—oses Exod. 15. Of Deborah Iudges 5. The Iewes feasting after the hanging of Haman Esther 9 17. Psa. 52.6.9 And 58.10 And 79.13 1. Macca 13.51 Onely let the heart of Gods childe be watchfull over it selfe with a godly jealousie in this Point That His reioycing bee because Gods justice is glorified His Church delivered Satans kingdome weakened c. not onely for his owne ease and end for any personall or particular by-respect Now it is an heavy case A man in His short abode upon earth to behave himselfe so like a dogged Curre and incarnate Divell that all good men are and ought to bee passingly glad when hee is gone In this Point I comprise and conclude all sorts of Persecutours Of which some are profest and open as Bonner and Gardiner and many such morning Wolues Some Politicke and reserved who many times are the more pernicious For of all manner of malice and ill will that is most execrable deadly and doth the most hurt which like a Serpent in the faire greene grasse lies lurking in the flatterings and fawnings of a sleering countenance Which kisses with Iudas and kills with Ioab entertaines a man with outward formes of complement and curtesie but would if it durst or might stabbe Him in at the fifth rib that hee should never rise againe When a mans words to thy face are as soft as oyle or butter but his thoughts towards thee composed all of bloud and bitternesse of gall and gunpowder Some are notorious villaines as many times in many places the most desperate blasphemers stigmaticall Drunkards rotten whore mongers cruell usurers and fellowes of such infamous ranke are as so many bloudy Goades in the sides of Gods servants and the onely Men to pursue all advantages against the faithfullest Ministers Some are of more sober carriage faire conditions and seeming devotion Act 13.50 Some are the basest fellowes the most abiect and contemptible vagabonds and the very refuse of all the Rascalls in a Countrey This we may see by Iobs complaint Cap 30. But now saith Hee they that are younger then I have mee in derision whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flocke They were children of fooles yea children of base men they were viler then the earth And now am I their song yea I am their By Word And in Davids Psa. 35. Yea the Abiects gathered themselves against mee c. and I was the song of the drunkards Psal. 69.12 And in the Persecutours of Paul Act. 17. But the Iewes which belâ—eved not mooved with envie tooke unto them certaine lewde fellowes of the baser sort c. Some againe are men of place and parts As the same David complaines in the same place They that sit in the gate speake against mee That is men in high roomes and of great authoritie And as all sorts of Persecutours so I comprehend all kindes of persecution 1. By hand as did Herod Act. 12. Iulian Bonner c. 2. With tongue by mocking Galat. 4.24 compared with Gen. 21.9 See also Psal. 69.20 Hebr. 11.36 By slandering even in reporting true things maliciously to the prejudice of Gods children Psalm 52. By reproaching and reviling Zeph. 2.8 By insulting with insolent speeches Ezech. 36.2 and 26.2 3. In heart by hatred Ezech. 35.5 By rejoycing in the downefall or disgrace of the Saints Ezech. 35.6 4. In gesture Ezech. 25.6 Because thou hast clapped thy hands and stamped with the feete c. Behold therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee c. Take heede of so much as looking sowre upon or brow-beating a servant of Christ lest thou smart for it Looke upon the quoted Places and you shall see Offenders in any of these kindes plagued and paide home as Persecutours of Gods people And thus let such extremely Wicked men be frighted from persecuting any way those Men or Meanes which are appointed and sanctified to furnish us with spirituall store and strength against the dayes of evill Ob. But against that which hath beene said in this Point for the singularity and soveraignty of grace and good conscience to support the Spirit of a Man in evill times to keepe it calme in the most tempestuous assaults and conquering over all commers it may bee objected and some may thus cavill Men who never were or ever did desire to bee acquainted with Gods grace or good men expresse sometimes and represent to By-standers an invincible stoutnesse much boldnesse and bravenesse of minde in times of greatest extremitie and under most exquisite tortures and therefore it seemes not to be peculiar to the Saints and the priviledge of Gods Favourites alone to stand unshaken in stormy times undaunted in distresse and comfortable amidst the most desperate confusions Answ. I answere Such confidence is onely in the face not in the heart enforced not kindly affected not effectuall not springing from the sole Fountaine of all sound and lasting comfort in humane Soules sense of our reconciliation to God in Christ but from some other odde accidentall Motives from Weake and unworthy grounds 1. In some from an ambitious affectation of admiration and applause for extraordinary undauntednesse of spirit and high resolution It is reported of an Irish Traitour that lying in horrible anguish upon the Wheele an Engine of cruellest torture with his body bruis'd and his bones broken asked his friend standing by whether he changed countenance at all or no. Affecting more as it seemes an Opinion of prodigious manlinesse and
Iesus Christ c. But who doe you thinke now are the true and great fooles of the world And who are likeliest one day to groane for anguish of Spirit and say within themselves This was hee whom wee had sometimes in derision and a Proverbe of reproch Wee fooles accounted His life madnesse and His end to bee without honour Now is hee numbred among the Children of God and His Lot is among the Saints Therefore haue we erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the Sun of righteousnesse hath not rose upon us wee wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction yea wee have gone through deserts where there lay no way But as for the way of the Lord wee have not knowne it What hath pride profited us Or what good hath riches with our vanting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a post that hasted by c. Nay and yet further besides the extraordinarinesse of the iniquity folly in refusing Christ freely offered it shall most certainely bee hereafter plagued with extremest tormenting fury and most desperate gnashing of teeth For with what infinite horrour and restlesse anguish will this conceit rent a Mans heart in pieces and gnaw upon His Conscience when Hee considers in Hell that Hee hath lost Heaven for a lust and whereas Hee might at every sermon had even the Son of God His husband for the very taking and have lived with Him for ever in unspeakeable Blisse yet neglecting so great salvation must now crying out therefore continually against Himselfe as the most raging Bedlam that ever breathed lie in unquenchable flames without remedy ease or end It is the highest honour that can be imagined and a Mystery of greatest amazement that ever was that the Sonne of God should make sute unto sinfull Soules to be their Husband And yet so it is Hee stands at the doore and knocks if you will give Him entrance Hee will bring Himselfe and Heaven into your hearts We are Christs Ambassadours as though God did beseech you by us Wee pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God Wee are Christs spokes-men that I may so speake to Wooe and Winne you unto Him Now what can you say for your selves that you stand out Why come you not in If the Divell would give you leave to speake out and in plaine termes One would say I had rather bee damned then leave my drunkennesse Another I love the world better then Iesus Christ A third I will not part with my easie and gainefull trade of Vsury for the treasure hid in the field And so on So that upon the matter you must needs all confesse that you hereby judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life that you are wilfull bloody Murderers of your owne Soules that you commit such a wickednesse that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth cry shame upon you for it Nay and if you go on without repentance you may expect that the Hellish gnawing of Conscience for this one sinne of refusing Christ may perhaps hold scale with the Vnited horrors of all the rest What is the matter I marvell that you will not entertaine the Match If wee stand upon honour and noble family Hee that makes love and sute unto our soules hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords If upon beauty Heare how hee is described Cant. 5. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest of ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his lockes are bushie and blacke as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with milke and fitly set His cheekes are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers His lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe His hands are as the gold rings set with the Berill His belly is as bright Ivory overlaid with Saphires His legs are as pillars of marble set upon Sockets of fine gold His countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea hee is altogether lovely Now you must understand that the Spirit of God by these outward beauties and braveries labours in some measure to shadow out and represent unto us the incomparable excellency of inward graces the dignity the glory the spirituall fairenesse of Iesus Christ that wee may know that Hee is wholly and altogether lovely delectable and precious If upoâ— ease and contentment Hee can lead us to fulnesse of joy and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore If wee desire honorable Alliance Hee will bring us to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect If we stand upon wealth we shall haue all things with him which is a large Possession If we respect love Greater love hath no Man then this that a Man lay downe His life for his friends And hee being the brightnesse of His Fathers glory and the expresse image of his person came downe from his bosome the well-spring of immortality and blisse the fulnesse of joy and that unapprocheable light into an House of flesh upon this base and miserable earth Hee passed thorow a life full of all manner vexations miseries persecutions indignities slanders speaking against of Sinners c. He was so prodigiously slandered that they said Hee had a divell Whereas the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelled in him bodily Hee was cunningly hunted long and at last violently haled by a Packe of Hell-hounds to a cruell and bloody death which for the extremity and variety of paines for the enraged spight of the executioners for the innocency and excellency of the Person suffering the like never was shall or can bee endured His passions were such so bitter and unsupportable that they would have made any meere creature to have sunke downe under the burden of them to the bottome of Hell Hee was tortured extremely and suffered grievous things both in Body and Soule from Heaven Earth and Hell His blessed Body was given up as an Anvile to bee beaten upon by the violent and villanous hands of wretched Miscreants without all measure or mercy untill they had left no one part free from some particular and speciall torment His skin and flesh were â—ent with scourges His hands and feet pierced with nailes His head with thornes His very heart with the speare point All His senses all his parts indeed His whole sacred body was made a rufull spectacle to Angels and to Men of all the most base and barbarous vsage which malice could devise and cruelty execute But all this yet was but a shadow of His suffering the substance of His suffering was the Agony of His Soule Give mee any affliction save the affliction of the mind For
as upon an unsavoury rotten Carrion Thou and the World must bee as two dead carcasses upon one Beere without any delightfull mutuall commerce or enter-course strangers and starke dead one unto another in respect of thy any further trading with the vanities thereof For keeping a good conscience standing on Gods side and Christs sake Thou must deny thy Selfe Thy worldly wisedome carnall reason corrupt affections Thy acceptation with the World favour of great Ones credit and applause with the most Thy passions profit pleasures possibility of rising and growing great Thy nearest friends dearest companions ease liberty life and grow by little and little into Hesters most noble and invincible resoluâ—ion ever when doing Gods will threatneth any earthly danger And if I perish I perish But not to perish so is everlastingly to perish and so to perish is to bee saved for ever Thou must thus resolve upon this Selfe-deniall when Thou first enters into Profession or else thou wilt never bee able to hold out in thy spirituall Building or conquer in the Christian Warfare See and consider the occasion and how earnestly Christ enioynes it Matth. 16.24 c. Luk. 14.24 c. and presses it with two Parables But all will come to naught and thou cursedly conclude in open Aposâ—acy grosse Hypocrisie or Selfe-deceiving Formalitie Consider the young Man in the Gospell Hee came hastily unto Iesus Christ and would needs bee His Disciple and follower upon the sudden But alas Hee did wofully mistake Little did he know neither indeed would know what belonged unto it That the servant of such an heavenly Master must bee no earth-worme That every one of his Disciples must take up their crosse and follow him For his sake part with any thing every thing bee it riches honours credit pleasures c. And therefore when once Christ for the triall of his heart had bid Him go and sell that he had c. Hee had soone done Hee was quickly gone Now had this young Man gone away without this Lesson Hee had gone away a Disciple as well as any other and perhaps as iolly a Professour as the forwardest of them all and that both in his owne strong opinion and charitable mis-conceite of the rest who were true of heart As Iudas did a long time and the foolish Virgines all their life long Too many such Professours as Hee would have prooved are to bee found even in this Noone-tide of the Gospell abroad in the World who beeing at their first entrance into Profession not soundly humbled nor laying a sure foundation not resolved upon an universall Selfe-deniall nor weighing with due fore-cast what it will cost them doe afterward behave themselves thereafter upon any gainefull occasion greater triall and temptation or beeing put to it indeed They are wont from time to time to discover their rottennesse open the mouthes of the prophane and shame all They are like unto Reeds which in a calme stand bolt upright and seeme stiffe and strong but let a tempest breake-in upon them and they bend any way While their temporall state is untoucht their outward happinesse unhazarded they seeme resolute thorow and couragious but let a storme of persecution bee raised against them Let them bee put into a great fright that if they stand to it they may bee undone c. And then they cowardlily hide their heads pull in the hornes as they say and shamefully shrinke in the wetting unhappily holding it better to sleepe in a whole skinne then with a good conscience Like the Eagle they soare aloft with many goodly religious shewes and representations but they still keepe their eye upon the Prey and therefore when advantage is offered they will basely stoope from forwardnesse honesty generosity humanity any thing to seize upon a worldly commodity office honour some earthly pelfe and transitory Nothing Some of these after Profession for some time fall quite away from it and turne Epicures or Worldlings if not Scorners and Persecutors Others hold-on in a plodding course of formall Christianity all their life long and at last depart this life like the foolish Virgins and in that formall manner I told you of before Neither be thou dis-heartned with this counsell of leaving all for Christ. For thou shalt bee no loser but a great gainer thereby Besides eternall life in the World to come Thou shalt receive an hundred-fold now in this time as Christ Him selfe tells thee Mark 10.30 If thou part with worldly ioies thou shalt have quiet in the holy Ghost spirituall joy unspeakable and glorious neerer familiarity with God deerer coÌ„munion with Iesus Christ c. To which the pleasures of ten thousand Worlds were they all extant were but extremest paine If thou lose thine Husband He that made thee will be in his stead unto Thee Thy Maker is thine Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name If thou lose thy Father The Al-sufficient Iehouah blessed for ever will pitty thee as a Father pittieth his Children If thou lose thy friends and the worlds favour Thou shalt have all and the onely excellent upon earth to love Thee dearely and to pray heartily for Thee In a word If thou lose all for Christs sake Hee will bee unto Thee All in All And in Him all things shall be thine in a farre more sweet and eminent manner All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come All are yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods 6. When the spirituall Physition shall see the soile of his Patients heart well softned with sorrow for sinne comfortably warmed with refreshing beames of fauour from the face of Christ and so seasonably fitted for to enter a Christian course and to bring forth fruits meete for repentance let him throw-in some timely seedes of Zeale holy precisenesse undaunted courage and unshaken resolution about the affaires of Heaven and in the cause of God from such quickning Scriptures and excellent examples as these Luk. 13.24 Rom. 12.11 12. Ephes. 5.15 Phil. 1.10.11 Matth. 11.12 Revel 3.16 Ruth 4.11 Esth. 4.16 Nehem. 6.11 1. King 22.14 Heb. 11.24.25 1. Sam. 20.32 Acts 21.13 c. That it may bee happily preserved from the ranke and flourishing but rotten and fruitlesse weede of formality and luke-warmenesse Which pestilent Canker if it once take roote in the heart it will never suffer the Herbe of grace if I may so speake the heavenly unfading flowers of saving grace to grow by it while the world stands Nay and will proove one of the strongest bolts to barre them out and the most boysterous cart-rope to pull-downe extraordinary vengeance upon the head of the Party For as a loathsome vomite is to the stomacke of him that casts it out so are luke-warme Professours to the Lord Iesus Reuel 3.16 I marvaile many times what such men meane and what worship service and obedience they would have the
gracious acceptation and intertainement at his Throne of Grace That it is naturall also to his Name To forgive iniquity transgression and sinne That is sinnes of all sorts kindes and degrees whatsoever There is none so hatefull and hainous whether naturall corruption or ordinary outward transgression or highest presumption but upon repentance God is most able ready and willing to remit it 7. God the Fathers compassionate pangs of infinite affection and forwardnesse to entertaine into his armes of mercy all true Penitents As I live sayth the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way and live turne yee turne yee from your evill wayes for why will yee die O house of Israell Ezech. 33.11 Woe unto thee O Ierusalem wilt thou not bee made cleane When shall it once be Ier. 13.27 They say if a man put away his wife and shee goe from him and become another mans shall hee returne to her againe Shall not that Land be greatly polluted But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet returne againe to mee sayth the Lord Ier. 3.1 Oh that my people had hearkned unto mee and Israel had walked in my waies I would soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever Hee should have fed them also with the finest of the wheate and with honey out of the rocke should I have satisfyed thee Psal. 81. O that thou hadst hearkned to my commandements then had thy peace been as a River and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the Sea Thy seed also had been as the sand and the off-spring of thy howells like the gravell thereof his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before mee Isa. 48.18 8. His mercifull almightinesse in putting life and lightsomnesse into the most dead and darkest heart Seeke him saith the Prophet that maketh the seven Starres and Orion and turneth the shâ—dow of death into the morning Amos 5.8 Suppose thou sâ—ttest thy selfe to seeke Gods face and favour and art presently set upon with this temptation But alas My soule is so blacke with sinne and darke with sorrow that it is to no purpose for mee to proceed c. But now in this case consider who Hee is that thou seekest it is He that made of nothing those beautifull shining glorious constellations Orion and the Pleiades and nothing in the world is darker then nothing Hee is Hee that turneth the darkest midnight into the brightest morning c. 9. Christs sweetest dearest most melting invitations of all truly troubled soules for sinne unto the Well of life and their owne everlasting wellfare Come unto mee all yee that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11.28 O Ierusalem Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings c. Mat. 23.37 And when hee was come neare hee beheld the City and wept over it saying Oh if thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace Luke 19.41.42 In the last day the great Day of the Feast Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to mee and drinke 10. Precedents in Gods Booke of many hainous and horrible sinners received to mercy upon their humiliation As Eve Magdalen Paul Zacheus Sodomits 1. Cor. 6.9.11 Crucifiers of Christ. Acts. 2. 11. Experience perhaps of the Comforter converted from a more wicked and desperate course then the Patient himselfe And it doth not a little refresh the heart of him who grievosly wounded in conscience and thereupon sending for a skillfull and faithfull Messenger of God and when he hath opened his Case fully unto him to heare him say when he hath sayd all My Case was farre worse then yours every way Nay but besides those notorious sins I have named unto you I have defiled my selfe with many secret execrable lusts Be it so saith the spirituall Physition yet in the daies of my vanity I have been guilty of moe and more hainous crimes then any you have yet spoken of Yea but even now when I have most need of should most prize reverence and lay hold upon Gods blessed Word Son and Promises I am pestilently pestered with many abhorred villanous and prodigious injections about them Not a man alive replies the Man of God hath had his head troubled with more hideous thoughts of such hellish nature then I c. 12. That pretious Parable Luk. 15. wherein all those loving passages of the Father unto his prodigall Son to wit His beholding him when hee was yet a great way off his compassion running towards him falling upon his necke kissing him putting on him the best Robe and the Ring killing the fatted Calfe c. doe shadow that immeasurable incomprehensible love of God the Father to every one that is willing to come out of the Divels cursed service into the good way But come as farre short of expressing it to the life as the infinite greatnesse of Almighty God surpasseth the finite frailty of a weake man and worme of the earth 2. In a second place Let us take a view of some of those most delicious and sweetest streames of dearest comfort which spring abundantly out of that fruitfull Fountaine of compassion and love Psal. 103.13 Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him See also Deutâ—r 8.5 Malac. 3.17 Hence may wee draw refreshing enough to our thirstie soules in many passages of heavy thoughts and grievous complaints about our spirituall state 1. In the distempers and damps of prayer thus Suppose the dearest Sonne of the loving'st Father to lie grievously sicke and out of the extremity of angvish to cry out and complaine unto him that hee is so full of paine in every part that hee knowes not which way to turne himselfe or what to doe and thereupon intreats him of all loves to touch him tenderly to lay him softly to mollifie all hee may his painefull misery and give him ease How ready thinke you would such a father bee with all tendernesse and care to put to his helping hand in such a ruefull case But yet if hee should grow sicker and weaker so that hee could not speake at all but onely looke his Father in the face with watery eies and moane himselfe unto him with sighes and groanes and other dumbe expressions of his increased paine and desire to speake Would not this yet strike deeper into the Fathers tender heart pierce and melt it with more feeling pangs of compassion and make his bowells yerne within him with an addition of extraordinary dearenesse and care to doe him good Even just so will thy heavenly Father bee
affected and deale with thee in hearing helping and shewing mercy when all thy strength of praier is gone but onely groanes and sighes Nay with incomparably more affectionatenesse For looke how farre God is higher then Man in Majestie and greatnesse which is by an infinite distance and disproportion so far doth he passe him in tender-heartednesse and love See Isai. 55. 8.9 Or be it so That thou art able to speak unto God and in some measure to utter thy mind yet in thy conceit it is so weakly coldly and confusedly that thou thinkes As well never a whit as never the better c. Take notice here that Gods Child is able First sometimes to poure out his soule unto his God with life and power Secondly sometimes to say something but with much coldnesse deadnesse of heart and distractednesse as he complaines without his woonted feeling and freedome of spirit Thirdly At other times he can say just nothing but groane and sigh and only desire hee could pray For this last looke upon the last passage For the second to wit when the Christian is troubled that hee can say something and speake words unto God yet it is without that order efficacy fit phrase and comming-off so comfortably as he thinks is to bee found in other Professours c. I say in this Case consider that as a Father is more delighted with the stammering stuttering as it were with the in-articulate and imperfect talke of his owne little Childe when it first begins to speake then with the exactest eloquence of the most famous Oratour upon earth so assuredly our heavenly Father is infinitely better pleased with the broken interrupted passages and periods of prayer in an upright heart heartily grieved that hee can doe no better nor offer up a more lively hearty and orderly sacrifice then with the excellently-composed fine-phrased and most methodicall petitions of the learned'st Pharisee Nay his soule extremely loathes the one and graciously accepts the other in Iesus Christ. As concerning the complaint of coldnesse bee assured that tho thy prayers proceede out of thy mouth faint and feeble cold and uncomfortable yet springing from a syncere heart purified by Faith truly humbled under Gods mighty hand for sinne seconded with groanes and griefe with an holy anger and selfe-indignation that they be not more fervent and piercing and offered in obedience unto God are most certainely as it were by the way fortified and enlived with the pacifying perfections and intercessory spirit of Iesus Christ sweetly perfumed with the precious Odours of his fresh-bleeding Merits and blessed Mediation so that they strike the eares of the Almighty with farre greater strength and irresistable importunity then is ordinarily imagined And are as sweet-smelling sacrifices in his nostrils The very sight of whose crucified Sonne at his right hand tendering the suite can calme his most angry countenance and convert by a sacred meritorious attonement his displeasures and wrath into compassions and peace Now blessed bee God that the weake prayers and broken sighes of tempted and troubled spirits have this happy promise and prerogative That before they presse as it were into the presence of God the Father they are mingled in the meane time with the soveraigne and satisfactory incense in the golden censer whence evaporating out of the Angels hand I meane the Angel of the Covenant for so the truest Interpreters understand the place they ascend into the sight of our gracious Father incorporated and enwoven as it were into that pretious and pleasing fume And that it pleaseth the blessed Spirit in the needefull time of spirituall extremities to draw the petitions of our sometimes speechlesse heavy and distracted hearts Iesus Christ the great Angell of the Covenant to perfect perfume and present them Hee that by an excellency and title of highest honour is stiled the Hearer of praiers to receive them into his mercifull hand and bosome of compassionate acceptation Goe on then poore soule Thou that sorely â—roopes under the sensible waight of thy manifold weakenesses and unworthinesse this way and thereupon sometimes sinfully drawes back with some thoughts of giving-over quite which is that the Divel desires and would utterly undoe thee forever presse forward in the name of Christ unto the Throne of Grace with a lighter heart then thou art wont Shall the Lord Iesus call and cry for a Pardon for those who put him to death who were so farre from seeking unto him that like so may Evening Wolves they sought and suckt his blood and will hee shut his eares thinkes thou from thy complaints and groanes who values one drop of his blood to quench thy spirituall thirst at an higher price then the worth of many Worlds Comfort thy selfe invincibly It cannot bee 2. In the faintnesse of Faith and want of feeling Thou beholdest sometimes a Father holding a little Childe in his armes now whether dost thou thinke is the Child safe by it's owne or by the Fathers hold It claspes about the Father with it's little weake hands as well as it can but the strength of it's safety is in the Fathers arme Nay and the Father holds the faster when at any time hee perceives the Child to have left it's hold Thou art tied as it were unto Christ by a double bond first of the Spirit and secondly of Faith Thou layest hold on Christ by Faith and hee holds thee by his Spirit Now thy Infant Faith or after some good standing in Christianity weakened and sorely wounded in thy present feeling hath lost it's hold-fast And therefore thou thinkes all is gone and walkes dejectedly and uncomfortably as tho not any promise in Gods Booke or drop of Christs Blood were thine c. But assure thy selfe being sound at the heart roote and walking in the light as God is in the light thy heavenly Father in this Case holds thee so fast by his Spirit that no Man or Divell not all the powers of darkenesse or gates of hell can possibly plucke thee out of his hand Nay the excellency of his power is most gloriously improoved and made more illustrious in thy greatest extremities and extremest spirituall weakenesse And hee holds it his highest honour to hold thee the fastest when thy hold is gone Heere then and upon this ground thou hast a Calling and maâ—st comfortably for hee is ever most loving and tender hearted in times of temptation to all that are true of heart exercise that most excellent act of faith To beleeve without feeling To beleeve when the face of God doth shine upon thee with sensible refreshing and when thou enjoyest plentifull and pregnant proofes of his favour is no great matter no such maistery But then to beleeue when all sense of Gods love is gone and the light of his countenance hid from thee when all goe quite crosse and contrary in the apprehension of carnall reason then is the highest praise this is the perfection of faith The very dull senselesse
pith and marrow of some Scripture-text at another time wraflle with the difficulties and knotty distinctions of some Popish or Neo-pelagian controversie At another discusse and drive unto a resolution some perplexed and intricate Case of Conscience c. Well then for my purpose this supposed Vpon the very first Proposall of these monstrous and hideous thoughts presently divert and resort to the hardest of all those irons thou hast in the fire if I may so speake and that which hath neede of most hammering I meane to the most difficult and waighty Points of all those severall spirituall businesses thou hadst last in thy braine and single out that particular which did most puzzle and put thy understanding to it Where-abouts when the strength heat and intension of thy whole soule is spent and improoved not onely other impertinent wandrings and vagaries but these idle and irkesome injections also will more easily vanish and bee gone Let others also proportionably upon such occasions besides other helpes have recourse to the most troublesome and over-mastering part of their honest imploiments to the chiefest and needefullest affaire of their lawfull Callings 5. In temptations of this nature never set thy selfe to dispute with the Divell hee is an old Sophister of above five thousand yeares standing in the Schoole of hideous temptations and hellish policies and thou art but a Novice Hee hath many Methods Devices and Depths which thy shallow fore-cast cannot possibly fathome Direct opposition by reasons and replies stirreth up the out-ragious Blasphemour to grow more furious And hereby we give him greater advantage more matter of molestation and mischiefe and may so plunge our selves further into an intricate maze of horrour and confused distractions Our blessed Captaine Christ Iesus may bee a patterne for us in this Point When hee was tempted to fall downe and worship Satan hee reasoneth not the Case but repells him with vehement extraordinary detestation and disdaine Avoid Satan It will therefore bee our best wisedome at such a time to turne from him and as Hezekiah spread his blasphemous letter so to lay open his fury before the Lord crying mightily unto him and intreating him even for his owne honours sake to vindicate the purity of his great Majesty and excellency of his unspotted glory from this hellish filth and horrible villany of his damned vilest Creature That he would cast it as dung upon the Tempters face and in the Passion and Blood of Christ free fully and for ever our poore soules trembling under the hideousnesse of his malice and cruelty from the guilt staine terrour and assault of all such abhorred and pâ—â—odigeous blasphemie In that other terrible temptation also to Selfe-murther many much wrong themselves this way In managing this fierie dart the Adversary deales by way of argument too and presses reasons such as they are upon the temted sometimes extremely absurd especially if the party bee something more simple and ignorant sometimes exceedingly suttle if hee bee of better understanding and capacity As thus It is soone done and the paine quickely past Thou art like thus to languish and lie in misery all thy life long The longer thou livest the larger will bee the score of thy sinnes and so thy torments in hell more horrible hereafter If it be once done it will appeare to have bin Gods decree and I hope thou wilt not oppose the accomplishment of that Do what thou canst thou wilt bee damned when all is done c. Now in this Case if thou debate the matter with the Divell and begin to confer thou art like enough to be more and more confounded and intangled with inextricable astonishments and danger to bee utterly undone and suddenly blowne up by the mine of his soule-murdering sophistry But if according to the precedency and practise of thy Lord Master who hath begun unto thee in this bitter Cup is afflicted in all thy afflictions and ever stands by thee as a victorious commander and conquerour in all such assaults first abominate and beate backe this base and bloody motion with infinite indignation and loathing Avant Satan And then immediately lay hold on the sword of the Spirit and keepe him at the point of it and then assuredly all the Divells in Hell cannot hurt thee Tell him that against his vile and villanous suggestion and all the subtilties and sophistry with which hee seconds it this is thy onely answere even the precise holy and everlasting countermand of his and thy Creatour the mighty Lord of heaven and earth Thou shalt not kill Now if it bee a crimson and crying sinne the most deadly opposite and desperate cut-throate of charity to kill an other and fastneth such a deepe and inexpiable staine upon the face of a whole Kingdome that it cannot bee razed out but by the blood of him that shed it How execrable and hainous then is this and what depth of Hell and height of horrour doth that abhorred Miscreant deserve and may expect who makes away himselfe For the Rule of charity whereby wee love one another is proportioned by that charity whereby a man loues himselfe If the Divell bee able to dissolve and disanull the most absolute perfect and just Law of the most High who tho all other things besides are something in possibilitie which as yet they are not in act yet himselfe is actually and everlastingly whatsoever hee may bee and cannot hereafter be that which now hee is not and so by consequent is with out all variablenesse or shadow of turning I say if the Prince of darkenesse can reverse this Law of the Father of Lights Thou shalt not murder thou maist well say thou wilt then thinke of an other answer But till that bee which is more then infinitely impossible ever to come to passe thou wilt rather lie in the miseries of Hell upon earth which indeed were incomparably better then breaking Gods blessed Law goe downe into the grave in a bloody coffin made by thy owne hands onely at the Divels bidding Can this madnesse ever bee matched for a man besides Selfe-severing the soule from his body before the time by a more hainous and un-naturall villany then murthering of his owne father for every man is naturally next unto himself and sending it suddenly all goare-blood by becomming his owne Butcher and hangman unto the dreadfull Tribunall of the all-powerfull God the most certaine and severe Revenger of all bloodshed to bring also abundance of unnecessary shame griefe and hopelesse mourning upon Friends Kindred Husband ChildreÌ„ Parents a reproachfull staine and brand upon House Name Buriall Posterity c. And that meerely at the instance and upon the most absurd ridiculous and senselesse suggestion of the Arch-murtherer thy mortall and immortall enemy against sense reason nature religion Scripture Gods direct command to the contrary even Heathen Philosophy Heaven and Earth 6. Avoid idlenesse solitarinesse and too much secrecy three maine advantages for the adversary which
he watchfully apprehending and plying industriously workes a world of mischiefe upon afflicted soules in their spirituall miseries Idlenesse laies a man open to all hellish snares and temptations makes the heart like unmanured ground fit for nothing but the wildest and rankest weedes of lust luxury lewd company the universall inordinatenes of Originall corruption to domineere rage and doe what it will Like standing Pooles naturally prepared and pregnant to breed and feed the vermine and venome of vilest thoughts and un-naturall filth Like Thorow-faires for Satans most hideous and horrible injections to wander and walke up and downe in without restraint or remedy Solitarinesse besides it's native propertie and power to make sad increase melancholy and aggravate feares doth in this Case more then any bring an heavie Woe Woe to him that is alone For if the weake Christian fall hee hath not another to help him up He may there be surprised yeeld and foil'd before he get into such company which might happily have prevented it or supported him in the temptation Too much secrecy and concealement may cause the wound of a terrified conscience to bleed inward rankle fester and grow desperate whereas seasonable discovery might have cured and comforted it Horrour arising from the apprehension of such uncouth and monstrous thoughts kept close and dam'd up in the mans owne brest may swell so high that the poore soule may bee in great danger to bee wofully drowned and over-whelmed by it which had it had vent be time eased and emptied it selfe into some holy and faithfull bosome might by divine and discreete counsell by little and little dried up quite I have knowne him who did bite in and keepe close in his bosome this temptation of blasphemie the space of about twenty yeares All which while the Divell did tyrannize extremely and keep him almost in continuall terrour Hee thought there was never man had such vile and prodigious thoughts as hee And if the World knew what they were hee should bee abhorr'd as a monster of men and the loathsommest creature upon earth most worthy to bee utterly exterminated and rooted out of the society and confines of Mankinde And hereupon many and many a time when hee apprehended any opportunity or had any meanes offered to make himself a way he was tempted there unto principally upon this ground that it was pitty such an horrible Blasphemer for so he supposed should any longer breathe But at last hearing the nature manner and remedy of these hideous injections discovered by the Ministery afterward privately informing himselfe further and more fully from Gods Messenger was happily taken of the racke for the time to come and most wonderfully refreshed And therefore take heede of keeping the Divels counsell The tempted in this kinde may doe well to bee still conversant in religious duties honest workes of their lawfull Callings company of skillfull experienced Soule physitions or one or other comfortable imploiment 7. Settle in thy heart a peremptory impregnable resolution never to entertaine any conceit of that great Majesâ—y and glory above of the most holy and ever-blessed Trinity or any thing there-about but such onely as is revealed and represented unto thee in Gods Booke Whatsoever is objected by carnall reason to the contrary or injected by the Divell any wayes to deprave the divinenesse of that glorious Truth ought to bee rejected as cursed false and execrable And therefore when that hellish Nimrod shall at any time hunt and chase thine affrighted soule with these blasphemous Hell-hounds bee sure ever to take Sanctuary in the Oracles of God and keepe thee close and safe under this Covert Whatsoever is not comprehended within the Confines of that sacred Pale warranted by holy Writ the soveraigne Touch-stone of all heavenly Truth let it bee abhorred and retorted as dung upon the face of the Tempter That sense and apprehension of the Deity and divine things which is not suckt from the brests of the two Testaments is in this regard to bee reputed ranke poyson repelled and abominated with infinite indignation and disdaine And for further helpe herein when thou findest thy selfe thus followed with the violent and incessant incursions of this furious folly call often and seriously to minde that accursed brand which the Booke of God hath set upon the Adversary that hee is the Father of lies and let that still continue a more resolute rejection and contempt of whatsoever comes from him Suppose a raging Bedlam should follow thee up and downe all the day long and tell thee that thy father or speciall friend were a Stone a Bird a Tree a Toade or whatsoever is viler or more absurd would'st thou hereupon entertaine and harbour in thy minde any mis impression or monstrous perswasion of the party I trow not onely his senselesse clamour and restlesse raving would be very â—â—kesome troublesome and un-welcome especially sith thou art furnished with a cleare demonstrative light out of naturall Philosophy that hee is a reasonable Creature and thy selfe sees in him the face and favour the shape and proportion of a Man Proportionably Satan that bloody Bedlam of Hell out of that madnes at which Heaven and Earth may stand amazed solicites thee to admit such and such horrible and hideous conceits of thy dearest Lord his Sonne and sacred Word Ah cursed Fiend that ever thou shouldest discover such prodigious malice against thy glorious Maker Now God infinitely forbid that this should cause the least alteration or any diminution at all of thy lowliest most reverent adoring and divinest thoughts of so great a God For have but recourse to the holy Records of all sound supernaturall and saving knowledge I meane the Word of life with which thou oughtest to consult and to which onely thou art confind in this Case and thou shalt finde him to bee Onely one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodnâ—sse the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unitie of this Godhead there to bee three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost And besides thou mayst graspe as it were and feele betweene thy fingers as they say even in every Creature His greatnesse and goodnesse Majesty and might power and providence In the glorious Lights of heaven saith a noble Writer wee perceive a shaddow of his divine countenance in his provision for all that live his manifold goodnesse And lastly in creating and making existent the World universall by the absolute Art of his owne Word his power and Almightinessâ— which Power Light Vertue Wisdome and Goodnesse being alâ— but Attributes of one simple Essence and one God wee in all admire and in part discerne per speculum creaturarum that is in the disposition order and variety of Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies Terrestriall in their strange and manifold diversities Celestiall in