least slip to no lesse then hell Yet there are certaine favourable temperaments of circumstances which may if not excuse yet extenuate a fault such as age complexion custome profit importunity necessity which are justly pleadable at the barre both of God and the conscience and are sufficient to rebate the edge of divine severity p. 335. March the 14. 1646. I Have perused this Treatise intituled Satans fiery darts quenched in which I find so many excellent helps for the strengthning of the Christians faith the repelling of Temptations and the comforting of afflicted consciences in the day of triall that I judge it well worthy to be printed and published JOHN DOWNAME TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The first Decade Temptations of Impiety Satans fiery darts quenched I. DECADE I. TEMPTATION Foolish sinner thou leanest upon a broken reed whiles thou reposest all thy trust in a crucified Saviour Repelled BLasphemous Spirit It is not the ignominy of the Crosse that can blemish the honour of my Saviour Thou feelst to thy endlesse pain and regret that he who would die upon the tree of shame hath triumph't victoriously over death and all the powers of hell The greater his abasement was the greater is the glory of his mercy He that is the eternall God would put on man that he might work mans redemption and satisfie God for man Who but a man could suffer and who but a God could conquer by suffering It is man that had sinned it is God that was offended who but he that was God man could reconcile God unto man He was crucified through weaknesse yet he liveth and triumpheth in the power of his omnipotent God-head Neither was it so much weaknesse to yeeld unto death as it was power to vanquish it yea in this very dying there was strength For here was no violence that could force him into his grave who should offer it I and the Father are one saith that word of Truth and in Unity there can be no constraint And if the persons be divers He thought it no robbery to be equall with God the Father and there is no authority over equals and for men or Devils what could they do to the Lord of life I lay down my life saith the Almighty redeemer that I might take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to â—â—ke it againe Oh infinitenesse both of power and mercy met in the center of a willing death Impudent tempter doest thou not remember thine owne language The time was indeed when thou couldst say If thou be the Son of God but when thou foundest thy self quelled by that divine power and saw'st those miraculous works fall from him which were only proper to an infinite God-head now thou wert forced to confesse I know who thou art even the holy one of God and againe Jesus the Son of the most high God and yet againe What have we to do with thee Jesus the Son of God art thou come to torment us before the time Lo then even in the time of his humane weakness thou couldst with horrour enough acknowledge him the Sonne of the most high God and dar'st thou now that he sits crowned with celestiall glory disparage his ever-blessed Deity Thy malice hath raised up as in the former so in these later daies certaine cursed imps of hereticall pravitie who under the name of Christians have wickedly re-crucified the Lord that bought them not sparing to call into question the eternall Deity of him whom they dare call Saviour whom if thou hadst not steeled with an hellish impudence certainly they could not professe to admit the word written and yet the whiles deny the personall Word How clear testimony doth the one of them give to the other when thou presumedst to set upon the Son of God by thy personall temptations he stopt thy mouth with a Scriptum est how much more shall these Pseudo-Christian agents of thine be thus convinced Surely there is no truth wherein those Oracles of God have beene more clear and punctuall Are we not there required to beleeve in him as God upon the promise of eternall life under the paine of everlasting condemnation Are we not commanded to baptize in his name as God Is not the holy Ghost given as a seale to that baptisme Are we not charged to give divine honour to him Is not this required and reported to be done not only by the Kings of the earth but by the Saints and Angels in heaven Is he not there declared to be equall with God Is he not there asserted to be one with the Father Doth he not there challenge a joynt right with the Father in all things both in heaven and earth Are not the great works of divine power attributed to him Hath not he created the earth and man upon it have not his hands stretched out the heavens hath not he commanded all their host Are not all the Attributes of God his Is he not eternall Is it not he of whom the Psalmist Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdome is a right scepter Is not he the Father of eternity the first and the last have not his goings forth been from everlasting Had not he glory with the Father before the world was Is not he the Word which was in the beginning the word that was with God and the word that was God Is he not infinite and incomprehensible Is it not he that filleth all things that was in heaven whiles he was on earth Is he not Almighty even the mighty God who upholds all things by the word of his power Yea is he not expresly stiled the Lord Jehovah The Lord of hosts God blessed for ever The true God and eternall life The great God and Saviour The Lord of glory Hath he not abundantly convinced the world of his Godhead by those miraculous works which he did both in his owne person whiles he was here on earth and by the hands of his followers works so transcending the possibility of nature that they could not be wrought by any lesse then the God of nature as ejecting of Devils by command raising the dead after degrees of putrefaction giving eyes to the borne blind conquering death in his own resuscitation ascending gloriously into heaven charming the winds and waters healing diseases by the very shadow of his transient disciples Yea tell me by what power was it that thine Oracles wherby all the world was held in superstition were silenced What-power whereby the Gospel so opposite to flesh and bloud hath conquered the world and in spight of all the violence of Tyrants and oppugnation of rebellious nature hath prevailed Upon all these grounds how can I do lesse then cry our with the late-believing
not the great day of the Lord shall the all-wise and righteous Arbiter of the world decree and reverse Hath he not from eternity determined and set this day Wherein we must all appear before the judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evill That there is therefore such a day of the Lord in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up wherein the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God is no lesse certaine then that there is an heaven from whence he shall descend All thy cavill is concerning the time Thou and thine are ready to say with the evill servant in the Gospell my Master defers his comming And was not this wicked suggestion of thine foretold many hundred yeares agoe by the prime Apostle and by the same pen answered Hath he not told thee that our computations of time are nothing to the infinite That one day with the Lord is as a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares as one day Hath he not told us that this mis-construed slacknesse is in mans vaine opinion not in Gods performance He is slack to man that coms not when he is lookt for he is really slack that comes not when he hath appointed to come Had the Lord broken the day which he hath set in his everlasting counsel thou mightst have some pretence to cavill at his delay but now that he onely overstayes the time of our misgrounded expectation â—he doth not slacken his pace but correct our errour It is true that Christians began to look for their Saviour betimes insomuch as the blessed Apostles were fayne to perswade their eyes not to make such haste putting them in mind of those great occurrences of remarkable change that must befall the Church of God in a generall apostasie the revelation of the great Antichrist before that great day of his appearance And the prime Apostle sends them to the last dayes which are ours for those scoffers which shall say Where is the promise of his comming If they lookt for him too soon we cannot expect him too late He that is Amen will be sure to be within his owne time when that comes he that should come will come and not tarry In the meane while not onely in the just observation of his owne eternall decree but in much mercy doth he prolong his returne mercy to his elect whose conversion he waits for with infinite patience it is for their sake that the world stands The Angel that was sent to destroy Sodom could tell Lot that he could doe nothing till that righteous man were removed no sooner was Lot entred into Zoar then Sodome is on a flame mercy even to the wicked that they may have ample leisure of repentance Neither is it any small respect that the wise and holy God hath to the exercise of the faith and hope and patience of his deare servants upon earth faith in his promises hope of his performances and patience under his delayes whereof there could be no use in a speedy retribution In vaine therefore dost thou who fearest this glorious Judge will come too soone go about to perswade me that he will not come at all I beleeve and know by all the foregoing signes of his appearance that he is now even at the threshold Lo he commeth he commeth for the consummation of thy torment and my joy I expect him as my Saviour tremble thou at him as thy Judge who shall fully repay to thee al those blasphemies which thine accursed mouth hath dared to utter against him VII TEMPTATION If there must be a resurrection and a judgment yet God is not so rigid an exactor as to call thee to account for every petty sin those great Sessions are for hainous malefactors God is too mercifull to condemn thee for small offences be not thou too rigorous to thy self in denying to thy selfe the pleasure of some harmelesse sinnes Repelled FAlse tempter there is not the least of those harmelesse sinnes which thou wilt not be ready to aggravate against me one day before the dreadfull tribunall of that infinite justice those that are now small will be then hainous and hardly capable of remission thy suggestions are no meet measures of the degrees of sin It is true that there are some sinnes more grievous then others there are faults there are crimes there are flagitious wickednesses If some offences be foule others are horrible and some others irremissible but that holy God against whose onely majesty sin can be committed hath taught me to call no sin small The violation of that Law which is the rule of good cannot but be evill and betwixt good and evill there can be no lesse then an in finite disproportion It is no smal proofe of thy cunning that thou hast suborned some of thy religious panders to proclaime some sinnes veniall and such as in their very nature merit pardon Neither thou nor they shall be Casuists for me who have heard my God say Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Sin must be greater or lesse according to the value of the command against which it is committed there is as my Saviour hath rated it a least Commandement and there are mo points then one in that least Command now the Spirit of truth hath told me that whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all And shall he that is guilty of the breach of the whole Law escape with such ease I am sure a greater Saint then I can ever hope to be hath said If I sin thou markest me and wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity and old Eli as indulgent as he was to his wicked sonnes could tell them If one man sin against another the Judge shall judg him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him What need is there thou sayest of any intreaty Gods mercy is such that he will pardon thy sinnes unasked neither will he ever stick at small faults Malignant spirit how fain wouldst thou have Gods mercy and justice clash together but thou shalt as soon wind thy selfe out of the power of that justice and put thy selfe into the capacity of that mercy as thou shalt set the least jarre between that infinite justice and mercy It is true it were wide with my soule if there were any limits to that mercy That mercy can doe any thing but be unjust it can forgive a sinner it cannot incourage him forgive him upon his penitence when he hath sinned not incourage him
mine infirmity thine infirmity sure enough O Asaph to make question of the veracity and unfailablenesse of the sure mercies and promises of the God of truth Well was it for thee that thy God not taking advantage of thy weaknesse puts forth his gracious hand and staies thee with the seasonable consideration of the years of the right hand of the most high with the remembrance of the works of the Lord and of his wonders of old these were enough to teach thee the omnipotent power the never-failing mercy of thy maker and redeemer In no other plight through the impetuousnesse of this temptation was the man after Gods owne heart whiles he cried out I was greatly afflicted I said in my haste all men are liers the men that he mis-doubted were surely no other then Gods prophets w ch had foretold him his future prosperity peaceable setlement in the throne these upon the cross occurrences he met with is he ready to censure as lyers and through their sides what doth he but strike at him that sent them But the word was not spoke in more haste then it was retracted I believed therefore I spake and then sense of mercies doth so overtake the sense of his sufferings that now he takes more care what to retribute to God for his bounty then he did before how to receive it pitches himselfe upon that firme ground of all comfort Oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid Thou hast loosed my bonds Here shall I stay my soul against all thy suggestions of distrust O thou malicious enemy of mankind building my self upon that steddy rock of Israel whose word is I am Jehovah I change not Thou tel'st me of deliverances promised yet ending in utter mis-carriages of provisions vanished into want Why dost thou not tell me that even good men die These promises of earthly favours to the godly declare to us the ordinary course that God pleaseth to hold in the dispensation of his blessings which he so ordereth as that generally they are the Lot of his faithfull ones for the incouragement and reward of their services and contrarily his judgements befall his enemies in part of payment But yet the great God who is a most free agent holds fit to leave himselfe at such liberty as that sometimes for his own most holy purposes hee may change the scene which yet he never doth but to the advantage of his owne so as the oppressions wrongs which are done to them turn favours The Hermite in the story could thank the thiefe that rob'd him of his provision for that he helpt him so much the sooner to his journies end and indeed if being stripped of our earthly goods we be stored with spirituall riches if whiles the outward man perisheth the inward man be renewed in us if for a little bootlesse honour here we be advanced to an immortall glory if we have exchanged a short and miserable life for a life eternally blessed finally if we lose earth and win heaven what cause have we to be other then thankfull whereto we have reason to adde that in all these gracious promises of temporall mercies there is ever to be understood the exception of expedient castigation and the meet portage of the Crosse which were it not to be supplied Gods children should want one of the greatest proofs of his fatherly love towards them which they can read even written in their own bloud and can blesse God in killing them for a present blessednesse So as after all thy malice Gods promises are holy his performances certain his judgments just his servants happy X. TEMPTATION Thou art more nice then needs Your preachers are too strait-laced in their opinions and make the way to heaven narrower then God ever meant it Tush man thou maist be saved in any religion Is it likely that God will be so cruell as to cast away all the world of men in the severall varieties of their professions and save only one poor handfull of reformed Christians Away with these scruples A generall belief and a good meaning will serve to bring thee to heaven without these busie disquisitions of the Articles of faith Repelled IT is not for good that thou makest such liberall tenders to my soule thou well know'st how ready mans nature is to lay hold on any just liberty that may be allowed him and how repiningly it stoops to a restraint but this which thou craftily suggestest to mee wicked spirit is not liberty it is licentiousnesse Thou tell'st me the way to heaven is as wide as the world but the spirit of truth hath taught me that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it I know there is but one truth and one life and one way to that life and I know who it was that said I am the way the truth and the life He who is one of these is all My Saviour who is life the end of that way is likewise the way that leads unto that end neither is there any way to heaven but he All that is besides him is by-pathes and errour And if any Teacher shall enlarge or straiten this way Christ let him be accursed And if any Teacher shall presume to chalk out any other way then Christ let him be accursed Tell not me therefore of the multitudes of men and varieties of religions that there are in the world If there were as many worlds as men and every of those men in those worlds were severed in religion yet I tell thee there is but one heaven and but one gate to that heaven and but one way to that gate and that one gate and way is Christ without whom therefore there can be no entrance It is thy blasphemy to charge cruelty upon God if he do not that whereof thou wouldst most complaine as the greatest loser set heaven open on all sides to whatsoever commers Even that God and Saviours which possesseth and disposeth it hath told us of a strait gate and a narrow way and few passagers In vaine dost thou move me to affect to be more charitable then my redeemer He best knows what he hath to do with that mankind for whom he hath paid so dear a price Yet to stop thy wicked mouth that way which in comparison of the broad world is narrow in it selfe hath a comfortable latitude Christ extendeth himselfe largely to a world of believers This way lies open to all no nation no person under heaven is excluded from walking in it Yea all are invited by the voice of the Gospel to tread in it and whosoever walks in it with a right foot is accepted to salvation How far it may please my Saviour to cōmunicate himselfe to men in an implicite way of beliefe and what place those generall and involved apprehensions of the redeemer may find for mercy at the
without the providence of that God who returned answer to thy proud Master the King of Assyria I know thy abode and thy going out and thy comming in and thy rage against me Thy rage and thy tumult is come up into my ears therefore I will put an hooke in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest So true is that word of Elihu His eyes are upon the waies of man and he soeth all his goings there is no darknesse nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Seconded by the holy Psalmist The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth Neither is this divine providence confined onely to man the prime peece of this visible creation but it extends it self to all the workmanship of the Almighty O. Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome hast thoumade them all the earth is full of thy riches So is the great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts these wait all upon thee that thou maist give them their meat in due season thou givest it them they gather thou openest thy hand they are filled with good The young Lyons roar after their prey and seek their meat from God The ravens neither sow nor reap noâ— have any store-house or barne yet God feedeth them The Lillies toyle not nor spâ—â— yet the great God cloaths them with more then Salomons glory Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this In whose hand is the soule of every living thing and the breath of all mankind What dost thou then O thou false spirit thinke to choak divine providence with the smalnesse and multitude of objects as if quantities or numbers could make any difference in the Infinite as if one drop of water were not all one to the Almighty with the whole deep One corne of sand with the whole masse of the earth as if that hand which graspeth the large circumference of the highest heaven could let slip the least flye or worme upon earth When thou feelest to thy paine that this eye of omniscience and this hand of power reaches even to thy neither most hell and sees and orders every of those torments wherewith thou art everlastingly punished and at pleasure puts bounds to thy malicious indevours against his meanest creatures upon earth Thou tellest me of the wickedest mens prosperity This is no new dart of thine but the same which thou hast throwne of old at many a faithfull heart Holy Job David Jeremie felt the dint of it not without danger but without hurt It is true Wicked men flourish what marvell is this The world loves his owne Doth any man wonder to see the weeds overtop the good herbes They are natives to that soyle whereto the other are but strangers Wicked men prosper It is all the heaven they are like to have and yet alas at the best it is but a wofull one how intermixed with sorrows and discontentments how full of uncertainties how certain of ruine and confusion It is a sure and sad interchange whereof Father Abraham minds the man who was now more full of torment then formerly of wealth Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The wicked man prospers but how long I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himselfe like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not I sought him but he could not be found The wicked prosper Alas their welfare is their judgement God doth not owe them so much favour as to afflict them They walk on mertily towards a deadly precipice The just God lets them alone and will not so much as molest their jollity with a painfull check The wicked thrive in the world How should they do other Mammon is the God they serve and what can he doe lesse then blesse them with a miserable advantage for thus their wealth is made to them an occasion of falling The prosperity of fools shall destroy them The wicked prosper Let me never prosper if I envy them Do not I see their day coming Do not I know that they are meerly fed up to the slaughter Wherefore do the cram'd fowles and fatted Oxen fare better then their fellows Is it out of favour or is it that they are designed to the dresser Amnon is feasted with his brethren those that serve him see death in his face Belshazzar triumphs in mirth and carouseth freely in the sacred vessels The hand writes upon the wall Thy dayes are numbred thy kingdome finished The revelling of the wicked is but a lightning before an eternall death Thou tell'st me on the the contrary that the godly are persecuted afflicted tormented It is true None knows it better then thy selfe who under the permission of the most High art the author of all their sufferings It is thou the red Dragon that standest ready to devoure the masculine issue of Gods Church It is thou that when the persecuted woman flees into the wildernesse powrest out of thy mouth after her flouds of water to drowne her It is thou that inspirest Tyrants w th rage against the innocent Saints of God and actuatest their hellish cruelty But when thou hast all done the most wise and mighty arbiter of heaven turnes all this to the advantage of his deare ones upon earth The bloud of the Martyrs doth and shall prove the seed of the Church whereof every grain yeelds thirty sixty an hundred fold Neither had the Church of God been so numerous if there had been lesse malice in thy prosecution And as for those severall Christians that have undergone the worst of thy fury they are so far from finding cause of complaint that they rejoyce and triumph in the happy issue of their intended miseries They can say to thee as Joseph said of old to his once-envious brethren Thou thoughtst evill against us but God meant it unto good they had not now sate so gloriously crowned in the highest heaven if thou hadst not persecuted them unto bloud None are so afflicted thou saist as the godly True their Saviour hath told them before hand what to trust to In the world ye shall have tribulation Have they any reason to looke for better measure then their blessed redeemer If the world hate you saith he ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Now welcome welcome that hate that is raised from our deare Saviours love and election
so divine a work whereas presumption comes with ease it costs nothing no strife no labour to draw forth so worthlesse and vicious a disposition yea rather corrupt nature is forward not only to offer it to us but even to force it upon our admission and it is no small maistery to repell it True faith struggles with infidelity this Iacob is wrestling with this Esau in the womb of the soule and if at any time the worse part through the violence of a temptation get the start of the better the hand laies hold on the heel and suffers not it selfe to be any other then insensibly prevented but recovers the light ere the suggestion can be fully compleated and at last so far prevails that the elder shall serve the younger This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Whereas presumption is ever quiet and secure not fearing any perill not combating with any doubt pleasing it selfe in its owne ease and safety and in the confidence of a perpetuall prosperity can say I shall never be moved True faith wheresoever it is purifieth the heart and will not suffer any known sin to harbour there and is ever attended with care awfulnesse love obedience Whereas presumption impures the soule and works it to boldnesse obduration false joy security senslesnesse True faith grows daily like the graine of mustard-seed in the Gospel which from small beginnings arises to a tall and large-spreading plant presumption hath enough and sits down contented with its own measure applauding the happinesse of its own condition True faith like gold comes out pure from the fire of Temptation and like to sound friendship is most helpfull in the greatest need Presumption upon the easiest triall vanisheth into smoak and drosse and is never so sure to faile us as in the evill day So then this firme affiance of mine being grounded upon the most sure promises of the God of Truth upon frequent use and improvement of all holy means after many bickerings with thy motions of unbelief being attended with holy and purifying dispositions of the soule and gathering still more strength and growing up dayly towards a longed-for perfection and which now thy experience convinces thee to be most present and comfortable in the hour of Temptation is true faith not as thou falsly suggestest a false presumption It is true my unworthinesse is great but I have to do with an infinite mercy so as my wretched unworthinesse doth but heighten the glory of his most mercifull pardon and acceptation Shortly then where there is a divine promise of free grace and mercy a true apprehension and embracing of that promise a warrant and acceptance of that apprehension a willing relyance upon that warrant a sure knowledge and sense of that relyance there can be no place for presumption This is the case betwixt God and my soule His word of promise and warrant that cannot deceive me is He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life My owne heart irrefragably makes out the rest which is the truth of my apprehension relyance knowledge Mine therefore is the faith the presumption in casting sclander upon the grace of Gods spirit is thine owne IX TEMPTATION Thou thoughtest perhaps once that thou hadst some tokens of Gods favour but now thou canst not but find that he hath utterly forsaken thee and withdrawing himself from thee hath given thee up into my hands to which thy sins have justly forfaited thee Repelled BE not discouraged O thou weak soule with this malicious suggestion of the enemy Thou art not the first nor the holiest that hath been thus assailed So hard was the man after Gods owne heart driven with this Temptation that he cries out in the bitternesse of his soul Will the Lord cast me off for ever and will he be favourable no more hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Is his mercy cleane gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore Thy case was his for the sense of the desertion why should not his case be thine for the remedy Mark how happily and how soon he recovers himself And I said This is my infirmity But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember the wonders of old I will meditate of all thy works Lo how wisely and faithfully David retreats back to the sure hold of Gods formerlyexperimented mercies and there finds a sensible reliefe He that when he was to encounter with the proud Giant could before-hand arme himselfe with the proof of Gods former deliverances and victories Thy servant slew both the lyon and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistim shall be as one of them now animates himself after the temptation against the spirituall Goliah with the like remembrance of Gods ancient mercies and indearments to his soule as well knowing that what ever we are God cannot but be himself God is not as a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end Hast thou therefore formerly found the sure testimonies of Gods favour to thee in the reall pledges of his holy Graces live thou still whiles thou art thus besieged with temptations upon the old store know that thou hast to do with a God that can no more change then not be Satan cannot be more constant to his malice then thy God is to his everlasting mercies He may for a time be pleased to withdraw himself from thee but it is that he may make thee so much more happy in his re-appearance It is his owne word For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer In the case wherein thou now art thou canst be no meet Judge either of Gods respects to thee or thine owne condition Can the aguish palate passe any true judgement upon the tast of liquors Can the child entertaine any apprehension of his parents favour whiles he is under the lash Can any man looke that the fire should give either flame or heat whiles it lies covered with ashes Can any man expect fruit or leaves from the tree in the midst of winter Thou art now in a fit of temptation thou art now smarting under the rod of correction thy faith lies raked up under the cold ashes of a seeming desertion the vegetative life of thy soul is in this hard season of thy triall drawne inward and run downe to the root thine estate is never the lesse
is a charge to be trembled at Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God I am the Lord And if the word of charge be so dreadfull what terrour shall we find in the word of judgment Lo God sweares too and because there is no greater to sweare by he swears by himself As I live surely mine oath that he hath despised and my Covenant which he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his owne head It was one of the words that were delivered in fire and smoak and thunder and lightning in Sinai The Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine I dare not therefore feare any thing so much as the displeasure of the Almighty and to dye for will neither take an unlawfull oath nor violate a just one As for that sociable excesse whereto thou temptest me how ever the commonness of the vice may have seemed to abate of the reputation of hainousnes in the opinion of others yet to me it representeth it so much more hatefull as an universall contagion is more grievous then a local I cannot puchase the name of good fellowship with the losse of my reason or with the price of a curse Dayly experience makes good that word of Solomon that Wine is a mocker robbing a man of himselfe and leaving a beast in his roome And what woes do I heare denounced against those that rise up earely in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue till night til the wine inflame them If any man thinke he may pride himselfe in a strong brain and a vigorous body Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine men of strength to mingle strong drinkes Let the Iovialists of the world drink wine in bowles and feast themselves without feare let me never joyne my selfe with that fellowship where God is banisht from the companie Wouldst thou perswade me to falsifie my word for an advantage what advantage can be so great as the conscience of truth and fidelity That man is for Gods tabernacle that sweareth to his owne hurt and changeth not Let me rather lose honestly then gaine by falshood and perfidiousnesse Thou biddest me serve the time So I will doe whiles the time serves not thee but if thou shalt have so corrupted the time that the whole world is set in wickednesse I will serve my God in opposing it gladly will I serve the time in all good offices that may tend to rectifie it but to serve it in a way of flattery I hate and scorn I shall willingly frame my selfe to all companies not for a partnership in their vice but for their reclamation from evil or incouragement in good The chosen vessell hath by his example taught me this charitable and holy pliablenesse Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self a servant unto all that I might gain the more To the Jewes I became as a Jew that I might gaine the Jewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law To the weake I became weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by al means save some My onely scope shall be spirituall gaine for this will I like some good Merchant trafique with all nations with all persons But for carnall respects to put my selfe like the first matter into all formes to be demure with the strictly-severe to be debaucht with the drunkard with the Atheist profane with the Bigot superstitious what were this but to give away my soule to every one save to the God that ownes it and whiles I would be all to be nothing and to professe an affront to him that hath charged me be not conformed to this world Shortly let me be despicable and starve and perish in my innocent integrity rather then be warme and safe and honoured upon so evill conditions VI. TEMPTATION It is but for a while that thou hast to live and when thou art gone all the world is gone with thee Improve thy life to the best contentment Take thy pleasure whiles thou maist Repelled Even this was the very noâ—e of thine old Epicurean clients Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die I acknowledg the same dart and the same hand that flings it a dart dipped in that deadly poison that causeth the man to dye laughing a dart that pierceth as deeply into the sensuall heart as it easily retorted by the regenerate These wilde inferences of sensuality are for those that know no heaven no hell but to me that know this world to be nothing but a thorow-fare to eternity either way they abhorre not from grace onely but from reason it selfe In the intuition of this immortality what wise man would not rather say my life is short therefore it must bee holy I shall not live long let me live well so let mee live for a while that I may live for ever These have been still the thoughts of gracious hearts Moses the man of God after he hath computed the short periods of our age and confined it to fourescore yeares so soon is it cut off and we fly away inferres with the same breath So teach us to number our daies that we may apply our hearts to wisdome As implying that this holy Arithmeticke should be an introduction to Divinity that the search of heavenly wisdome should be the true use of our short life and the sweet singer of Israel after he hath said Behold thou hast made my daies as a span long mine age is nothing to thee findes cause to look up from earth to heaven And now Lord what wait I for surely my hope is even in thee He that desired to know the measure of his life findes it but a span and recompences the shortnesse of his continuance with hopes everlasting as the tender mercy of our God pities our frailtie remembring that we are but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not againe So our frailty supports it selfe with the meditation of his blessed eternity My daies saith the Psalmist are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grasse But thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance to all generations As therefore every man walketh in a vain shadow in respect of his transitorinesse so the Good man in respect of his holy conversation can say I will walke before the Lord in the Land of the living and knowes himselfe made for better ends then vaine pleasure I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord It is for them who have their portion
they find none Thou tell'st me of new lights I ask whence they rise I know who it was that said I am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darknesse but shall have the light of life and I know that light was the true light of whom holy David spake long before Thou art my lampe O Lord and the Lord wil lighten my darkenesse and in thy light shall we see light Those that doe truly hold forth this light shall be my guides and I shall follow them with all confidence and shall find the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day As for any new light that should now break forth and shine upon our waies certainely it is but darknesse such a light as Bildad prophesied of long agoe The light of the wicked shall be put out and the sparke of his fire shall not shine The light shall be darknesse in his Tabernacle and his Candle shall be put out with him So as the seduced followers of these new lights may have just cause to take up that complaint of the Prophet We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightnesse but we walk in darknesse we grope for the wall like the blinde wee stumble at noone day as in the night Shortly then that light which the father of lights hath held forth in his will revealed in his word as it hath been interpreted by his holy Church in all ages shal be my guide till I shall see as I am seen as for any other lights they are but as those wandring fires that appear in damp marishes which lead the travailer into a ditch VIII TEMPTATION Pretend religion and doe any thing what face is so foule as that Maske will not cleanly cover seem holy and be what thou wilt Repelled YEa there thou wouldest have mee this is that deadly dart wherewith thou hast slain millions of soules Hence it is that the Mahumetan Saints may commit publique filthinesse with thanks Hence that corrupt Christians bury such abominable crimes in their cowls Hence that false professors shroude so much villanies under the shelter of piety Hence that the world abounds with so many sheep without wolves within faire tombes full of inward rottennesse filthy dunghills covered over with snow rich herse-clothes hiding ill-sented carkasses broken potsheards covered with silver drosse Hence that the adversaries of Iudah offer to Zerobabel their aid in building the Temple The harlot hath her peace offerings Absolom hath his vow to pay Herod will worship the infant Iudas hath a kisse for his Master Simon Magus will be a Convert Ananias and Sapphira will part with all The Angell of the church of Sardis will pretend to live The beast hath hornes like a Lamb but speakes like a dragon in a word the wickedest of men will counterfeit Saints and false saints are very Devills for so much more eminent as the vertue is which they would seeme to put on so much the more odious is the simulation both to God and man now the most eminent of all vertues is holinesse whereby we both come nearest unto God and most resemble him of all creatures therefore out of hell there is none so loathsome to God as the hypocrites that upon a double provocation both for doing of evil for doing evil under a colour of good the face that the wicked man sets upon his sin is worse then the sin it self Bring no more vain oblations saith the Lord incense is an abomination to mee the new moones and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemne meeting Your new Moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to be are them How faine wouldst thou therefore draw mee into a double condemnation both for being evill and seeming good both w ch are an abomination to the Lord Doe I not hear him say For as much as this people draw neare me with their mouth and with their lips doe honour mee but have removed their hearts from me therefore behold I will proceed to doe a marvellous work amongst this people even a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdome of the wise shall perish Doe I not heare him say by his prophet Jeremiah They will deceive every one his neghbour and will not speake the truth Their tongue is an arrow shot out it speaketh deceit one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he layeth his wait shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord shall not my soule be avenged of such a nation as this Indeed this is the way to beguile the eyes of men like our selves for who would mistrust a mortifyed face an eye and hand lift up to heaven a tongue that speakes holy things but when we have to doe with a searcher of hearts what madnesse is it to think there can be any wisdome or understanding or counsail against the Lord Woe bee to them therefore that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say Who seeth us and who knoweth us Woe bee to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsell but not of mee that cover with a covering but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin Shall I then cleanse the out-side of the cup whiles I am within full of extortion excesse shall I fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse shall I under pretence of long prayers devoure widowes houses shal I put on thy forme and transfigure my selfe into an Angell of light shall not the all-seeing eye of the righteous God find me out in my damnable simulation Hath not he said wil make it good Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much sope yet thine iniquity is marked before mee Hath not my Saviour who shall be our Judge said Therefore thou shalt receive the greater damnation Can there be any heavier doom that can fall from that awfull mouth then Receive thy portion with hypocrites Let those therefore that are ambitious of an higher roome in hell maintaine a forme of Godlinesse and deny the power of it face wickednesse with piety stalke under religion for the aimes of policy juggle with God and the world case a devill with a saint and row towards hell whiles they looke heaven-ward For me All the while my breath is in me the spirit which God gives mee is in my nostrills I shall walke in mine uprightnesse All false waies and false semblances shal my soule utterly abhorre that so at the parting my rejoiceing may be the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity