Heavenly merchandiseHeavenly merchandize

The sum then of the Exhortation is: That you labour to be confirmed in an unchangeable resolution, to maintain the Truth both in heart and profession, in despite of all Temptations that may endeavour to draw you to part with it; what are the Temptations, which any of us may be assaulted by, and to what an height they may arise, is at the dispose of him who sits upon the circuit of the Heaven; there have been sore ones that many of Gods faithful ones have encountered withal; and we dwell in a world where they may be expected, nor have we any charter that gives us special immunity from meeting the like.

The summe then of the Exhortation is: That you labour to be confirmed in an unchangeable resolution, to maintain the Truth both in heart and profession, in despite of all Temptations that may endeavour to draw you to part with it; what are the Temptations, which any of us may be assaulted by, and to what an height they may arise, is at the dispose of him who sits upon the circuit of the Heaven; there have been sore ones that many of Gods faithful ones have encountred withal; and we dwell in a world where they may be expected, nor have we any charter that gives us special immunity from meeting the like.

To speak more particularly, there are two ways, or two sorts of Temptations by which they who have bought the Truth may be endangered, viz. either of being collogued or else affrighted out of it: In the former of these we are invited by the worlds honours, profits, ⟨p. 150⟩and pleasures, which look upon us with a smiling countenance, and bespeak us in an insinuating dialect: in the latter we are seared with the Cross and Persecution, looking grim and ghastly upon us, and speaking in Thunder and Lightning to us: The one makes an offer to us of something in exchange for it, and would fain persuade us to believe that we shall be no losers by the bargain: the other tries all it can to discourage us from the keeping of it, and urge us to believe it our wisdom to part with it as soon as we can, and how great a folly it will be in us to resolve to maintain it, with these innumerable hazards and encumbrances that are the certain appendices of it: Now one of these two Temptations do (for the most part) make discovery of those that have made but a slightly purchase, and bought the Truth no further than in an outward profession; and they are plainly and fully characterized to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in the stony, the other in the thorny ground, mentioned in that Parable,