ding to that prayer of St Paul, Col. i. 11. that Chriftians might be strengthened with all might, according to God's glorious power, unto all patience and longfuffering, with joyfulness. For when God is pleafed to exercife good men with trials more than human, and such sufferings as are beyond the common rate of human ftrength and patience to bear, he hath engaged himself to endue and affift them with more than human courage and refolution. So St Paul tells the Corinthians, who had not then felt the utmost rage of perfecution, 1 Cor. x. 13. No temptation or trial hath yet befallen you but what is common to man; that is, nothing but what is frequently incident to human nature, and what by human strength, with an ordinary affitance of God's grace, may be grappled withal.. But, in cafe God fhall call you to extraordinary sufferings, he is faithful that hath promised, who will" not fuffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation alfo make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it; that is, as he hath ordered. and appointed fo great a temptation or trial to befal you, fo he will take care that it fhall have a happy iffue, by enabling you to bear it, by affording you grace and ftrength equal to the violence and power of the temptation. For as he is faid to fall into temptation, that is conquered by it; fo he is faid to get out of it, or escape it, who is enabled to bear it, and, in fo doing, gets the better of it. And for this we may rely upon the faithfulness of God, who hath promifed that we shall not be tried above our strength; either not above the strength which we have, or not. above the ftrength which he will afford us in fuch a cafe.

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And why then should we be daunted at the appre henfion of any suffering whatsoever, if we be fecured,, that our comfort fhall be increafed in proportion to our trouble, and our ftrength in proportion to the sharpness and weight of our fufferings? Or elfe,

3dly, In cafe of temporary falling, the providence and goodness of God will give them the grace and opportunity of recovering themfelves from their fall. by repentance. For the providence of God may fometimes

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fometimes, for wife ends and reafons, fee it fit to leave good men to their own frailty, and to faint and fall fhamefully under fufferings, fo as to renounce and deny the truth; fometimes to punish their vain confidence in themselves, as in the cafe of Peter, who declared more refolution, and bore it out with a greater confidence than any of the difciples, when he faid to our Saviour, Though all men forfake thee, yet will not 1; and yet after this he fell more fhamefully than any of the reft, fo as to deny his master with horrid oaths and imprecations, and this, though our Saviour had prayed particularly for him, that his faith might not fail. From which inftance we may learn, that God doth not engage himself abfolutely to fecure good men from falling, in cafe of a great temptation and trial; but if they be fincere, he will not permit them to fall finally, though he may fuffer them to mifcarry grievously for a time, to convince them of the vanity of their confidence in themselves and their own ftrength.

Sometimes God may fuffer good men to fall, in order to their more glorious recovery, and the greater demonftration and triumph of their faith and conflancy afterwards, which was the cafe of that happy inflrument of our reformation here in England, Archbifhop Cranmer, who, after he had been fo great a champion of the reformation, was fo overcome with fear, upon the apprehenfion of his approaching fufferings, as to fubfcribe thofe errors of the church of Rome, which he had fo ftoutly oppofed a great part of his life. But he did not long continue in this flate, but by the grace of God, which had not forfaken him, was brought to repentance; and when he came to fuffer, gave fuch a teftimony of it, and of his faith, and conftancy, as was more glorious, and more to the confirmation of the faith of others, than a fimple martyrdom could have been, if he had not fallen; for when he was brought to the stake, he put his right hand (with which he had figned his recantation) into the fire, and with an undaunted conftancy held it there, till it was quite burnt, for a teftimony of his true repentance for that foul miscarri

age;

age; and when he had done, gave the rest of his body to be burnt, which he endured with great courage and chearfulness to the laft. So that he made all the amends poffible for fo great a fault; and the goodness of God, and the power of his grace, was more glorified in his repentance and recovery, than if he had never fallen.

But what shall we fay, when, notwithstanding thefe promifes of extraordinary comfort and fupport, in cafe of extraordinary fufferings, fo great numbers are feen to faint in the day of trial, and to fall off from their stedfastness; of which there were many fad inftances among the primitive Chriftians, and have likewife been of late in our own times, and in places nearer to us? This I confefs is a very melancholy confideration, but yet I think, is capable of a fuffi cient answer.

And first of all, let this be established for a firm and undoubted principle, that God is faithful to his promife; and therefore we ought much rather to fup. pofe in all thefe cafes, that there is fome default on our part, than any failure and unfaithfulness on God's part. Thus St Paul determines in a like cafe, when the promife of God feemed not to be made good to the Jews, he lays the blame of it on their unbelief, but acquits God of any unfaithfulness in his promife, Rom. iii. 3. 4. For what if fome did not believe, fhall their unbelief make the faith (or fidelity) of God without effect? God forbid: Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. This I confefs does not answer the difficulty; but yet it ought to incline and difpofe us to interpret what can fairly be offered for the removal of it, with all the favour that may be on God's fide. I fay then,

2dly, That when good men fall in cafe of extraordinary temptation, and recover again by repentance, and give greater demonftration afterwards of their conftancy and refolution, in the caufe of God and his truth, the faithfulness of God in his promises is fufficiently vindicated, as in the cafes I mentioned; becaufe the promife of God is not abfolute, that good men fhall be preferved from falling; but that the temptation

temptation fhall have a happy iffue, and that they fhall not finally mifcarry. For promifes of this nature are to be interpreted by us, and understood as we do our Saviour's prayer for Peter before his fall, that his faith fhould not fail finally; but though he fell through too much confidence in himself, he should through the grace of God affifting him be enabled to recover by repentance.

3dly, The fincerity or infincerity of men in the profeffion of the true religion, is a thing which we cannot certainly know, because we do not fee into mens hearts; but he who knows the heart, and tries the fpirits of men in a balance, cannot be deceived in this matter; and where men are not fincere, the promise of God is not concerned to hinder them from discovering themselves; and the fall of fuch perfons is no reflection upon the faithfulness of God. And it is reafonable enough to prefume, that this may be the cafe of not a few, and that (like Simon Magus) after they have made a very folemn profeffion of Chriftianity, their hearts may not be right in the fight of God.

4thly, If we put the cafe at the hardest, that fome that were very fincere, after they had held out a great while under the extremity of torments, have at laft fainted under them, and yielded to the malice and cruelty of their perfecutors, and in this amazement and distraction have not long after expired, without any teftimony of their repentance: In this cafe, both reason and charity ought to restrain us from paffing any very pofitive and fevere fentence upon the ftate of fuch perfons. For what do we know but God, whofe goodness will certainly make all the allowance to human frailty that reafon can require, (for he knows whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but duft; he mercifully confiders every man's cafe, and weighs all the circumftances of it in an exact balance); I fay, who can tell, but that in fuch a cafe as I have mentioned, God may graciously be pleased to accept fuch a degree of conftant fuffering of great torments for fo long a time, for a true martyrdom, and not expect a more than human patience

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and refolution, where he is not pleased to afford more than human ftrength and fupport; and whether he may not look upon their failing and mifcarriage at laft, in the fame rank with the indeliberate actions of men in a frenzy, and befides themselves?

And thus God may be faid, with the temptation_to make a way to escape, or to give a happy iffue to it; fince they were enabled to bear it, till being distracted by their torments, their understandings were thrown off the hinges, and incapable of exercising any delibe rate acts of reafon. And without fome fuch equitable confideration of the cafe of fuch perfons, it will be very hard to reconcile fome appearances of things with the goodness of God, and the faithfulness of his promife.

However, it will become us to abstain from all uncharitableness and peremptory cenfure of the final estate of fuch perfons, especially till we ourselves have given greater and better teftimony of our conftancy; and in the mean time, to leave them to the righteous and merciful fentence of their mafter and ours, to whofe judgement we must all ftand or fall:

I am fure, it will very ill become thofe, who by the providence of God have efcaped thofe fufferings, and are at present out of danger themselves, to fit in judgement upon those who are left to endure this terrible conflict, and have perhaps held out as long, or longer, than they themselves would have done in the like circumftances. Let us rather earnestly beg of the God of all grace and patience, that he would endue us with a greater measure of patience and conftancy, if he fees fit to call us to the exercise of it, and (which we lawfully may, after the example of our bleffed Saviour) that if it be his will, he would let this cup pass from us, and not try us with the like fufferings, left we alfo be weary and faint in our minds. I come now to the

3. Third and laft inquiry which I propofed, What ground and reafon there is for good men to expect the more peculiar and especial care of God's providence, in cafe of fuch fufferings..

The providence, of God extends to all his creatures,

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