confinable rvalkingwith God. 299 timedemanded of thofemany thoufands betides, what they conceivedof themfelves for falvation : doe you not thinke he would have found themall well conceitedofthemfelves ? Would not they with much bitternefre and heate , have exam gitatedhis centur as tooperemptory and unmerciful!, and beetle ready to retort : Flowfoever you dote upon the Dif- ci; f.1! pi.Yer p celled ciples youdraw after you , and onely approove and applaud Ioannitz. Socra. the hannites ( for fo they werecalled, becaufe his name was Hill. Eccieriaft' lib. 6. cap. 16. John:) yet we hope to doeas well as they, and come tohea- ven afroone as the precifeft of thole you have in fo high efteerne. Hum then let me a little illightenandopen in a word, as I promifed, theMyfteryof this fpirituall Selfe-deceit. For which purpofe know, that Satan firft difcovers in our corrupt nature and crooked difpofitions , a very pregnant ground, whereupon to prat:We this notable impofture , I meane, the original' poyfonof natural' prefumption, where- by we are all apt to be feareleffe and fenfelefre of our pre. fent fpirituall misery; and hand over-head to catch at any vaine fhadow ofcounterfeit confidence for our future wel- fare : Secondly , he obferves in the partie he intends to de- lude, the moft plaufible matter, and felfe - pleating apprehen- lions , whichmay make the fittcft medium tomif-inferre falfe conclufion for his fpirituall fafetie Latily, by force fiafhes of his perfonated Angelical' light, he fets upon it the glimmering flourith of a prefumptuous irnpreffion , and fo feales up the deceived foule , with the fpirit of timber and groundleffe fecuritie. Now the infufficient matter, rotten grounds, falfe wadi- ums, as we call them in the Schooles , which Satan by his Sophiftry doth cunningly and cruelly abufe , to cafi many thoufands into a pleating golden dreameof imaginary fpi- ritual' fafetie, and Selfe-deceit ; and into a fooles Paradifeof a foule-coozening conclufion, are fuch as thefe r, Meafuring a mans felfe by himfelfe : himfelfe per. haps formerly, grofrely ignorant, andnotorioufly lewd;: by himfelfe- now grownecivill and= (=what illuminated with
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