If that will not do, perhaps he will open the falls of professors to you, and labour to persuade you that all are such: Or he will show you what divisions and differences are among them; or he will take advantage of some difficulties in Religion, or some controversies in which he sees you already engaged to a party; or he will tell you of some false doctrine that some forward professors may be tainted with, to make them, and consequently Godliness it self more odious, or at least suspected to you. If all this will not do, he will endeavour to set your very parents, or natural kindred against you; that those that should most promote your Salvation, and on whom your livelihood much dependeth, shall become your enemies, and hate you for offering to give up your selves to Christ: If that will not do, he will endeavour to entice you with the baits of fleshly pleasure, or of preferments, or much business, or merry company, or some great matters that you may hope for in the ⟨p. 511⟩world. And usually this snare is the strongest of all. Or else he will tell you that if needs you will Resolve it is time enough hereafter: You may yet take more of your pleasure or commodity before you leave it: Yet you may suck the breasts of the world a little dryer, and then turn to God and cast it off. If all this will not prevail with you, he will tell you it is now too late; you have sinned so long, or such heinous sins that God will not have mercy on you: he will make you believe that God hath utterly forsaken you, and there is no remedy; and you may as well spare your thoughts of Turning now, for Christ will not receive or welcome you: and therefore it is even as good go on, and take up the rest that the world can afford you, for there is no hope of better. But the most desperate temptation of all the rest is, to put some blasphemous, unbelieving thoughts into your mind; especially if you fall into company with infidels, that will draw you to question the Word of God, and the Immortality of the Soul, and the truth of Christianity, or the life to come, whether there be any such things or not: Where these once take, ⟨p. 512⟩and are received with approbation, the Soul is in a miserable case: Though I know many tempted, melancholy Christians, are haunted with such temptations, who yet abhor them, and do well at last, for all this.
If that will not do, perhaps he will open the falls of professours to you, and labour to perswade you that all are such: Or he will shew you what divisions and differences are among them; or he will take advantage of some difficulties in Religion, or some controversies in which he sees you already engaged to a party; or he will tell you of some false doctrine that some forward professours may be tainted with, to make them, and consequently Godliness it self more odious, or at least suspected to you. If all this will not do, he will endeavour to set your very parents, or natural kindred against you; that those that should most promote your Salvation, and on whom your livelyhood much dependeth, shall become your enemies, and hate you for offering to give up your selves to Christ: If that will not do, he will endeavour to entice you with the baits of fleshly pleasure, or of preferments, or much business, or merry company, or some great matters that you may hope for in the ⟨p. 511⟩world. And usually this snare is the strongest of all. Or else he will tell you that if needs you wll Resolve it is time enough hereafter: You may yet take more of your pleasure or commodity before you leave it: Yet you may suck the brests of the world a little dryer, and then turn to God and cast it off. If all this will not prevail with you, he will tell you it is now too late; you have sinned so long, or such haynous sinnes that God will not have mercy on you: he will make you believe that God hath utterly forsaken you, and there is no remedy; and you may as well spare your thoughts of Turning now, for Christ will not receive or welcome you: and therefore it is even as good go on, and take up the rest that the world can afford you, for there is no hope of better. But the most desperate temptation of all the rest is, to put some blasphemous, unbelieving thoughts into your mind; especially if you fall into company with infidels, that will draw you to question the Word of God, and the Immortality of the Soul, and the truth of Christianity, or the life to come, whether there be any such things or not: Where these once take, ⟨p. 512⟩and are received with approbation, the Soul is in a miserable case: Though I know many tempted, melancholy Christians, are haunted with such temptations, who yet abhorre them, and do well at last, for all this.
