things from the wise and prudent who were most likely if reason might be the meet judge of spirituall matters to attaine the perfect knowledge of them hath revealed them to babes It is therefore Gods revelation not the ratiocination of man that must give us light into these divine mysteries Were it a matter of humane disquisition why did not those sages of nature the learned Philosophers of former times reach unto it But now a more learned man then they the great Doctor of the Gentiles tels us that the Gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ yeelds forth the revelation of the mysteries which was kept secret since the world began But now manifested by the Scriptures of the Prophets and according to the commandement of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Lo he saith not to the obedience of reason but of faith and that faith doth more transcend reason then reason doth sense Thou urgest me therefore to be a man I professe my self to be a christian man it is reason that makes me a man it is faith that makes me a christian The wise bountifull God hath vouchsafed to hold forth four severall lights to men all which move in four severall orbes one above another The light of sense the light of reason the light of faith the light of ecstaticall or divine vision and all of these are taken up with their own proper objects Sense is busied about these outward and materiall things reason is confined to things intelligible faith is imployed in matters spirituall and supernaturall divine vision in objects celestiall and infinitely glorious None of these can exceed their bounds and extend to a sphere above their owne What can the brute creature which is led by meer sense do or apprehend in matters of understanding and discourse What can meer man who is led by reason discerne in spirituall and supernaturall things What can the Christian who is led by faith which is the evidence of things not seen attain unto in the clear vision of God and heavenly glory That God who is a God of order hath determined due limits to all our powers and faculties Thou that art a spirit of confusion goest about to disturb and disorder all those just ranks labouring to jumble together those distinct orbes of reason and faith and by the light of reason to extinguish the light of faith wouldst have us so to put on the man as that we should put off the Christian but I have learned in this case to defie thee grounding my self upon that word which is mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting downe imaginations and every high thing that exalts it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ I will therefore follow my sense so far as that will lead me and not suffer my self to be beaten off from so sure a guide Where my sense leaves me I will betake my self to the direction of reason and in all naturall morall things shall be willingly led by the guidance thereof but when it comes to supernaturall and divine truths when I have the word of a God for my assurance farewell reason and welcome faith as when I shall have dispatcht this weary pilgrimage and from a Traveller shall come to be a Comprehensor farewel faith welcome vision In the mean time I shall labour what I may to understand all revealed truths and where I cannot apprehend I shall adore humbly submitting to that word of the great and holy God My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord For as the heavens are higher then the earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts IIII. TEMPTATION In how vaine and causelesse awe art thou held of dangers threatned to thy soule and horrors of punishment after this life whereas these are nothing but politique bugs to affright simple and credulous men Sin freely man and feare nothing Take full scope to thy pleasures After this life there is nothing The soule dyes together with the body as in brute creatures There is no further reckoning to be made Repelled DEceitfull spirit How thou goest about to perswade me to that which thy selfe would be most loathe should be true for if the soule of man expired with the body what subject shouldest thou have of that tyranny and torment which thou so much affectest How willingly dost thou seem to fight against thy selfe that thou mighrest overcome me But this dart of thine is too blunt to pierce even a rationall brest Why dost thou not go about to perswade me that I am not a man but a brute creature such I should be if my soul were no other then theirs For as for bodily shape there are of them not much unlike me Why dost thou not perswade me that those brute creatures are men if their soules were as ours What were the difference Canst thou hope I can so abdicate my self as to put my selfe into the ranke of beasts Canst thou think so to prevaile with thy suggestions as to make reason it selfe turne irrationall How palpably dost thou confound thy selfe in this very act of Temptation For if I had not a soul beyond the condition of brute creatures how am I capable of sinning Why dost thou perswade me to that whereof my nature if but brutish can have no capacity Dost thou labour to prevaile with thy temptations upon beasts Dost thou importune their yeildance to sinfull motions If they had such a soul as mine why should they not sin as well as I why should they not be equally guilty Contrarily are those brute things capable of doing those works which may be pleasing unto God the performāce whereof thou so much envyest unto me Can they desire and indeavour to be holy are they capable of making conscience of their waies Know then O thou wicked spirit that I know my selfe animated with another and more noble spirity then these other materiall creatures and that I am sufficiently conscious of my own powers that I have an inmate in my bosome of a divine originall W ch though it takes part with the body whiles it is included in this case of clay yet can and will when it is freed from this earth subsist alone and be eternally happy in the present and perpetuall vision of the God that made and redeem'd it and in the meane time exerciseth such faculties as well shew whence it is derived farre transcend the possibility of all bodily temperament Can it not compare one thing with another Can it not deduce one sequel from another Can it not attaine to the knowledg of the secrets of nature of the perfection of Arts Can it not reach to the scanning of humane plots and the apprehension of divine mysteries Yea can it not judge of spirits how should it doe althis if
of God is eternall life both these are given to the man not to the soule The body is copartner in the sin it must therefore share in the torment it must therefore be raysed that it may be punished Eternity of joy or paine is awarded to the just or to the sinner how can the body be capable of either if it should finally perish in the dust How can it stand with the infinite mercy of God who hath given his Sonne intirely for the ransome of the whole man and by him salvation to every beleever that he should shrink in his gracious performances making good onely one part of his eternall word to the spirituall halfe leaving the bodily part utterly forlorne to an absolute corruption Know then O thou wicked one that when all the rabble of thine Athenian scoffers and Atheous Sadduces and carnall Epicureans shall have mis-spent all their spleene my faith shall triumph over all their sensuall reason and shall afford me sound comfort against all the terrors of death frō the firme assurance of my resurrection and shall confidently take up those precious words which the mirror of patience wished to be written in a book and graven with an iron pen in the rock for ever I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God and my soule shall set up her rest in that triumphant conclusion of the blessed Apostle This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ VI. TEMPTATION If the soule must live and the body shall rise yet what needest thou to affright thy selfe with the terrours of an universall judgement Credulous soule when shall these things be Thou talkest of an awfull Judge but where is the promise of his comming These sixteene hundred yeares hath he beene lookt for and yet he is not come and when will he Repelled THy damned scoffers were betimes foreseene to move this question even by that blessed Apostle whose eyes saw his Saviour ascending up to his glory and who then heard the Angell say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven What dost thou and they but make good that sacred truth which was delivered before so many hundred generations Dissemble how thou wilt That there shall be a generall assise of the world thou knowest and tremblest to know what other couldst thou meane when thou askedst my Saviour that question of horror Art thou come to torment us before the time That time thou knowest to be the day in which God will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead How clear attestation have the inspired Prophets of God given of old to this truth The ancientest Prophet that ever was Henoch the seventh from Adam in the time of the old world foretels of this dreadful day Behold the Lord commeth with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him From the old world is this verity deduced to the new and through the succession of those holy Seers derived to the blessed Apostles and from them to the present generation Yea the sacred mouth of him who shall come down and sit as Judge in this awfull tribunall hath fully laid forth not the truth onely but the manner of this universall judicature The Sonne of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard divideth his sheep And if this most sure word of the Prophets Apostles yea and of the eternall son of God be not enough conviction to thee yet to my soul they are an abundant confirmation of this main point of my Christian faith that from heaven he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead Indeed thus it must be How many condemned innocents have in the bitternesse of their souls appealed from that unrighteous bar of men to the supreame Judge that shall come those appeals are entred in heaven and sued out how can it stand with divine Justice that they should not have a day of hearing As for mean oppressors there are good laws to meet with them and there are higher then the highest to give life of execution to those lawes but if the greatest among men offend if there were not an higher then they what right would at last be done Those that have the most power and will to doe the greatest mischiefe would escape the fairest And though there be a privy Sessions in heaven upon every guilty soule immediatly upon the dissolution yet the same justice which will not admit publique offences to be passed over with a private satisfaction thinks fit to exhibite a publique declaration of his righteous vengeance upon notorious sinners before men and Angels So as those very bodies which have been ingaged in their wickednesse shall be in the view of the whole world sent downe to take part of their torment and indeed wherefore should those bodies be raised if not with the intent of a further disposition either to joy or paine Contrarily how can it consist with the praise of that infinite justice that those poore Saints of his which have been vilified and condemned at every barre persecuted afflicted tormented and have passed through all manner of painful ignominious deaths should not at the last be gloriously righted in the face of their cruell enemies Surely faith the Apostle it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels What is it O thou wicked spirit whereto thou art reserved in chaines of darknesse Is it not the judgement of the great day what is it whereto the manifestation of all hidden truthes and the accomplishment of all Gods gracious promises are referred Is it
it were not a spirit How evidently then doth the present estate of my soul convince thee of the future Al operations proceed from the formes of things and every thing works as it is Canst thou now denye that my soule whiles it is within me can and doth produce such actions as have no derivation from the body no dependence on the body for however in matter of sensation it sees by the eyes and heares by the eares and imagines by those fantasmes that are represented unto it yet when it comes to the higher works of intellectuall elevations how doth it leave the body below it raising to it selfe such notions as wherein the body can challenge no interest how can it now denude and abstract the thing conceived from all consideration of quantity quality place and so work upon its owne object as becomes an active spirit Thou canst not be so impudent as to say the body doth these things by the soule or that the soule doth them by the ayd concurrence of the body and if the soule doth them alone whiles it is thus clogged how much more operative shall it be when it is alone separated from this earthen lump And if the very voice of nature did not so sufficiently confute thee that even thine owne most eminent heathens have herein taken part against thee living and dying strong assertors of the soules Immortality how fully might thine accursed mouth be stopped by the most sure words of divine truth Yea wert thou disposed to play at some smaller game and by thy damnable clients to plead not so much for the utter extinction as for the dormition of the soule those oracles of God have enough to charme thee and them and can with one blow cut the throat of both those blasphemies That penitent theefe whose soule thou madest full account of when he was led to his execution which yet my dying Saviour snatcht out of thy hands could hear comfortably from those blessed lips This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise shal we think this malefactor in any other in any better conditiō then the rest of Gods Saints Doth not the chosen vessel tel us that upon the dissolution of our earthly house of this Tabernacle we have a building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens Presently therfore after our flitting hence we have a being that glorious who can think of a being in heaven without a ful sense of joy Doth not our Saviour tell us that the soul of poor Lazarus was immediately carried by Angels into Abrahams boome The damned glutton knew so wel that he was not layd there to sleep that he sues to have him sēt on the message of his refrigeration Did not the beloved disciple when he was in Pathmos upon the opening of the fifth feale see under the altar the Soules of them that were slaine for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Did he not heare them cry How long Lord holy and true What Shall wee think they cryed in their sleep Did he not see and heare the hundred forty four thousand Saints before the throne harping and singing a new song to the praise of their God Canst thou perswade us they made this heavenly musick in their sleep Doth he not tell us most plainely from the mouth of one of the heavenly Elders that those which stood before the throne the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands were they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the throne shal dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountaines and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes This service both day and night and 〈◊〉 leading forth can suppose nothing lesse then a perpetuall waking Neither is this the happy condition of holy Martyrs and Confessors only but is common to all the Saints of God in what ever profession Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord How should the dead be blessed if they did not live to know themselves blessed What blessednesse can be incident into those that either are not at all or are senselesse They rest but sleepe not they rest from their labours not from the improvement of their glorified faculties Their works followthē yea and overtake them in heaven to what purpose should their works follow the if they lived not to injoy the comfort of their works This is the estate of all good soules in despight of all thine infernall powers and what becomes of the wicked ones thou too well knowest Dissemble thou how thou wilt those torments and hide the sight of that pit of horrour from the eyes ofthy sinfull followers He that hath the keyes of hell and of death hath given us intimation enough Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather feare him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Neither is he more able out of his omnipotence then willing out of his justice to execute this righteous vengeance on the impenitent and unbeleevers Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evill In vaine therefore dost thou seek to delude me with these pretences of indemnity and annihilation since it cannot but stand with the mercy and justice of the Almighty to dispose of every soule according to what they have beene and what they have done To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternall life But unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath shortly after all thy devillish suggestions on the one part The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them On the other In flaming fire shal vengeance be taken on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power V. TEMPTATION Put case that the soule after the departure from the body may live but art thou so foolishly credulous as to beleeve that thy body after it is moldred into dust and resolved into all its elements having passed through al the degrees of putrefaction and annihilation shall at last returne to it selfe againe and recover the former shape and substance Dost thou not apprehend the impossibility of this so absurd assertion Repelled NO Tempter it is true and holy faith which thou reproachest
hands of God he only knows that shall judge this I am sure of that without this Saviour there can be no salvation That in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him That he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life As therefore we do justly abhor that wild scope of all religions which thou suggestest so we do willingly admit a large scope in one true religion so large as the author of it hath thought good to allow For we have not to do with a God that stands upon curiosities of beliefe or that upon pain of damnation requires of every believer an exquisite perfection of judgment concerning every capillar veyne of Theologicall truth it is enough for him if we be right for the main substance of the body He doth not call rigorously for every stone in the battlements it sufficeth for the capacity of our salvation if the foundation be hold in tire It is thy sclander therefore that wee confine Truth and blessednesse to a corner of Reformed Christians no wee seek and find it every where where God hath a Church and Gods Church we know to be Universall Let them be Abassines Cophties Armeniant Georgians Jacobites or what ever names either sclander or distinction hath put upon them if they hold the foundation firme howsoever disgracefully built upon with wood hay stubble wee hold them Christs we hold them ours Hence it is that the new Jerusalem is for her beauty and uniformity set forth with 12 precious gates though for use and substance one for that from all coasts of heaven there is free accesse to the Church of Christ and in him to life and glory He who is the Truth and the life hath said This is eternall life to know thee and him whom thou hast sent This knowledge which is our way to life is not alike at tained of all fome have greater light and deeper insight into it then others That mercy which accepts of the least degree or the true apprehension of Christ hath not promised to dispense with the wilfull neglect of those who might know him more clearly more exactly Let those carelesse soules therefore which stand indifferent betwixt life and death upon thy perswasion content themselves with good meanings and generalities of beliefe but for me I shall labour to furnish my self with all requisite truths and above all shall aspire towards the excellency of the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The second Decade Temptations of Discouragement II. DECADE I. TEMPTATION Were it for some few sins of ignorance or infirmity thou might'st hope to find place for mercy but thy sins are as for multitude innumerable so for quality haynous presumptuous unpardonable with what face canst thou look up to heaven and expect remission from a just God Repelled EVen with the face of an humble penitent justly confounded in himself in the sense of his owne vilenesse but awfully confident in a promised mercy Malicious tempter how like thou art to thy selfe when thou wouldst draw me on to my sins then how small sleight harmlesse plausible they were now thou hast fetch 't me in to the guilt of those foule offences they are no lesse then deadly and irremissible May I but keep within the verge of mercy thou canst not more aggravate my wickednesse against me thē I do against my selfe thou canst not be more ready to accuse then I to judge and condemn my selfe Oh me the wretchedest of all creatures how do I hate my selfe for mine abominable sins done with so high a hand against such a Majesty after such light of knowledge such enforcements of warning such indearments of mercy such reluctations of spirit such check of conscience what lesse then hell have I deserved from that infinite justice Thou canst not write more bitter things against me then I can plead against my owne soule But when thou hast cast up all thy venome and when I have passed the heaviest sentence against my selfe I who am in my selfe utterly lost and forfeited to eternall death in despight of the gates of hell shall live and am safe in my Almighty and ever-blessed Saviour who hath conquered Death and hell for me Set thou me against my selfe I shall set my Saviour against thee urge thou my debts I show his full acquittance Sue thou my bonds I shall exhibit them cancell'd and nayled to his crosse presse thou my horrible crimes I plead a pardon sealed in heaven Thou tell'st me of the multitude and hainousnesse of my sins I tell thee of an infinite mercy and what are numbers and magnitudes to the infinite To an illimited power what difference is there betwixt a mountaine and an ant-heape betwixt one and a million were my sins a thousand times more and worse then they are there is worth abundantly enough in every drop of that precious blood which was shed for my redemption to expiate them Know O tempter that I have to doe with a mercy which can die my scarlet sins white as snow make my crimson as wooll whose grace is so boundlesse that if thou thy selfe hadst upon thy fall been capable of repentance thou hadst not everlastingly perished The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works And if there be a sin of man unpardonable it is not for the insufficiency of grace to forgive it but for the incapacity of the subject that should receive remissision Thou feel'st to thy paine and losse wherefore it was that the eternall sonne of God Jesus Christ came into the world Even to save sinners and if my owne heart shall conspire with thee to accuse me as the chiefe of those sinners my repentance gives me so much the more claim and interest in his blessed redemption Let me be the most laden with the chaines of my captivity so I may have the greatest share in that all-sufficient ransome And if thou who art the true fiery serpent in this miserable wildernesse hast by sin stung my soul to death let me as I do with penitent and faithfull eyes but look up to that brazen serpent which is lift up far above all heavens thy poyson cannot kill cannot hurt me It is the word of eternall truth which cannot faile us If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Lo here not mercy only but justice on my side The spirit of God saith not only if we confesse our sins he is mercifull to forgive our sins as he elswhere speaks by the pen of Salomon but more he is faithfull and just to forgive our sins Our weaknesse and ignorance is wont to flie
from the justice of our God unto his mercy What can we feare when his very justice yeilds remission That justice relates to his gracious promise of pardon to the penitent whiles I do truly repent therefore his very justice necessarily infers mercy and that mercy forgivenesse Think not therefore O thou malicious spirit to affright me with the mention of Divine Justice Wo were me if God were not as just as mercifull yea if he were not therefore mercifull because he is just mercifull in giving me repentance just in vouchsafing me the promised mercy and forgivenesse upon the repentance which he hath given me After all thy hainous exaggerations of my guilt it is not the quality of the sin but the disposition of the sinner that damns the soule If we compare the offensive acts of a David and a Saul it is not easie to judge whether were more foul thou which stirred'st them up both to those odious sinnes madest account of an equall advantage against both but thine ayme failed thee the humble and true penitence of the one saved him out of thy hands the obdurednesse and false-heartednesse of the other gave him up as a prey to thy malice It is enough for me that though I had not the grace to avoid my sinnes yet I have the grace to hate and bewaile them that good spirit which thought not good to restraine me from sinning hath beene graciously pleased to humble me for sinning Yea such is the infinite goodnesse of my God to my poor soule that those sins which thou hast drawn me into with an intent of my utmost prejudice and damnation are happily turned through his grace unto my greatest advantage for had it not been for these my sinfull miscarriages had I ever attained to so cleare a sight of my owne frailty and wretchednesse so deep a contrition of soule so reall experience of temptation so hearty a detestation of sin such tendernesse of heart such awe of offending so fervent zeale of obedience so sweet a sense of mercy so thankfull a recognition of deliverance What hast thou now gained O thou wicked spirit by thy prevalent temptations What Trophees hast thou cause to erect for thy victory and my soyle Couldst thou have won me to a trade of sinning to a resolution in evill to a pleasure as in the commission so in the memory of my sin to a glorying in wickednesse then mightst have taken the advantage of snatching mee away in a state of unrepentance thou mightst have had just cause to triumph in thy prey but now that it hath pleased my God to shew me so much mercy as to check me in my evill way to work in me an abhorring of my sin and of my selfe for it and to pull me out of thy clutches by a true and seasonable repentance thou hast lost a soule and I have found a Saviour Thou maist upbraid me with the foulnesse of my sins I shall blesse God for their improvement II. TEMPTATION Alas poore man how willing thou art to make thy selfe believe that thou hast truly repented whereas this is nothing but some dump of Melancholy or some relenting of nature after too much expence of spirits or some irksome discontentment after a satiety and wearinesse of pleasure or some slavish shrinking in upon the expectation of a lash true penitence is a spirituall business an effect of that grace which was never incident into thy bosome Repelled MAlicious tempter it is my no small happinesse that thou art not admitted to keep the key of my heart or to look into my brest to see what is in my bosome and therefore thou canst not out of knowledge passe any censure of my inward dispositions onely wilt be sure to suggest the worst which the falser it is the better doth it become the father of lies But that good spirit which hath wrought true repentance in my heart witnesseth together with my heart the truth of my repentance Canst thou hope to perswade me that I do belie or mis-know my own grief Do not I feele this heart of mine bleed with a true inward remorse for my sinnes Have I not poured out many hearty sighs and tears for mine offences Do I not ever looke backe upon them with a vehement loathing and detestation Have I not with much anguish of soule confessed them before the face of that God whom I have provoked Think not now to choak me with a Cain or Saul or Judas which did more and repented not to fasten upon me a worldly sorrow that worketh Death No wicked one after all thy depravations this grief of mine looks with a farre other face then theirs and is no other then a Godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of theirs was out of the horror of punishment mine out of the sense of displeasure their 's for the doom and execution of a severe Judge mine for the frownes of an offended father theirs attended with a wofull despaire mine with a weeping confidence their 's a preface to Hell mine an introduction to salvation And since thou wilt needs disparage and mis-call this godly disposition of mine Lo I challenge this envie of thine to call it to the Test and to examine it thoroughly whether it agree not with those unfayling rules of the sympcomes and effects of the sorrow which is according to God Hath not here been a true carefulnesse as to be freed and acquitted from the present guilt of my sin so to keep my soul unspotted for the future both to work my peace with my God and to 〈◊〉 it Hath not my heard earnestly laboured to cleare it selfe before God not with shuffling excuses and flattering mitigations but by humble and syncere confessions of my owne vilenesse Hath not my brest swell'd up with an angry indignation at my sinfull mis-carriages have I not seriously rated my selfe for giving way to thy wicked temptations Have I not trembled not only at the apprehension of my owne danger by sin but at the very suggestion of the like offence have I not been kept in awe with the jealous feares of my miserable frailties lest I should be againe ensnared in thy mischievous ginnes Have I not felt in my selfe a servent desire above all things to stand right in the recovered favour of my God and to be strengthned in the inner man with a further increase of grace for the preventing of future sins and giving more glory to my God and Saviour Hath not my heart within me burn'd with so much more zeale to the honour and service of that Majesty which I have offended as I have more dishonoured him by my offence hath it not been inflamed with just displeasure at my selfe and all the instruments means of my mis-leading Lastly have I not falne foule upon my selfe for so easie a seduction have I not chastised my self with sharp reproofs have I not held my appetite short and upon these very grounds punished it
in despaire persecuted but not forsaken cast downe but not destroyed Of the Jewes five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In journying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by my owne countrymen in perils by the heathen c. In wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakednesse Yea which was worse then all these dost thou not heare him say There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me Dost thou not too well know for thou wert the maine actor in those wofull Tragedies what cruell torments the blessed Martyrs of God in all ages have undergone for their holy profession None upon earth ever found Gods hand so heavy upon them none upon earth were so dear to heaven The sharpnesse therefore of my pangs can be no proofe of the displeasure of my God Yea contrarily this visitation of mine what ever thou suggestest is in much love and mercy Had my God let me loose to my owne waies and suffered me to run on carelesly in a course of sinning without check or controll this had been a manifest argument of an high and hainous displeasure God is grievously angry when he punishes sinners with prosperity for this shows them reserved to a fearfull damnation but whom he reclaims from evil by a severe correction those he loves there cannot be a greater favour then those saving stripes When wee are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Besides the manner of the infliction speaks nothing but mercy for what a gentle hand doth my God lay upon me as if he said I must correct thee but I will not hurt thee what gracious respites are here what favourable inter-spirations as if God bade me to recollect my selfe and invited me to meet him by a seasonable humiliation This is not the fashion of anger and enmity which ayming only at destruction indevours to surprise the adversary and to hurry him to a sudden execution Neither is it a meer affliction that can evince either love or hatred all is in the attendants and entertainment of afflictions Where God means favour he gives together with the crosse an humble heart a meek spirit a patient submission to his good pleasure a willingnesse to kisse the rod and the hand that wields it a faithfull dependence upon that arme from which he smarts and lastly an happy use and improvement of the suffering to the bettering of the soule who so finds these dispositions in himselfe may well take up that resolution of the sweet singer of Israel It is good for me that I have been afflicted I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in very faithfulnesse hast afflicted me Contrarily where God smites in anger those stroakes are followed and accompanied with wofull symptomes of a spirituall maladie either a stupid senslesnesse and obdurednesse of heart or an impatient murmuring at the stripes saucy and presumptuous expostulations fretting and repining at the smart a perverse alienation of affection and a rebellious swelling against God an utter dejection of spirit and lastly an heartlesse despaire of mercy Those with home thou hast prevailed so far as to draw them into this deadly condition of soule have just cause to thinke themselves smitten in displeasure but as for me blessed be the name of my God my stripes are medicinall and healing Let the righteous God thus smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle that shall not break my head VI. TEMPTATION Away with these superstitious feares and needlesse scruples wherewith thou fondly troublest thy selfe as if God that sits above in the circle of heaven regarded these poore businesses that passe here below upon earth or cared what this man doth or that man suffereth Dost thou not see that none prosper so much in the world as those that are most noted for wickednesse and dost thou see any so miserable upon earth as the holiest Could it be thus if there were providence that over looks and over-rules these earthly affairs Repelled THe Lord rebuke thee Satan Even that great Lord of heaven and earth whom thou so wickedly blasphemest wouldst thou perswade me that he who is infinite in power is not also infinite in providence He whose infinite power made all creatures both in heaven above and in earth beneath shall not his infinite providence govern and dispose of all that he hath made Lo how justly the spirit of wisdome calls thee and thy clients fools brutish things They say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall not he see he that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know It was no limited power that could make this eye to see this eare to heare this heart to understand and if that eye which he hath given us can see all things that are within our prospect and that eare that he hath planted can heare all sounds that are within our compasse and that heart that he hath given us can know all matters within the reach of our comprehension how much more shall the sight and hearing and knowledge of that infinite Spirit which can admit of no bounds extend to all the actions and events of all the creatures that lie open before him that maâ—e them It is in him that we live and move and have our being and can we be so sottish as to think we can steale a life from him which he knows not of or a motion that he discerneth not That word of his by whom all creatures were made hath told me that not one sparrow two whereof are sold for a farthing can fall to the ground without my heavenly Father yea that the very hairs of our heads though a poor neglected excrement are all numbred and can there be any thing more sleight then they How great care must we needs think is taken of the head since not an haire can fall unregarded The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth down and lifteth up He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them Even Rabshakeh himselfe spake truer then he was aware of Am I now comne up without the Lord against this place No certainly thou insolent blasphemer thou couldst not move thy tongue nor wag thy finger against Gods inheritance
Wo were us if we were not thus hated Let the world hate and hurt us thus still so we may be the favorites of heaven None fare so ill on earth as the godly both living and dead The dead bodies of Gods servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven the flesh of his Saints unto the beasts of the field their bloud have they shed like water and there was none to bury thē They are become a reproach to their neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about them Oh the poor impotent malice of wicked spirits and men What matters it if our carcasses rot upon earth whiles our souls shine in heavenly glory What matters it if for a while we be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men whiles the Son of God hath assured us of an eternall royalty To him that over-commeth will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his throne None are so ill intreated as the godly It is true for none are so happy as they Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Who would not endure wrongs a while to be everlastingly recompenced Here is not place onely for patience but for joy and that exceeding in respect of a reward so infinitely glorious It is no marvell then if we be bidden to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us these are the men that are our great Benefactors though full sore against their wills contribute to our eternall blessednesse The wicked triumph whiles the righteous are trampled upon What marvell we are in a middle region betwixt heaven and hell but nearer to this latter which is the place of confusion It is but staying a while and each place will be distinctly peopled with his owne there is a large and glorious heaven appointed for the everlasting receptacle of the just an hell for the godlesse till then the eternall wisdome hath determined for his most holy ends to give way to this confused mixture and to this seeming-inequality of events How easie were it for him to make all heaven but he hath a justice to glorifie as well as a mercy and in the mean time it is the just praise of his infinite power wisdome goodnesse that he can fetch the greatest good out of the worst of evils All things go crosse here the righteous droop the wicked flourish The end shall make amends for all The world is a stage every man acts his part the wise compiler of this great interlude hath so contrived it That the middle Scenes show nothing but intricacy and perplexednesse the unskilfull spectator is ready to censure the plot and thinks he sees such unpleasing difficulties in the carriage of affaires as can never be reconciled but by that time he have sate it out he shall see all brought about to a meet accordance and all shut up in a happy applause Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The world is an Apothecaries shop wherein there are all manner of drugs some poysonous others cordiall An ignorant that comes in and knows only the quality not the use of those receits will straight be ready to say What do these unwholsome simples these dangerous mineralls these deadly juices here But the learned and skilfull artist knows how so to temper all these noxious ingredients that they shall turn Antidotes and serve for the health of his patient Thus doth the most high and holy God order these earthly though noxious compositions to the glory of his great name and to the advantage of his chosen So as that suggestion wherewith thou meant'st to batter the divine providence of the Almighty doth invincibly fortifie it his most wise permission and powerfull over-ruling of evill actions and men through the whole world to his owne honour the benefit of his Church VII TEMPTATION If God be never so liberall in in his promises and sure in performances of mercy to his own yet what is that to thee thou art none of his neither canst lay any just claime to his election Repelled HOw boldly can I defie thee O thou lying spirit whiles I have the assurance of him who is the word of Truth How confidently dare I challenge thee upon that unfailing testimony which shall stand till heaven and earth shall passe Ye that have believed in Christ are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Lo here a double assurance which all the powers of hell shall in vaine labour to defeat The Almighties Scale and his Earnest both made and given to the believer and therefore to me In spight of all temptations I believe and know whom I have believed I can accuse my faith of weaknesse thou canst not convince it of untruth and all the precious promises of the Gospel and all the gracious ingagements of God are made not to the measure but to the truth of our beliefe and why should not I as truly know that I relie upon the word of my Saviour as I know that I distrust and reject thine Since then I am a subject truly capable of this mercy what can hinder me from enjoying it Cheare thy selfe up therefore O my soule with this undefeisible confidence that thou hast Gods seale and his earnest for thy salvation Even an honest man will not be lesse then his word but if his hand have seconded his tongue he holds the obligation yet stronger but if his seale shall be further added to his hand there is nothing that can give more validity to the graunt or contract yet even of the value of Seales there is much difference The Seale of a private man carries so much authority as his person the seale of a Community hath so much more security in it as there are more persons interessed But the signet of a King hath wont to be held to all purposes authenticall as we find to omit Ahab in the signatures of Ahasuerus and Darius Who desires any better assurance for the estate of him and his posterity then the Great Seale And behold here is no lesse then the great seale of heaven for my election and salvation Ye are sealed with the spirit of promise But lest thou shouldest plead this to be but a graunt of the future and therefore perhaps upon some intervenient mis-deamures or unkindnesse taken reversible know that here is yet further
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
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
spirit answered by the returns of an humble and thankfull obedience here is not love onely but intirenesse What other is that poor measure of love which our wretched meannesse can return unto our God but a weak reflection of that fervent love which he bears unto us It is the word of Divine Wisdome I love them that love me and the disciple of love can tell us the due order of love We love him because he first loved us The love of God therefore which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us is an all-sufficient conviction of Gods tender love unto us My heart tels me then that I love God truly though weakly God tels me that he embraceth me with an everlasting love which thy malice may snarle at but can never abate TEMPTATIONS REPELLED The third Decade Temptations of Allurement III. DECADE I. TEMPTATION Thou hast hitherto thus long given entertainment to thy sin and no inconvenience hath ensued no evill hath befallen thee thy affaires have prospered better then thy scrupulous neighbours why shouldst thou shake off a companion that hath been both harmlesse and pleasant Go on man sin fearlesly thou shalt speed no worse then thou hast done Go on and thrive in thine old course whiles some precisely conscientious beg and starve in their innocence Repelled IT is right so as wise Salomon observd of old Because sentence against an evil worke is not executed speedily therfore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evill Wicked spirit What a deadly fallacy is this which thou puttest upon miserable soules Because they have aged in their sins therefore they must die in them because they have lived in sin therefore they must age in it because they have prospered in their sin therefore they must live in it whereas all these should be strong arguments to the contrary There cannot be a greater proofe of Gods disfavour then for a man to prosper in wickednesse neither can there be a more forcible inducement to a man to forsake his sin then this that he hath entertain'd it What dost thou other in this then perswade the poor sinner to despise the riches of the goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering of God which should lead him to repentance and after his hardnesse and impenitent heart to treasure up unto himselfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God What an horrible abuse is this of divine mercy That which is intended to lead us to repentance is now urged by thee to draw us from repentance Should the justice of God have cut off the sinner in the flagrance of his wicked fact there had been no roome for his penitence and now God gives him a faire respite for his repentance thou turnest this into a provocation of sinning Let the case for the present be mine If sin have so far bewitcht me as to win me to dally with it must I therefore be wedded to it or if I be once wedded to it through the importunity of Temptation shall I be tyed to a perpetuall cohabitation with that fiend and not free my self by a just divorce Because I have once yeilded to be evill must I therefore be worse Because I have happily by the mercy of my God escaped hell in sinning shall I wilfully run my self headlong into the pit by continuing in sin No wicked one I know how to make better use of Gods favour and my own miscarriages I cannot reckon it amongst my comforts that I prospered in evill Let obdured hearts blesse themselves in such advantages but I adore that goodnesse that forbore me in my iniquity neither dare provoke it any more Thinke not to draw me on by the lucky successe of my sin which thou hast wanted no indeavour to promote Better had it been for me if I had fared worse in the course of my sinning but had I been yet outwardly more happy do I not know that God vouchsases his showers his sun-shine to the fields of those whose persons he destines to the fire Can I be ignorant of that which holy Iob observed in his time That the Tabernacles of the wicked prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly That they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go downe to the grave and as the Psalmist seconds him There are no bands in their death but their strength is firme They are not in trouble like other men therefore pride compasseth them about as achaine And let these jolly men brave it out in the glorious pompe of their unjust greatnesse The same eyes that noted their exaltation have also observed their downefall They are exalted for a little while saith Job but they are gone and brought low they are taken out of the way as all others and cut off as the tops of the ears of corne And in his answer to Zophar Where are the dwelling places of the wicked Have ye not asked them that go by the way and do ye not know their tokens That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath The eyes of the wicked even those scornfull and contemptuous eyes which they have cast upon Gods poor despised ones shall faile and they shall not escape and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost How false an inference then is this whereby 〈◊〉 goest about to delude â—y soule Thou hast hitherto prospered in thy wickedness therefore thou shalt prosper in it still and ever To morrow shall be as yesterday and more abundant As if the just God had not set a period to iniquity As if he had not said to the most insolent sinner as to the raging Sea Here shalt thou stay thy proud waves How many rich Epicures have with Crassus sup't in Apollo and broken their fast with Beelzebub the prince of Devils How many have lien downe to sleep out their furfeit and have waked in hell Were my times in thy hand thou wouldst not suffer me long to enjoy my sin and forbeare the seizure of my soule but now they are in the hands of a righteous God who is jealous of his owne glory he will be sure not to over-pass those hours which he hath set for thy torment or my account Shortly therefore I will withdraw my foot from every evil way and walk holily with my God however I speed in the world Let me with the conscientious men beg or starve in my innocence rather then thrive in my wickednesse and get hell to boot II. TEMPTATION Sin still thou shall repent soon enough when thou canst sin no more Thine old age and death-bed are fit seasons for those sad thoughts It will go hard if thou maist not at the last have a mouthfull of breath left thee to cry God mercy And that is no
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
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