Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence

The time of Death is the time when Souls are usually most violently assaulted by Satan with horrid temptations and black suggestions. We may say of that figurative, as it's said of▪ the natural Serpent, nunquam nisi morJens, producitur in longum, He never exerts his utmost rage till the last encounter; and then his great design is to persuade the Saints, that God loves them not, hath no care nor regard for them, nor their cries; though they pray for ease and cry for sparing mercy, they see none comes. He handles them with as much roughness and severity as other men; yea, many of the vilest and most dissolute wretches endure less torments, and are more gently handled than they. Psal. 73. 4. there are no bands in their death, when as thou must go through a long lane of sickness to the grave, and endure many deaths in one.

The time of Death is the time when Souls are usually most violently assaulted by Satan with horrid temptations and black suggestions. We may say of that •igurative, as it's said of▪ the natural Serpent, nunquam nisi morJens, producitur in longum, He never exerts his utmost rage till the last encounter; and then his great design is to perswade the Saints, that God loves them not, hath no care nor regard for them, nor their cryes; though they pray for ease and cry for sparing mercy, they see none comes. He handles them with as much roughness and severity as other men; yea, many of the vilest and most dissolute wretches endure less torments, and are more gently handled than they. Psal. 73. 4. there are no bands in their death, when as thou must go through a long lane of sickness to the grave, and endure many deaths in one.

But what credit can these plausible tales of Satan obtain with a Christian who hath been treasuring up all his life long the memorials of God's