The Godly Man's Picture

Use 2. MY next Use is to exhort those who wear the Mantle,¹ and in the judgement of others are looked upon as godly, that they would^† persevere, Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith. This is a seasonable Exhortation in these times, when the Devils Factors are abroad, whose whole work is to unsettle people, and make them fall off from that former strictness in Religion which they have professed: 'Tis much to be lamented to see Christians

1. 1Use 2.Vse 2.
2. †Non cepisse sed perfecisse virtutis est

1. Wavering in Religion: How many do ⟨p. 300⟩we see desultorii ingenii, unresolved and unsteady: Like Reuben, unstable as water, Gen. 49. 4. These the Apostle fitly compares to waves of the Sea, and wandering Stars, Jude 13. They are not fixed in the principles of godliness. Beza writes of one Bolsechus, his Religion changed like the^* Moon: Such were the Ebionites, who kept the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian: Many Professors are like the River Euripus, ebbing and flowing in matters of Religion; they are like reeds, bending every way, either to the Mass or the^† Alcoran: They are like the Planet Mercury, which doth vary, and is seldom constant in its motion: When men think of heaven, and the recompense of reward, then they will be godly; but when they think of Persecution, then they are like the Jews, who deserted Christ, and walked no more with him,