that head and this body Into their secret let my soule come and unto their assembly let mine honour be united But if where I find weaknesse of grace and involuntary failings of obedience I shall say Stand by thy selfe come not neer me for I am holier then thou how can I make other account then that this pride shall be a smoke in the nostrils of the Almighty a fire that burneth all day and that he will recompence it into my bosome Shortly I know none so fit to depart from as from my selfe my owne pride self love and the rest of my inbred corruptions and am so far from over-looking others that I know none worse then my selfe X. TEMPTATION However the zeale of your scrupulous Preachers is wont to make the worst of every thing and to damne the least slip to no lesse then hell Yet there are certaine favour able 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 Repelled VVIcked tempter I know there is nothing upon earth that so much either troubles thee or impairs thy kingdome of darknesse as the zeale of conscionable Preachers those who lift up their voice like a trumpet and shew Gods people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin this is it that rescues millions of souls from the hand of hell and gives thee so many foyles in thy spirituall assaults This godly and faithful zeal represents mens sins to them as they are and by sins the danger of their damnation which thy malicious subtilty would faine blanch over and palliate to their destruction But when thou hast all done it is not in their power to make sin worse then it is or in thine to make it better As for those favourable temperaments which thou mentionest they are meere Pandarismes of wickednesse faire visors of deformity For to cast a glance upon each of them Age is not a more common plea then unjust The young man pretends it for his wanton and inordinate lust The old for his gripplenesse techinesse loquacity All wrongfully and not without foule abuse Youth is taught by thee to call for a swing and to make vigour and heate of blood a priviledge for a wild licentiousnesse for which it can have no claime but from a charter sealed in hell I am sure that God who gives this marrow to his bones and brawne to his armes and strength to his sinewes and vivacity to his spirits lookes for another improvement Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth saith Solomon And his father before him Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word Lo the young mans waies are foule with lusts and distempered passions and they must be cleansed and the way to cleanse them is attendance not of his owne vaine pleasures but of the holy ordinances of his maker Thou wouldst have him run loose like the wild Asse in the desert God tells him It is good for a man to beare the yoake in his youth even the yoke of the divine precepts the stooping whereunto is the best truest of al freedoms so as he may be able to say with the best Courtier of the wickedest King I thy servant feare the Lord from my youth The aberrations from which holy lawes of God are so far from finding an excuse from the prime of our years as that holy Iob cries out of them in the bitternesse of his soule Thou hast made mee to possesse the iniquities of my youth and as David vehemently deprecates Gods anger for them Remember not Lord the sins of my youth so Zophar the Naamathite notes it for an especiall brand of Gods judgement upon the wicked man that his bones are full of the sins of his youth and God declares it as an especiall mercy to his people Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth The more head-strong therefore my youth is the more straite shall I curbe it and hold it in and the more vigorous it is so much the fitter it is to be consecrated to that God who is most worthy to be served with the best of his own As for old age it hath I grant its humours and infirmities but rather for our humiliation then for our excuse It is not more common then absurd and unreasonable that when we are necessarily leaving the world we should be most fond in holding it when wee are ceasing to have any use of riches then to endeavour most eagerly to get them when we should bee laying up treasure in heaven to be treasuring up wrath for our selves and baggs for we know not whom To be unwilling to spend what we cannot keep and to be mad on getting what we have not the wit or grace to spend If then thou canst perswade any man to bee so gracelesse as to make his vicious disposition an apology for wickednesse let him plead the faults of his age for the excuse of his avarice As for morosity of nature and garrulity of tongue they are not the imperfections of the age but of the persons There are meek spirits under gray haires and wrinkled skinnes There are old men who as that wise heathen said of old can keepe silence even at a feast He hath ill spent his age that hath not attained to so good an hand over himselfe as in some meet measure to moderate both his speech and passion If some complexions both incline us more and crave indulgence to some sinnes more then other the sanguine to lust the cholerick to rage c. wherfore serves grace but to correct them If we must be over-ruled by nature what doe we professing Christianity Neither humours nor stars can necessitate us to evill whiles thou therefore pretendest my naturall constitution I tell thee of my spirituall regeneration the power whereof if it have not mortified my evill and corrupt affections I am not what I professe to be a Christian The strongest plea for the mitigation of sinne is Custome the power whereof is wont to be esteemed so great as that it hath seemed to alter the quality of the fact and of sin to make no sin Hence the holy Patriarchs admitted many consorts into their marriage-bed without the conscience of offending which if it had not been for the mediation of Custome had beene justly esteemed no better then criminous But however where is no contrary injunction Custome may so far usurp as to take upon it to be no lesse then a law it selfe Yet where there is a just regulation of law the plea of Custome is so quite out of countenance as that it is strongly retorted against it selfe neither is there any more powerfull reason for the abolition of an ill use then that is a custome so much
Spirit of Truth taught me that in these externall matters All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and cleane and to the uncleane to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath But if there were any judgement to be passed upon these grounds the advantage is mine I smart yea I bleed under the hand of my heavenly father Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Lo there cannot e so much paine in the stripes as there is comfort in the love of him that layes them on He were not my father if he whip't me not Truth hath said it If ye be without chastisements ye are bastards and not sonnes He cannot but love me whiles he is my father and let him fetch bloud on me so he love me After all thy malice let me be a bleeding son to such a father whiles thy base-borne children enjoy their ease Impudent tempter how canst thou from my sufferings argue Gods disfavour when thou knowest that he whom God loved best suffered most The eternall Sonne of his love that could truly say I and the Father are one indured more from the hand of that his heavenly Father then all the whole world of mankind was capable to suffer Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for oue transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all What poore flea bitings are these that I am afflicted with in respect of those torments which the Sonne of God under went for me Thou that sawest the bloudy sweat of his agony the cruell tortures of his crucifixion the pangs of worse then death the sense of his Fathers wrath our curse dost thou move me whom he hath bought with so dear a price to murmur and recoyle upon divine providence for a petty affliction Besides this is the load which my blessed Saviour hath with his owne hands laid upon my shoulders If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse daily and follow me Lo every Crosse is not Christs each man hath a crosse of his owne and this crosse he may not think to tread upon but he must take up and not once perhaps in his life but daily and with that weight on his neck he must follow the Lord of life not to his Tabor only but to his Golgotha And thus following him on earth he shall surely overtake him in heaven for if we suffer with him we shall also reigne with him It is still thy policy O thou envious Spirit to fill mine eyes with the crosse and to represent nothing to my thoughts but the horror and paine of suffering that so thou may'st drive me to a languishing dejectednesse of spirit and despaire of mercy But my God hath raised and directed mine eyes to a better prospect quite beyond thine which is a crowne of glory I see that ready to be set upon my head after my strife and victory which were more then enough to make amends for an hell upon earth In vaine should I hope to obtaine it without a conflict how should I overcome if I strive not These struglings are the way to a conquest After all these assaults the foyle shall bee thine and mine shall be the glory and triumph The God of Truth hath said it Be faithfull to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Thine advantage lies in the way mine in the end the way of affliction is rugged deep stiffe dangerous the end is faire and greene and strewed with flowers No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby What if I be in paine here for a while The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us It is thy maliciousnesse that would make the affliction of my body the bane of my soule but if the fault be not mine that which thou intendest for a poyson shall prove a cordiall Let patience have her perfect work and I am happy in my sufferings For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Lo it doth not only admir of glory but works it for us so as we are infinitely more beholden to our paine then to our ease and have reason not onely to be well apayd but to rejoyce in tribulations knowing That Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed Tell mee if thou canst which of those Saints that are now shining bright in their heaven hath got thither un-afflicted How many of those blessed ones have indured more then my God wil allow thee to inflict upon my weaknesse Some more and some lesse sorrowes all some yea many so true is that word of the chosen vessell That through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdome of God By this then I see that I am in my right way to that blessednesse I am travelling towards Did I find my self in the smooth pleasant and flowry path of carnall ease and contentment I should have just reason to think my selfe quite out of that happy road Now I know I am going directly towards my home the abiding City which is above So far therefore are my sufferings from arguing me miserable that I could not be happy if I suffered not V. TEMPTATION Foolish man how vainly dost thou flatter thy selfe in calling that a chastisement which God intends for a judgment in mistaking that for a rod of fatherly correction which God laies on as a scourge of just anger and punishment Repelled IT is thy maliciousnesse O thou wicked spirit ever to mis-interpret Gods actions and to sclander the footsteps of the Almighty But notwithstanding all thy mischievous suggestions I can read mercy and favour in my affliction neither shall it be in the power of thy temptation to put me out of this just construction of my sufferings For what Is it the measure of my smart that should argue Gods displeasure How many of Gods dearlings on earth have indured more What say'st thou to the man with whom the Almighty did once challenge and foyle thee the great patterne of patience was not his calamity as much beyond mine as my graces are short of his Dost thou not heare the man after Gods owne heart say Lord remember David and all his troubles Dost thou not hear the chosen vessell who was rapt up into the third heaven complaine We are troubled on every side yet not distressed perplexed but not
safe for this though more uncomfortable wait thou upon Gods leisure with all humble submission the event shall be happy when the distemper is once over thou shalt returne to thy true relish of Gods mercy when thine heavenly father shall smile upon thee and take thee up in his armes thou wilt see love in his late stripes when those dead ashes shall be removed and the gleeds of grace stirred up againe in thee thou shalt yeild both light and warmth when the Sun of righteousnesse shall approch to thee and with his comfortable beams draw up the sap into the branches thou shalt blossome and flourish In the meane time feare nothing only believe and thou shalt see the salvation of the Lord Thy soule is in surer hands then thine owne yea then of the greatest Angel in heaven far out of the reach of all the powers of hell For our life is hid with Christ in God Hid not lost not laid open to all eyes but hid hid where Satan cannot touch it cannot find it even with Christ in the heaven of heavens Feare not therefore O thou feeble soule any utter dereliction of thy God Thou art bought with a price God paid too deare for thee and is too deeply ingaged to thee to lose thee willingly and for any force to be offered to the Almighty what can men or Devils do And if that malignant spirit shall challenge any forfeiture plead thou thy full redemption It is true the eternall and inviolable law hath said Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them and the soule that sinneth shall die Death and curse is therefore due to thee But thou hast paid both of these in thy blessed redeemer Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Where sin abounded grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace raigne through righteousnesse unto eternall life by Iesus Christ our Lord It is all one to pay thy debt in thine owne person and by thy surety Thy gracious suerty hath staked it down for thee to the utmost farthing Be confident therefore of thy safe condition thou art no lesse sure then thine adversary is malicious X. TEMPTATION Had God ever given thee any sure testimonies of his love thou might'st perhaps pretend to some reason of comfort and confidence But the truth is God never loved thee he may have cast upon thee some common favours such as he throwes away upon reprobates but for the tokens of any speciall love that he bears to thee thou never didst never shalt receive any from him Repelled THis is language well-befitting the professed make-bate betwixt God and man but know O thou false tempter that I have received sure and infallible testimonies of that speciall love which is proper to his elect First then as I have to do with a bountiful God who where he loves there he inriches so I have received most precious gifts from his hands such as do not import a common and ordinary beneficence w ch he scatters promiscuously amongst the sons of men but such as carry in them a dearnesse and singularity of divine favour even the greatest gifts that either he can give or man receive For first he hath given me his spirit the spirit of Adoption whereby I can call him Father for the assurance whereof The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Deny if thou canst the invaluablenesse of this heavenly gift and if thy malice cannot detract from the worth but from the propriety yeelding it to be great but denying it to be mine know O thou envious spirit that here is the witnesse of two spirits combined against thine Were the testimonies single surely I had reason to believe my owne spirit rather then thine which is a spirit of errour but now that the spirit of God conjoines his inerrable testimony together with my spirit against thy single suggestion how just cause have I to be confident of my possession of that glorious and blessed gift Neither is that good spirit dead or dumb but vocall and operative it gives mee a tongue to call God Father it teacheth me to pray it helpeth mine infirmities and maketh intercession for me with groanings which cannot be uttered It worketh effectually in me a sensible conversion Even when I was dead in sins and trespasses God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved me hath by this spirit of his quickned me together with Christ and hath raised me up together with him By the blessed effects therefore of this regenerating Spirit happily begun in my soule I find how rich a treasure the Father of mercies hath conveighed into my bosome Besides my life shows what is in my heart it was a gracious word that God spake to his people of old and holds for ever I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes I will also save you from all your uncleannesses The spirit of God can never be severed from obedience If the heart be taken up with the holy Spirit the feet must walke in Gods statutes both heart and life must be freed from all wilfull uncleannesses I feel that God hath wrought all this in me from him it is that I do sincerely desire indevour to make straight steps in all the ways of God and to avoid and abhor all those foule corruptions of my sinfull nature Flesh and bloud hath not would not could not work this in me The Spirit therefore of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwels in me And if this be not a pledge of his dearest love heaven cannot yeeld one Moreover he hath bestowed upon mee another gift more worth then all the world his own son the son of his love the son of his nature by eternall generation Whom he hath not only given for me in a generality with the rest of mankind but hath by a speciall donation conveighed unto me and as it were put into my bosome in that he hath enabled me by a lively faith to bring him home unto my soule and hath thus by a particular application made him mine so as my soule is not more mine then he is my soules And having given me his son he hath with him given me all things If there can be greater tokens of love then these let me want them Besides his gifts his carriage doth abundantly argue his love were there a strangenesse betweene God and my soule I might well feare there were no other then overly respects from him towards me but now when I find he doth so freely and familiarly converse with his servant and so graciously imparts himself to me renuing the daily testimonies of his holy presence in the frequent motions of his good
judgest doubtfully of thine owne waies It is not for thee to beginne first at heaven and then to descend to earth this course is presumptuous and damnable What are those secret and closed bookes of Gods eternall decree and preordination unto thee They are onely for the eyes of him that wrote them The Lord knoweth them that are his Look if thou wilt upon the outer seale of those Divine secrets and read Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Thy way lies from earth to heaven The revealed wil of God by which onely wee are to be regulated is Repent beleeve obey and thou shalt be saved live and dye in thy sinnes impenitent unbeleeving thou shalt be damned According to this rule frame thou thy courses and resolutions and if thou canst be so great an enemy to thine own soule as determinately to contemne the meanes of salvation and to tread wilfully in the paths of death who can say other but thou art faire for hell But if thou shalt carefully use and improve those good meanes which God hath ordained for thy conversion and shalt thereupon find that true grace is wrought in thy soule that thou abhorrest al evill waies that thou dost truly beleeve in the Lord Iesus and heartily purposest and indevourest to live holily and conscionably in this present world thou maiest now as assuredly know thy name written in heaven as if thou hadst read it in those eternal characters of Gods secret counsell Plainely it is not for thee to say I am predestinate to life therefore thus I shall doe and thus I shall speed but contrarily thus hath God wrought in me therefore I am predestinate Let me doe well it cannot but be well with mee Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good Let me doe my utmost diligence to make my calling and election sure I am safe and shall be happy But if thou hast been mis-carried to lewd courses and hast lived as without God in the world whiles thou dost so thy case is fearefull but who allowed thee to â—it judg upon thine own soule and to passe a peremptory doome of necessary damnation upon thy selfe Are not the meanes of grace Gods blessed ordinances stil held forth unto thee Doth not God still gratiously invite thee to repentance Doth not thy Saviour stand ready with his armes spread abroad to receive thee into his bosome And canst thou be so desperately and presumptuously mercilesse to thy selfe as to say I shall be damned therefore I will sinne Thou canst not be so wicked but there may be a possibility of thy reclamation whiles God gives thee respite there may be hope Be not thou so injurious to thy selfe as to usurpe the office both of God and the Devill of God in passing a finall judgment upon thy selfe of the Devill in drawing thy selfe into damnation Returne therefore O sinner and live break off thy sinnes by repentance and be saved But if otherwise know that Gods decree doth neither necessitate thy sin nor thy damnation Thou maist thank thy selfe for both Thy perdition is of thy selfe O Israel V. TEMPTATION Why wilt thou be singular amongst and above thy neighbours to draw needlesse censures upon thy self Be wise and do as the most Be not so over-squemish as not to dispense with thy conscience in some small matters Lend a lye to a friend swallow an oath for feare be drunke sometimes for good fellowship falsify thy word for an advantage serve the time frame thy selfe to all companies thus thou shalt be both warme and safe and kindly respected Repelled PLausible tempter what care wouldest thou seeme to take of my ease and reputation that in the mean time thou mightst run away with my soule Thou perswadest mee not to be singular amongst my neighbours it shall not be my fault if I bee so If my neighbours bee good and vertuous I am with and for them let mee be hissed at to goe alone but if otherwise let me rather go upright alone then halt with company Thou tellst mee of censures they are spent in vaine that would disharten mee from good or draw me into evill I am too deep rooted in my resolutions of good then to be turnd up by every slight wind I know who it is that hath said Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my names sake Let men take leave to talk their pleasure in what I know I do wel I am censure-proofe Thou bidst me bee wise and doe as the most These two cannot agree together Not to follow the most but the best is true wisdome My Saviour hath told me that the many goe in the broadway which leadeth to destruction and it is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill whiles I follow the guidance of my God I walk confidently as knowing I cannot goe amisse as for others let them look to their own feet they shall be no guides of mine Thou bidst me dispense with my conscience in small matters I have learnt to call nothing small that may offend the Majesty of the God of heaven Dispensations must onely proceed from a greater power Onely God is greater then my conscience where he dispenseth not it were a vaine presumption for me to dispense with my selfe And what are those small matters wherein thou solicitest my dispensation To lend a ly to a friend why dost thou not perswade mee to lend him my soule Yea to give it unto thee for him It is a sure word of the wise man The mouth that lyeth slayeth the soule How vehement a charge hath the God of truth layd upon me to avoid this sinne which thou the father of lies wouldst draw me unto What marvell is it if each speak for his own He who is truth it selfe and loveth truth in the inward parts justly calles for it in the tongue Laying aside lying saith the Spirit of God speak every man truth with his neighbour Thou who art a lying Spirit wouldst be willing to advance thine own brood under the faire pretence offriendship But what shall I to gratifie a friend make God mine enemy shall I to rescue a friend from danger bring destruction upon my selfe Thou shalt destroy them that speake leasings saith the Psalmist Without shall be every one that loveth or maketh lies If therefore my true attestation may availe my friend my tongue is his but if he must be supported by falshood my tongue is neither his nor mine but is his that made it To swallow an oath for fear No tempter I can let down none such morsels an oath is too sacred too awfull a thing for me to put over out of any outward respects against my conscience If I sweare the Oath is not mine it is Gods and the revenge will be his whose the offence is It