Certain sermons, first preached, and after published at several times, by M. Thomas Gataker…Certaine sermons, first preached, and after published at severall times, by M. Thomas Gataker…

§. 66. The want hereof hath been the fault, and hath proved ⟨p. 109⟩the fall of not a few. For, to pass by that fearful downfall of our first Parents hereby occasioned: What but this was the main ground of Peters miscarriage? but^e this presumption, I mean, of his own might, and neglect of those means whereby he might have been enabled to stand, while^f he trusted to his own strength? A threefold offence some have observed in his behaviour in that business; that ^ghe opposed himself to our Saviour forewarning him of his fall, he preferred himself indiscreetly before the rest of his Fellow-disciples, and he took the matter wholly upon himself, as that which he knew himself able well enough to go through with.^h Thou wilt deny me, Peter, saith our Saviour; Nay, but I will not, saith Peter. Though all should deny thee, yet will not I deny thee: I will never deny thee, though I dye for it. And no doubt of it but thatⁱ Peter then both meant as he spake, and spake what he thought; he misdoubted not himself, nor his own inability, but he would and should do as then he said. But^k the Physician felt Peters pulse, and discerned that in his Patient, which the Patient did not, nor could then see in himself. And surely, as it befell Peter, so falleth it out with many other. They are like sick men,^l that when they have had a good day or two after some fits of a fever, think they are now perfectly well recovered again, and so presuming contrary to the Physicians advice to venture abroad into the air, or to cast off their sick kerchief, or to misdiet themselves, either they catch cold or take surfeit, and so fall back by relapse into their former disease, handling them then more fiercely by far, and endangering them much more than before. And so is it here with a many: they think themselves strong enough to encounter with Satan, especially if they have stood out and come off well (as they think) in a temptation or twain, and so