The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

USE. I. For Caution; Take heed of abusing this truth unto presumption. It is a great policy of Satan, to hold men as long as he can in carnal security, unto which their own natural inclination leads them: and among other devices he hath to insinuate into them by, this is one main engine that he useth with those that live under the Gospel, and enjoy the privileges of it, to blow them up with false surmises about God, and thence to draw ungrounded conclusions about their good ⟨p. 264⟩estate, and arrogate to themselves the things that belong not to them; let us then be warned to take heed to our selves, and there are many that need this warning, lest they rue it for ever, viz.

USE. I. For Caution; Take heed of abusing this truth unto presumption. It is a great policy of Satan, to hold men as long as he can in carnal security, unto which their own natural inclination leads them: and among other devices he hath to insinuate into them by, this is one main engine that he useth with those that live under the Gospel, and enjoy the priviledges of it, to blow them up with false surmizes about God, and thence to draw ungrounded conclusions about their good ⟨p. 264⟩estate, and arrogate to themselves the things that belong not to them; let us then be warned to take heed to our selves, and there are many that need this warning, lest they rue it for ever, viz.

1. All such as resolve their whole hope into the merciful nature of God, not seeking his favour in his own way. That God is merciful and gracious, is a great truth, and woe to us all if it were not so; had he not written his Name in such Letters, we had all been without hope. But this precious truth may be abused, and it is so by all those that have no other plea for Salvation, but because God is merciful; his natural goodness, and his common love to his Creature is the only foundation on which they build, thence arguing that they cannot perish, and hence enquire no farther, but rest here, never asking how this mercy may be obtained, so as to obtain a deliverance from the Curse fallen on them, or what are the terms of the New Covenant, on which God offers himself to be propitious to Sinners, and so never study a compliance with them, but count it enough that he is such a God; this is derided in that Sarcasm,