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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	life_n	way_n	world_n	4,036	5	4.7603	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57146	Meditations on the fall and rising of St. Peter by Edward Reynolds ...	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.; Reynolds, Edward, 1629-1698.	1677 (1677)	Wing R1266; ESTC R15342	19,547	140

discommodity of a cold air and an ensuing Judgment cannot be far from denying of him That man whom the enjoying of any temporal benefit or the opportunity of any sensual and worldly delight can induce to forsake the company of Christ who is ever present in his Ordinances is at the next door if occasion were given to Apostacy and backsliding MED IX THE Devil hath a kind of method and colour of modesty in his Temptations He knew that it would not sort with the Holiness of Peter to shoot at the first a fiery dart towards him and tempt him in the very beginning of his onset unto a perjur'd and blasphemous denial of his Master Peter would have at the first trembled at so fearful a suggestion And therefore like a cunning Captain he so ranks and musters up his forces as that the first Temptation shall like weaker Soldiers make way for the latter which are the old experienced and sturdy fighters the former serve only to weaken Peter the latter to overthrow him At the first the Devil tempts us to small sins to remit something of our wonted vigor to indulge a little unto our corrupt desires to unbend our thoughts and to slacken our pace in prosecution of good courses that by cooling our selves we may be able to hold out the better but when he hath drawn us thus far he hath gotten the advantage of us and having a door open le ts in his more ugly and horrid Temptations Sin hath its several ages and growths first it is but conceiv'd and shap'd in the womb of Concupiscence then it is nourished and given suck by the embraces and delights of the Will as of a Nurse then lastly it grows into a strong man and doth of it self run up and down our little World invade all the faculties of Soul and Body which are at last made the instruments of Satan to act and fulfill it Satan at the first leads us downward towards Hell as it were by steps and stairs which though they go lower and lower yet we seem still to have firm footing and to be able to go back at pleasure But at last we find as the way more and more slippery so the enemy ready at hand to push us down into a dungeon of unrecoverable misery did not Gods mercy pluck us as a brand out of the fire Peter first sleeps only that seemed the exigence of his nature then he followed afar off that haply was pretended to be only the drowsiness of his sleeping then he sits down at the sire and that was but the coldness of the air But then comes denying swearing cursing and had not Christ in time looked back upon him the next step and regress would have reach'd unto the jaws of Hell But it was the great Wisdom and Mercy of Christ to honour the estate of his ignominy and reproach his death and judgment with two of his greatest Miracles The assuming of a repentant Thief and the re-assuming of a revolted Disciple MED X. IT is no wonder if Peter be tempted to forsake his Master when he is far off from him How can he chuse but stumble and fall who hideth himself from the Sun of Righteousness who is absent from the Light of the World who wanders out of the way of Life who is beyond the voice of that word of Truth which only succoreth directeth leadeth instructeth in Holiness and Security He which testifieth his Faith by following and yet lays open his flesh and weakness by following afar off shall be sure to meet with such an enemy as hates our Faith and therefore takes advantage by our weakness to oppose it Our Faith provokes him to enmity for he is adversary to none so much as those that are out of his power and our weakness invites him to an assault for he trembles and flies from opposition Had Peter abode in the company of his Lord Satan would not have dar'd to tempt him unto a Tripledenial in the presence of such a power whence he had formerly received such a Triple-overthrow having been himself broken with those stones and hurled down from that Pinacle and Mountain in which he thought to have batter'd and broken in pieces the Salvation of the World by the overthrow of its Saviour Or if perhaps he would have been so impudent or so venturous as to thrust into the presence of his Maker and before him to issue forth his Temptations yet this advantage should Peter have had that he should have been directed with more light and assisted with greater strength to resist so impudent an assault his Faith haply should bave been confirmed though his adversaries malice had not been abated And we know the Devil never overcomes any that is not first overcome of himself What danger is there in fighting where there is no danger of falling or what difference is there between an unoppos'd security and an assaulted strength save that this is more glorious the other no whit the more safe He is not far from Satans temptations who belonging to Christ is yet far off from his presence and assistance None nearer the fury of a strong and bloody malice than a weak and stragling enemy MED XI I Never read of more dangerous falls in the Saints than were Adams Lots Sampsons Davids Solomons and Peters and behold in all these either the first Inticers or the first Occasioners are Women A weak Creature may be a strong Tempter nothing too impotent or useless for the Devils service We know it is the pride of Satan to imitate God As God magnifies his power in bringing strength out of weakness so doth the Devil labour to gain the glory of a strong enemy by the ruinating of a great Saint with the Temptation of a weak Sex Nor is he herein more apish than cunning for the end of the Devils conflicts is the despair of his enemy He gets Judas to betray his Master that he may after get him to hang himself And he hath the same end in Peter's Denial which he had in Judas his Treason Now what is there that can more draw a man to Despair than an apprehension of greatness in his sin and what fall greater than to be foiled by a Question by a Maid What could more aggravate Peter's sin than that the voice of a Maid should be stronger to overcome him than the Faith in a Jesus to sustain him The Devil tempts us that he may draw us unto sin but he tempts us by weak Instruments that he may draw us unto despair MED XII WOman was the first Sinner and behold in the two greatest falls and most immediate denials of God Adam's and Peter's Woman is made the first Tempter So much as any one is the Devils slave to serve him so much is he his Instrument to assist sin A Sinner will be presently a Tempter MED XIII PEter hath no sooner denied his Master but he goes out farther from him See what a concord there is between our

and languish and though even now it can look undauntedly on the nails of a Cross yet presently it may be affrighted at the voice of a Maid He only that hath given faith unto us can give life and action unto our faith Christ is both the quickner and the object of our Faith by whose power it worketh and on whose merits it relyeth When He therefore is pleas'd to remove and withdraw himself Faith must needs be there unoperative where both its Object and its Mover is absent As we cannot see the Sun but by the light of the Sun so neither can we believe in Christ but by the Grace of Christ. Who can wonder that the outward parts of the body should be benum'd and stupid when the spirits and animal vertues which should enliven them have retir'd themselves Lord let me never barely promise but let me withal pray unto thee and let ever my purpose to die for thee be seconded with a supplication that I may not deny thee when ever I have an arm of confidence to lift up in defence of thy Truth let me have a knee of humility to bow down before thy Throne Lord give me what I may promise and I will promise what thou requirest MED IV. WEre not the other Disciples taught from the same holy mouth did they not with the same holy faith receive what they had been taught Why then should Peter give credit to the word of Christ so far as concern'd their weakness and yet distrust it in the presumption of his own strength What though he be the chief in following his Master may he not as well be the chief in falling from him I never knew a priority of Order priviledg'd with a precedence of Grace Yet such is the nature of Greatness that it conceits it self secure from danger and apprehends spiritual immunity in temporal honour How erroneous is the frailty of mans nature How ready to trust upon an arm of flesh confidence free-will supremacy even against divine predictions of danger and thinks it self sufficiently arm'd with that than which there is no greater cause of its weakness and ruin MED V. ONE would have thought that Peter upon the noise of a denial should have begun to tremble and not to boast to arm and not to presume to suspect his strength and not promise it But that a double warning should find a double presumption would make a man confident to expect an invincible resolution and believe that even naked and empty nature being so deeply engaged would have if not courage yet shame enough to persist in such a purpose which being broken could not but infer the discredit not only of a weak but of an inconstant spirit more faithless in the execution of a promise more impotent in its contempt of death than could well stand with the honestly or courage of a Peter But it is the justice of God to give over nature to faintings and falls when it relyes upon it self and to make him fear the least assault who hath not arm'd himself with that which should defend him against the greatest One tear or sigh though emblems of weakness could more have prevailed to strengthen Peter's Faith than so many fruitless boasts the gildings and flourishings of a rotten confidence A little Peble-stone will overturn and sink down a Goliah when all the Armor of Saul will rather cumber than profit in such a conflict MED VI. GReat Promises require great cares and he who hath deeply engag'd himself in any service must needs be either very vigilant or very faithless How is it then that after so many promises I find Peter sleeping even then when his Master is sweating and that that Garden should be the bed of so secure a rest which was the Theater of so exquisite and unimitable an anguish Can he follow Christ a whole night to his Judgment that cannot watch one hour for his comfort can he command his life to be laid down for Christs Truth that cannot command his eyes to be the witnesses of his sorrow so long as we are out of the view of danger we can make large promises of our strength to bear it but when once it draws near and creeps upon us we begin to look with another colour both on it and our selves and become either desperately fearful or supinely stupid Like untoward and forgetful children which never fear the Rod till they feel it MED VII I Cannot wonder that Peter should fall off being tempted who is already though unquestion'd so far behind that he should tremble at the terror of Death who cannot endure the trouble of a Watch. He must learn more to deny himself before he can take up his Cross. The nights of a resolved Martyr must be spent in the studies of patience not in security and ease he must first be a persecutor of himself and exercise a holy cruelty on his own flesh by cruncifying the lusts thereof before he can be able to overcome the wit and most exquisite inventions of his tormentors in a holy and undaunted patience The Soul must be first rais'd unto Heaven before the body can be willing to go down into the earth Had Peter watch'd and accompanied his Master he might have receiv'd further encouragement in his resolution to die for him and learn'd from the extremity of his anguish if not to hate life which could make a man subject to such expressless sorrow yet at least willingly to embrace the present opportunity of glorifying God by a constant death even for this respect that thereby he might be freed from the capacity and danger of those afflictions which he should there have seen flesh and blood lyable unto Of how many precious occasions of good does the too great love of our flesh and ease deprive us Every man would love God more if he could be more out of love with himself MED VIII I Cannot expect other but that he should follow Christ afar off who goes sleepily after him nor can I hope for courage from his tongue whose feet begin so soon to play the Cowards It is not likely that he will come near Christ in Golgotha that follows him afar off in the Judgment-hall if he be unwilling to seem his he will be quickly ready to deny him Behold the beginnings of Peter's backsliding in his very following of Christ To follow him indeed is a work of Faith but to follow afar off is nothing else but by little and little to go back from him See how the preparations unto Peter's fall second each other After sleeping he follows afar off and from that he comes to sitting still and that not in private to pray or repent but in publick to warm himself at that fire where his Conscience though not seared was yet made more hard He which prefers the heat of a fire compassed in with the blasphemies of wicked men the nearest pattern that can be of Hell to the sweet society of his Saviour with the