Moti1Jes againft '13ackfliding. better to thee here and h<reafter ' what wouldll thou have in God or in thy Saviour that thou thinkell wanting in him? Is it any thing that the world can make up ? which hath nothing it felf but what's from him? what wrong hath God or his fetvice done thee, that thou fhouldft now forfake him and turn back? For thy foUls fake, man, think of fame reafonable anfwer to fuch quefiions, before rho11 venture thy felf upon a courfe, which thou haft found fa baG and peri1lous heretofore ? Let all the malice of earth or Hell, fay the wei£1 it can again!\ God and Holincfs, it !hall never ju!lifie thy revolt! §. 31· 12· Confidor what abbndance of l•boHr and foffering is all loll, if thou fall away from Chri!t. Is all thy hearing and meditation and prayer come to this' Is all thy felf-dcnyal and futfer– ings for Chrifi and godlincfs come to this ? Hcb. 10. 32, 33, 34· Call to remembra1tct the former dayu, in which after ye were iUJtminaud, ye endured a great fight of a.IJliDirmJ : panly w~ile ye were made a gazing Jfock,. both by reproaches and affli.l7iont, andpartly wbi14i ye bcc,zme companion~ Oftbtm that rrtrc [o 1 ljed- Caft not dW.iJ) therefore yo1tr confidence, which bath j!,rtat rccompen{e of reward. You fhould have let Chrill alone, if you would not follow him to the end : He is lefs foolifi1 that fitteth fiill, than he that firll tireth himfelf and then turneth again. The idle beggar is not fo , foolilh, as the husbandman that will plow and fow, and at lalllofe his crop for want of the Ja. bour to reap it and carry it home. Shall all thy pains and fuffering•, be loll at !all, for no– thing? ~- 32• 13- God is not fo forward to caj! you off, who hatli jul\ caufe! And why then fhould you be forward to turn from him ' If /Jt had, what had become of you long agoe? yet what abun– dant occafion have yote given him, when he never gave you any at all? Thy fins have tcfiified arid cryed againll thee ? abufed mercies have witneffed againll thee > and yet he hath not call thee off. Satan hath llood up before God to accufe thee; and glad he would be to fee thee utterly forfaken of God, and yet he hath not utterly forfaken thee ? even while rhou art forfaking him, he is pro– reCI:ing and fupporting thee, and providing for thee > Did he for[akJ thee when thou wall in ficknefs, want and dal}gcr? If he had, thouhadfi not now been here. And wilt thou b~gin, and run away from him? what if Chrifl' !hould otfor thte a bill of divorce, and fay [Seeing thou hall fo little mind of me or ef my fervice, take thy courfe and feek another mafler, 1 difcharge thee from all thy relations to me ; follow thy own way and take what thou gettell by it J; would this be well· come tidings to thee? or durfl rhou accept of it, and be gone ? 9· 33• '4· If thou do turn back for the pleafures of the flcfh, or the preferments or profits of the world, thou wilt have lefs pleafure in them now, than thou hadll heretofore, or than the uncon– vcrtcd have. For they that fin in the dark do not know their danger, and therefore fin not with fo much terrour, as thou wilthereafter: Thouhall~"'""' the danger ; thou hall confeft the folly; the reafons of Gods word will never be forgotten ; nor thy conviCI:ioRs ever totally blotted out ; Thou wilt be remembring the ancient kindndfes of Chrift, and thy former purpofes and promifes and waycs ;· and thou wilt be thinking both of the dayes that are pall, and the dayes that are to come, and forefeeing thy terrible account : fo that thou wilt fin in fuch tenours, that thou wilt have a In the Van; ·ta!leofHell in the very excrcifc of thy fin, and be tormented,before the time: And will the world and d•lspe•~"' fin be worth the enjoying on fuch termsas thde? ;b~u7~'n · . Apofb.tt 'IUS the moft cruel perfecutor ; At Jal'l it came to his turn to torment Ni;·ita that h;ad b:'lptizcd him; who fpre.:ad before them all the linncns jn which he was Bapti"Z.'Cd, faying, Hzc te accufabunt dum m3jeflas venerir judicantis. CuHodientur di!igentii mei ad teAimonium tu% perditionis, ad mergendum te in aby({um patei fulph.uranris. Hrec re acrius pcr!'cquemur fbmm::tntem gebennarH cum COJeteris poffi .. denremQ}lid faHurus es mifer cum fcrvi p;atri$ famili:U ad czca1u rt;giam congregare creperint invttatos ? Ligate turn mlnib~ pcdibUfque, &c. Ha:c & alia Miritti dicentc, igt:c cenfcientia= ante ignem ;rter!\um obmutcfccns Epid()pb. torrebatur.Vitft»" uric. p. 466, §. 34· r 5• Either thou hopell to rteover from thy baci<Jiiding by a fecond Repentance, or elfe j thou purpofefl to go on. If thou jhouldj! be fo happy as to be recovmd, doll thou know with how m•cb pain and terrour it is like to be accomplifhed ? When thou thinkell of thy bac1<1liding•, and what thou ha{f done in revolting after fuch convictions and promifes and nlcrcies and experiences, . thou wilt be very hardly kept from dcfperation: Thou wilt read. fuch paffages as, Heb. 6. 4, 5, 6. and Heb.ro.26,27, 2S,29• with fo much horrour, that thou wilt hardly beperfwadedthat there lis any hope: Thou wilt be ready to think that thou haft finned againll the Holy Ghofl, and that thou hall trampled underfoot the blood of the Covenant, and done defpite to the fpirit of grace: i\\nd thou wilt think that there is no being twice born again ! Or if thou be refiored to Life, thou wilt hardly ever be rellored to thy comforts here ; if rhy backfliding fhould be very great. But indeed tl\e danger is exceeding great, lefi thou never be recovered at all, if once thou be twice tie ad and pluci(! up by rhe rool!, Jud. 6. and lcll God do finally forfake thee! And then how defperare wiill bethy cafe? . 9· 35• r6. Is it not the example of Backjlidmvery terrible, which God hath fct,up for the warning of his fcrvants~ as monuments of his wrath? Luk. 17. 32· Remember Lot'! Wt[e, faith Chrifl to tht ~m that are about to Jofe ~heir ellates or goods or livn by faviuf., them ? How frightful i~ the rc:r.nembrance of aCain, aJud.u, a Saul, a Joar, 2 Chron. 24· 2. aJulian? How fad is it to hear hu1 t fuch a one as Spira, efpecially at his death, crying out of his backfliding in the horrour of his fott1? and to fee {uch ready to make away themfelves? ~ ·: 36. '7· Confider that thcro is none that fo much difhonourerh God, a< ~ B.ck.Jiider. Others are I uppofcd to fin in ignorance. 5ut you do by your lives as bad as fpcak fuch blalpheamy as rhis againl\
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