Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…

ARTICLE VI. Grievous Temptations Conquered.

Temptations were just now Mentioned. And the first Thing I will now Observe, shall be This. As when the Danite Hero was first entering upon his Public Actions, a Lion roared upon him: So Mr. Mather had not long made his entrance upon his Public Services, before he felt singular Assaults from the Lion which goes about seeking whom to fall upon. Our SAVIOURS Ministry begun with a Storm of Grievous Temptations upon Him; And many of His Faithful and Useful Servants have in their Condition, this Conformity unto His: In the Beginning of their Ministry they suffer Grievous Temptations from their Grand Adversary. Mr. Mather did so. The more Early Years of his Ministry were Embittered unto him, with such Furious & Boisterous Temptations unto Atheism, as were Intolerable to him, and made him Cry out like Peter in the Tempest. Vile Suggestions and Injections, tending to question the Being of the GOD, whom he Feared, and Loved, and was continually Praying to, where shot at him as Fiery Darts from the ⟨p. 27⟩Wicked one, and caused him to go Mourning because of the Oppression of the Enemy. His Holy Soul suffered an Unutterable Anguish from this Blast of the Terribles upon him From his Vehement Abhorrence of these Thoughts, and from his Groans for a Deliverance from them, and from the Cries of a Chaste Soul under a Rape, which he made, when his Pious Mind was Affronted with them, (as well as from the Time and Way of the Vexations,) it was Plain, They were none of his own; they were plainly of a Satanic Original. But yet, the Trouble they gave him, was, what Satan intended him; Inexpressible and Insupportable. His great SAVIOUR indeed, who forever holds all the Fiends of Darkness in a Chain, had Wise and Good Ends in Permitting them to bring such a Fiery Trial upon him: And no doubt, This among the rest. He was a Young Man every where Admired, and Applauded, and Accepted, and Flocked after, and Uncommon Regards were from all Quarters paid unto him. Now these Colaphizations were of notable Advantage, to prevent all undue and unsafe Elations; and keep him Humbly Wondering that the People of GOD should have any esteem for a Person, who felt in his Heart Cursed Motions towards that Horrible Thing, A Denial of the GOD that is above. I cannot Learn, that under these Temptations he found much Benefit by Disputing with them: