supposition he usually proceeds He doth not always except in case of great Sins argue want of Regeneration from one Sin for that Argument This is a Sin therefore thou art not a Convert would be easily answered by one that knows the Saints have their imperfections but he thus deals with Men These Sins whereof thou art guilty are reigning Sins such as are inconsistent with a converted estate and therefore thou art yet unregenerated 2. He produceth usually for the backing of his Arguments such Scriptures as do truly represent the state of Men unsanctified but then his labour is to make the Parties to appear suitable to the description of the Unregenerate And to that purpose he aggravates all their failings to them he makes severe enquiries after all their Sins and if he can charge them with any notorious crime he lays load upon that still concluding that a Regenerate Person doth not sin at such a rate as they do 3. This is always a very difficult case 't is not easy to answer the objections that he will urge from hence for 1. if there be the real guilt of any grievous or remarkable scandal which he objects the accused Party though never so knowing or formerly never so holy will be hardly put to it to determine any thing in favour of his estate 1. The Fact cannot be denyed 2. The Scripture nominates particularly such offences as render a Man unfit for the Kingdom of God 3. Whether in such cases Grace be not wholly lost is a question in which all are not agreed 4. However it will be very doubtful whether such had ever any Grace The Scripture hath given no note of difference to distinguish betwixt a Regenerate and Unregenerate Person In the acts of Murther Adultery Fornication c. It doth not say the Regenerate commits an act of gross Iniquity in this manner the Unregenerate in that and that there is a visible distinction betwixt the one and the othar relating to these very Acts. And whatever may be supposed to be the inward workings of Grace in the Soul while 't is reduced to so narrow a compass as a spark of Fire raked up in Ashes yet the weight of present guilt upon the Soul when 't is charged home will always poise it toward the worst apprehensions that can be made concerning its state Former acts of Holiness will be disowned under the notion of Hypocrisy or if yet owned to be true they will be apt to think that true Grace may be utterly lost Present acts of Grace they can see none so that only the after-acts of Repentance can discover that there is yet a being and life of Grace in them and till then they can never answer Satans Argument from great Sins But 2. In the usual infirmities of God's Children the case is not so easy For the Scriptures give instances of some whose Conversations could not be taxed with any notorious evils who though they were not far from the Kingdom of God yet were not of the Kingdom of God a freedom then from great Sins is not pleadable as an undoubted mark of Grace And if others that are not converted may have no greater infirmites than some that are the difference betwixt the one and the other must depend upon the secret Powers of Grace giving check to these infirmities and striving to mortify them And this will be an intricate question The Apostle Rom. 7. 15. notes indeed three differences betwixt the Regenerate and Unregenerate in this case of Sins of Infirmity 1. Hatred of the Sin before the commission of it What I hate that do I. 2. Reluctancy in the Act what I would that do I not 3. Disallowance after the Act that which I do I allow not Yet seeing natural Light will afford some appearances of disallowance and reluctancy it will still admit of further debate Whether the Principles Motives Degrees and Success of these strivings be such as may discover the Being and Power of real Grace While Satan doth insist upon Arguments from the Sins of Believers for the proof of an unconverted estate he only aims to make good this point That their Sins are reigning Sins and consequently that they cannot be in so good a condition as they are willing to think And to make their Sins to carry that appearance his constant course is to aggravate them all he can this is his design and the means by which he would effect it His great Art in this case is to heighten the Sins of the Regenerate this he doth many ways As 1. From the nature of the Sin committed and the manner of its commission and this he chiefly labours because his Arguments from hence are more probable especially considering what he fixeth upon usually is that which may most favour his Conclusion A 1. If any have faln into a great Sin which a Child of God doth but rarely commit then he argues against him thus They that are in Christ do mortify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts they cast away the works of Darkness and these works of the Flesh are manifest Gal. 5. 19. Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations c. Because of these things cometh the Wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience Be not therefore partakers with them have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness Eph. 5. 6 11. But thou hast not put these away nor mortified them as thy present Sin doth testify therefore thou art no Child of God 2. If any do more than once or twice relapse into the same Sin suppose it be not so highly scandalous as the former then he pleads from thence that they are back-sliders in Heart that they have broken their Covenant with God that they are in bondage to Sin Here he urgeth it may be that of 2 Pet. 2. 19 20. Of whom a Man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage The Dog is returned to his Vomit 3. Or if any have by any offence more remarkably gone against their Knowledg or violated their Conscience then he tells them that they sin wilfully that they reject the Counsel of the Lord that they are the Servants of Sin for his Servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6. 16. And that where there is Grace though they may fall yet it is still against their wills c. 4. If he have not so clear ground to manage any of the former charges against them then he argues from the frequency of their various miscarriages Here he sets their Sins in order before them rakes them altogether that he may oppress them by a multitude when he cannot prevail by an accusation from one or two acts and his pleading here is Thou art nothing but Sin thy thoughts are evil continually thy words are vain and unprofitable thy actions foolish and wicked and this in all thy imployments in all relations at all times What duty is there that is not neglected or defiled what
other and besides this it hath a power of creating Objects and casting them into what forms and shapes it pleaseth all which our understanding cannot avoid the sight of Now the power of Imagination is acknowledged by all to be very great not only as working upon a Melancholy and distempered Spirit of which Authors give us large accounts but also upon Minds more remote from such peremptory Delusions as may be daily observed in the prejudices and prepossessions of Men who by reason of the impressions of Imagination are not without difficulty drawn over to the acknowledgment of the truth of things and the true understanding of Matters neither is the Vnderstanding only liable to a more than ordinary heat and rapture by it but the Will is also quickned and sharpned in its desires by this means Hence is it as one of the fore-cited Authors observes that Fancy doth often more toward a Perswasion by its insinuations than a cogent Argument or rational Demonstration This is no less a powerful Instrument in Satan's hand than commonly and frequently made use of who amongst us doth not find and feel him dealing with us at this Weapon When he propounds an Object to our Lust he doth not usually expose it naked under the hazard of dying out for want of prosecution but but presently calls in our Fancy to his aid and there raiseth a Theatre on which he acts before our Minds the Sin in all its ways and postures If he put us upon Revenge or upon Lusts of Uncleanness or Covetousness or Ambition we are sure if we prevent it not to have our Imagination presenting these things to us as in lively Pictures and Resemblances by which our desires may be enflamed and prepared for consent Fifthly Sometime he shews his Art in preparing and fitting our Bodies to his designs or in fitting Temptations to our Bodies and the Inclinations thereof The Soul though it be a noble Being yet is it limited by the Body and incommodated by the crazyness and indispositions thereof so that it can no more act strenuously or evenly to its Principles in a disordered Body than it can rightly manage any Member of it in its natural motions where the Bones are disjointed Hence Sickness or other bodily Weaknesses do alter the Scene and add another kind of byass to the Soul than that it had before This Satan takes notice of and either follows his advantage of the present Indisposition or if he hath some special design endeavours to cast our Body into such a disorder as may best sute his Intention Asa was more easily drawn to be overseen in peevishness and rash anger in his latter days when his Body grew diseased Satan had his advantage against Solomon to draw him to Idolatry when old age and uxoriousness had made him more ductile to the sollicitations of his Wives When Solomon was old his Wives turned away his Heart 1 King 11. 4. The Devil when he took upon him to foretel Job's blaspheming God to his Face yet he attempted not the main design till he thought he had throughly prepared him for it by the anguish and smart of a distempered Body and Mind and though he failed in the great business of his Boast yet he left us an experiment in Job that the likeliest way to prevail upon the Mind in hideous and desperate Temptations is to mould the Body to a sutable frame He prevailed not against Job to cause him curse God yet he prevailed far he cursed the day of his birth and spake many things by the force of that distress which he professeth himself ashamed of afterwards The Body then will be in danger when 't is disordered to give a tincture to every action as a distempered Palat communicates a bitterness to every thing it takes down Sixthly Evil Company is a general preparatory to all kinds of Temptation He enticeth strongly that way For 1. Evil Society doth insensibly dead the Heart and quench the heat of the Affections to the things of God it hath a kind of bewitching power to eat out the fear of the Lord in our hearts and to take off the weight and power of religious duty it not only stops our Tongues and retards them in speaking of good things but influenceth the very Heart and poysons it into a kind of deadness and lethargy so that our thoughts run low and we begin to think that severe watchfulness of Thoughts and the guard of our Minds to be a needless and melancholly Self-imposition 2. Example hath a strange insinuating force to instamp a Resemblance and to beget Imitation Joseph living where his Ears were frequently beaten with Oaths finds it an easie thing upon a feigned occasion to swear by the Life of Pharaoh Evil Company is Sins Nursery and Satan's Academy by which he trains up those whose knowledg and hopeful beginnings had made them shy of his Temptations and if he can prevail with Men to take such Companions he will with a little labour presently bring them to any Iniquity Seventhly But his highest project in order to the enticing of Men is to engage their Affections to an height and passionateness The Scripture doth distinguish betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Affections and Lusts clearly implying that the way to procure fixed desires and actual lustings is to procure those passionate workings of the Mind How powerful a part of his Design this is will appear from the nature of these Passions which are First Violent Motions of the Heart the very Wings and Sails of the Soul and every Passion in its own working doth express a violence Choler is an earnest Rage Voluptuousness is nothing less Fear is a desperate hurry of the Soul Love strong as Death Jealousie cruel as the Grave each of them striving which should excell in violence so that 't is a question yet undertermined which Passion may challenge the superiority Secondly Their Fury is dangerous and unbridled like so many wild Horses let loose hurrying their Rider which way they please They move not upon the command of Reason but oft prevent it in their sudden rise neither do they take Reasons advice for their course proportionable to the occasion for often their humor rather than the matter of the provocation gives them Spurs and when they have evaporated their heat they cease not as following the command of Reason but as weakned by their own violence Thirdly They are not easily conquered not only because they renew their strength and onset after a Defeat and like so many Hydra's heads spring up as fast as cut off but they are our selves we can neither run from them nor from the love of them Fourthly And consequently highly advantageous in Satan's Design and Enticement when they are driven up to a Fury and Passionateness for besides their inward rage which the Scripture calls burning by which Men are pricked and goaded on without rest or ease
Men in awe CHAP. XIV Of Satan's maintaining his Possession His first Engine for that purpose is his finishing of Sin in its reiteration and aggravation His Policies herein HAving explained the five ways by which Satan through the power of Lust causeth blindness of Mind in tempting to Sin I shall next lay open Satan's Devices for the keeping and maintaining his Possession which are these First He endeavours after he hath prevailed with any Man to commit an Iniquity to finish Sin Jam. 1. 15. After 't is conceived and brought forth then 't is finished which notes its growth and increase This compriseth these two things its Reiteration and its Aggravation First Its Reiteration is when by frequent acts it is strengthned and confirmed into an habit There are various steps by which Men ascend into the seat of the Scornful Nemo repentâ— turpissimus 'T is not one act that doth denominate Men wise to do evil In Psal 1. David shews there are gradations and degrees of Sin some walk in the counsel of the Vngodly some by progress and continuance of Sin stand in the way of Sinners some by a hardness of Heart and fixedness in wicked Purposes sit in the seat of the Scornful To this height doth he labour to bring his Proselytes yet he further designs Secondly That Sin may have its utmost accomplishments in all the aggravations whereof it may be capable He strives to put Men upon such a course of sinning as may be most scandalous to the Gospel most ensnaring and offensive to others most hardning and desperate to our selves most offensive and provoking to God in this he imitates the counsel of Ahitophel to Absalom when he advised him to go in unto his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel that so the breach betwixt him and his Father might be widned to an impossibility of reconciliation Thus he labours that Sinners should act at such a rate of open defiance against Heaven as if they resolved to ly down in their iniquity and were purposed never to think of returning and making up their peace with God That Sin may be finished in both these respects he useth these Policies First After Sin is once committed he renews his Motions and Sollicitations to act it again and then again and so onward till they be perfect and habituated to it In this case he acts over again the former method by which he first ensnared them only with such alterations as the present case doth necessitate him unto before he urged for the committing of it but once how little is he to be trusted in these promises now he urgeth them by the very act they have already done Is it not a pleasant or profitable sin to thy very experience hast thou not tasted and seen hast thou not already consented taste and try again and yet further withdraw not thy hand A little Temptation served before but a less serves now for by yielding to the first Temptation our hearts are secretly enclined to the Sin and we carry a greater affection to it than before for this is the stain and defilement of Sin that when once committed it leaves impressions of delight and love behind which are still the more augmented by a further progress and frequent commission till at last by a strong power of fascination it bewitches Men that they cannot forbear all the entreaties of Friends all their own Promises all their Resolves and Purposes though never so strong and serious except God strike in to rescue by an omnipotent hand can no more restrain them than fetters of Straw can hold a Giant God himself owns it as a natural impossibility Can the Ethiopian change his skin no more can ye do good and the reason of that impossibility is from hence that they are accustomed to do evil Such strong and powerful inclinations to the same sin again are begot in us by a sin already committed that sometime one act of sin fills some Men with as vehement and passionate desires for a further enjoyment as custom and continuance doth others Austin reports that Alipius when once he gave way to the Temptation of beholding the Gladiators was bewitched with such a delight that he not only desired to come again with others but also before others Neither is it any great wonder it should be so when besides the Inclinations that are begot in us by any act of Sin ro recommit it Sin puts us out of God's protection debilitates and weakens our Graces strengthens Satan's Arm and often procures him further power and commission against us Secondly Satan endeavours to make one Sin an engagement to another and to force Men to draw Iniquity with cords of Vanity Agur notes a concatenation in Sins lest I steal and take the Name of God in vain Adam sinning in the forbidden Fruit and proclaimed guilty by his Conscience runs into another sin for the excuse of the former the Woman that thou gavest me c. David affords a sad instance of this the sin with Bathsheba being committed and she with Child upon it David to hide the shame of his offence 1 Hypocritically pretends great kindness to Vriah 2. When that served not next he makes him drunk and it may be he involved many others in that sin as Accessories 3. When this course failed his heart conceives a purpose and resolution to murther him 4. He cruelly makes him the Messenger of his own destruction 5. He engageth Joab in it 6. And the death of many of his Souldiers 7. By this puts the whole Army upon an hazard 8. Excuseth the bloody contrivance by Providence 9. In all using still the height of dissimulation Satan knows how natural it is for Men to hide the shame of their iniquity and accordingly provides occasions and provocations to drive them on to a kind of necessity Thirdly By a perverse representation of the state of godly and wicked Men he draws on Sin to an higher compleatment How often doth he set before us the Misery Affliction Contempt Crosses and Sadnesses of the one and the Jollity Delights Plenty Peace Honours and Power of the other It was a Temptation that had almost brought David to an Atheistical resolve against all religious duty and that which he observed had prevailed altogether with many Professors Psal 73. When they observed they were not in trouble like other Men and that their Mouth and Tongue had been insolent against God without any rebuke or check from him when in the mean time the Godly were plagued all the day and chastned every morning some that were in profession or estimation at least God's People returned to take up these thoughts and to resolve upon such practices vers 10. as if God who sets all these with so much silence must be supposed knowingly to give some countenance to such actions This indeed when 't is prosecuted upon our hearts in its full strength with those ugly surmises jealousies and misapprehensions that are wont to
composed to a regular and steady acting being disturbed by a Storm of Commotion and in which the Conscience or the peace of it is not presently concerned This distinction of the trouble of Soul from the trouble of Conscience is not new others have observed it before and do thus explain it Trouble of Soul is larger than trouble of Conscience every troubled Conscience is a troubled Soul but every troubled Soul is not a troubled Conscience for the Soul may be troubled from Causes Natural Civil and Spiritual according to variety of Occasions and Provocations when yet a Man's inward peace with God is firm and in some cases as in Infants and in Men distracted with Feavers c. there may be passions and disturbances of Soul when the Conscience is not capable of exercising its office nay the Soul of Christ was troubled Joh. 12. 27. Now is my Soul troubled when it was not possible that Sin or Despair should have the least â—ooting in him For the opening of these discomposures of Soul I shall 1. Shew upon what advantage of Natural Temper the Devil is encouraged to molest Men. 2. By what occasions he doth work upon our Natural Inclinations 3. And with what success of disturbance to the Soul 1. As to our Natural Dispositions Satan as hath formerly been noted takes his usual indications of working from thence these guide him in his enterprises his Temptations being suited to Mens Tempers proceed more smoothly and successfully Some are of so serene and calm a disposition that he doth not much design their discomposure but others there are whose Passions are more stirring sit matter for him to work upon and these are 1. The angry Disposition How great an advantage this gives to Satan to disturb the Heart may be easily conceiv'd by considering the various workings of it in several Men according to their different Humors 't is a Passion that acts not alike in all and for the differences so far as we need to be concerned I shall not trouble the Schools of Philosophers but content my self with what we have in Eph. 4. 31. where the Apostle expresseth it by three words not that they differ essentially declaring thereby the various ways of Anger 's working the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Bitterness This is a displeasure smothered for some when they are angry cover it and give it no vent partly for that they are sometimes ashamed to mention the ground as trivial or unjust partly from sullenness of disposition and oft from a natural reservedness while the flame is thus kept down it burns inwardly and Men resolve in their Minds many troublesome vexatious thoughts The second word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wrath this is a fierce impetuous anger Some are soon moved but so violent that they are presently transported into Rage and Frenzy or are so peevishly waspish that they cannot be spoken to The third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here Anger but signifies such a displeasure as is deep entertaining thoughts of Revenge and Pursuit setling it self at last into hatred Any of these is enough to bereave the heart of its rest and to alarm it with disturbances 2. Others have an envious Nature always maligning and repining at other Mens felicity an evil Eye that cannot look on anothers better condition without vexation This turns a Man into a Devil 't is the Devil's proper sin and the fury that doth unquiet him and he the better knows of what avail it would be to help on our trouble 3. Some are of proud Tempers always overvaluing themselves with the scorn and contempt of others This humor is troublesom to all about them but all this trouble doth at last redound to themselves these think all others should observe them and take notice of their supposed excellencies which if Men do not then it pines them or stirs up their Choler to Indignation Solomon Prov. 30. 21. mentioning those things that are greatly disquieting in the Earth instanceth in a Servant when he reigneth and the Hand-maid that is Heir to her Mistris intending thereby the proud imperious insolency of those that are unexpectedly raised from a low estate to Wealth or Honour He that is of a proud Heart stirreth up Strife Prov. 28. 25. and as he is troublesome to others so doth he create trouble to himself for he not only molests himself by the working of his disdainful thoughts while he exerciseth his scorn towards others Prov. 21. 24. The haughty Scorner deals in proud wrath but this occasions the affronts and contempt of others again which beget new griefs to his restless Mind 4. Some have a Natural exorbitancy of Desire an evil coveting they are passionately carried forth toward what they have not and have no contentment or satisfaction in what they do enjoy Such Humors are seldom at ease their desires are painfully violent and when they obtain what they longed for they soon grow weary of it and then another object takes up their wishes so that these Daughters of the Horsleech are ever crying Give give Prov. 30. 15. 5. Others have a soft effeminate Temper a weakness of Soul that makes them unfit to bear any burthen or endure any hardness These if they meet with Pains or Troubles and who can challenge an exemption from them they are presently impatient vexing themselves by a vain reluctancy to what they cannot avoid not but that extraordinary Burthens will make the strongest Spirit to stoop but these cry out for the smallest matters which a stout Mind would bear with some competent chearfulness 6. And there are other Dispositions that are tender to an excess of Sympathy so that they immoderatly affect and afflict themselves with other Mens sorrows Though this be a temper more commendable than any of the former yet Satan can take advantage of this as also of the forenamed Dispositions to discompose us especially by suiting them with fit occasions which readily work upon these Tempers And this was 2. The second things to be explained which shall be performed by a brief enumeration of them the chief whereof are these 1. Contempt or Disestimation When a Man's Person Parts or Opinion are slighted his Anger Envy Pride and Impatience are awakened and these make him swell and restless within Even good Men have been sadly disturbed this way Job as holy a Man as he was and who had enough of greater matters to trouble his Mind yet among other griefs complains of this more than once Job 12. 4. I am as one mocked of his Neighbour the just upright Man is laughed to scorn Job 19. 15. They that dwell in mine House and my Maids count me for a Stranger I called my Servant and he gave me no answer Yea young Children despised me I rose up and they spake against me Thus he bemoans himself and which is more speaks of it again with some smartness of indignation Job 30. 1. Now they that are younger
to make Election the immediate Object of our Faith and our Rule to walk by as if it were necessary that every Man knew Gods eternal purpose concerning him before he begin his endeavours And as he argues some Men into a perverse carelessness upon the ground of Election making them to conclude that If they are ordained to Life they shall be saved though they live wickedly if they be not they shall be damned though they endeavour never so much to the contrary So he also argues some from this Doctrine into terrible fears of Damnation because they cannot be assured aforehand that their names are written in Heaven And these dreadful suspitions he doth labour to strengthen by some Mens unwary handling of the Doctrine of Non-election when some Preachers unskilfully urge the dangerous signs of Reprobation or speak severely of God's Decrees without due caution and promise of Mercy to all penitent Sinners Or when some unskilful in the methods of comforting the distressed in Conscience because they are not able to shew the Afflicted their Condition or to speak a word in season to quiet their Minds and to direct them what course to take do usually refer them to God's Decree and tell them If God have decreed them to Salvation they shall be saved Satan doth industriously hold them there by this means he leads them from the Promises and their Duty and keeps them musing and poring upon Election till they are bewildred and cannot find the way out Thus have several continued under their Affrightments for many Years 4. We may observe That when Satan hath brought them into this snare he doth tyrannically domineer over them He doth deride them under their trouble and mock at them when their fear comes upon them And because now the very thought or hearing of Election is as a Daggar to the heart and a dreadful sound in their Ears he delights to repeat it to them for the very naming of the word becomes as dreadful as the sentence of Condemnation to a Malefactor being always accompanied with this Reflection Oh how miserable am I that have no part nor portion in it Besides he doth busie their minds with imaginary representations of Hell and sets before them as in a Scheme the day of Judgment the terrours of the Damned the sentence against the Goats on the Left-hand the intollerable pains of everlasting Burnings and that which is the misery of all these Miseries the Eternity of all Thus he forceth their Meditations but still with Application to themselves neither doth he suffer them to rest in the Night but they are terrified with sad Dreams and the Visions of the Night do disquiet them 5. How grievous this Affrightment is I should next observe but that is partly expressed in the aforegoing Particulars and may yet more fully appear by a consideration of these 3 things 1. That a Man hath nothing dearer to him than his Soul Alas that cannot be counterballanced by the gaining of the whole World and to have no hope or expectancy of its Salvation must needs be terribly affrightful 2. These suspitions of Non-election prevailing all Promises and Comforts are urged in vain and they commonly return them back again to those that offered them with this reply They are true and useful to those unto whom they appertain but they belong not unto me Nay all means are rejected as useless If such be advised to Pray or Read they will in their fit of Affrightment refuse all upon this reason that they are not Elected And then to what purpose say they is Prayer or any endeavours For who can alter his Decree And indeed if their Affrightments continued at an height without intermission they would never do any thing but this is their help that some secret under-ground hopes which they espy not do revive at least sometimes and put them upon endeavours which through Gods blessing become means of better information 3. Though Satans injections of Non-election be altogether unproveable and withal so terrifying that it might be supposed Men should not be forward in their belief of so great an unhappiness Yet can he prevail so far that the Persons above named especially the Melancholy are made to believe him and this chiefly by possessing their imaginations with his frequent confident Affirmations Wee see it is a common practice to teach Birds Musical Notes and Sounds which is only by constant repetition till a strong Impression is made upon their Fancy And thus may one Man impose upon the imagination of another with his Songs or Sayings for what we hear often we cannot forbear to repeat in our thoughts being strongly fixed upon our Fancy No wonder then if Satan by often repeating Thou art not Elected thou art Damned c. do form so strong an impression upon the imagination that poor amazed Creatures learn to say after him and then take the Ecchoes of their Fancy to be the voice of Conscience condemning them Now then if the unhappiness suspected be the greatest beyond all comparison if these suspitions entertained cut off all succours of Comfort that may arise from the Promises of God and the endeavours of Man if Satan can prevail with Men to entertain them with any perswasion as we see he can how dreadfully will these perswasions recoil upon a Man And thus will his thoughts run I am perswaded I am not Elected and if not Elected then Comforts and Prayers are all in vain and if these be in vain there is no possibility of Salvation nor the least hope of a who knows or a peradventure and if that Oh unspeakably miserable Under these astonishing thoughts doth Satan exercise their hearts by suspitions of Non-election But 4. Sometimes he takes another Course to affright Men and that is by injecting Motions of some abominable Sin or evil into their minds to the commission whereof he seems strongly to sollicite yet not with any full intention or expectation of prevalency but with a purpose to molest and disquiet And for that end he commonly chuseth such sins as are most vile in their own Nature and most opposite to the Dispositions of Men Thus he injects thoughts of Uncleanness to a chast Person thoughts of injustice and wrong to a Just Man thoughts of revenge and cruelty to a Week Man thoughts of rejoycing in the loss and misery of others to the Merciful Man Or else he injects motions to such sins wherein formerly Men have been overtaken but have been made bitter by deep repentance the very thoughts whereof are now become most loathsome And sometimes he pursues Men with thoughts of Self-Murther even while there is nothing of discontent or trouble in their Minds to second such a Temptation By this manner of proceeding he creates great Affrightments to the Hearts of men For 1. These are strange Surprisals and Persons under this kind of Trouble cannot but be amazed to find such thoughts within them which are most contrary to their Dispositions or their most
who flee from Battel Hence then do we hear of these various Complaints One saith Alas I have no Grace because I live not as other Saints have done in all exactness Another saith I have no Faith because I cannot believe above Reason and contrary to Sense as Abraham did A third crys out He hath no Love to God because he cannot find his Soul ravished with desire after him Another thinks He hath a hard Heart because he cannot weep for Sin Another concludes against himself because He finds not a present chearful resolve while he is not under any question for Religion to suffer Torments for Christ Some fear themselves Because Temporaries in some particulars have much out-gone them You see how Complaints may upon this score be multiplied without end and yet all this is but Fallacy Satan tells them what Grace is at the highest but not a word of what it is at lowest And so unskilful is a tossed weak Christian that he in examining his Condition looks after the highest Degrees of Grace as affording clearer Evidence and not after the Sincerity of it which is the safest way for Trial where Graces are weak In a word this kind of Arguing is no better than that of Children who cannot conclude themselves to be Men because their present stature is little and they are not as tall as the Adult 2. Another part of his cunning in lessening the real Graces of God's Children is to take them at an advantage when their Graces are weakest and themselves most out of order He that will chuse to measure a Man's Stature while he is upon his Knees seems not to design to give a faithful account of his Height No more doth Satan who when he will make Comparisons always takes the Servants of God at the worst And indeed many advantages do the Children of God give him insomuch that it is no wonder that he doth so oft Baffle them but rather a wonder that they at any time return to their Comforts 1. Sometimes he takes them to task while they are yet young and tender when they are but newly converted before their Graces are grown up or have had time to put forth any considerable Fruit. 2. Or when their Graces are tired out by long or grievous assaults of Temptation for then they are not what they are at other times 3. When their Hearts are discomposed or muddied with fear for then their sight is bad and they can so little judg of things that differ that Satan can impose almost any thing upon them 4. Sometimes he comes upon them when some Grace acts his part but poorly as not having its perfect work and is scarce able to get through sticking as it were in the Birth 5. Or when the progress of Grace is small and imperceptible 6. Or while in the absence of the Sun which produceth Flowers and Fragrancy and is the time of the singing of Birds Cant. 2. 11 12. it is forced to cast off its Summer Fruits of Joy and sensible Delights and only produceth Winter Fruits of Lamenting after God Longing and Panting after him justifying of God in his Dealings and Condemning it self all this while sowing in Tears for a more pleasing Crop 7. Or while Expectations are more than Enjoyments the Man it may be promised himself large incomes of greater measures of Comforts Ease or Strength under some particular Ordinances or Helps which he hath lately attained to and not finding things presently to answer what he hoped for is now suspitious of his case and thinks he hath attained nothing because he hath not what he would 8. Sometimes Satan shews them his Face in this Glass when 't is foulest through the spots of some Miscarriage 9. Or he takes advantage of some Natural Defects as want of Tears which might be more usual in former times but are now dried up or from the Ebbings and uncertainty of his Aâ—â—ections which are never sure rules of Trials 10. Or in such acts that are of a mixed nature in the Principles and Motives where it may seem to be uncertain to which the Act must be ascribed as to the true Parent The Heart of a gracious Person being challenged upon any of these Points and under so great a Disadvantage being called out to give a proof of himself especially in the view of Grace set forth in all its Excellency and Glory shall have little to plead but will rather own the Accusation And the rather because 3. It is another part of Satan's cunning to urge them whilst they are thus at a stand with a Possibility nay a Probability of their mistaking themselves by passing too favourable an opinion formerly of their Actions To confirm them in this apprehension 1. He lays before them the consideration of the deceitfulness of the Heart which being so above all things and desperately wicked beyond ordinary discovery makes a fair way for the entertainment of a suspition of Self-delusion in all the former hopes which a Man hath had of himself Satan will plainly speak it Thou hast had some thoughts and workings of Mind towards God but seeing they carry so great a disproportion to Rule and Example and come so far short of Common Graces 't is more than probable that such poor weak confused appearances are nothing How knowest thou that thine adherence to and practice of the Command and Services of God are any more than from the power of Education the prevalency of Custom or the impressions of Moral swasion How dost thou know that thy desires after God and thy delight in him are any more than the products of Natural Principles influenced by an Historical faith of Scripture Doctrine 'T is oftentimes enough for Satan to hint this A suspitious Heart as it were greedy of its own misery catcheth at all things that make against it and hence complains That it hath no Grace because it sees not any visible Fruits or makes not a sufficient appearance at all times when opposed or resisted or because it wants sensible progress or gives not the Summer Fruits of Praises Rejoycings and Delights in God or because it seems not to meet with remarkable improvements in Ordinances or because it cannot produce Tears and raise the Affections and because the Party doth not know but his Heart might decieve him in all that he hath done Which the Devil yet further endeavoureth to confirm 2. By a consideration of the seeming Holiness and Graces of such as believed themselves to be the Children of God and were generally by others reputed so to be who yet after a glorious profession turned Apostates This being so great and undeniable an Instance of the Hearts deceitfulness makes the poor tempted Party conclude that he is certainly no true Convert Thus have we seen Satan's Sophistry in the management of those five grand Topicks from whence he draws his false Conclusions against the Children of God pretending to prove that they are not Converted or at least if they
worst than the first So also 2 Pet. 2. 20. To this purpose is that of Soloman concerning the danger of continuance in sin after many Reproofs Prov. 29. 1. He that being often reproved hardneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy These and many such like Scriptures Satan hath in readiness which he plies home upon the Consciences of those that are troubled with the sense of Sin telling them That their Hearts and Ways being continually evil notwithstanding all the Courses that God hath taken to reclaim them that they having so long neglected so great Salvation or that after having seemed to entertain it became more sinful than before Which they will easily believe because they are now more sensible of Sin and more observant of their Miscarriages than formerly There can be no question but they are given up to vile Affections and like the Ground that bears nothing but Briers and Thorns they are rejected and nigh unto Cursing whose end is to be Burned The Wound that is made with this Weapon is not so easily healed as some others already mentioned because though Satan do unduly wrest these Passages to such failures in the Children of God as have little or no affinity with them for they only speak of falling into open prophaneness with contumacy yet they that have deep Convictions accompanied with great Fears do usually think that there are none worse than they are And though they will grant that some others have more flagitious lives yet they think they have Hearts so desperately wicked that they must needs be under as great hazards as those whose Lives seem to be worse 4. There is but one Argument more that carries any probability of proof for everlasting Condemnation and that is from an hard and impenitent Heart How Satan will manage himself to make a Child of God believe that he hath such an Heart is our last observation relating to his Sophistry And it is this He unjustly aggravates the discomposures of the spirits of those that are troubled for Sin and from thence draws his Arguments of irrecoverable Damnation pleading that their Hearts are Seared Hardned uncapable of Repentance and consequently of Heaven That final Impenitency will conclude Damnation is certain and that some have been given up to such a judicial hardness long before Death that they could not Repent may not only be evidenced from the Threatning of God to that purpose Mat. 13. Make the Heart of this People fat c. but also from the sad Instances of Pharaoh of whom 't is said that God hardned his Heart and the Jews who were blinded Rom. 11. 8. God hath given them the Spirit of slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they should not hear But still the Art lieth in this How to make a Child of God believe that it 's so with him For this purpose he must take him at some advantage he cannot terrifie him with this Argument at all times While he is acting Repentance with an undisturbed settled frame of Heart 't is not possible to make him believe he doth not or cannot Repent for this were to force him contrary to sense and experience But he must take him at some season which may with some probability admit of his Plea and nothing is more proper for that design than a troubled Heart so that he hath in this case two things to do 1. He disquiets the Soul into as great an height of Confusion as he can That 2. When he hath melted it into heaviness and torn it into pieces he may work upon its distractions There are many things that fall out in the case of great anxiety of Mind that are capable of improvement for the accomplishment of this design As 1. Distracting troubles bring the Heart under the stupidity of Amazement Their thoughts are so broken and disjoynted that they cannot unite them to a composed settled resolution in any thing they can scarce joyn them together to make out so much as might spell out their distinct desires or endeavours they scarce know what they are doing or what they would do 2. They also poyson the thoughts with harsh apprehensions against God Great distresses make the thoughts sometimes recoil against the Holy Lord with unseemly questionings of his Goodness and Compassion and this puts Men into a bad sullen humour of untowardness from whence through Satan's improvement arise the greatest plunges of dispair 3. Most usually in this case the greatest endeavours are Fruitless and Dissatisfactory Satan though he be no friend to Duty doth unseasonably urge them to Repent and Pray but 't is because they cannot do either with any satisfaction and then their Failures are matter of Argument against them For it they resolve to put themselves upon a more severe course of Repentance and accordingly begin to think of their sins to number them or to aggravate them they are usually affrighted from the undertaking by the hainous appearance of them they cannot they dare not think of them the remotest glimps of them is terrible to an affrighted Conscience the raising of them up again in the Memory like the rising of a Ghost from the Grave is far more astonishing than the first prospect of them after Commission So true is that of Luther If a Man could see Sin perfectly it would be a perfect Hell If they set themselves to beg their Pardon by earnest Prayer they are so distracted and confused in Prayer that their Prayers please them not they come off from the Duty more wounded than when they began Or if in any measure they overcome these difficulties so that they do pray and confess their Iniquities then they urge and force a sorrow or compunction upon themselves but still to a greater dissatisfaction For it may be and this usually happens in greater Distresses they cannot weep nor force a tear or if they do still they judg their sorrow is not deep enough nor any way suitable to the greatness of their sin 4. To all these Satan sometimes makes a further addition of trouble by injecting blasphemous thoughts Here he sets the Stock with an intention to Graff upon it afterward When all these things are thus in readiness then comes he to set fire to the Train and thus he endeavours to blow up the Mine Is not thy Heart hardned to everlasting destruction How canst thou deny this Art thou not grown stupid and senseless of all the hazards that are before thee Here he insists upon the amazement and confusion of their Spirit and 't is very natural for those that are drunk with the Terrours of the Almighty to think themselves stupid because of the distraction of their thoughts I have known several that have pleaded that very Argument to that purpose Satan goes on What greater evidence can there be of an hardned Heart than Impenitency Thou canst not mourn enough Thou hast not a tear for thy sins though thou couldst weep enough formerly upon
the Devil's Attempts Christ and others have felt the like If they object the peculiar Strangeness and Horridness of the Temptation as most unsuitable to the state of an upright Soul Christ met with the like He was tempted to Self-destruction to Distrust to Blasphemy it self in the highest degree Secondly There is a good advantage to be made of them they are Preservations from other Sins that would otherwise grow upon us Thirdly These Temptations to the upright do but argue Satan's loss of Interest in them and their greater Sensibility of the danger The captivated Sinners complain not so much because they are so Inured to Temptation that they mind not Satan's frequent accesses He that studies Humility is more sensible of a Temptation to Pride than he that is proud Secondly This is also of use to those that are apt to be confident upon their Successes against Sin through Grace Satan they may see will be upon them again So that they must behave themselves as Mariners who when they have got the Harbour and are out of the Storm Mend their Ship and Tackling and prepare again for the Sea Lastly If we consider the unspotted Holiness of Christ and his constant Integrity under these Temptations that they left not the least of Taint or sinful Impression upon him we may observe That there may be Temptations without leaving a touch of Guilt or Impurity behind them upon the Tempted 'T is true this is rare with Men the best do seldom go down to the Battel but in their very Conquests they receive some wound And in those Temptations that arise from our own hearts we are never without fault but in such as do solely arise from Satan there is a possibility that the upright may so keep himself that the wicked one may not so touch him as to leave the print of his Fingers behind him But the great difficulty is how it may be known when Temptations are from Satan and when from our selves To Answer this I shall lay down these conclusions First The same Sins which our own natures would suggest to us may also be injected by Satan Sometime we begin by the forward working of our own thoughts upon occasions and objects presented to us from without or from the power of our own Inclination without the offer of external Objects and then Satan strikes in with it sometimes Satan begins with us and by his injected motions endeavours to excite our Inclinations So that the same thing may be sometime from our selves and sometimes from Satan Secondly There is no Sin so vile but our own heart might possibly produce it without Satan evil thoughts of the very worst kind as of Murthers Adulteries Thefts False Witness and Blasphemies may as Christ speaks be produced naturally from our own hearts for seminally all Sins the very greatest of all Impieties are there So that from the greatness and vileness of the Temptation we cannot absolutely conclude that it is from Satan no more than from the commonness of the Temptation or its suitableness to our Inclination we can conclude infallibly that its first rise is from our selves Thirdly There are many cases wherein it is very difficult if not altogether impossible to determine whether our own heart or Satan gives the first life or breathing to a Temptation Who can determine in most ordinary cases when our thoughts are working upon Objects presented to our Senses whether Satan or our own thoughts do run faster Yea when such thoughts are not the consequent of any former occasion it is a work too hard for most men to determine which of the Parents Father or Mother our own Heart or Satan is first in the fault they are both forward enough and usually joyn hand in hand with such readiness that he must have a curious Eye that can discover certainly to whom the first beginning is to be ascribed The difficulty is so great that some have judged it altogether Impossible to give any certain marks by which it may be determined when they are ours and when Satans And indeed the discoveries laid down by some are not sufficient for a certain determination and so far I assent that neither the suddenness of such thoughts for the motions of our own Lusts may be sudden nor the horridness of the matter of them are sufficient notes of distinction That our own corrupt hearts may bring forth that which is unnatural and terrible cannot be denyed Many of the Sins of the Heathens mentioned in Rom. 1. were the violent productions of Lust against natural Principles and to ascribe these to the Devil as to the first Instigator is more than any man hath warrant to do Yet though it be confessed that in some cases it is impossible to distinguish and that where a distinction may be made these notes mentioned are not fully satisfactory ther may I believe be some cases wherein there is a possibility to discover when the motions are from Satan and that by the addition of some remarkable circumstances to the forenamed marks of difference Fourthly Thought it be true which some say that in most cases it is needless altogether to spend our time in disputing whether the motions of Sin in our minds are firstly from our selves or from Satan our greatest business being rather to resist them than to difference them Yet there are special cases wherein it is very necessary to find out the true Parent of a sinful Motion and these are when tender Consciences are wounded and oppressed with violent and great Temptations as Blaspemous Thoughts Atheistical Objections c. For here Satan in his furious molestations aims mainly at this that such Afflicted and Tossed Souls should take all these Thoughts which are obtruded upon their Imaginations to be the Issue of their own Heart As Josephs Steward hid the Cup in Benjamins Sack that it might be a ground of accusation against him so doth the Devil first oppress them with such Thoughts and then accuseth them of all that Villany and Wickedness the Motions whereof he had with such Importunity forced upon them and so apt are the afflicted to comply with Accusations against themselves that they believe it is so and from thence conclude that they are given up of God hardned as Pharaoh that they have sinned against the Holy Ghost and finally that there is no hope of mercy for them All this befalls them from their Ignorance of Satans dealings and here is their great need to distinguish Satans Malice from their guilt Fifthly Setting aside ordinary Temptations wherein it is neither so possible nor so material to busy our selves to find out whether they are Satan's or ours in extraordinary Temptations such as have been now instanced we may discover if they proceed from Satan though not simply from the matter of them not from the suddenness and independency of them yet from a due consideration of their nature and manner of proceeding compared with the present
compared with Psal 31. 22. is declared as his weakness will force us to conclude it an ingenuous Confession of his distrust at the first when he was greatly afflicted though he recovered himself afterwards to a belief of the promise and that in that Distemper he plainly reflected upon Samuel and calls the Promises of God given by him a very Lye Thirdly 'T is strange also that present Instances of God's Providences working out unexpected Deliverances should not relieve the hearts of his Saints from the power of such distrust that when they see God is not unmindful of them but doth hear them in what they feared they should still retain in their minds the impression of an unbelieving apprehension and not rather free themselves from their expectations of future ruine by concluding that he that hath and doth deliver will also yet deliver David had this thought in his heart that he should one day perish by the hand of Saul even then when God had so remarkably rescued him from Saul and forced Saul not only to acknowledg his Sin in prosecuting him but also to declare his belief of the Promise concerning David One would have expected that this should have been such a Demonstration of the Truth of what had been promised that he should have cast out all fear and yet contrariwise this pledg of God's purpose to him is received by a heart strongly prepossessed with misgiving thoughts and he continues to think that for all this Saul would one day destroy him Fourthly The pangs of this Distrust are also so remarkable that after they have been delivered and have found that the Event hath not answered their fears they have in the review of their carriage under such fears recounted this their weakness among other remarkable things thereby shewing the unreasonableness of their unbelief and their wonder that God should pass by so great a Provocation and notwithstanding so unexpectedly deliver them David in the places before cited was upon a thankful acknowledgment of God's Love and wonderful Kindness which he thought he could not perform without leaving a record of his strange and unworthy distrust as if he had said So greatly did I sin and so unsuitably did I behave my self that I then gave off and concluded all was lost To open this a little further I shall add the Reasons why Satan strikes in with such an occasion as the want of means to tempt to distrust which are these First Such a condition doth usually transport Men besides themselves puts them as it were into an Extacy and by a sudden rapture of of Astonishment and Fear forceth them beyond their settled thoughts and purposes This David notes as the ground of his inconsiderate rash speaking It was my haste I was transported c. Now as Passion doth not only make Men speak what otherwise they would not but also to put bad Interpretations upon actions and things beyond what they will bear and hasten Men to Resolves exceedingly unreasonable So doth this state of the Heart under an amazement and surprize of Fear give opportunity to Satan to put Men to injurious and unrighteous thoughts of the Providence of God and by such ways to alienate their Minds from the trust which they owe him Secondly Sense is a great help to Faith Faith then must needs be much hazarded when Sense is at a loss or contradicted as usually it is in straits That Faith doth receive an advantage by Sense cannot be denyed To believe what we see is easier than to believe what we see not and that in our state of Weakness and Infirmity God doth so far indulge us that by his allowance we may take the help of our Senses is evident by his appointment of the two Sacraments where by outward visible Signs our Faith may be quickned to apprehend the Spiritual benefits offered Thomas resolving to suspend his belief till he were satisfied that Christ was risen by the utmost tryal that Sense could give determining not to credit the Testimony of the rest of the Disciples till by putting his Finger into his Side he had made himself more certain Christ not only condescended to him but also pronounceth his approbation of his belief accepting it that he had believed because he had seen But when outward usual helps fail us our Sense being not able to see afar off is wholly puzled and overthrown the very disappearing of probabilities gives so great a shake to our Faith that it commonly staggers at it and therefore was it given as the great commendation of Abrahams Faith that he notwithstanding the unlikelyhood of the thing staggered not at the Promise noting thereby how extraordinary it was in him at that time to keep up against the contradiction of Sense and how usual it is with others to be beaten off all Trust by it 'T is no wonder to see that Faith which usually called Sense for a Supporter to fail when t is deprived of its Crutch And he that would a little understand what disadvantage this might prove to a good Man when Sense altogether fails his expectation he may consider with himself in what a case Thomas might have been if Christ had refused to let him see his Side and to thrust his Finger into the print of the Nails in all appearance had it been so he had gone away confirmed in his unbelief Thirdly Though Faith can act above Sense and is imployed about things not seen yet every Saint at all times doth not act his Faith so high Christ tells us that to believe where a Man hath not had the help of Sight and Sense is Noble and Blessed Joh. 20. 29. yet withal he hints it to be rare and difficult he that hath not seen and yet hath believed implyes that 't is but one amongst many that doth so and that 't is the Conquest of a more than ordinary difficulty Hence it is that to love God when he kills to believe when means fail are reckoned among the high actings of Christianity Fourthly When Sense is non-plust and Faith fails the Soul of Man is at a great loss having nothing to bear it up it must needs sink but having something to throw it down besides its own propensity downward to distrust it hath the force of so great a disappointment to push it forward and such bitterness of Spirit heightned by the malignant Influence of Satan that with a violence like the Angels throwing a Milstone into the Sea it is cast into the bottom of such depths of unbelief that the knowledg of former Power and extraordinary Providences cannot keep it from an absolute denyal of the like for the future Israel in the Wilderness when they came to the want of Bread though they acknowledged he clave the Rock and gave them Water in the like strait yet so far did their Hearts fail of that due Trust in the Power and Mercy of God which might have been expected that though they confessed the one they as
Lusts of our own Heart Chap. 5. Of Christ's Fast with the Design thereof Of Satan's tempting in an invisible way Of his incessant Importunities and how he flys when resisted Of Inward Temptations with outward Afflictions Several Advantages Satan hath by tempting in Affliction Chap. 6. That Christ's Temptations were real and not in vision That Temptation is Satan's Imployment with the Evidences and Instances thereof Of Satan's tempting visibly with the Reasons thereof Chap. 7. The general view of these Temptations Of Satan's gradual proceeding in Temptations Of reserving a great Temptation last What a great Temptation is In what cases to be expected Of Satan's using a common Road in comparing these Temptations with the ordinary Temptations of Men. Of the Advantage Satan takes of Natural Appetite Sense and Affections Chap. 8. The Rise of Christâ—s first Temptation Of Satan's suiting his Temptations to the conditions of Men. Of tempting Men upon the Plea of Necessity The Reasons and Cheats of that Plea His pretences of friendship in tempting with the danger thereof Chap. 9. A particular Consideration of the Matter of the first Temptation What Satan aimed at in bidding him turn Stones into Bread Of Satan's moving us to things good or lawful The end of such a Motion How to know whether such Motions are from Satan or the Spirit What to do in case they be from Satan Of his various Aims in one Temptation What they are and of his Policy therein Of his Artificial Contrivement of Motions to make one thing infer another Chap. 10. Of Satan's chief end in this Temptation His skill in making the Means to Sin plausible The Reasons of that Policy with his Art therein Mens Ignorance his Advantage Of the differences of things propounded to our use Chap. 11. Of the temptation to distrust upon the failure of ordinary Means Of the Power of that Temptation and the Reasons of its prevalency Of unwarrantable Attempts for relief with the Causes thereof Of waiting on God and keeping his way In what cases a particular Mercy is to be expected Chap. 12. Of Satan's proceeding to infer distrust of Son-ship from distrust of Providences Instances of the probability of such a Design The Reasons of this undertaking Of Satan's endeavour to weaken the assurance and hopes of God's Children His general Method to that purpose Chap. 13. The preparation to the second Temptation Of his nimbleness to catch Advantages from our answers to Temptation That Satan carried Christ in the Air. Of his Power to molest the Bodies of God's Children How little the supposed holiness of places priviledgeth us from Satan Of Satan's Policy in seeming to countenance imaginary Defences Of his pretended flight in such cases with the Reasons of that Policy Of his improving a Temptation to serve several Ends. Chap. 14. That Presumption was the chief design of this Temptation Of tempting to Extreams What Presumption is The several ways of presuming The frequency of this Temptation in the generality of Professors in Hypocrites in despairing Persons and in the Children of God The Reasons of Satan's Industry in this Design His deceitful Contrivance in bringing about this Sin Preservatives against it Chap. 15. Self-murther another of his Designs in this Temptation How he tempts to Self-murther directly and upon what advantages he urgeth it How he tempts to it indirectly and the ways thereof Of ne-necessary Preservatives against this Temptation Chap. 16. Of Pride Satan's chief Engine to bring on Presumption What Pride is and how it prepares Men for sinning presumptuously Considerations against Pride The Remedies for its Cure Pride kindled by a confidence of Priviledges and popular applause Chap. 17. Of Satan's subtilty in urging that of Psal 91. 11 12. to Christ Of his imitating the Spirit of God in various ways of Teaching Of his pretending Scripture to further Temptation The Reasons of such Pretendings and the ends to which he doth abuse it Of Satan's unfaithfulness in managing of Scriptures Cautions against that Deceit The ways by which it may be discovered Chap. 18. The manner of Satan's shewing the Kingdoms of the World Of Satan's Preparations before the Motion of Sin Of his confronting the Almighty by presumptuous imitation and in what cases he doth so Of his beantifying the Object of a Temptation and how he doth it His way of engaging the Affections by the Senses Of his seeming shiness Chap. 19. Satan's end in tempting Christ to fall down and worship him Of Blasphemous Injections What Blasphemy is The Ways of Satan in that Temptation with the Advantages he takes therein and the Reason of urging Blasphemies upon Men. Consolations to such as are concerned in such Temptations Advice to such as are so afflicted Chap. 20. The Nature of Idolatry Satan's Design to corrupt the Worship of God The Evidences thereof with the Reasons of such endeavours His general Design of withdrawing the Hearts of Men from God to his Service The Proof that this is his Design upon whom he prevails That Professions and Confidences are no Evidences to the contrary His deceit of propounding Sin as a small Matter The Evidences of that Method and the Reasons thereof Chap. 21. Of Worldly Pleasure Proofs that this is Satan's great Engine What there is in Worldly Delights that make them so Counsels and Cautions against that Snare Chap. 22. Of Christ's Answer in the general That these Temptations were upon design for our Instruction Of the Agreement betwixt Ephes 6 and Matth. 4. The first Direction Of couragious Resolves in resisting Temptations It s consistency with some kind of fear The necessity of this Courage Wherein it consists and that there is courage in mourning Spirits Chap. 23. The second Direction that Temptations are not to be disputed The several ways of disputing a Temptation In what Cases it is convenient and necessary to dispute with Satan In what Cases inconvenient and the Reasons of it Chap. 24. The third Direction of repelling a Temptation without delay the necessity of so doing What a speedy denial doth contain Chap. 25. The fourth Direction Of repelling a Temptation by Scripture Arguments Of several things implyed in the Direction The necessity of answering by Scripture Arguments The excellency of the Remedy How Scripture Arguments are to be managed Chap. 26. The fifth Direction of Prayer and of the seriousness required of those that expect the advantage of Prayer Of God's hearing Prayer while the Temptation is continued Of some that are troubled more while they pray more DAEMONOLOGIA SACRA OR A TREATISE OF Satans Temptations The First Part. CONTAINING A Discourse of the Malice Power Cruelty and Diligence of Satan Of his cunning in Temptation in the general Of his Method of tempting to Sin Of his Policies for maintaining his Possession Of his Deceits for the preventing and spoiling Religious Services and Duties By R. G. 2 Cor. 2. 11. We are not ignorant of his Devices London Printed by J. D. for Richard Randel and Peter Maplisden Booksellers in New-Castle
indeed to be considered in conjunction with his Subtilty and Cunning as things that make his Wiles the more dangerous and hazardous For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against Spiritual Wickedness in high places which words do but strengthen the Apostles Warning and Caution about the forementioned Wiles which are therefore the more carefully to be observed and watched against because his Power is so great that he can contrive Snares with the greatest Skill and Art imaginable and his Wickedness is so great that we cannot expect either Honesty or Modesty should restrain him from making the vilest and most disingenuous Proposals nor from attesting a conveniency or goodness in his Motions with the highest considence of most notorious Lying Secondly The Subtilty that the Scriptures do attribute to Sin or to the Heart is mostly and chiefly intended to reflect upon Satan as the Author and Contriver of these Deceits In Heb. 3. 13. there is mention of the deceitfulness of Sin but 't is evident that something else besides Sin is intended to which Deceitfulness must be properly ascribed for Sin being as most conclude formally a Privation or if we should grant it a Positive Being as some contend yet seeing the highest notion we can arrive at this way excluding but the figment of Flacius Illiricus who seems to make Original Sin indistinct from the very Essence of the Soul is but to call it an Act. Deceitfulness cannot be properly attributed to it but with reference to him who orders that Act in a way of Deceitfulness and Delusion which ultimately will bring it to Satans door if here the deceitfulness of Sin be devolved upon the Subject then it runs into the same sense with Jer. 17. 9. The Heart is deceitful above all things But why is the deceitfulness fixed upon the Heart The ground of that we have in the next words it is deceitful because it is wicked desperately wicked But who then inflames and stirs up the Heart to this Wickedness Is it not Satan Who then is the proper Author of Deceit but he 'T is true indeed that our Hearts are proper Fountains of Sin and so may be accused possibly in some cases where Satan cannot be justly blamed yet if we consider Deceitfulness as a Companion of every Sin though our Hearts be to be blamed for the Sin Satan will be found guilty of the deceitfulness It may be said a Man complyes with those things which are intended for his delusion and so improperly by his negligence may fall under blame of self-deception but 't is unimaginable that he can properly and formally intend to deceive himself Deceit then not being from Sin nor our selves properly can find out no other Parent for it self than Satan Besides this that these Texts upon a rational Enquiry do charge Satan with the deceitfulness of Sin they do over and above point at the known and constant way of Satan working so commonly by Delusion that Deceitfulness is a close Companion of every Sin The deceitfulness of Sin is as much as the deceitfulness of every sin Nay further that Text of Jer. 17. shews this Deceitfulness not to be an ordinary Sleight but the greatest of all Deceits above measure and of an unsearchable depth or Mystery who can know it Thirdly All Acts of Sin some way or other come thorow Satans Fingers I do not say that all Sin is Satan's proper off-spring for we have a cursed stock of our own and it may be said of us as elsewhere of Satan sometime we sin out of our own Inclination and Disposition yet in every Sin whether it arise from us or the World Satan blows the sparks and manageth all As David said to the Woman of Tekoah Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this So may we say is not the hand of Satan with thee in every Sin thou committest This is so eminently true that the Scripture indifferently ascribes the Sin sometimes to us sometimes to the Devil It was Peter's sin to tempt Christ to decline Suffering yet Christ repelling it with this Rebuke Get thee behind me Satan doth plainly accuse both Peter and Satan 'T is the personal sin of a Man to be angry yet in such acts he gives place to the Devil both Man and Satan concur in it Paul's Thorn in the Flesh what ever Sin it was he calls Satans Messenger he that submits not to God doth in that comply with Satan as on the contrary he that doth submit himself to God doth resist the Devil Neither doth that expression of the Apostle Jam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust c. give any contradiction to this 't is not the Apostle's design to exclude Satan but to include Man as justly culpable notwithstanding Satan's Temptations and that which he asserts is this that there is Sin and a Temptation truly prevalent when there is the least consent of our lust or desire and that it is that brings the blame upon us so that his purpose is not to excuse Satan or to deny him to have a hand in drawing or tempting us on to Sin but to shew that 't is our own act that makes the Sin to become ours Fourthly Such is the constitution of the Soul of Man that it 's sinning cannot be conceived without some Deception or Delusion for granting that the Soul of Man is made up of Desires and that the Soul were nothing else but as it were one willing or lusting Power diversified by several Objects and that this Power or these Faculties are depraved by the Fall and corrupted and that Man in every action doth consult with his Desires and that they have so great an influence upon him that they are the Law of the Members and give out their Commands accordingly for Obedience Yet still these three things are firm and unshaken Principles First That Desires cannot be set upon any Object but as 't is apprehended truly or apparently good 't is incompatible to a rational Soul to desire evil as evil Secondly The Will doth not resolvedly embrace any Object till the light of the Understanding hath made out some way or other the goodness or conveniency of the Object Thirdly There is no Man that hath not a competent Light for discovery of the goodness or evil of an Object presented Unregenerate Men have 1. The Light of Nature 2. Some have an additional Light from Scripture discovery 3. Some have yet more from common Convictions which beget sensible stirrings and awful Impressions upon them 4. To those God sometimes adds Corrections and Punishments which are of force to make that Light burn more clear and to stir up care and caution in Men for the due entertainment of these Notices that God affords them Regenerate Men have all this Light and besides that they have 1.
The Light of their own Experience of the vileness and odiousness of Sin they know what an evil and bitter thing it is 2. They have a more full discovery of God which will make them abhor themselves in dust and ashes 3. They have the advantage of a new Heart the Law of the Spirit of Life making them free from the Law of Sin and Death 4. They have also the help and assistance of the Spirit in its Motions Suggestions and Teachings 5. They fortifie themselves with the strongest Resolutions not to give way to Sin Notwithstanding all these 'T is too true that both Regenerate and Unregenerate Men do sin The reason whereof cannot be given from any other account than what we have asserted to wit they are some way or other deluded or deceived some Curtain is drawn 'twixt them and the Light some Fallacy or other is put upon the Understanding some way or other the Will is bribed or byassed there is treachery in the case for 't is unimaginable that a Man in any act of Sin should offer a plain open and direct violence to his own Nature and Faculties so that the whole business is here Evil is presented under the notion of God and to make this out some considerations of pleasure or profit do bribe the Will and give false light to the Understanding Hence is it that in every act of Sin Men by complyance with Satan are said to deceive or to put tricks and fallacies upon themselves Fifthly All kinds of Subtilty are in Scripture directly charged upon Satan and in the highest degrees Sometime under the notion of Logical fallacies those sleights which Disputants in arguing put upon their Antagonists Of this import is that expression 2 Cor. 2. 11. We are not ignorant of his Devices where the word in the Original is borrowed from the Sophistical reasonings of Disputants Sometime 't is expressed in the similitude of Political deceits as the Scripture gives him the title of a Prince so doth it mark out his Policies in the management of his Kingdom Rev. 12. 7. expressly calling them Deceits and comparing him to a Dragon or Serpent for his subtilty Sometime he is represented as a Warriour Rev. 12. 17. The Dragon was wroth and went to make War c. and here are his Warlike Stratagems pointed at Mention is made 2 Tim. 2. 26. of his Snares and the taking of Men alive or Captive directly alluding to Warlike proceedings The subtile proceedings of Arts and Craft are charged on him and his Instruments Men are said to be enticed Jam. 1. as Fish or Fowl by a Bait Others deluded as by Cheaters in false Gaming Eph. 4. 14. By the sleight of Men and the cunning craft of those that ly in wait to deceive The over-reaching of Merchants or crafty Tradesmen is alluded to in 2 Cor. 2. 11. All these sleights are in Satan in their highest perfection and accomplishment He can transform himself into an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11. 14. where he hath an occasion for it In a word all deceiveableness of unrighteousness is in him 2 Thess 2. 10. So that a general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dexterity and ability for all kind of subtile Contrivances is ascribed to him 2 Cor. 11. 3. and that in his very first essay upon Eve when the Serpent deceived her thorow subtilty so that whatsoever Malice can suggest or Wit and Art contrive for Delusion or whatsoever Diligence can practise or Cruelty execute all that must be imagined to be in Satan Sixthly All this might be futher proved by Instances What Temptation can be named wherein Satan hath not acted as a Serpent who can imagine the cunning that Satan used with David in the matter of Vriah How easily he got him to the roof of the house in order to the Object to be presented to him How he directs his Eye wrought upon his Passions suggested the Thought contrived the Conveniencies What Art must there be to bring a darkness into David's mind a forgetfulness of God's Law a fearlesness of his displeasure and a neglect of his own danger surely it was no small matter that could blind David's Eye or besot his Heart to so great a Wickedness But above all Instances let us take into consideration that of Eve in the first transgression wherein many things may be observed as first That he chose the Serpent for his Instrument wherein though we are ignorant of the depth of his design yet that he had a design in it of subtilty in reference to what he was about to suggest is plain from the Text Now the Serpent was more subtile then any Beast of the field it had been needless and impertinent to have noted the Serpents subtilty as Satans Agent if he had not chosen it upon that score as advantageous for his purpose 2. He set upon the weaker Vessel the Woman and yet such as once gained he knew was likely enough to prevail with the Man which fell out accordingly 3. Some think he took the advantage of her Husbands absence which is probable if we consider that 't is unlikely that Adam should not interpose in the discourse if he had been present 4. He took the advantage of the Object It appears she was within sight of the Tree She saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the Eyes thus he made the Object plead for him 5. He falls not directly upon what he intended lest that should have scared her off but fetcheth a compass and enters upon the business by an enquiry of the affairs as if he intended not hurt 6. He so enquires of the matter Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden as if he made a question of the reality of the Command and his words were so ordered that they might cast some doubt hereof into her mind 7. He under a pretence of asserting God's Liberality secretly undermines the threatning as if he had said Is it possible that so bountiful a Creator should deny the liberty of eating of any tree to what purpose was it made if it might not be tasted 8. When he finds that by these Arts he had gained a little ground and brought her to some kind of questioning of the reality of the threatning for she seems to extenuate it in saying lest we die he grows more bold to speak out his mind and plainly to annihilate the threatning Ye shall not die this he durst not do till he had gained in her mind a wavering suspition that possibly God was not in good earnest in that prohibition 9. Then he begins to urge the conveniency and excellency of the Fruit by equivocating upon the name of the Tree which he tells her could make them knowing as Gods 10. He reflects upon God as prohibiting this out of envy and ill-will to them 11. In all this there is not a word of the danger but impunity and advantage promised 12.
This deadly advice he covers with a pretence of greater kindness and care than God had for them See in this as in a clear Glass Satan's way of Policy after this rate he proceeds in all his Temptations If any enquire why so mighty and potent a Prince useth rather the Fox's Skin than the Lyon's Paw these reasons may satify First There is a necessity upon him so to do He must use his craft because he cannot compel He must have Gods leave before he can overcome He cannot winnow Peter before he sue out a Commission nor deceive Ahab till he get a License neither can he prevail against us without our own consent The Scripture indeed useth some words that signify a force in tempting as that he put it into the heart of Judas filled the heart of Annanias provoked David rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience and leads them captive at his will c. yet all these and the like expressions intend no more than this that he useth forcible Importunities frames strong Delusions and joyns sometime his Power to his Temptations as sometime Fowlers shew themselves to the Birds they intend to ensnare that so they may be affrighted into an awe and amazement to give a better opportunity to spread their Nets over them Secondly If he could compel yet his way of craft and subtilty is generally the most prevalent and successful Force stirs up an opposition it usually alarms to caution and avoidance and frights to an utter aversness in any design so that where Force should gain its thousands Subtilty will gain its ten thousands Thirdly His Strength is not useless to him For besides that it enables him to deceive with higher advantage than otherwise he could do as hath been said he hath times and occasions to shew his Strength and Cruelty when his cunning hath prevailed so far as to give him possession What was said of Pope Boniface that he entred like a Fox and ruled like a Lion may be applyed to him he insinuates himself by subtilty as a Fox or Serpent and then rules with rigour as a Lion CHAP. IX Of Satan's Deceits in particular What Temptation is Of tempting to Sin His first general Rule The Consideration of our Condition His second Rule Of providing sutable Temptations In what cases he tempts us to things unsutable to our Inclinations His third Rule The cautious Proposal of the Temptation and the several ways thereof His fourth Rule is to entice The way thereof in the general by bringing a darkness upon the Mind through lust OUr next business is to enquire after these ways of Deceit in particular in which I shall first speak of such as are of more general and universal concernment Such are his Temptations to Sin his Deceits against Duty his cunning in promoting Error his attempts against the Peace and Comfort of the Saints c. and then I shall come to some ways of Deceits that relate to Cases more special As an Introduction to the first I shall speak a word of Temptation in the general This in its general notion is a Tryal or Experiment made of a thing the word that signifies to tempt comes from a word that signifies to pierce or bore thorow implying such a Tryal as goes to the very heart and inwards of a thing In this sense 't is attributed to God who is said to have tempted Abraham and to put our Faith upon tryal and sometime to Satan who is said to have tempted Christ though he could not expect to prevail But though God and Satan do make these tryals yet is there a vast difference betwixt them and that not only in their Intentions the one designing only a discovery to Men of what is in them and that for most holy ends the other intending ruine and destruction but also in the way of their Proceedings God by providence presents Objects and Occasions Satan doth not only do that but farther inclineth and positively perswadeth to evil Hence is it that Temptations are distinguished into Tryals meerly and Seducements sutable to that of Tertullian Diabolus tentat Deus probat the Devil tempts God only trys We speak of Temptation as 't is from Satan and so 't is described to be a drawing or moving Men to sin under colour of some reason By which we may observe that in every such Temptation there is the Object to which the Temptation tends the endeavour of Satan to encline our hearts and draw on our consent and the Instrument by which is some pretence of reason not that a real and solid reason can be given for Sin but that Satan offers some considerations to us to prevail with us which if they do we take them to be reasons This may a little help us to understand Satan's method in tempting to sin c. of which I am first to speak In temptations to Sin we may observe Satan walks by four general Rules First He considers and acquaints himself with the condition of every Man and for that end he studies Man God's question concerning Job Hast thou considered my Servant Job doth imply not only his diligent enquiry into Job's state for the Original expresseth it by Satan's putting his heart upon Job or laying him to his heart but that this is usual with Satan so to do as if God had said 'T is thy way to pry narrowly into every Man hast thou done this to Job hast thou considered him as thou usest to do and indeed Satan owns this as his business and imployment in his answer to God I come from going to and fro in the Earth from walking up and down in it This cannot be properly said of him who is a Spirit Bodies go up and down but not Spirits so that his meaning is he had been at his work of enquiring and searching And so Broughton translates it from searching to and fro in the Earth as 't is said of the Eyes of God that they run to and fro which intends his Intelligence Search and Knowledge of things 't is such a going to and fro as that in Dan. 12. 4. which is plainly there expressed to be for the encrease of Knowledg The matter of his enquiry or particulars of his study are such as these 1. Man's State he considers and guesseth whether a Man be Regenerate or Unregenerate 2. The Degree of his State if Unregenerate how near or far off he is the Kingdom of God if Regenerate he takes the compass of his Knowledge of his Gifts of his Graces 3. He enquires into his Constitution and Temper he observes what Disposition he is off 4. His Place Calling and Relation his Trade Employment Enjoyments Riches or Wants 5. His Sex 6. His Age c. The way by which he knows these things is plain and easie most of these things are open to common observation and what is intricate or dark that he beats out either by comparing us
lusts Gal. 5. 24. We are further told by John 1 Epist 2. 16. that all those snares that are in the World are only hazardous and prevailing by our Lusts More generally the Apostle Peter speaks the whole bundle of actual Sins that have ever been in the World came in at this door The corruption that is in the World is through Lust In the stirring up our Lusts Satan useth no small Art and Subtilty and ordinarily he worketh by some of these following ways First He useth his skill to dress up an Object of Lust that it may be taking and alluring he doth not content himself with a simple proposal of the Object but doth as it were paint and varnish it to make it seem beautiful and lovely besides al lthat wooing and importunity which he useth to the Soul by private and unseen Suggestions he hath no doubt a care to gather together all possible concurring Circumstances by which the seeming goodness or conveniency of the Object is much heightned and enlarged We see those that have skill to work upon the Humors of Men place a great part of it in the right circumstantiating a motion and in taking the Tempers and Inclinations of Men at a right time And they observe that the missing of the right season is the hazard of the design even there where the Object and Inclination ordinarily are sutable There is much in placing a Picture in a right position to give it its proper grace and lustre in the Eyes of the Beholders When a man is out of humor he nauseats his usual delights and grows sullen to things of frequent practice 'T is likely Eve was not a Stranger to the Tree of Knowledg before the Temptation but when the Serpent suggests the goodness of the Fruit the Fruit it self seems more beautiful and desirable good for Food and pleasant to the Eyes Though we are not able to find out the way of Satan's beautifying an Object that it may affect with more piercing and powerful delights yet he that shall consider that not only Prudence in an advantageous management of things adds an additional beauty to Objects proposed but also that Art by placing things in a right posture may derive a radiancy and beam of Beauty and Light upon them as an ordinary piece of Glass may be so posited to the Sun beams that it may reflect a sparkling light as if it were a Diamond He that shall consider this I say will not think it strange for the Devil to use some Arts of this kind for the adorning and setting off an Object to the Eye of our Lusts Secondly We have reason to suspect that he may have ways of Deceit and Imposture upon our Senses The deceits of the Senses are so much noted that some Philosophers will scarce allow any credit to be given them not that they are always deceitful but that they are often so and therâ—fore always suspitious The Soul hath no intelligence but by the Senses 't is then a business of easie belief that Satan may not altogether slight this advantage but that when he sees it fit for his purpose he may impose upon us by the deception of our Eyes and Ears we little know how oft our Senses have disguised things to us In a pleasing Object our Eyes may be as a magnifying or multiplying Glass In the first Temptation Satan seems to have wrought both upon the Object and also upon the Senses She saw it was good for Food and pleasant who can question but that she saw the Fruit before but this was another kind of sight of more power and attraction An instance of Satan's Cunning in both the forementioned particulars we have from Austin relating the Story of his Friend Alipius who by the importunity of his Acquaintance consented to go to the Theatre yet with a resolve not to open his Eyes lest the sight of these Spectacles should entice his Heart but being there the noise and sudden shouting of the multitude prevailed so far with him that he forgot his resolution takes the liberty to see what occasioned the shouting and once seeing is now so inflamed with delight that he shouts as the rest do and becomes a frequenter of the Theatre as others What was there to be seen and heard he knew before by the relation of others but now being present his Eyes and Ears were by Satan so heightned in their offices that those bloody Objects seemed pleasant beyond all that had been reported of them and the lust of his Heart drawn out by Satan's cunning disposal of the Object and Senses Thirdly There is no small inticement arising from the fitness and sutableness of Occasion An Occasion exactly fitted is more than half a Temptation This often makes a Thief an Adulterer c. Where the acts of these Sins have their rise from a sudden fit of humor which occasion puts them in rather than from design or premeditation Cunningly contrived Occasions are like the danger of a Precipice if a Man be so foolish as to take up a stand there a small push will throw him over though a far greater might not harm him if he were upon a Level 'T is Satan's Cunning to draw a Man within the reach of an Occasion All the resolves of Alipius were not safe-guard to him when once he was brought within hearing and sight of the Temptation If he had staid at home the hazard of Satan's Suggestions though earnest had not been so much as the hearing of his Ears and sight of his Eyes In 2 Cor. 2. 11. Paul's fears of Satan's taking advantage against the Corinthians did manifestly arise from the present posture of their Church affairs for if the excommunicated Person should not be received again into the Church an ordinary push of Temptation might either have renewed or confirmed their Contentions or precipated them into an opinion of too much severity against an offending Brother and that their present frame made them more than ordinarily obnoxious to these Snares is evident from the Apostle's caution inserted here in this Discourse so abruptly that any Man may observe the necessity of the Matter and the earnestness of his Affections did lead his Pen. The Souls of Men have their general Discrasia's and Disaffections as our Bodies have from a lingring distemperature of the Blood and Humors in which case a small occasion like a particular error of Diet c. in a declining Body will easily form that Inclination into particular acts of Sin Fourthly Satan hath yet a further reach in his Enticements by the power which he hath upon our Fancies and Imaginations That he hath such a power was discovered before This being then supposed how serviceable it is for his end 't is now to be considered Our Fancy is as a Glass which with admirable celerity and quickness of motion can present before us all kinds of Objects it can in a moment run from one end of the Earth to the
death of a Sinner will not delight to take strict exceptions against every failing If Satan can prevail with us to extenuate the Sin to slight the hazard or any way to lessen it upon any of the forementioned accounts then having possessed us before with high apprehensions of delights and satisfactions in the Sin he quickly perswades to accept the motion as having a conveniency and advantage in it not to be despised and thus doth he indirectly pervert our Reason which is the second way by which he blinds us through the working of our Lust CHAP. XIII Of Satan's diverting our Reason being the third way of blinding Men. His policies for diverting our Thoughts His attempts to that purpose in a more direct manner with the degrees of that procedure Of disturbing or distracting our Reason which is Satan's fourth way of blinding Men. His deceits therein Of precipitancy Satan's fifth way of blinding Men. Several deceits to bring Men to that THirdly Satan blinds the Sons of Men by diverting and withdrawing their Reason and taking it off from the pursuit of its discovery or apprehensions For sometime it cannot be induced to go so contrary to its Light as to call evil good either directly or indirectly Then is Satan put to a new piece of Policy and if the frame of the Heart and the matter of the Temptation suit his design he endeavours to turn the stream of our thoughts either wholly another way or to still them by turning them into a dead Sea or by some trick to beguile the Understanding with some new dress of the Temptation So that we may observe in Satan a threefold policy in a subserviency to this design for First Satan sometime ceaseth his pursuit and lets the matter fall and thinks it better to change the Temptation than to continue a sollicitation at so great a disadvantage When he tempted Christ and could not prevail he departed for a season with a purpose to return at some fitter time which Christ himself was in expectation of knowing it to be his manner to ly in wait for advantages and accordingly when his suffering drew nigh which as he speaks to the Jews was their hour and power of darkness he foretold his return upon him Now the Prince of this World cometh however this attempt of his against the Lord Jesus prevailed not yet he shewed his Art and Skill in the suspending of his Temptation to a more sutable time And the success of this against us is sadly remarkable for however we resist and at present stand out yet his solicitations are often like leaven which while 't is hid in our thoughts doth not a little ferment and change them so that at his return he often finds our Lusts prepared to raise greater clouds upon our Mind Many there are that resist strongly at present that which they easily slide into when Satan hath given them time to breath that say I will not and yet do it afterwards Secondly He sometimes withdraws their considerations by huffing them up with a confidence that they are above the Temptation As a conquest in a small skirmish begetting an opinion of victory makes way for a total overthrow over a careless and secure Army We are too apt to triumph over Temptations because we give the first on-set with courage and resolution Christ forewarned Peter of his denyal he stoutly deâ—ies it and not improving this Advertisement to Fear and Watchfulness Satan who then was upon a design to sift him took him at that advantage of security and by a contemptible instrument overthrew him Thus while we grow strong in our apprehensions by a denyal of a Sin and undervalue it as below us our Confidence makes us careless and this lets in our ruine Thirdly If these ways of Policy fail him he seemingly complies with us and is content we judge the matter sinful but then he proffers his service to bring us off by distinctions and here the Sophister useth his skill to further our Understanding in framing excuses coyning evasions and so doth out-shoot us in our own Bow The Corinthians had learned to distinguish betwixt eating of Meat in an Idols Temple in honour to the Idol and as a common Feast in civility and respect to their Friends that invited them this presently withdrew their consideration and so quieted them in that course that the Apostle was forced to discover the fallacy of it The Israelites cursed him that gave a Wife to any of the Tribe of Benjamin but when they turned to them in compassion they satisfied themselves with this poor distinction that they would not give them Wives but were willing to suffer them to take them 'T is a common snare in matters of Promise or Oath where Conscience is startled at a direct violation thereof by some pitiful salvo or silly evasion to blind the Eyes and when they dare not break the Hedge to leap over it by the help of a broken Reed But I must here further observe that Satan doth sometimes set aside these Deceits aforementioned and trys his strength for the withdrawing of our consideration from the danger of Sin in a more plain and direct manner that is by continuing the prospect of the sweets and pleasures of Sin under our Eye and withal urging us by repeated sollicitations to cast the thoughts of the danger behind our back In which he so far prevails sometimes that Men are charged with a deep forgetfulness of God his Law and of themselves yet usually it ariseth to this by degrees As First When a Temptation is before us and our conscience relucts it if there be any inclination to recede from a conviction the motion is resisted with a secret regret and sorrow As the young Man was said to go away sorrowful when Christ propounded such terms for Eternal Life as he was not willing to hear of So do we our Heart is divided betwixt Judgment and Affection and we begin to wish that it might be lawful to commit such a Sin or that there were no danger in it nay often our wishes contradict our prayers and while we desire to be delivered from the Temptation our private wishes beg a denyal to those supplications Secondly If we come thus far we usually proceed to the next step which is to give a dismission to those thoughts that oppose the Sin We say to them as Felix to Paul Go thy way for this time and when I have a convenient opportunity I will send for thee Thirdly If a plain dismission serve not to repel these thoughts we begin to imprison the Truth in Vnrighteousness and by a more peremptory refusal to stifle it and to keep it under and become at last willingly ignorant Fourthly By this means at last the Heart grows sottish and forgetful The heart is taken away as the Prophet speaks and then do these thoughts of conviction and warning at present perish together This withdrawing of our consideration is Satan's third
do but consent and all are thine Now albeit there are arguments at hand and serious considerations to deter us from practice yet how are all laid aside by a quick resolve Satan urgeth us by violent hurry as Christ said to Judas what thou hast to do do it quickly the Soul perswaded with this puts on a sudden boldness and resolution and when Reason doth offer to interpose it holds fast the door because the sound of its Masters feet is behind it doth it not say to it self Come we will not consider let us do it quickly before these lively considerations come in to hinder us 't is loth to be restrained and conceiteth that if it can be done before Conscience awaken and make a noise all is well as if Sin ceased to be sinful because we by a violent haste endeavoured to prevent the admonition of Conscience Thus they enjoy their Sin as the Israelites eat their Passover in haste and with their staves in their hands Fourthly When Opportunities and Occasions will well suit it He takes the advantages of a passionate and sullen Humor and by this means he turns us clearly out of our Byass Reason is trampled under-foot and Passion quite over-runs it At this disadvantage the Devil takes Jonah and hardens him to a strange resolve of quarrelling God and justifying himself in that Insolency The Humor that Satan wrought upon was his fretful sullenness raised up to a great height by the disappointment of his expectation and this makes him break out into a Cholerick resolution I do well to be angry Had he been composed in his Spirit had his Mind been calm and sedate the Devil surely could not by any arguments have drawn him up to it but when the Spirit is in a rage a little matter will bind Reason in Chains and push a Man upon a desperate carelesness of any danger that may follow sutable to that expression of Job chap. 13. 13. Let me alone that I may speak and let come on me what will Fifthly All these are but small in comparison of those deliberate determinations which are to be found with most Sinners who are therefore said to sin with an high hand presumptuously wilfully against Conscience against Knowledg and this ordinarily to be found only among those whom a custom of Sin hath hardned and confirmed into a boldness of a wicked way and course When the spirits of Men are thus harnessed and prepared Satan can at pleasure almost form them into a deliberate resolve to cast the commandment behind their back and to refuse to hearken When any Temptation is offered them if God say Ask for the old paths and walk therein as Jer. 6. 16. they will readily answer We will not walk therein If God say Hearken to the sound of the Trumpet they will reply We will not hearken When the People by a course of sinning had made themselves like the wild Ass used to the Wilderness then did they peremptorily set up their Will against all the Reason and Consideration that could come in to deter them though they were told the inconveniences Jer. 2. 25. that this did unshoo their Foot and afflicted them with Thirst and Want yet was the advice slighted there is no hope said they there is no expectation that we will take any notice of these pleadings for we have fixed our resolve We have loved Strangers and after them will we go So Jer. 44. 16. As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own Mouth A plain and full resolve of Will dischargeth all the powers of Reason and commands it silence And that this is most ordinary among Men may appear by these frequent expressions of Scripture wherein God lays the blame of all that madness which their lives bring forth upon their Will Ye would not obey ye will not come to me their heart is set to do evil c. It may indeed seem strange that Satan should proceed so far with the generality of Men and that they should do that that should seem so inconsistent with those Principles which they retain and the Light which must result from thence But we must remember that these wills and shalls of wicked Men are for the most part God's interpretation of their Acts and Carriage which speaks as much though it may be their Minds and Hearts do not so formally mould up their Thoughts into such open and brazen-fac'd assertions And yet we ought also further to consider that when the Spirit of God chargeth Man with wilfulness there is surely more of a formal wilfulness in the heart of Man than lyeth open to our view And this will be less strange to us when we call to mind Sixthly That through the working of Satan the Minds of Men are darkned and the light thereof put out by the prevalency of Atheistical Principles Something of Atheism is by most Divines concluded to be in every Sin and according to the height of it in its various degrees is Reason and Consideration overturned There are it may be few that are professed Atheists in Opinion and Dogmatically so but all wicked Men are so in Practice though they profess God yet the Fool saith in his heart there is no God and in their works they deny him This is a Principle that directly strikes at the root for if there be no God no Hell or Punishment who will be scared from taking his delight in Sin by any such consideration The Devil therefore strives to instil this Poyson with his Temptation When he enticed Eve by secret insinuations he first questions the truth of the threatning and then proceeds to an open denyal of it ye shall not surely die and 't is plain she was induced to the Sin upon a secret disbelief of the danger she reckons up the advantages good for Food pleasant to the Eye to be desired to make one wise wherein 't is evident she believed what Satan had affirmed that they should be as God and then it was not to be feared that they should die This kind of Atheism is common Men may not disbelieve a Godhead nay they may believe there is a God and yet question the truth of his threatnings Those conceits that Men have of God whereby they mould and frame him in their fancies sutable to their humors which is a thinking that he is such an one as our selves are Streams and Vapours from this Pit and the Hearts of the Sons of Men are desperately set within them to do evil upon these grounds much more when they arise so high as in som who say Doth God know Is there knowledg in the most High If Men give way to this what reason can be imagined to stand before them All the comminations of Scripture are derided as so many Theological scare-Crows and undervalued as so many pitiful contrivances to keep
accompany it is a sad step to a desperate neglect of duty and a carelesness in sinning in that it insensibly introduceth Atheistical impressions upon the hearts of Men and such are apt to catch hold even upon good Men who are but too ready to say as David I have cleansed my hands in vain Fourthly Satan hath yet another piece of Policy for the multiplication and aggravation of Sin which is the enmity and opposition of the Law Of this the Apostle Paul sadly complains from his own experience Rom. 7. 8. Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence What he laments is this that such is the perversness of our natures that the Law instead of restraining us doth the more enrage us so that accidentally the Law doth multiply Sin for when the restraint of the Law is before us Lust burns not only more inwardly but when it cannot be kept in and smothered then it breaks out with greater violence Let us break their bonds asunder c. When the Law condemns our Lusts they grow surly and desperate Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die c. If any wonder that the Law which was given of purpose to repress Sin and which is of so great use in its authority to kill it in us and to hinder Temptations should thus be used by Satan to encrease and enrage it they may consider that 't is but still an accidental occasion and not a cause and Sin takes this occasion without any fault of the Law Satan to this end watcheth the time when our hearts are most earnestly set upon our Lusts when our desires are most highly engaged and then by a subtile Art so opposeth the Law letting in it's contradictions in way and measure sutable that our hearts conceive a grudge at restraint which together with its earnestness to satisfy the Flesh ariseth up to a furious madness and violent striving to maintain a liberty and freedom to do according to the desires of their heart whereas this same Law if it be applyed to the heart when 't is more cooled and not so highly engaged upon a design of Lust will break terrify and restrain the heart and put such a damp upon Temptations that they shall not be able to stand before it So great a difference is there in the various seasons of the application of this Law in which Art for the enflaming of the heart to iniquity Satan shews a wonderful dexterity CHAP. XV. Of Satan's keeping all in quiet which is his second Engine for keeping his Possession and for that purpose his keeping us from going to the Light by several subtilties also of making us rise up against the Light and by what wayes he doth that SAtan's next Engine for the maintaining his Possession is to keep all in quiet which our Saviour notes Luk. 11. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace He urgeth this against those that objected to him that he cast out Devils by Belzebub which calumny he confuteth by shewing the inconsistency of that with Satan's Principles and Design it being a thing sufficiently known and universally practised that no man will disturb or dispute against his own peaceable Possession neither can it be supposed Satan will do it because he acts by this common Rule of keeping down and hindring any thing that may disquiet breach of Peace is hazardous to a Possession an uneasie Government occasions mutinies and revolts of Subjects yet we might think that the wages of Sin the light and power of Conscience considered it were no easie task for the Devil to rule his Slaves with so much quiet as 't is observed he doth his skill in this particular and the way of managing his interest for such an end we may clearly see in Jo. 3. 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved From which place we may observe 1 The great thing that doth disquiet Satan's Possession is Light 2 The reason of that disquietment is the discovery that Light makes and the shame that follows that discovery 3 The way to prevent that Light and the reproof of it is to avoid coming to it and where it cannot be avoided to hate it 'T is Satan's business then for keeping all in peace 1 To keep us from the Light or if that cannot be then 2 To make us rise up against it I shall make enquiry after both these projects of the Devil To keep us from coming to the Light he useth a great many subtilties as First for his own part he forbears to do any thing that might discompose or affright entangled Souls at other times and in other cases he loves to torment and affright them to cause their Wounds to stink and corrupt but in this case he takes a contrary course he keeps off as much as may be all reflections of Conscience he conceals the evil and danger of Sin he sings them asleep in their folly till a dart strike through their liver and hastens them to the snare as a bird that knoweth not that it is for his life They that shall consider that the heart of a sinner is hardned through the deceitfulness of Sin and that the greatest part of the affrightment that molests the consciences of such is from Satan's fury and malice they will easily conceive how much his single forbearance to molest may contribute to the peace and ease of those that are setled upon their lees but besides his forbearance we may expect that what ever clouds or darkness he can raise to exclude the Light or to muffle the eyes he will not be negligent in the use of that power whatever he can positively do in the raising up the confidence of presumption or security in the Minds of Men what ever he can do to make them sottish or careless that shall not be wanting Secondly he shews no less skill and diligence by secret contrivances to hinder occasions of reproof and discovery how much he can practise upon others that out of pity and compassion to the Souls of Men are ready to draw a sinner from the errour of his way and to save a Soul from death We can scarce imagine what ways he hath to divert and hinder them by what private discouragements he doth defer them who can tell He that could dispute with the Angel about the body of Moses to prevent the secret interment of it he that could give a stop of One and twenty days to the Angel that was to bring the comfortable Message to Daniel of the hearing of his Prayers may more easily obstruct and oppose the designs of a faithful reprover Some time he doth this by visible means and instruments stirring up the Spirits of wicked men to give opposition to such as seek to deliver their Souls from the blood of men by faithful warnings or exhortations The Devil was so
his Interest and upon design he will sometimes so carry himself that he may be deemed and supposed to be gone out of a Man As those that besiege Forts or walled Towns do sometimes raise the Siege and feign a departure intending thereby to take a sudden advantage of the carelesness of the besieged In the explanation of this Policy I shall 1. Shew how many ways he feigns a departure 2. Vpon what designs he doth it There are three ways whereby Satan seems to forsake his Interest First He frequently ceaseth the prosecution of a Design which yet he hath in his Eye and Desire when he perceives that there are some things in his way that render it not feasible nay he forbears to urge Men to their darling sins upon the same score and who would not think Satan cast out in such a case When a Man spits out the sweet Morsel which heretofore he kept under his Tongue and sucked a sweetness from it when Men of noted Iniquities abstain from them and become smooth and civil who would not think but that the unclean Spirit were gone This way and course he puts in practice in several cases First When he perceives some extraordinary occasion puts any of his Subjects into a good mood or humor of Religion Wicked Men are not ordinarily so highly bent upon evil ways but that they may be at sometimes softned and relaxed Pharaoh who is most eminently noted for a heart judicially hardned at the appearance of the Plagues upon himself and Egypt usually relented somewhat and would confess he had sinned and that fit would continue upon him for some little time But very frequently 't is thus with others an extraordinary occasion melts and thaws down the natural affections of Men as a warm day melts the Snow upon the Mountains and then the stream will for a time run high and strong at which time Satan sees 't is in vain to urge them Thus Men that receive an eminent kindness and deliverance from God what is more common than for such Men to say Oh! we will never be so wicked as we have been we will never be drunk more the World shall see us reformed and new Men These are indeed good words and yet though Satan knows that such expressions are not from a good heart as that of Deut. 5. 29. implyes They have well said O that there were such an heart in them he nevertheless thinks it not fit then to press them to their usual wickedness at that time for natural affections raised high in a profession of Religion will withstand Temptations for a fit and therefore he forbears till the stream run lower What a fit of affection had the Israelites when their Eyes had seen that miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea What Songs of rejoycing had they what resolves never to distrust him again Psal 106. 12. Then believed they his words they sang his praise Satan doth not presently urge them to murmuring and unbelief though that was his design but he stays till the fit was over and then he could soon tempt them to forget his works How like a Convert did Saul look after David had convinced him of his integrity and had spared his life in the Cave he weeps and acknowledgeth his iniquity justifies David owns his kindness and seems to acquiesce in his succession to the Kingdom The Devil had no question a great spite at David and 't was his great design to stir up Saul against him and yet at that time he could not prevail with him to destroy David though he might easily have done it he was then in a good mood and Satan was forced to give way to necessity and to seem to go out of Saul for the present Secondly He also ceaseth from his design when he sees he cannot fit his Temptation with a sutable opportunity What could be more the Devil's design and Esau's satisfaction than to have had Jacob slain Esau professeth it was the design of his heart and yet he resolves to forbear so long as his Father Isaac lived Gen. 27. 41. The days of my Father's mourning are at hand then but not till then will I slay my Brother Jacob. The Devil often sows his seed and yet waiteth and hath long patience not only in watering and fitting the hearts of Men for it but also in expectancy of fit opportunities and in the mean time he forbears to put Men upon that which time and occasion cannot fitly bring forth to practice The Prophet Hosea 7. 4. speaks of that People as notoriously wicked they are all adulterers but withall he observes that they forbare these enormous abominations for want of fit seasons their heart was as an Oven heated by the Baker sufficiently enflamed after their wickedness and yet the Baker after he had kneaded the dough prepared all the ground-work of the Temptation ceased from raising sleeping all the night till all was leavened that is though their hearts were enraged for Sin yet the Devil doth wait till occasions present themselves and becomes in the mean time like one asleep Now while the Devil thus sleeps the fire that is secretly in the heart being not seen Men gain the good opinion of Converts with others and often with themselves not knowing what Spirit they are of because Satan ceaseth upon the want of occasions to tempt and provoke them Thirdly Our Adversary is content to forbear when he percieves that a restraining grace doth lock up the hearts and hands of Men. When a stronger than he cometh who can expect less but that he should be more quiet that God doth restrain Men sometime when he doth not change them needs no proof that Satan knows of these restraints cannot be denyed who can give an account of these communings and discourses that are betwixt God and Satan concerning us his pleadings in reference to Job were as unknown to Job till God discovered them as his pleadings concerning our selves are to us Besides who can tell how much of God's restraining grace may ly in this of God's limiting and straitning Satan's Commission Now the Devil hath not so badly improved his observations but that he knows 't is in vain to tempt where God doth stop his way and tye up Mens hands Abimeleck was certainly resolved upon wickedness when he took Sarah from Abraham Gen. 20. 2. and yet the matter is so carried for some time how long we know not as if the Devil had been asleep or forgot to hasten Abimeleck to his intended wickedness for when God cautions him he had not come near her vers 4. the ground of all this was neither in the Devil's backwardness nor Abimeleck's modesty but Satan lets the matter rest because he knew that God withheld him and suffered him not to touch her Fourthly When Men are under the awe and fear of such as carry an Authority in their Countenances and Imployments for the discouraging of Sin Satan as hopeless to prevail doth not solicite to
Herodias and this gives just ground of complaint against the generality of Sinners Ye return but not to me not with your whole hearts have ye fasted to me have ye mourned to me they come and sit as my people but their hearts are after their covetousness Thirdly Satan hath yet another wile by which he would cheat men into a belief that he is cast out of the heart and this is a subtile way that he hath to exchange Temptations How weak and childish are Sinners that suffer themselves thus to be abused When they grow sick and weary of a Sin if the Devil take that from them and lay in the room of it another as bad or the same again only a little changed and altered they please themselves that they have vomited up the first but consider not that they have received into their embracement another as bad or worse Concerning this exchange we may note two things First That sometimes he atteins his end by exchanging one heinous Sin for another as hainous only not so much out of fashion As the customs and times and places give laws and rules for Fashions according to which the decencies or indecencies of Garbs and Garments are determined so is it sometimes with Sin Men and Countries have their darling Sins Times and Ages also have their peculiar Iniquities which in the judgment of Sinners do cloath them with a fitness and suitableness Sometimes Men grow weary of Sins because they are every where spoken against because Men point at them with the finger the Devil in this case is ready to change with them Drunkenness hath in some Ages and Places carried a brand of Infamy in its forehead so hath Uncleanness and other Sins when Sinners cannot practise these with credit and reputation then they please themselves with an alteration he that was a Drunkard is now it may be grown ambitious and boasting he that was Covetous is become a prodigal or profuse Waster the heart is as vain and sottish as before only their Lusts are let out another way and run in another channel Sometimes Lusts are changed also with the change of Mens condition in the World Poverty and Plenty a private and a publick Station have their peculiar Sins he that of poor is made rich leaves his Sins of Distrust Envy or Deceitful Dealing and follows the Byas of his present state to other wickednesses equally remarkable and yet may be so blinded as to apprehend that Satan is departed from him Secondly We may observe that Satan exchangeth Sins with Men in such a secret private manner that the change is not easily discovered and by this shift he casts a greater mist before the Eyes of Men thus he exchanged open Prophaness into secret Sins Filthiness of the flesh into filthiness of the Spirit Men seem to reform their gross Impieties abstaining from Drunkenness Swearing Adulteries and then it may be they are taken up with Spiritual pride and their hearts are puffed up with high conceits of themselves their gifts and attainments or they are entangled with error and spend their time in doting about Questions that engender strife rather than edifying or they are taken up with Hypocrisies thus the Pharisees left their open iniquities washing the out-side of the Cup and Platter and instead of these indeavoured to varnish and paint themselves over so that in all this change they were but as Graves that appeared not Or they acquiess in Formality and the outwards of Religion like that proud Boaster Lord I thank thee I am not as other Men are c. In all these things the Devil seems cast out and Men reformed when indeed he may continue his Possession only he lurks and hides himself under the stuff These wayes of Sinning are but finer poysons which though not so nauseous to the stomack nor so quick in their dispatch yet may be as surely and certainly deadly such fly from the Iron Weapon and a Bow of Steel strikes them through Having thus explained the three wayes by which Satan pretends to depart from Men I must next shew his Design in making such a pretence of forsaking his Habitation First That all this is done by him only upon Defign may be easily concluded from several things hinted to us in the fore-cited place of Luk. 11. As 1 he doth not say that the Devil is cast out as if there were a force upon him but that he goeth out 't is of choice a voluntary departure 2 That his going out in this sense is notwithstanding irkesome and troublesome to him The Heart of Man as one observes is a Palace in his estimation and dispossession though upon Design is as a Desart to him that affords him little ease or rest 3 That his going out is not a quitting of his Interest he calls it his House still I will return to my house saith he 4 He takes care in going out to lock the door that it may not be taken up with better Guests he keeps it empty and tenantable for himself he tempts still though not so visibly and strives to suppress such good Thoughts and Motions as he fears may quite out him of his Possession 5 He goes out cum animo revertendi with a purpose of returning 6 His Secession is so dexterously and advantagiously managed that he finds an easie admittance at his return and his Possession confirmed and enlarged They enter in and dwell there Secondly The advantages that he designes by this Policy are these chiefly 1 By this means Men are dangerously confirmed in their securities Thus the Pharisee blessed himself Lord I thank thee c. They please themselves with this supposition that the Devil is cast out and upon this they cease their War and Watchfulness As Saul when he heard that David had escaped went not out to seek after him so these trouble not themselves any further to enquire Satan's haunts in their Hearts thus he sits securely within whilst they think he is fled from them 2 By this means also he fits Men as Instruments to serve his turn in other works of his he must have in some cases handsom tools to work withal all Men are not fit Agents in Persecution either to credit it or to carry it through with vigour and zeal for this end he seems to go out of some that under a smoother and profession-like behaviour when they are stirred up to Persecute the rigour might seem just Thus devout and honourable Women were stirred up to Persecute Paul and Barnabas the Devil had gone out so far that they had gained the reputation of devout and then their Zeal would easily take fire for Persecution and withal put a respect and credit upon it for who would readily suspect that to be Evil or Satan's Design which is carryed on by such Instruments Besides if he at any time intends to blemish the good ways of God by the miscarriages of Professors he fetcheth his Arrow out of this
Quiver usually if he brings a refined Hypocrite to a scandalous Sin then doth the Mouth of Wickedness open it self to blaspheme the Generation of the Just as if none were better such Agents could not be so commonly at hand for such a Service if Satan did not in the wayes aforementioned seem to go out of Men. 3 'T is another part of his Design after a pretended departure to take the advantage of their security to return with greater strength and force this Christ particularly notes Then taketh he seven Spirits worse than himself c. Such as Peter tells us being again entangled are totally overcome and their latter end is worse with them than their beginning How many might I name if it were convenient that I have known and observed exactly answering this description of the Apostle that have for some years left off their wicked ways and engaged for a profession of Religion and yet at last have returned like the dog to his own vomit again The Devil when he fights after the Parthian manner is most to be feared when he turns his back he shoots most envenomed Arrows and whom he so wounds he commonly wounds them to the Death The Fourth and last Stratagem of Satan for the keeping his Possession is to stop the Way to barracado up all Passages that there may be no possibility of escape or retreat when he perceives that his former wayes of Policy are not sufficient but that his Slaves and Servants are so far inlightned in the discovery of the danger that they are ready to turn back from him then he bestirs himself to oppose their revolt and as God sometimes hedgeth up the way of Sinners with thorns that they should not follow their old Lovers so doth Satan to which purpose First He endeavours to turn them off such resolutions by threatning to reduce them with a strong hand here he boasts and vaunts of his Power and Sinners weakness as Rabshekah did against Hezekiah What is that confidence wherein thou trustest have the Gods of Hamath and Arpad c. delivered their Land out of my hand Have those that have gone before you been able to deliver themselves from me Have they been able to rescue themselves Did I not force those that were stronger than you Did I not make David number the People Did I not overcome him in the matter of Uriah Did I not compel Peter to deny his Lord notwithstanding his solemn profession to the contrary And can you think to break away from me so easily By this means he would weaken their heart and enfeeble their Resolutions that they might sit down under their Bondage as hopeless ever to recover themselves from his snare but if these affrightments hinder not if notwithstanding these brags Sinners prepare themselves to turn from Sin to God then Secondly He improves all he can that distance which Sin hath made betwixt God and them Sins of ordinary infirmity and common incursion do not so break the peace of God's Children as Sins of an higher nature do even in the Saints themselves we may observe after notorious transgression 1 That the acquaintance and familiarity 'twixt God and them is immediately broken what a speedy alteration is made How suddenly are all things changed God hides himself the Sun that shined but now and did afford a very comfortable and cherishing heat before we are aware is now hid in a cloud our warmth and refreshments are turned into cold and chilness There is also a change on our part and that suddenly as in the Resurrection we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye so here in a moment our joyes flag and decay our delights grow dull our activity is impaired we are bound and frozen up and 't is altogether Winter with the Soul 2 It may be noted that this begets an estrangement in us and we so carry it as if we had resolved not to renew our League with God for though we are not altogether so desperate as to make formal Resolutions of continuing in Sin of casting off God and bidding an everlasting farewel to our former acquaintance though we do not say we will now undoe our selves quite and harden our selves in our Rebellion yet Sin hath left us in such a maze and filled us with so many damps and misgiving thoughts that we do not think of returning we are at a stand and like a mighty man astonished that cannot find his hands we perceive we have lost so much and have run into such great unkindnesses that like broken Merchants nothing is more irksome and tedious than to review our ways or look into our debt-books instead of this we endeavour to divert our thoughts to cast off care as if we conceived that time would eat it out and that then of course we might fall into the old channel of freedom and comfort 3 When we return at last oh with what bashfulness and amazedness do we appear at our next Supplications what blushing what damps what apology Nay sometimes as the Man without the Wedding Garment we are speechless how rightly doth such a Man resemble the Publican Confessing and the Prodigal supplicating while consulting what to say for himself he now begins to feel with what sense and feeling the Prophets and holy Men of old used to express themselves in their Confessions We blush we are ashamed astonished and confounded This distance Sin makes betwixt Saints and God sometimes but betwixt God and the unconverted it is far greater now when either an unconverted Sinner or a fallen Saint puts himself to look to God for Reconciliation then doth the Devil labour to improve this for their hindrance that he accuseth us to God is evident by Satans standing at Joshua 's right hand how he accuseth God to us we know He tells us 't is in vain to seek to make up our Peace after so great Provocations urging that he is a jealous God of pure eyes highly resenting the affronts we have given him c. Nay he goes so high this way that God is put to it in Scripture of purpose to furnish us with an Answer to these Objections to proclaim that he is slow to anger not easily provoked that if Men return from the evil of their ways he will return to them accept and pity them c. Thirdly If this divert them not but that they still persist in their resolves then he follows after them with an high hand sometimes as Pharaoh did with Israel he grows severe and imperious with them and redoubles the tale of their bricks he forceeth them to higher and more frequent iniquities sometimes as the same Pharaoh he musters up all his Chariots and Horse-men to pursue after them and in the highest diligence imaginable he brings forth his greatest power besetting them on all sides with Temptations and Allurements of Pleasures and Delight Where he perceives his time to be short and his Power shaken he comes down in
righteousness and fear and prepare thy soul for temptation What are the Subtilties of Satan against the holy things of God I am next to discover Duties and Services are opposed two ways 1. By Prevention when they are hindred 2. By Corruption when they are spoiled He hath his Arts and Cunning which he exerciseth in both these regards First then Of Satan's Policy for the preventing of religious Services he endeavous by various means to hinder them As First By External hindrances In this he hath a very great foresight and accordingly he foresees Occasions and Opportunities at a distance and by a long reach of contrivance he studies to lay Blocks and Hindrances in the way Much he doth in the dark for this end that we know not As God hath secrets of wisdom that are double to that which is known so also hath Satan many ways and actings that are not discerned by us his contrivances of businesses and avocations long aforehand are not so observed by us as they might be where he misseth of his end it comes not to light and often where he is successful in his preventions we are ready to ascibe it to contingencies and the accidental hits of affairs when indeed the Hand and Policy of Satan is in it Paul that was highly studied and skilful in Satan's devices observing how his purposes of coming to the Thessalonians were often broken and obstructed he knew where the blame lay and therefore instead of laying the fault upon Sickness or Imprisonments or the oppositions of false Brethren which often made him trouble beyond expectation he directly chargeth all upon Satan 1 Thess 2. 18. We would have come unto you even I Paul once and again but Satan hindred us At the same rate understanding the purposes of faithful Men for the promoting the good of Mens souls he often useth means to stop or hinder them Some have observed having a watchful and jealous eye over Satan that their Resolves and Endeavours of this nature have usually been put to struggle sore in their birth when their purposes for worldly Affairs and Matters go smoothly on without considerable opposition Secondly He makes use of Indispositions to hinder Service and here he works sometimes upon the Body sometimes upon the Soul for both may be indisposed First Sometimes he takes the advange of Bodily indispositions He doth all he can to create and frame these upon us and then pleads them as a discharge to duty If he can put the Body into a fit of drowsiness or distemper he will do it and surely he can do more this way than every one will believe he may agitate and stir the humors Hence some have observed more frequent and stronger fits of sleepiness and illness to come upon them on the days and times that require their attendance upon God than on other days when they shall be lively active and free of dulness upon common occasions at Sports Songs Interludes when they shall not have the like command of themselves in the exercises of Worship Surely it was more than an ordinary drowsiness that befell the Apostles Matth. 26. 41. He had told them the seriousness of the occasion that he was betrayed that his soul was exceeding sorrowful even to the death these were considerations that might have kept their Eyes from slumber When they sleep he awakens them with a piercing rebuke Could ye not watch with me one hour and adds to this an admonition of their own danger and the temptation that was upon them and yet presently they are asleep again and after that again strange drowsiness But he gives an excuse for them which also tells us the cause of it the Spirit is willing their hearts were not altogether unconcerned but the Flesh that is the Body that was weak that is subject to be abused by Satan who brought them into a more than ordinary indisposition as is noted vers 43. their Eyes were heavy Secondly The Soul hath also its indispositions which he readily improves against Duty to hinder it As First It is capable of a spiritual sluggishness and dulness wherein the spiritual Senses are so bound up that it considers not minds not hath no list nor inclination to acts of service What a stupifaction are our Spirits capable of as David in his Adultery seems not to mind nor care what he had done In like manner are some in a Lethargy as the Prophet speaks they care not to seek after God Bernard hath a description of it Contrahitur animus subtrahitur gratia defervescit novitius fervor ingravescit tepor fastidiosus the Spirit is contracted Grace withdrawn Fervour abates Sluggishness draws on and then Duties are neglected Secondly The Spirit is indisposed by a throng of worldly affairs and these oft justle out duty Christ tells us they have the same influence upon Men that Gluttony and Drunkenness have and these unfit Men for action Take heed saith Luk. 21. 34. to your selves lest at any time your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the eares of this life These then may at so high a rate overcharge the souls of Men so as to make them frame excuses I have bought a Farm or Oxen and therefore I cannot attend and by this means may they grow so neglective that the day of the Lord may come upon them at unawares Thirdly Sometimes the Soul is discomposed through Passion and then 't is indisposed which opportunity the Devil espying he closeth in with it sometime he blows the fire that the heat of anger may put them upon a carelesness sometimes he pleads their present frame as an unfitness for Service and so upon a pretence of reverence to the Service and leaving the gift at the Altar till they be in a better humor many times the gift is not offered at all 1 Pet. 3. 7. The Apostle directs Husbands to manage their authority over their Wives with prudence for the avoiding of Brawls and Contentions Ye Husbands dwell with them according to Knowledg giving honour to the Wife aâ— the weaker Vessel the reason of which advice he gives in these words that your prayers be not hindred Prayers are hindred partly in their success when they prevail not partly they are hindred when the duty of Prayer is put by and suspended and this doubtless the Apostle aimes at to teach us that Contentious Quarellings in a Family hinder the exercise of the duty of Prayer Elisha 2 Kings 3. discomposed himself in his earnest reproof of Jehoram for with great vehemency he had spoken to him vers 13 14. What have I do with thee get thee to the Prophets of thy Father Wâ—eâ—â— it not that I regard the presence of Jehosaphat I would not look toward thee nor see thee But when he set himself to receive the visions of God he calls for a Minstrel vers 15. the reason whereof as P. Mantyr and others suppose was this that however
When a Man is chastned with pain upon his bed his life abhors bread and his Soul dainty meat And when a Man is brought to loath his Duties as having nothing of that sweetness and satisfaction in them which is every where spoken of a small Temptation may put him upon neglect of them 2 He hath plausible and colourable Arguments by which he formeth an Opinion in the minds of Men that in cases of indisposition they may do better to forbear than to proceed He tells them they ought not to pray or present any service while they are so indisposed that no prayer is acceptable where the Spirit doth not enliven the heart and raise the affections that they do not take his name in vain and increase their Sin and that they should wait till the Spirit fill their sails and to say the truth it is a great difficulty for a Child of God to hold his feet in such slippery places how many have I known complaining of this and perswading themselves verily that they might do far better to leave off all Service than to perform them thus and scarcely have I restrained them from a complyance with Satan by telling them that indispositions are no bar to duty but that duty is the way to get our indispositions cured That Duty is absolutely required and dispositions to be endeavoured and that 't is a less offence to keep to duty under indispositions than wholly upon that pretence to neglect it And indeed where these indispositions are bemoaned and striven with the services are often more acceptable to God than pleasing to our selves the Principle is truly Spiritual and excellent a foundation of Saphirs and precious Stones upon which if we patiently wait he will build a Pallace of Silver for that Service is more Spiritual that is bottom'd and carry'd on by a consciencious regard to a Command when there are no moral Motives from sence and comfort concurring than that which hath more of delight to encourage it while the power of the command is less swaying and influential Fourthly Men are oft discouraged from a sence of unworthiness of the priviledge of Duty a kind of excess of Humility which principally relates to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and Prayer the Accuser of the Brethren tells them that they have nothing to do to take the Name of God in their mouthes that 't is an insufferable Presumption Hence some like the Woman with the bloody Issue dare not come to Christ to ask a cure while yet they earnestly desire it and would rather if they could privately steal it then openly beg it The Publican is presented to us in the Parable as one that could scarce get over that objection he is set forth standing at a distance not daring to lift up his eyes to Heaven scarce attempting to speak rather expressing his unworthiness to Pray than setting upon the Duty his smiting upon his breast and saying God be merciful to me a sinner argued that much of these discouragements lay upon him The like we may see in the Prodigal who it seems had it long in dispute whether he should go to his Father whose kindnesses he had so abused and so long as he could make any other shift he yielded to the Temptation at last he came to that resolve I will arise and go to my father and say I have sinned against heaven and thee and am not worthy to be called thy Son Which shew that the sense of this kept him off till necessity forced him over it And this is a discouragement the more likely to prevail for a neglect of Service because part of it is necessary as the beginning of those Convictions of our Folly to have such low thoughts of our selves that we are not worthy to come into his presence nor to look toward him is very becoming but to think that we should not come to him because our Conscience accuseth of unworthiness is a conclusion of Satan's making and such as God never intended from the premises but the direct contrary Come saith God though unworthy The like course doth the Devil take to keep Men off from the Lord's Table Oh saith he 't is a very solemn Ordinance he that partaketh of it unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself how darest thou make such bold approaches While the Hearts of Men are tender their Consciences quick and accusing the threatning begets a fear and they are driven off long and debarr themselves unnecessarily from their Mercies Fourthly Satan endeavours to hinder Duty by bringing them into a dislike and loathing of Duty This is a course most effectual dislike easily bringeth forth Aversation and withal doth strongly fix the Mind in purposes of neglect and refusal the Devil bringeth this about many ways as First By Reproaches and Ignominious Terms It was an old trick of the Wicked-one to raise up Nick-names and Scoffs against the ways of God's Service thereby to beget an odium in the hearts of Men against them The seat of the scornful is a Chair that Satan had reared up from the Beginning By this art when God was known in Jury and his Name was great in Israel were the Heathens kept off from laying hold on the Covenant of God He rendred them and the Ordinances of Worship ridiculous to the Nations the opprobium of Circumcision and their unreasonable Faith as the Heathens thought it upon things not seen was a Proverb in every Man's mouth Credat Judaeus apella non ego The Jews were slandered with the yearly Sacrifice of a Grecian And Apion affirms That Antiochus found such an one in a Bed in the Temple and that they Worshipped an Asses head in the Temple Apion slandered the Jews with Vlcers in their privy Parts every Seventh day hence he derives Sabbath of Sabatosis which with the Aegyptians signifies an Vlcer Lysimachus slandered the Jews in Aegypt as Leprous Church-robbers and that their City was hence called Hierosola When the Gentiles were called into the fellowship of the Gospel it was aspersed with the like scoffs and flouts it was frequently called a Sect a Babling and strange and uncouth Doctrine besides a great many lies and forgeries that were invented to make it seem odious and by this means it was every where spoken against Machiavil that propounded the Policy of full and violent Calumniations to render an Adversary odious knowing that how unjust soever they were yet some impression of jealousie and suspition would remain had learned it of this old accuser who had often and long experienced it to be a prevalent course to bring the Services of God under dislike David speaking of what befel himself in this kind Psal 69. 9 10 11 12. That his Zeal lay under reproach his weeping and fasting became a Proverb and that in all these he was the Song of the Drunkard He expresseth such apprehensions of the power of this Temptation upon the weak that he
but draw neer to him with our lips while our hearts are far from him Secondly The like spoil of Duty is made when we adventure upon it in our own strength and not in the strength of Christ Satan sees the pride of our heart and how much our gifts may contribute to it and how prone we are to be confident of a right performance of what we have so often practised before and therefore doth he more industriously catch at that advantage to make us forget that our strength is in God and that we cannot come to him acceptably but by his own power Christians are often abused this way when their strength is to seek Duty is oft perversly set before them that they may act as Sampson did when his locks were cut who thought to shake himself and to go out as at other times and so fell into the hands of the Philistines Thirdly If he can substitute base ends and Principles as motives to Duty instead of these that God hath commanded he knows the Service will become stinking and loathsome to God Fasting Prayers Alms Preaching or any other Duty may be thus tainted when they are performed upon no better grounds than to be seen of Men or out of Envy or to satisfie humour or when from custom rather than conscience How frequently did the Prophets tax the Jews for this that they fasted to themselves and brought forth fruit to themselves How severely did Christ condemn the Pharisees upon the same account telling them that in hunting the applause of Men by these devotions they had got all the reward they were like to have Fourthly When we do our Services unseasonably not only the grace and beauty of them is spoiled but often are they rendred unprofitable There are times to be observed not only for the right management of common Actions but also for Duties What is Christian Reproof if it be not rightly suited to season and opportunity The same may be said of other Services Fifthly Services are spoiled when Men set upon them without resolutions of leaving their Sins While they come with their Idols in their heart and the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face God will not be enquired of by them He requires of those that present their Services to him that at least they should not affront him with direct purposes of continuing in their Rebellions against him nay he expects from his Servants that look for a Blessing in their Duties that they come with their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water If they come to hear the Word they must lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness if they pray they must lift up pure hands If they come to the Lords Supper they must eat that Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth And albeit he may accept the Prayers of those that are so far convinced of their Sins though they be not yet sanctified that they are willing to lay down their Weapons and are touched with a sence of Legal Repentance for thus he heard Ahab and regarded the Humiliation of Nineveh Yet while Men cleave to the love of their iniquity and are not upon any terms of parting with their Sins God will not look to their Services but abhor them For thus he declares himself Isa 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices Bring no more vain oblations I cannot away with them it is iniquity even the solemn meeting my soul hateth them they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear The ground of all this is that their heart was no way severed from the purposes of Sinning Your hands are full of blood vers 15. Satan knowing this so well he is willing that they engage in the Services of God if they will keep up their Allegiance to him and come with intentions to continue wicked still for so while he cannot prevent the actual performance of Duty which yet notwithstanding he had rather do because he knows not but God may by that means sometime or other rescue these Slaves of Satan out of his hand he makes their Services nothing worth and renders them abominable to God Sixthly In the manner of undertaking Duties are spoiled when Men have not a submissive ingenuity in them by giving themselves up to the direction and disposal of the Almighty but rather confine and limit God to their wills and desires Sometimes Men by attempting of Services to God think thereby to engage God to humour them in their wills and ways With such a mind did Ahab consult the Prophets about his expedition to Ramoth-Gilead not so much seeking Gods mind and counsel for direction as thinking thereby to engage God to confirm and comply with his determination With the same mind did Johanan and the rest of the people consult the Lord concerning their going down to Aegypt Jer. 42. 5. Though they solemnly protested Obedience to what God should say whether it were good or evil yet when the return from God suited not with their desires and resolutions they denied it to be the Command of God and found an evasion to free themselves of their engagement Jer. 43. 2. Such dealings as these being the evident undertakings of an Hypocritical heart must needs render all done upon that score to be presumptuous temptings of God no way deserving the name of Service Secondly Not only are Services thus spoiled in those wrong grounds and ways of attempting or setting about them but in the very act or performance of them while they are upon the Wheel as a Potters Vessel in the Prophet they are often marred and this Satan doth two ways 1 By disturbing our thoughts which should be attentive and fixed upon the Service in hand 2 By vitiating the Duty it self First By distracting or disturbing our thoughts This is an usual Policy of Satan Those Fowls which came down upon Abrahams Sacrifice are supposed by Learned Expositors to signifie those means and ways by which the Devil doth disorder and trouble our thoughts in Religious Services And Christ himself compares the Devil stealing our thoughts from Duty to the Fowls of the Air that gather up the Seed as soon as it is sown There are many reasons that may perswade us that this is one of his Master-pieces of Policy As 1 in that the business of Distraction is oft easily done our thoughts do not naturally delight in Spiritual things because of their depravement neither can they easily brook to be pent in or confined so strictly as the nature of such imployments doth require so that there is a kind of preternatural force upon our thoughts when they are Religiously imployed which as it is in it self laborious like the stopping of a Stream or driving Jordan back so upon
all those hard names have this general signification that the Devil hath made a great stir in the World by Errour and Opinion After times might also be summoned in to speak their evidence and our own knowledg and experience might without any other help sufficiently instruct us if it were needful of the truth of this that Errour is one of Satan's great designs Secondly Let us next look into the Reasons which do so strongly engage Satan to these endeavours of raising up Errours If we set these before us it will not only confirm us in our belief that this is one of his main imployments for if Errour yield him so many advantages for the ruine of Men and the dishonour of God there can be no doubt of his readiness to promote it This also may be of use to put us in mind who it is that is at work behind the Curtain when we see such things acted upon the Stage and consequently may beget a cautious suspition in our Minds against his proceedings the Reasons are such as these First Errour is sinful so that if Satan should be hindred in his endeavours for any further mischief than the corrupting of any particular Person yet he will reckon that he hath not altogether lost his labour Some Errours that overturn fundamentals of Faith are as deadly poyson and called expressly damnable by the Apostle 2 Pet. 2. 1. These Heresies are by Paul Gal. 5. 20. recounted among the works of the Flesh of which he positively affirms that they that do such things cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Those that are of a lower nature that do not so extreamly hazard the Soul can only be capable of this Apology that they are less evil yet as they are oppositions to Truth propounded in Scripture for our belief and direction they cease not to be Sins though they may be greater or less evils according to the importance of those Truths which they deny or the consequences that attend them and if we go yet a step lower to the consideration of those rash and bold assertions about things not clearly revealed though they may possibly be true yet the positiveness of avouchments and determinations in such cases where we want sufficient reason to support what we affirm as that of the Pseudo-Dionysius for the Hierarchy of Angels and some adventurous assertions concerning God's secret Decrees and many other things of like nature are by the Apostle Col. 2. 18. most severely taxed for an unwarrantable and unjust presumption in setting our foot upon God's right as if such Men would by violence thrust themselves into that which God hath reserved for himself for so much the word intruding imports the cause of this he tells us is the arrogancy of corrupt Reason the fleshly Mind suitable to that expression Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it the bottom of it is Pride which swells Men to this height and the Fruit after all these swelling attempts is no other than as the Apples of Sodom Dust and Vanity intruding into those things which he hath not seen Vainly puft up by his fleshly Mind If then Satan do but gain this that by Errour though not diffused further than the breast of the infected Party Truth is denied or that the heart be swelled into Pride and Arrogancy or that he hath hope so to prevail 't is enough to encourage his attempts Secondly But Errour is a Sin of an encreasing nature and usually stops not at one or two Falshoods but is apt to spawn into many others as some of the most noxious Creatures have the most numerous Broods for one Errour hath this mischievous danger in it that it taints the Mind to an instability in every Truth and the bond of stedfastness being once broken a Man hath no certainty where he shall stay as a wanton Horse once turned loose may wander far This hazard is made a serious warning against Errour 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest ye being led away with the errour of the Wicked fall from your own steadfastness One Errour admitted makes the heart unsteady and besides this inconvenience Errour doth unavoidably branch it self naturally into many more as Inferences and Conclusions resulting from it as Circles in Water multiply themselves grant but one absurdity and many will follow upon it so that 't is a Miracle to find a single Errour These Locusts go forth by Bonds as the experience of all ages doth testify and besides the immediate consequences of an Errour which receive Life and Being together with it self as Twins of the same Birth We may observe a tendancy in Errours to others that are more remote and by the long stretch of multiplyed inferences those things are coupled together that are not very contiguous If the Lutherans 't is Dr. Prideaux his observation admit Vniversal Grace the Huberians introduce Vniversal Election the Puccians Natural Faith the Naturalists explode Christ and Scriptures at last as unnecessary this is then a fair mark for the Devil to aim at if he prevails for one Errour 't is an hundred to one but he prevails for more Thirdly Satan hath yet a further reach in promoting Errour he knows 't is a Plague that usually infects all round about and therefore doth he the rather labour in this work because he hopes thereby to corrupt others and infected Persons are commonly the most busie Agents even to the compassing of Sea and Land to gain Prosilytes to their false Perswasions This Harvest of Satan's labour is often noted in Scripture they shall deceive many Matth. 24. 24. Many shall follow their pernicious ways 2 Pet. 2. 2. How quickly had this Leaven spread it self in the Church of Galatia even to Paul's wonder Gal. 1. 6. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another Gospel Instances of the spreading of Errour are frequent Pelagianism rose about the Year 415 but presently spread it self in Palestine Africa Greece Italy Sicily France and Britain Arrianism like fire in Straw in a little time brought its flame over the Christian World and left her wondring at her self that she was so suddenly become Arrian Socinianism had the like prevalency Laelius privately had sowed the Seeds and after his death Faustus Socinus his Nephew did so bestir himself that within ten years after his confident appearing whole Congregations in Sarmatia submitted themselves to his Dictates as Calovius affirms and within twenty or thirty Years more several hundreds of Churches in Transilvania were infected and within a few Years more the whole Synod was brought over to subscribe to Socinianism We have also instances nearer home after the Reformation in the raign of Edward the sixth how soon did Popery return in its full strength when Queen Mary came to the Crown which occasioned Peter Martyr when he saw young Students flocking to Mass to say That the tolling of the Bell overturned all his
judgment by a special provocation and for ought we know as he hath an extraordinary power which he exerts at such times so may he have an extraordinary method which he is not permitted to practise daily nor upon all That such a power as this the Devil hath is believed by those whose learning and experience have made their judgments of great value with serious Men and thus some do describe it 'T is a delusion with a kind of Magical Inchantment so Calvin a Satanical operation whereby the senses of Men are deluded thus Perkins who after he had asserted that Satan can corrupt the Fantasy or Imagination he compares this Spiritual Witchcraft to such diseases of Melancholy that make Men believe that they are or do what they are not or do not as in the disease called Lycanthropia and to the inchantments of Jannes and Jambres who deluded the senses of Pharaoh Others more fully call it a more vehement operation of the great Impostor whereby he obtrudes some noxious Errour upon the mind and perswades with such efficacy that it is embraced with confidence defended strenuously and propagated zealously A particular account of the way and manner by which the Devil doth this is a task beyond sober enquiry it may suffice us to know that such power he hath and this I shall confirm from Scripture and from the effects of such delusion First There are several Scriptures which assert a Power in Satan to bewitch the minds of Men into Errour from which I shall draw such notes as may confirm and in part explain this Truth in hand And I shall begin with that of Gal. 3. 1. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth c. The word which the Apostle here useth for bewitching as Grammarians and Criticks note is borrowed from the practice of Witches and Sorcerers who use by secret powers to bind the Senses and to effect Mischiefs 'T is true he speaks of false Apostles but he intends Satan as the chief Workman and this he transfers to signify Satan's Power upon the Mind in blinding the Understanding for the entertainment of Errour Neither can any thing be objected why this place should not prove a fascinating power in Satan such as we have been speaking of but this that it may be supposed to intend no more than an ordinary powerful perswasion by Arguments Yet this may be answered not only from the authority of learned Interpreters who apprehend the Apostle and his expression to intend more but also from some concomitant particulars in the Text. He calls them foolish Galatians as we translate it but the Original goes a little higher to signify a madness and withall he seems to be surprized with wonder at the Power of Satan upon them which had not only prevailed against the Truth but against such evident manifestations of it as they had when they were so plainly fully and efficaciously instructed for before their eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth which expressions and carriage cannot rationally be thought to befit a common ordinary case Next to this let us a little consider that famous Scripture in 2 Thess 2. 9 10 11. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye I shall from this place observe a few things which if put together will clear the truth we speak of As first In this delusion here mentioned the Apostle doth not only set down extraordinary outward means as Signs and Lying Wonders but also suits these extraordinary means with a sutable concomitant inward power for by Power I do not understand as some a power of shewing Signs and doing Wonders as if the Apostle had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the power of Signs and Wonders for the words will not well bear that without some unnatural straining but I understand by it a Power distinct from the Signs and Wonders by which he moves their hearts to believe by an inward working upon their minds striking in with the outward means of Lying Miracles propounded to their senses And we may the better satisfy our selves in this interpretation if we compare it with Rom. 15. 19. where not only the power of doing Wonders is expressed by a phrase proper and different from this of the Text in hand through mighty Signs and Wonders or in the power of Signs and Wonders but it is also clearly distinguished from the Power of the Spirit of God in working upon the hearts to make those Wonders efficacious and perswasive so that as in the Spirit of God we observe a Power to do Wonders and a Power to work upon the Heart by these Wonders we may conclude that this wicked Spirit hath also in order to Sin and Delusion this twofold Power But secondly I note further that this Power is called a special energy of peculiar force and efficacy in its working the strange inexpressible strength of it seems to stand in need of many words for explanation He calls it all Power which as well notes the degree and height as the variety of its operations and then the energy the virtue operativeness and strength of Power Thirdly 'T is also to be observed that Satan's success and exercise of this Power of Delusion depends upon the commission of God and that therefore 't is extraordinary and not permitted to him but upon special occasions and provocation for this cause God shall send c. Fourthly The success of this Power when exercised is certain They are not only strong delusions in regard of the Power from whence they come but also in regard of the event those upon whom they come cannot but believe Infatuation and Pertinaciousness are the certain fruits of it Fifthly The Proof of all is manifest in the quality of the Errours entertained for they are palpable gross lyes and yet believed as the very truths of God and they are in such weighty points as do evidently determine the Soul to ruine lies to be damned which two things are sufficient proofs of Spiritual fascination It being unimaginable that rational Men and especially such as were instructed to a belief of a contrary truth should so far degenerate from the light of Reason as to be deluded by gross and apparent Lyes and of such high importance except their minds had been blinded in some extraordinary way Some further confirmation may be added to this truth from 1 King 22. 21. And there came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him I will go forth and I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets and he said thou shalt perswade him and prevail also I might here take notice of Satan's readiness in this work as wanting neither skill nor will if he were but always furnished with a Commission as also the powerful efficacy
sticks not sometime to asperse the poor troubled Soul with Dissimulation where that accusation is proper for the Devil cares not how inconsistent he be to himself so that he may but gain his end affirming all his seriousness to be nothing but whining Hypocrisy So that whether they judg these troubles to be real or feigned his conclusion is the same and he perswades Men thereby to hold off from all religious strictness holy diligence and careful watchfulness 5. A further use which the Devil makes of these troubles of Spirit is to prepare the Hearts of Men thereby to give entertainment to his venomous impressions Distress of Heart usually opens the Door to Satan and lays a Man naked without Armour or Defence as a fair Mark for all his poysoned Arrows and 't is a hundred to one but some of them do hit I shall chuse out some of the most remarkable and they are these 1. After long acquaintance with grief he labours to fix them in it In some cases custome doth alleviate higher griefs and Men take an odd kind of delight in them 't is some pleasure to complain and Men settle themselves in such a course their Finger is ever upon their Soar and they go about telling their Sorrows to all they converse with though to some this is a necessity for real Sorrows if they be not too great for vent will constrain them to speak yet in some that have been formerly acquainted with grief it degenerates at last into a formality of complaining and because they formerly had cause so to do they think they must always do so But besides this Satan doth endeavour to chain Men to their mourning upon two higher Accounts 1. By a delusive contentment in sorrow as if our tears paid some part of our debt to God and made amends for the injuries done to him 2. By an obstinate sullenness and desperate resolvedness they harden themselves in sorrow and say as Job 7. 11. I will not refrain my Mouth I will speak in the anguish of my Spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my Soul Am I a Sea or a Whale that thou settest a Watch over me 2. Another impression that Mens Hearts are apt to take is unthankfulness for the favours formerly bestowed upon them their present troubles blot out the memory of old kindnesses they conclude they have nothing at all because they have not peace though God heretofore hath sent down from on high and taken them out of the great Waters or out of the Mire and Clay where they were ready to sink though he hath sent them many tokens of Love conferred on them many Blessings yet all these are no more to them so long as their sorrows continue than Haman's Wealth and Honour was to him so long as Mordecai the Jew sate at the Kings Gate Thus the Devil oft prevails with God's Children to deal with God as some unthankful Persons deal with their Benefactors who if they be not humour'd in every request deny the reality of their Love and dispise with great ingratitude all that was done for them before 3. By inward griefs the Heart of the afflicted are prepared to entertain the worst interpretation that the Devil can put upon the Providences of God The various Instances of Scripture and the gracious Promises made to those that walk in Darkness and see no Light do abundantly forewarn Men from making bad conclusions of God's dealings and do tell us that God in design for our tryal and for our profit doth often hide his Face for a moment when yet his purpose is to bind us up with everlasting compassions Now the Devil labours to improve the sorrows of the Mind to give a quite contrary construction if they are afflicted instead of saying Sorrow may endure for a Night but Joy will come in the Morning or that for a little while God hath hidden himself he puts them to say this Darkness shall never pass away If the grief be little he drives them on to a fearful expectation of worse as he did with Hezekiah Esa 38. 13. I reckoned till Morning that as a Lyon so will be break all my Bones from Day even to Night wilt thou make an end of me If God purpose to teach us by inward Sorrows our Pride of Heart carelessness neglect of dependance upon him the bitterness of Sin or the like the Devil will make us believe and we are too ready to subscribe to him that God proclaims open War against us and resolves never to own us more So did Job chap. 19. 6. Know now that God hath overthrown me and compassed me with his Net how often complained he thou hast made me as thy mark thou hast broken me asunder thou hast taken me by my Neck and shaken me to peices So also Heman Psal 88. 14. Why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy Face from me 4. Upon this occasion the Devil is ready to envenome the Soul with sinful wishes and execrations against itself Eminent Saints have been tempted in their trouble to say too much this way Job solemnly cursed his Day Job 3. 3. Let the Day perish wherein I was born and the Night in which it was said there is a Manchild conceived c. So also Jeremiah chap. 20. 14. Cursed be the Day wherein I was Born let not the Day wherein my Mother bare me be Blessed Cursed be the Man who brought tydings to my Father saying a Man-child is Born unto thee and let that Man be as the Cities which God overthrew and repented not Strange rashness what had the Day deserved or wherein was the Messenger to be blamed Violent Passions hurried him beyond all bounds of reason and moderation When troubles within are violent a small push sets Men forward and when once they begin they are carried headlong beyond what they first intended 5. On this advantage the Devil sometimes imboldens them to quarrel God himself directly When Job and Jeremiah cursed their day it was a contumely against God indirectly but they durst not make bold with God at so high a rate as to quarrel him to his Face Yet even this are Men brought to often when their sorrows are long-lasting and deep The Devil suggests Can God be faithful and never keep Promise for help can he be merciful when he turns away his ears from the cry of the miserable where is his pity when he multiplies his wounds without cause Though at first these cursed intimations do a little startle Men yet when by frequent inculcating they grow more familiar to the Heart the distressed break out in their rage with those exclamations Where is the faithfulness of God where are his Promises hath he not forgotten to be gracious are not his Mercies clean gone And at last it may be Satan leads them a step higher that is 6. To a desparing desperateness For when all Passages of relief are stop up and the burthen becomes great Men are
he challenges God to give him such a Man to fight with him as he did concerning Job This Christ tells us of Luk. 22. 31. Simon Satan hath desired to have you the word signifies a challenging or daring and it seems the Devil is oft daring God to give us into his hand when we little know of it 2. There is also a special sutableness of Occasion and Snare to the temper and state of Men. Thus he took Peter at an advantage in the High Priests Hall and in the case we now speak of he takes advantage of Mens Provocations and Melancholy 3. There is always a violent prosecution which our Saviour expresseth under the comparison of sifting which is a restless agitation of the Corn bringing that which was at the bottom to the top and shuffling the top to the bottom so that the Chaff or Dirt is always uppermost 4. And to all this there is divine permission Satan let loose and we left to our ordinary strength as is implied in that expression He hath desired to have you that he might sift you Now then if the Devil have such ground to give God a challenge concerning such Men and if God do as he justly may leave such Men whose bitterness of Spirit hath been as a smoak in his Nostrils all the day in Satans hand he will so shake them that their Consciences shall have no rest And this he can yet the more easily effect because 5. Discomposures of Spirit have a particular tendency to incline our thoughts to severity and harshness so that those who have had long and great disturbances upon any outward occasions of Loss Affliction or Disappointment c. do naturally think after a solemn review of such troubles harshly of God and of themselves they are ready to conclude that God is surely angry with them in that he doth afflict them or that they have unsanctified hearts in that their thoughts are so fretful and unruly upon every inconsiderable petty occasion 'T is so ordinary for Men under the weight of their Trouble or under the sense of their Sin to be sadly apprehensive of Gods Wrath and their Souls hazard that it were needless to offer Instances let Davids case be instead of all That his troubles begot such imaginations frequently may be seen throughout the Book of the Psalms we never read his complaints against persecuting Enemies or for other Afflictions but still his heart is affraid that God is calling Sin to remembrance in Psa 38. He is under great distress and tells how low his Thoughts were he was troubled greatly bowed down he went mourning all the day long he expresseth his thoughts to have been that God had forsaken him ver 21. and his hopes though they afterward revived were almost gone he cryes out of his sins as having gone over his Head and become a Burthen too heavy for him ver 4. and therefore sets himself to confess them ver 18. He trembles at Gods Anger and feels the Arrows of God sticking fast in him ver 2. But what occasioned all this the Psalm informs us God had visited him with Sickness ver 7. besides that for one trouble seldom comes alone his Friends were perfidious ver 11. his Enemies also were busie laying Snares for his life ver 12. Now his thoughts were to this purpose that surely he had some way or other greatly provoked God by his Sins and therefore he fears wrath in every rebuke and displeasure in every chastisement ver 1. The like you may see in Psal 102. where the Prophet upon the occasion of Sickness ver 3. and 23. and the reproach of Enemies ver 8. is under great trouble and ready to fail except speedy relief prevent ver 2. the reason whereof was this that he concluded these troubles were evident tokens of God's indignation and wrath because of thine indignation and thy wrath ver 10. From these five particulars we may be satisfied that it cannot be otherwise and also how it comes to be so that sometime trouble of Conscience is brought on by other discomposing troubles of the Mind For if these take away the Comforts which supported the Soul and afford also arguments to the Devil to prove a wicked Heart and withal a fit season to urge them to a deep impression God in the mean time standing at a distance and the thoughts naturally inclined to conclude Gods Wrath from these troubles how impossible is it that Satan should miss of disquieting the Conscience by his strong vehement suggestions of wickedness and desertion In our enquiries after Satan's success in working these discomposures of mind we have discovered 1. That the disturbances thence arising are great 2. That they have a tendency to trouble of Conscience There is but one particular more to be spoken of relating to his success in this design and that is 3. These disturbances are much in Satan's Power Ordinarily he can do it at pleasure except when God restrains him from applying sit occasions or when notwithstanding these occasions he extraordinarily suspends the effect which he frequently doth when Men are enraged under suffering upon the account of the Gospel and Conscience for then though they be bound up under Affliction and Iron yet the Iron enters not into the Soul though they are troubled they are not distressed These Extraordinaries excepted he can as easily discompose the Spirits of Men as he can by Temptation draw them into other Sins which may be evidenced by these considerations 1. We may observe that those whose passionate tempers do usually transport them into greater vehemencies are never out of trouble Their fits frequently return they are never out of the Fire and this is because Satan is still provided of occasions suitable to their inclinations 2. Though God out of his common bounty to mankind hath allowed him a comfortable being in the World yet we find that generally the Sons of Men under their various Occupations and Studies are wearied out with vexations of Spirit this Solomon in Ecclesiastes discovers at large in various imployments of Men not exempting the pursuit of Wisdom and Knowledg chap. 1. 18. In much Wisdom is much grief and he that increaseth Knowledg increaseth sorrow nor Pleasures nor Riches for by all these he shews that a Man is obnoxious to disquiets so that the general account of Man's Life is but this Eccles 2. 23. All his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night That it is so is testified by common experience past denyal but how it comes to be so is the enquiry 't is either from God or from Satan working by occasions upon our tempers That 't is not from God is evident for though sorrow be a part of that Curse which Man was justly doomed unto yet hath he appointed ways and means by which it might be so mitigated that it might be tollerable without discomposure of Spirit and therefore Solomon designing in his
serious Resolves The chast Person tempted to Uncleanness or the just man to Revenge the humble Person urged to the same Sin that cost him so dear c. They wonder at their own Hearts and while they mistake these Temptations by judging them to be the issues of their own Inclination with astonishment they cry out Oh I had thought that I had mortified these Lusts but what a strange Heart have I I see sin is a strong in me as ever And I have cause to fear my self c. 2. And this is yet a greater trouble because usually Satan takes them at some advantage of an offered occasion or opportunity then he gives them a sudden push and with importunity urgeth them to take the time this often affrights them into Trembling and their Fears do so weaken their purposes that their hazards are the greater in that they are astonished into an Inactivity So that in this case the Men of Might do not readily find their Hands 3. Neither are these motions sudden and transient glances which perish as soon as they are born though it be a very frequent thing with Satan to cast in motions into the Heart for trial sake without further prosecution but he in this case pursues with frequent Repetitions following hard after them to the increase of the Affrightment So that for a long time together Men may be afflicted with these Messengers of Satan to buffet them and though they may Pray earnestly against them that they may be removed yet they find the motions continue upon them Which must needs be an hateful annoyance to an upright Heart that doth know it to be only Satans design to affright much more must it afflict those that do not perceive the Contriver and end of such motions but judg them to be the natural workings of their own evil Heart 4. Satan can also affright Men by immediate impressions of Fear upon their minds He can do much with the imagination especially when Persons are distempered with Melancholy for such are naturally fearful and any impressions upon them have the deepest most piercing operation They are always framing to themselves dismal things and abound with black and dark Conceits surmising still the worst and always incredulous of what is good Hence it is that sometimes Men are seized upon by Fearfulness and Trembling when yet they cannot give any tollerable account of a cause or reason why it should be so with them And others are excessively astonished with the shadows of their own thoughts upon the meanest pretences imaginable That this is the work of Satan doth appear by unquestionable evidence This was that evil Spirit which God sent between Abimelech and the Men of Sechem Judg. 9. 23. God permitted Satan for the Punishment of them both to raise Fears and Jealousies in the Heart of Abimelech against the Men of Sechem and in the Hearts of the Men of Sechem against Abimelech They were mutually afraid of one another and these Fears wrought so far that they were for the prevention of a supposed danger engaged in Treacherous Conspiracies to the real Ruine of them both The evil Spirit that vexed Saul 1 Sam. 16. 14. was nothing else but sudden and vehement fits of Terrour and inward fear which the Devil raised by the working up of his Melancholy For we may observe these Fits were allayed by Musick and also we might see by his disposition out of his fits and by his carriage in them that inward fears were his tormentors for 1 Sam. 18. 9. 't is noted that Saul eyed David that is his jealous fears began to work concerning David of whom 't is said expresly ver 12. that he was afraid because the Lord was with him and when the evil Spirit came upon him his heart was exercised with these fears and accordingly he behaved himself when he cast the Javelin at David with a purpose to slay him Upon any occasion of trouble especially the Devil was at hand to heighten his affrightment insomuch that when the supposed Samuel told him of his Death 1 Sam. 28. 20. he was afraid to such an height that he fell straightway all along on the Earth and there was no strength in him Neither must we suppose that Satan in this kind of working is confined only to wicked Men for there is nothing in this manner of affrightment which is inconsistent with the condition of a Child of God especially when God gives him up to tryal or correction Nay many of Gods Servants suffer under Satans hand in this very manner Let us consider the troubles of Job and we shall find that though Satan endeavoured to destroy his peace by discomposure of Spirit by questioning his integrity by frightful injections of blasphemous thoughts yet all these he vanquished with an undaunted courage the Blasphemy he rejected with abhorrency his integrity he resolved he would not deny so long as he lived his losses he digested easily with a sober composed mind blessed God that gives and takes at pleasure and yet he complains of his fears and his frequent surprisals thereby insomuch that his friends take notice that most of his trouble arose from thence Job 22. 10. a sudden fear troubleth thee and he himself confesseth as much Job 9. 34. let not his fear terrify me but it is not so with me So that it appears that Job's inward distress was mostly from strong impressions of affrighting fears These fears impressed upon the Mind must needs be an unexpressible trouble there is nothing that doth more loosen the Sinews and Joynts of the Soul to the weakening and utter enfeebling of it in all its endeavours than fears it scatters the strength in a moment And besides the present burthen which will bow down the backs of the strongest these fears have a special kind of envious magnanimity in them For 1. they come by fits and have times of more fierce and cruel assaults yet in their intervals they leave the Heart in a trembling fainting posture for the Devil gives not over the present sit till he hath rent them sore and left them as he did the Mans Son in Mark 9. 26. as one dead So that 't is no more to be reckoned compassion and gentleness in Satan toward the afflicted that their fits are not constant than it can be accounted tenderness or kindness in a Tyrant who when he hath racked or tormented a Man as much as strength will bear without killing out of hand gives over for a time that the party might be reserved for new torments 2. These fits usually return at such times as the Party afflicted seems to promise himself some little ease being designed to give the greater disappointment in intercepting his expected comforts Sleep and Meat are the two great refreshments of the distressed these times Satan watcheth for his new onsets Job found it so in both cases his Meal-times were times of trouble Job 3. 24. My sighing cometh that is the fits of sighing return
former hopes are taxed for self-delusion and his present state to be a state of Nature This trouble is far greater than the two former because the Party is judged to be in greater hazard and by many degrees more remote from hope 'T is the frequent and sad thought of such That if Death should in that estate cut off their days Oh! then they were for ever miserable The fears and disquiets of the Heart on this account are very grievous but yet they admit of degrees according to the Ignorance of the Party the Distemper of the Conscience the Strength of the Objections or Severity of the Prosecution in regard the Conscience is now sadly out of order We may call this degree of grief for distinction a wounded Spirit which how hard it is to be born Solomon tells us Prov. 18. 14. By comparing it with all other kind of troubles which the Spirit of a Man can make some shift to bear making this heavier than all and above ordinary strength Some make enquiry what may be the difference betwixt a wounded Spirit in the Regenerate and the Reprobate To which it may be answered 1. That in the Parties apprehension there is no difference at all both of them may be compassed about with the Sorrows of Death and suppose themselves to be in the Belly of Hell 2. Neither is there any difference in the degree of the trouble a Child of God may be handled with as much seeming Severity as he whom God intends for a future Tophet 3. Neither is there any such remarkable difference in the working of the Spirits of the one and other that they themselves at present or others that are by-standers can easily observe Yet a formal difference there is for Grace being in the Heart of the one will in some breathing or Pulse discover its Life And though sometimes it acts so low or confusedly that God only can distinguish yet often those that are experienced observes will discover some real Breathings after God and true loathing of Sin and other traces of Faith and Love that are not so discernible to the Parties themselves 4. But in God's design the difference is very great the wicked lye under his Lash as Malefactors but the regenerate are as Patients under Cure or Children under Discipline 5. And accordingly the Issue doth determine that Gods intention in wounding their Spirits were not alike to both the one at last coming out of the Furnace as Gold the other still remaining as reprobate Silver or being consumed as dross Thus have ye seen the nature and degree of Spiritual Sadness 2. For the further explanation whereof I shall next shew you that this is an usual trouble to the Children of God Which 1. I might evidence from several Instances of those that have suffered much under it as David whose complaints in this case are very frequent and Heman who left a memorial of his griefs in Psal 88. Jonah also in the Belly of the Whale had a sharp fit of it when he concluded that he was cast out of Gods Sight and his Soul fainted within him Jon. 2. 4. 7. Neither did Hezekiah altogether escape it for though his disquiet began upon another ground it run him into Spiritual trouble at last But besides these innumerable instances occur One shall scarce converse with any Society of Christians but he shall meet with some who with sad complaints shall bemoan the burthen of their Hearts and the troubles of their Conscience 2. The provisions which God hath made in his Word for such is an evidence that such Distempers are frequent He that in a City shall observe the Shops of the Apothecaries and there take notice of the great variety of Medicines Pots and Glasses full of Mixtures Confection and Cordials may from thence rationally conclude that 't is a frequent thing for Men to be Sick though he should not converse with any Sick Person for his information Thus may we be satisfied from the Declarations Directions and Consolations of Scripture that 't is a common case for the Children of God to stand in need of Spiritual Physitians and Spiritual Remedies to help them when they are wounded and fainting Solomon's exclamination a wounded Spirit who can bare shews that the Spirit is sometimes wounded The Prophets direction he that walks in darkness and sees no Light let him trust in the Lord clearly implies that some there are that walk in darkness God's creating the fruit of the Lips Peace peace his promises of restoring Comforts to Mourners his commands to others to comfort them do all inform us that 't is a common things for his Children to be under such Sadnesses of Spirit that all this is necessary for their relief 3. The reasons of this trouble do also assure us of the frequency of it for of them we may say as Christ speaks of the poor we have them always with us so that the grounds of Spiritual Sadness considered 't is no wonder to find many Men complaining under this Distemper The reasons are 1. The Malice of Satan who hath no greater revenge against a Child of God when translated from the Power of Darkness to the Kingdom of Christ than to hinder him of the Peace and Comfort of that condition 2. The many advantages which Satan hath against us For the effecting of this we cannot imagine that one so malicious as he is will suffer his Malice to sleep when so many fair opportunities of putting it in practice do offer themselves For 1. The Questions to be determined for setling the peace of the Soul are very intricate and often of greater difficulty than Doctrinal Controversies How hard is it to conclude what is the Minimum quod sic the lowest degrees of true Grace Or the Maximum quod sic the highest degree of sin consistant with true Grace To distinguish betwixt a Child of God at the lowest and an Hypocrite or Temporary Believer at the highest is difficult In mixt actions to be able to shew how the Soul doth manage its respect to God when the Man hath also a respect to himself especially when it is under any confusion is not easie And in thâ—se Actions where the difference from others of like kind lies only in the grounds and motives of the undertaking or where the prevailing degree must distinguish the Act in reference to different Objects that are subordinate to one another as our loving God above the World or our selves our fearinâ— God above Men c. 't is not every one that can give a satisfactory determination 2. As the intricacies of the Doubts to be resolved give the Devil an advantage to puzzle us so is the advantage heightned exceedingly by the great injudiciousness and unskilfulness of the greatest part of Christians These Questions are in their notion difficult more difficult in their application to particular Persons where the ablest Christian may easily be non-plust but most difficult to the weak Christians These Satan can
when Converted in the midst of his Persecuting rage or those whose Ignorance or Melancholy makes their Hopes and Comforts inaccessible for the present These troubles God owns to be the Work of his Spirit the same Spirit which is a Spirit of Adoption to the Converted is a Spirit of Bondage to these Rom. 8. 16. And accordingly we find it was so to the Converts in Acts 2. Who being pricked in their hearts by Peter's Sermon cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do The like did the Jaylor And the Promise which God makes of calling the Jews Zach. 12. 10. doth express God's purpose of dealing with them in this very Method They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him in that day shall be a great mourning 2. God also sometimes wounds the Conscience of his Children after Conversion and this he doth to convince and humble them for some Miscarriage which they become guilty of As when they grow secure carnally confident of the continuance of their Peace when they are carelesly negligent of Duty and the exercises of their Graces when they fall into gross and scandalous sins or wilfully desert the ways of Truth and in many more cases of like kind When his Children make themselves thus obnoxious to Divine Displeasure then God hides his Face from them takes away his Spirit signifies his Anger to their Consciences threatens them with the danger of that Condition from whence follows grief and fear in the Hearts of his People In this manner God expressed his Displeasure to David as his Complaints in Psal 51. do testifie Make me to hear joy and gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce hide thy Face from my sins Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation c. 2. Notwithstanding all this there is a great difference betwixt God and Satan in this matter which mainly appears in two things 1. God doth limit himself in all the Trouble which he gives his Children to his great end of doing them Good and Healing them and consequently stints himself in the measure and manner of his Work to such a proportion as his Wisdom sees will exactly suit with his End So that his Anger is not like the brawlings of malicious Persons that know no bounds he will not always Chide his Debates are in measure and this lest the Spirit should fail before him Isa 57. 16. So that when he wounds the Conscience before Conversion 't is but to bring them to Christ and to prevent their taking such Courses as might through Delusion make them take up their stand short of him So much of Mourning and Fear as is requisite for the true effecting of this he appoints for them and no more When he wounds after Conversion 't is but to let them feel that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against him that their Godly sorrow may work Repentance suitable to the Offence and that they may be sufficiently cautioned for the time to come to sin no more lest a worse thing befal them He that afflicts not willingly will put no more Grief upon them than is necessary to bring them to this But Satan when he is admitted and God doth ofter permit him in subservience to his design to wound the Conscience he proceeds according to the boundless fury of his malice and plainly manifests that his desire is to destroy and to tread them down that they may never rise again This though he cannot effect for God will not suffer him to proceed further than the bringing about his holy and gracious Purpose yet it hinders not but that still his envious thoughts boil up in his Breast and he acts according to his own Inclination For it is with Satan as 't is with wicked Men if God imploy them for the Chastisement of his Children they consider not who sets them on work nor what Measures probably God would have them observe but they propose to themselves more work than ever God cut out for them As Assyria when imployed against Jerusalem Isa 10. 7. had designs more large and cruel than was in Gods Commission God had stinted him in his holy Purpose yet the Assyrian meant not so neither did his heart think so but it was in his heart to destroy and cut off Nations not a few So that when God is a little displeased as he speaks Zach. 1. 15. they do all that lies in them to help forward the Affliction Thus doth the Devil endeavour to make all things worse to God's Children than ever God intended Here is one difference betwixt God and Satan in the wounding of Consciences But 2. They are yet further differenced in that all that God doth in this Work is still according to Truth For if he signifie to the Unconverted that they are in a state of Nature liable to the Damnation of Hell unless they accept of Christ for Salvation upon his Terms this is no more than what is true God doth not misrepresent their Case to them at that time Again if he express his displeasure to any of his Converted Children that have grieved his Spirit by their Follies by setting before them the Threatnings of his Word or the Examples of his Wrath he doth but truly tell them that he is angry with them and that de jure according to the Rigour of the Law and the demerit of their Offence he might justly cast them off But he doth not positively say that de eventu it shall infallibly be so with them But Satan in both these cases goes a great way further He plainly affirms to those that are in the way to Conversion that God will not pardon their Iniquities that there is no hope for them that Christ will not accept them that he never intended the benefit of his Sufferings for them And when the Converted do provoke God he sticks not to say the Breach cannot be healed and that they are not yet Converted All which are most false assertions And though God can make use of Satans malice when he abuseth his Children with his falshoods to their great fear to carry on his own ends by it and to give a greater impression to what he truly witnesseth against them Yet is not God the proper Author of Satans lying for he doth it of his own wicked inclination The effect of these desperate false Conclusions which is the putting his Children into a fear in order to his end may be ascribed to God but the falshood of these Conclusions are formally Satan's work and not God's For he makes use of so much of Satan's wrath as may be to his Praise and the remainder of his wrath he doth restrain I have discovered the nature and degrees of these Spiritual Troubles and that 't is a common thing for
the Children of God to fall under them For the further opening of them I shall next discover 3. The usual solemn occasions that do as it were invite Satan to give his onset against God's Children and they are principally these Six 1. The time of Conversion He delights to set on them when they are in the straits of a new Birth for then the Conscience is awakned the danger of Sin truly represented fear and sorrow in some degree necessary and unavoidable At this time he can easily overdrive them Where the Convictions are deep and sharp ready to weigh them down a few Grains more cast into the Scale will make the Trouble as Job speaks heavier than the Sand and where they are more easie or gentle yet the Soul being unsetled the thoughts in commotion they are disposed to receive a strong impression and to be turned as Wax to the Seal into a mould of Hopelessness and Desperation That this is one of Satans special occasions we need no other evidence for satisfaction than the common experience of Converts many of them do hardly escape the danger and after their difficult Conquest of the troubles of their Heart which at that time are extraordinarily enlarged do witness that they are assaulted with desperate fears that their sins were unpardonable and sad conclusions against any expectation of favour from the Lord their God These thoughts we are sure the Spirit of God will not bear witness unto because false and therefore we must leave them at Satans door 2. Another occasion which Satan makes use of is the time of solemn Repentance for some great sin committed after Conversion Sometimes God's Children fall to the breaking of their Bones What great Iniquities they may commit through the force of Temptation I need not mention The Adultery and Murther of David the Incest of the Corinthian Peters denial of Christ with other sad Instances in the Records of the Scriptures do speak enough of that These sins considering their hainousness the scandal of Religion the dishonour of God the grieving of his Spirit the condition of the Party offending against Love Knowledg and the various Helps which God affords them to the contrary with other aggravating Circumstances being very displeasing to God their Consciences at least either compelled to Examination by God immediately or mediately by some great Affliction or voluntarily awakening to a serious consideration of what hath been done by the working of its own Light assisted thereunto by quickning Grace 1 Cor. 11. 31 32. call them to a strict account thence follow Fear Shame Self-Indignation bitter Weeping deep Humiliation then comes Satan he rakes their Wounds and by his Aggravations makes them smart the more He pours in Corrosives instead of Oyl and all to make them believe that their Spot is not the Spot of Gods Children that their Back-slidings cannot be healed An occasion it is as suitable to his Malice as he could wish for ordinarily God doth severely testifie his Anger to them and doth not easily admit them again to the sence of his Favour At which time the Adversary is very busie to work up their Hearts to an excess of Fear and Sorrow This was the course which he took with the Incestuous Corinthian taking advantage of his great Transgressions to overwhelm him with too much Sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7 11. 3. Satan watcheth the discomposures of the Spirits of God's Children under some grievous Cross or Affliction This occasion also falls fit for his design of wounding the Conscience when the Hand of the Lord is lifted up against them and their thoughts disordered by the stroke suggesting at that time God's Anger to them and their sins he can easily frame an Argument from these Grounds That they are not reconciled to God and that they are dealt withal as Enemies David seldom met with outward trouble but he at the same time had a Conflict with Satan about his spiritual condition or state as his frequent deprecations of Divine Wrath at such times do testifie Lord rebuke me not in thy Wrath c. There is indeed but a step betwixt discomposure of Spirit and Spiritual Troubles as hath been proved before 4. When Satan hath prepared the Hearts of God's Children by Atheistical or Blasphemous thoughts he takes that occasion to deny their Grace and Interest in Christ And the Argument at that time seems unanswerable Can Christ lodg in an Heart so full of horrid Blasphemies against him Is it possible it should be Washed and Sanctified when it produceth such filthy cursed thoughts All the troubles of Affrightment of which before are improveable to this purpose 5. Another spiritual occasion for Spiritual Trouble is Melancholy few Persons distempered therewith do escape Satans hands at one time or other he casts his Net over them and seeks to stab them with his Weapon Melancholy indeed affords so many advantages to him and those so answerable to his design that it is no wonder if he make much of it For 1. Melancholy affects both Head and Heart it affords both Fear and Sadness and deformed mishapen delirous imaginations to work upon than which nothing can be more for his purpose For where the Heart trembles and the Head is darkned there every Object is misrepresented the Ideas of the Brain are monstrous appearances reflected from opake and dark Spirits so that Satan hath no more to do but to suggest the new matter of Fear For that Question Whether the Man be Converted c. being once started to a mind already distempered with Fear must of it self it being a business of so high a nature without Satan's further pursuit summon the utmost powers of sadness and misreprehension to raise a Storm 2. Besides the impressions of Melancholy are always strong it is strong in its fears or else Men would never be tempted to destroy themselves it is strong in its mistakes or else they could never perswade themselves of the truth of foolish absurd and impossible Fancies as that of Nebuchadnezzar who by a delusive apprehension believing himself to be a Beast forsook the company of Men and betook to the Fields to eat Grass with Oxen. The imaginations of the Melancholick are never idle and yet straightned or confined to a few things and then the Brain being weakned as to a true and regular apprehension it frames nothing but Bugbears and yet with the highest confidence of certainty 3. These impressions are usually lasting not vanishing as an early Dew but they continue for Months and Years 4. And yet they have only so much understanding left them as serves to nourish their fears If their understanding had been quite gone their fears would vanish with them As the Flame is extinguished for want of Air but they have only knowledg to let them see their misery and sence to make them apprehensive of their pain And therefore will they pray with floods of Tears unexpressible Groanings deepest Sighing and trembling Joynts to be
Sin that is not some way or other committed c. Can such an Heart as thine be the Temple of the Holy Ghost For the Temple of the Lord is Holy and his People are washed and cleansed c. These are all of them strong objections and frequently made use of by Satan as the complaints of the Servants of God do testify who are made thus to except against themselves If our Sins were but the usual failings of the converted we might comfort our selves but they are great they are back-slidings they are against Conscience they are many what can we judge but that we have hitherto deceived our selves and that the work of conversion is yet to do The Objections that are from great Sins or from recidivation or wilful violation of Conscience do usually prevail for some time against the best that are chargable with them they cannot determine that they are converted though they might be so so long as they cannot deny the matter of Fact upon which the accusation is grounded till their true repentance give them some light of better information they are in the dark and cannot answer the Argument Jonah being imprisoned in the Whales Belly for his stubborn rebellion at first concluded himself a Cast-away Jon. 2. 4. Then I said I amccast out of thy Sight Neither could he think better of himself till upon his Repentance he recovered his Faith and Hope of Pardon Yet will I look again toward thy Holy Temple Yea those objections that are raised from the multitude and frequency of lesser failings though they may be answered by a Child of God while his Heart is not overshadowed with the Mists and Clouds of Temptation yet when he is confused with violent commotions within his Heart will fail him and till he can bring himself to some composure of Spirit he hath not the boldness to assert his integrity David was gravelled with this Objection Psal 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the Hairs on my Head therefore my Heart faileth me 2. He aggravates the sinfulness of our condition from the frequency and violence of his own Temptations 'T is an usual thing for him to give a young Converts incessant onsets of Temptation to Sin most commonly he works upon their natural constitution he blows the Coals that are not yet quite extinguished and that have greater forwardness from their own inclination to kindle again as Lust and Passion The first motions of the one though it go no further than those offers and risings up in the Heart and is there damped and kept down by the opposing principle of Grace and the occasional out-breakings of the other which he provokes by a diligent preparation of occasion from without and violent incitations from within furnish him with sufficient matter for his intended accusations and sometimes being as it were wholly negligent of the advantages which our tempers give him or not being able to find any such forwardness to these evils in our Constitution as may more eminently serve his ends he satisfies himself to molest us with earnest motions to any Sins indifferently and all this to make us believe that Sin is not crucified in us Which some are more apt to believe because they observe their Temptations to these Sins to importune them more and with greater vehemency than they were wont to do before and this doth yet the more astonish them because they had high expectations that after their conversion Satan would fall before them and their Temptations abate that their natures should be altered and their natural inclinations to these Sins wholly cease but now finding the contrary they are ready to cry out especially when Satan violently buffets them with this objection We are yet in our Sins and under the dominion thereof neither can it be that we are converted because we find Sin more active and stirring than formerly 't is not then surely mortified in us but lively and strong Though in this case it be very plain that Temptations are only strong and Sin weak and that Grace is faithfully acting its part against the Flesh arguing not that Grace is so very weak but that Satan is more busy than ordinary the Sins are not more than formerly but the Light that discovers them more is greater and the Conscience that resents the Temptation is more tender Yet all this doth not at first give ease to the fears that are now raised up in the Mind they find Sin working in them their expectations of attaining a greater conquest on a sudden and with greater ease are disappointed and the desire of having much makes a Man think himself poor and withal they commonly labour under so much Ignorance or perverse credulity that they conclude they consent to every thing which they are tempted to insomuch that 't is long before these Clouds do vanish and the afflicted brought to a right understanding of themselves 3. From some remarkable appearances of God doth Satan aggravate our sinful condition If God shew any notable act of Power he makes the Beams of that act reflect upon our unworthiness with a dazling Light When Peter saw the Power of Christ in sending a great multitude of Fishes into his Net having laboured all Night before and caught nothing it gave so deep an impression to the conviction of his vileness that he was ready to put Christ from him as being altogether unfit for his Blessed Society Depart saith he from me for I am a sinful Man If God discover the Glorious Splendor of his Holiness 't is enough to make the holiest Saints such as Job and Isaiah to cry out they are undone being Men of unclean Lips and to abhor themselves in Dust and Ashes The like may be said of any discovery of the rest of the Glorious Attributes of God Of all which Satan makes this advantage that the Parties tempted should have so deep a consideration of their unworthiness as might induce them to believe as if it were by a Voice from Heaven that God prohibits them any approaches to him and that they have nothing to do to take Gods Name within their Mouths And though these remarkable discoveries of God either by his acts of Power and Providence or by immediate impressions upon the Soul in the height of contemplation have ordinarily great effects upon the Hearts of his Children but not of long continuance yet where they strike in with other Arguments by which they were already staggered as to their Interest in God they mightily strengthen them and are taken for no less than Gods own determination of the question against them But this is not all the use that Satan makes of them for from hence he sometimes hath the opportunity to raise new accusations against them and to tax them with particular crimes which in a particular manner seem to prove them Unregenerate For what
4. They are Troubles of a far higher degree than the former the deepest Sorrows the sharpest Fears the greatest Agonies Heman Psal 88. ver 15 16. calls them Terrours even to distraction While I suffer thy Terrours I am distracted thy fierce Wrath goeth over me thy Terrours have cut me off 5. There is also God's deserting of them in a greater measure than ordinary by withdrawing his Aids and Comforts And as Mr. Perkins notes If the withdrawing of Grace be joyned with the feeling of God's Anger thence ariseth the bitterest Conflict that the Soul of a poor Creature undergoes 2. As to the different degrees of Spiritual Distresses we must observe That according to the concurrence of all or fewer of those Ingredients for they do not always meet together though most frequently they do and according to the higher or lower degrees in which these are urged upon the Conscience or apprehended and believed by the troubled Party these Agonies are more or less and accordingly we may distinguish them variously As 1. Some are desperate Terrours of cursed Reprobates under desperation These terrours in them are in the greatest Extremity the very Pit of Misery of the same nature with those of the Damned in Hell where the Worm that never dies is nothing else but the dreadful vexation and torment of an accusing Conscience They are commonly accompanied with Blaspheming of God and an utter rejection of all means for Remedy and though they sometimes turn to a kind of secure desperation by which when they see it will be no better they harden themselves in their Misery and seek to divert their Thoughts as Cain did betaking himself to the Building of Cities And Esau when he had sold his Birth-right despised it and gave himself up to the pursuit of a Worldly interest yet sometimes these Terrours end in Self-Murther as in Judas who being smitten with dread of Conscience went and hanged himself We have many sad Instances of these desperate Terrours Cain is the first we read of and though the account the Scriptures give of him be but short yet 't is sufficient to let us see what his condition was Gen. 4. 11. to 16. First He was cursed from the Earth Of this part of his Curse there were two Branches 1. That his labour and toyl in Tillage should be great and greatly unsuccessful for thus God himself explains it ver 12. When thou tillest the Ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength The Earth was cursed with Barrenness before to Adam but now to Cain it hath a double Curse 2. That he should be a Man of uncertain abode in any place A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth Not being able to stay long in a place by reason of the terrours of his Concience His own interpretation of it ver 14. shews that herein lay a great part of his Misery Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Earth By which it appears that he was to be as one that was chased out of all Society and as one that thought himself safe in no place Secondly He was hid from the Face of God that is he was doomed to carry the inward feeling of God's Wrath without any expectation of Mercy Thirdly His mind being terrified under the apprehension of that Wrath he crys out That his Sin was greater than it could be pardoned or that his Punishment was greater than he could bear For the word in the Original signifies both Sin and Punishment Take it which way you will it expresseth a deep horrour of Heart If in the former sense then it signifies a Conviction of the greatness of his sin to Desperation if in the latter sense then 't is no less than a blasphemous Reflection upon God as unjustly Cruel Fourthly This horrour was so great that he was afraid of all he met with suspecting every thing to be armed with Divine Vengeance against him every one that findeth me shall slay me Or if that speech was a desire that any one that found him might Kill him as some interpret it shews that he preferred Death before that life of Misery It seems then that God smote him with such Terrour and Consternation of Mind and with such affrightful Trembling of Body for his bloody Fact that he was weary of himself and afraid of all Men and could not stay long in a Place By these Tokens or some other way God sets his Mark upon him as upon a cursed Miscreant to be noted and abhorred of all Such another Instance was Lamech of whom the same Chapter speaks 1. The sting of Conscience was so great that he is forced to confess his fault The interpretations of those that take it Interrogatively Have I slain Or If I have what is that to you c. are upon many accounts improper much more are those so that take it Negatively Which whether it were the abomination of Poligamy as some think by which Example he had destroyed more than Cain did or if it were Murther in a proper sense as the Words and Context plainly carry it 't is not very material to our purpose however God smote him with Horrour that he might be a witness against himself 2. He accuseth himself for a more grievous Sinner and more desperate Wretch by far than Cain If Cain ver 24. shall be avenged seven-fold truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold Which is as much as to say that there was as much difference 'twixt his Sin and Cain's as betwixt seven and seventy seven 3. It seems also by his Discourse to his Wives that he was grievously perplexed with inward fears suspecting it may be his very Wives as well as others might have private Combinations against him for the prevention whereof he tells them by Cain's example of God's avenging him These two early examples of Desperation the beginning of the World affords and there have been many more since as Esau and Judas Of late Years we have the Memorable Instance of Francis Spira one of the clearest and most remarkable Examples of Spiritual Horrour that the latter Ages of the World were ever acquainted with yet I shall not dare to be confident of his Reprobation as of Cain's and Judas's because the Scripture hath determined their case but we have no such certain authority to determine his 2. There are also Distresses from Melancholy which may be further differenced according to the intenseness or remisness of the Distemper upon which they depend For sometimes the Imagination is so exceedingly depraved the fears of Heart so great and the sorrows so deep that the Melancholy Person crying out of himself that he is Damned under the Curse of God c. appears to be wholly besides himself and his Anguish to be nothing else but a delirous irrational disturbance There are too many sad Instances of this Some I have known that for many Years together have laboured under such apprehensions of Hell
he fixeth upon that and labours all he can to make it look most desperately that so he may call it the Sin against the Holy Ghost and in this he hath a mighty advantage that most Men are in the Dark about that sin All Men being not yet agreed whether it be a distinct Species of Sin or an higher degree of wilfulness relating to any particular Sin Upon this score Satan can lay the Charge of this sin upon those that Apostatize from the Truth and through Weakness have Recanted it Thus he dealt with Spira with Bilney with Bainham and several others There is so near a resemblance in these sins of denying Truths to what is said of the Unpardonable Sin that these Men though they were Scholars and Men of good Abilities yet they were not able to answer the Argument that the Devil urged against them but it prevailed to distress them Upon others also hath Satan the advantage to fix this Accusation For let the Species of the sin be what it will if they have any thing of that Notion that the Sin against the Holy Ghost is a presumptuous Act of Sin under Temptation they will call any notorious Crime the Sin against the Holy Ghost because of the more remarkable aggravating Circumstances that have accompanied such a Fact 2. He aggravates the Sins of God's Children from the Wilfulness of their sinning 'T is a thing often too true that a Child of God may be carried by a violent Impetus or strong inclination of Affection to some particular Iniquity where the forwardness of desires that way by a sudden haste do stifle those Reluctancies of Mind which may be expected from one endowed with the Spirit of God whose power upon them doth ordinarily sway them to lust against the Flesh But it is more ordinary to find a Temptation to prevail notwithstanding that an enlightned Mind doth make some Resistance which because 't is too feeble is easily born down by the strong importunities of Satan working upon the inclinations of the Flesh Both these Cases are improved against them over whom Satan hath got any advantage of doubting of their Estate If they have resisted but ineffectually or not resisted at all he chargeth them with the highest Wilfulness and will so aggravate the matter that they shall be put in fear not only that there can be no Grace where Sin hath so much power as either to controul so much light and endeavours or hath so subjected the Heart to its dominion that it can command without a contradiction but that they can have no Hope that they that sin with so high an hand should ever enter into God's Rest And to this purpose he commonly sets before them that Text of Heb. 10. 26. If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins Or that of Heb. 6. 4. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned if they fall away to renew them again to Repentance Both which places speak indeed at least such a difficulty as in common use of speech is called an impossibility if not an utter absolute impossibility of Repentance and Pardon But then the sinning wilfully or falling away there mentioned is only that of Total Apostacy when Men that have embraced the Gospel and by it have met with such impressions of Power and delight upon their Hearts which we usually call Common Grace do notwithstanding reject that Gospel as false and fabulous and so rise up against it with Scorn and utmost Contempt as Julian the Apostate did If now the true intendment of those Scriptures were considered by those that are distressed with them they might presently see that they were put into fear where no such cause of fear was But all Men have not this knowledg nor do they so duely attend to the matter of the Apostles Discourse as to be able to put a right Interpretation upon it upon such Satan imposeth his deceitful gloss and tells them Wilful sinners cannot be restored to Repentance but you have sinned wilfully when sin was before you you rushed into it without any consideration as the Horse into the Battel or when God stood in your way with Commands and advice to the contrary when your Consciences warned you not to do so great wickedness yet you would do it You were as those that break the Yoke and burst the Bonds Upon this supposition that these Texts speak of wilful sinning in the General How little can be said against Satan's Argument How many have I known that have been tortured with these Texts judging their Estate fearful because of their wilfulness in sinning Who upon the breaking of the snare of Satan's misrepresentation have escaped as a Bird unto the Hill 3. When either of the two former Ways will not serve the turn that is when he meets with such against whom he hath nothing of notorious wickedness to object or such as have a better discerning of Scripture than so to be imposed upon he labours to make a Charge against them from the number of their Miscarriages Here he takes up all the filth he can and lays it upon one heap at their Door 'T is indeed an easie thing for Satan to set the Sins of a Child of God in order before him and to bring to mind innumerable Evils especially to one that is already awakened with a true discovery of the Corruption of Nature and the Vileness of Sin In which case the more a Man considers the more he will discover and Sins thus set in Battel Array though they be not more than ordinary hainous yet being many have a very dismal appearance Satan's design in this is to bring Men under the Affrightments which seem most proper to be raised from a perverse Aspect of the third Rank of Scriptures which a little before I pointed at For the Word of God speaking of the Final Estate of Men doth not only discover the hopeless condition of some as to Eternal Life from some particular Acts of Sin but also the sad Estate of others from the manner degrees and frequency of sinning The Heathens because they improved not the Knowledg of God which they had from the Works of Creation neither making those Inferences in matters relating to his Worship which those Discoveries did direct them unto nor behaving themselves in full compliance to those Rules of vertuous Conversation which they might have drawn from these Principles and unto which in point of Gratitude they were obliged Rom. 1. 21. They glorified him not as God neither were thankful therefore God gave them up to a Reprobate mind And generally concerning all others the Scripture teacheth us that a return to a prophane fleshly Life after some Reformation hath a greater hazard in it than ordinary as appears by the Parable in Mat. 12. 45. Seven more wicked Spirits re-enter where one that was cast out is received again and the last state of that Man is
temper and disposition of our heart As First When unusual Temptations intrude upon us with an high Impetuosity and Violence while our Thoughts are otherwise concerned and taken up Temptations more agreeable to our Inclination though suddenly arising from Objects and occasions presented and gradually proceeding after the manner of the working of natural Passions may throng in amidst other Thoughts or Actions that have no tendency that way and yet we cannot so clearly accuse Satan for them but when things that have not the encouragement of our Affections are by a sudden violence enforced upon us while we are otherwise concerned we may justly suspect Satan's hand to be in them Secondly While such things are born in upon us against the actual loathing strenuous reluctancy and high complainings of the Soul when the Mind is filled with horrour and the Body with trembling at the presence of such Thoughts Sins that owe their first original to our selves may indeed be resisted upon their first rising up in our Mind and though a Sanctified Heart doth truly loath them yet are they not without some lower degree of tickling delight upon the Affections for the Flesh in those cases presently riseth up with its lustings for the sinful Motion but when such unnatural Temptations are from Satan their first appearance to the mind is an horror without any sensible working of Inclination towards them and the greatness of the Soul 's disquiet doth shew that it hath met with that which the Affections look not on with any amicable compliance Thirdly Our Hearts may bring forth that which is unnatural in it self and may give rise to a Temptation that would be horrid to the thoughts of other men but that it should of its own accord without a Tempter on a sudden bring forth that which is directly contrary to its present Light Reason or Inclination As for a man to be haunted with thoughts of Atheism while he is under firm perswasions that there is a God or of Blasphemy while he is under designs of honouring him is as unimaginable as that our thoughts should of themselves contrive our Death while we are most Solicitous for our Life or that our thoughts should soberly tell us it is Night when we see the Sun shine Temptations that are contrary to the present state posture light and disposition of the Soul are Satans They are so unnatural as to its present frame that the production of them must be from some other agent Fourthly Much more evident is it that such proceed from Satan when they are of long continuance and constant Trouble when they so incessantly beat upon the Mind that it hath no rest from them and yet is under greivous perplexities and anxieties of mind about them The Consideration of this is of great use to those that suffer under the violent hurries of strange Temptations First In that sometime they can justly complain of the Affliction of such Temptation when they have no reason to charge it upon themselves as their Sin 'T is one thing to be tempted and another to Consent or Comply to be tempted and not to be brought into Temptation is not Evil. Satan only Barks when he Suggests but he then Bites and Wounds when he draws us to consent Secondly That not only the Sin but the Degree also by just Consequence is to be measured by the Consent of the Heart if we consent not the Sin is not ours and the less degree of consent we give the less is in the Sin MATTH 4. 2. And when he had Fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungred CHAP. V. Of Christs Fast with the Design thereof Of Satans tempting in an Invisible way Of his incessant Importunities and how he flyes when resisted Of inward Temptations with outward Afflictions Several advantages Satan hath by tempting in Affliction I Am next to explain the Fast of Christ the End and Design whereof because 't is not expresly mentioned is variously conjectured Not to insist in this Discourse which is designed for Practice on the Controversy about the Quadragesimal Fast that which I shall first consider is the Opinion of Musculus who upon this ground that his Fast was not the Principal thing for which the Spirit led him into the Wilderness for he was led not to Fast but to be tempted thereupon concludes that his was only a consequent of his Solitary condition in the Wilderness and no other thing than what befel Moses and Elias who being engaged by God to attend him in such a Service where the ordinary means of the Support of life were wanting were therefore kept alive by him in an Extraordinary way without them thus he thinks the Fasting was not at least principally designed but that he being to undergo a Temptation in a desolate Wilderness where he had no Meat to Eat there God restrained his hunger so that he neither desired nor needed any If we acquiesce in this it will afford this Doctrine That when God leads forth his Children to such Services as shall unavoidably deprive them of the ordinary means of help or supply There God is engaged to give extraordinary Support and his People may expect it accordingly This is a great Truth in it self and a great and necessary Encouragement to all the Children of God that are called out to Straits But I shall not insist on this as the Genuine product of this Fast If we look further amongst Protestant Divines we shall observe it taken for granted that Christ fasted upon Design and this is generally reduced to those two heads First either for Instruction as to shew that he was God by Fasting so long and that under the trouble of molesting and disquieting Temptations whereas the Fasts of like date in Moses or Elias were accompanied with the quiet repose of their thoughts Or to shew that he was Man in that he really felt the natural infirmities of the humane nature in being hungry Or to teach us the usefulness of Fasting in the general when fit occasions invite us thereto Or Secondly For Confirmation of his Doctrine to put an Honour and Dignity upon his Employment as Elias Fasted at the restoring of Prophesy and at the reformation as Moses Fasted at the Writing of the Law So Christ began the Gospel of the Kingdom with fasting However that these things cannot be spoken against being Conclusions warrantably deduceable from this Act of Christs yet these seem not in my apprehension to come fully up to the proper end of this undertaking of his which seems not obscurely to be laid before us in that Passage of Luke 4. 2. being forty days tempted of the Devil and in those days he did eat nothing where we see that his being tempted forty days was the principal thing and that his Fasting had a plain reference and respect to his Temptation Thus far I suppose we may be secure that we have the design in the general that
above the reach of our present state and condition as for a mean Man to beg of God Authority and Rule or to expect to be set with Princes or for ordinary Christians to look for Miracles Signs from Heaven Visions Revelations extraordinary Answers to Prayers and the like all which expectations are groundless and the issue of a presumptuous Pride Fourthly When Men expect things contrary to the Rules that God hath set for his dispensations of Mercy they boldly presume upon his Will God hath promised preservation to his Children while they are in God's way but if any shall go out of that way and sinfully put himself into dangers and hazards it would be Presumption in him to expect a Preservation 'T is the same in Spiritual things God promiseth Eternal Life and the Blessings of his Covenant to such as give up themselves to him and his Laws will it not be intolerable Presumption for Men to bless themselves in their heart with expectations of reigning with him in Glory while in the mean time they contradict his own Rule and neglect his Order walking in prophaneness and living to themselves This is an high Presumption of Mercy against his express Will Hence are such courses called presumptuous Sins Psal 19. and such Sinners transgress with an high-hand Fifthly 'T is also a Presumption to expect any Mercy though common and usual without the ordinary means by which God in Providence hath setled the usual dispensations of such Favours as when Men look for his aid and help for supply of corporal wants while they throw off all care and refuse their own endeavours which are the ways of God's appointment in the consciencious use whereof such Mercies are to be expected The Heathen upon the consideration of the necessary connection of Means and the End have usually judged such sluggish expectations to be no better than solemn mockings of a Diety In Spiritual things 't is no less presumptuous to expect Conversion and an Interest in Christ and Heaven while they refuse the careful use of his Ordinances and therefore we are commanded to pray for such Blessings to cry after Knowledg and to lift up the Voice for understanding and to second these Prayers with our own utmost endeavours to seek for it as for Silver and to search for it as for hid Treasures and in so doing to expect the finding of the Knowledg of God Sixthly When ordinary or extraordinary Mercies are expected for an unlawful End as when the Israelites at Massa called for Water which they ought to believe God would supply them withal their condition considered but for a Test and Proof of the Being of God for they said is God among us or not Exod. 17. 7. 'T is by James made a peice of Spiritual unfaithfulness and Adultery to ask any thing of God with a design to spend it upon a Lust Ahaz his refusing a Sign when God offered it however he made a shew of Modesty and believing argued no other thing but that he was conscious to himself that in case he had accepted it he should have abused that Favour to an unlawful end and have tempted God by it as putting it upon this Experiment whether there was a God or not This is also another act of Presumption when a Man becomes guilty of any of these miscarriages he is presumptuous Secondly I further add to this discovery of the nature and kinds of Presumption that this is one of Satan's grand Engins which I prove by two Demonstrations First By Satans common practice in this kind upon all sorts of Men in most occasions That which is his frequent practice upon most Men and on most occasions must of necessity be understood to be chiefly designed Some Men may possibly be free from the trouble of some particular Temptations as Hieronimus Wallerus saith of Luther his Master that he heard him often report of himself that he had been assaulted and vexed with all kind of Temptations saving only that of Covetousness but none can say they have not been assaulted with this I shall make it out by an induction of particulars First The generality of Men that live in the Profession of Religion are Presumptious nay the greatest part of the blind World are so they presume of Mercy and Salvation the Devil preacheth nothing else but all hope no fear and in these Golden dreams they slide down to Hell If we look into their way of sinning and then into their hopes we can judg no less of them they stick not at the most grevious abominations the works of the Flesh and in these they continue 't is their Trade their Life they make provisions for them they cannot sleep except they do wickedly he that reproveth is derided by them they make but a mock and sport of those things which as the shame and reproach of Mankind should rather fly the Light and hide themselves as things of darkness these things they practise without regret or sorrow of Heart without smiting upon the Thigh and in all this they have the confidence to say is not the Lord among us They can call themselves Christians and have as bold expectations of Eternal Happiness as if the committing of these evils were made by God the necessary qualifications to everlasting Happiness what is more common and yet what more presumptuous For 1. These Men audaciously hope and expect Mercy expresly contrary to the peremptory threatnings of God God saith there is no peace to the wicked they say we shall have peace 2. These run upon the greatest hazards of ruine and wo with the least fear in the contempt of all danger as the Horse rusheth into the Battel who mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth his Back from the Sword 3. They dare God to do his worst they provoke God to jealousy and that to his Face hence was it that Nimrod was said to be a mighty Hunter before the Lord. And Er the Son of Judah that he was wicked before the Lord Because such audacious Sinners will not as we may say go behind his Back to sin Secondly Hypocrites whose carriage is more smooth they also are presumptuous for while they hide their Sin they do against dictates of Conscience presume that he that made the Eye doth not see and that there is a possibility to cheat God as well as Men besides their boastings and hopes have a special mark set upon them in Scripture as audaciously false the hope of the Hypocrite shall be cut off their confidence of the Temple of the Lord is but a lie and so termed expresly by the Prophet Thirdly Even desparing Persons are not always free of Presumption The act of Self-murther is a terrible presuming upon infinite Justice Spira's desire to know the worst was of the same kind These are indeed extraordinary but there are some other kinds of despair that come nearer to Presumption as that sensual despair which ariseth out of
an excessive love of carnal delights and a secure contempt of Spiritual things for when sensuality prompts them to Eat and Drink while they may despairing and hopeless of a future Happiness for to morrow they shall die and their pleasure cease they highly presume against the Patience and Goodness of God Fourthly The best of Men are too frequently overcome by it 1. Not only while they are overtaken with Sins more grievous and above the rate of Sins of Infirmity to which how lyable the holiest Saint may be upon Temptation may be gathered from David's Prayer Keep thy Servant from presumptuous Sins that they have not dominion over me 2. But by their earnest prosecutions of their own Wills when contradicted by Providence 'T is by the Prophet Esa 9. 9. called a pride and stoutness of Heart to contend with Providence to attempt to build with hewen Stone when the Bricks are faln or to strive for Cedars when Divine Wrath hath cut down the Sycamores 3. How frequently are they guilty of presuming upon their Priviledges their Strength their Graces and upon that score venture themselves upon occasions of Sin or bear high above others upon a conceit of their higher attainments or when they boldly put themselves upon Suffering or upon doing while they want that due Humility and care that should ballance them 4. There is also a Presumptuous Rashness upon which the Zeal and good Intentions of holy Men may sometimes precipitate them Such was Vzzahs putting forth his hand to hold the Ark for which the Lord smote him All these instances put together will sufficiently demonstrate that Presumption is one of Satan's Master-Designs The Second Demonstration of this Truth is from the general subserviency of other things to this Most of Satans indeavours and Temptations aim at this point and this is the result and consequence of most Sins that must needs be chief to which so many things do but serve and minister In this Center do most of the lines of his Policy meet Pride Vain-Glory Conceited-Priviledges Supposed-Advantages and many things more were but Vnder-Agents to this Temptation which the Devil attempted upon Christ as hath in part and presently shall be further evidenced Thirdly Having thus proved that Presumption is one of the great things he aims at I shall next discover the Reasons of his earnestness and industry in his Design which are these First 'T is a Sin very Natural in which he hath the advantage of our own readness and inclination However that some from a melancholy temper are inclinable to fears and distrust at some time when these black apprehensions are exalted yet these excepted hopes are more predominant than Fears and Self-love which provides fewel to these hopes is a Natural Principle in all when so many things give him such Advantages and promise him a success we may well suppose he will not miss such an opportunity Secondly As 't is easy for Satan's attempt so 't is remote from conviction and not rooted out without great difficulty 't is a Sin that is covered with a pretext of an higher degree of hope Men in many ways of this iniquity are under perswasions of Duty and by reason of that confidence Fear which is the Souls Centinel is asleep hence do they not lye so fairly open to Counsel or Reproof The Israelites Deut. 1. 27 28. being under discouragement refuse to go up to Canaan when they were upon the border of the Land but being convinced of their Sin in distrusting the Arm of the Lord by Gods declared Wrath and threatning against them they fall upon the contrary extream of presumption and then ver 41. they would go up and Fight and the conviction of their former Sin made them so confident that this was their present duty for thus they argue we have sinned against the Lord we will go up and sight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us that though they were expresly forbidden from God ver 42. Go not up neither fight for I am not among you yet were they so strangely carried by their former perswasion that they refused to be convinced and went presumptuously into the Hill By which instance we see what great pretences lead on Presumption and how difficulty they are removed which two things do no less than tempt Satan to lay out himself to the uttermost in that design Thirdly the Greatness of the Sin when 't is committed is another reason of his diligence in the pursuit of it 't is not only from a simple Error or Mistake but that Error ariseth from intollerable Pride they say and do such things from the Pride and Stoutness of their Heart He that is Presumptuous is Self-willed 2 Pet. 2. 10. Hence these Sins which we translate Presumptuous are in the original called Prides or Arrogancies Besides they are contradictions to God's Order separating those things that God hath joyned together as the Means from the End or the End from the Means as if the Earth should be turned out of its place for us And in some cases 't is no less than the open affronting of God by abusing his own Favours against himself for thus they deal with him who are opinionated in Sin because of his Mercy concluding by an irrational Consequence that they ought to be wicked because God is Good or that they may freely offend because he doth not punish Fourthly The dangerous Issues and Consequences of this way of sinning do not a little animate Satan to tempt to it In some cases it was to be punished by Death Deut. 17. 12. The Man that doth presumptuously Even that Man shall die and most usually it is plagued with sad disappointments by a severe engagement of God's displeasure against it The Hypocrites hope shall perish it shall be as the giving up of the Ghost And generally He that thus blesseth himself in his Heart when he heareth the Words of the Curse Deut. 29. 19 20. the Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoak against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven Fourthly and lastly I shall lay before you the deceitful contrivance of Satan in bringing this Sin about by shewing the particulars of his craft against Christ herein As First He takes advantage from his Resolve to rely upon Providence contrary to the former Temptation of turning Stones to Bread Christ had refused that telling him it was duty to trust him who not only by the ordinary means of Bread could feed him but also by any other appointment To this Satan rejoyns by offering an irregular opportunity of such a trust in casting himself from the Pinacle of the Temple as if he should say If thou wilt thus rely upon Providence do it in this Wherein we may note that from an obediential dependance he would draw Christ to an
irregular Presumption He retorts Christs Argument back again upon him thus If God is to be relyed upon by a certain trust for Food by the like trust he is to be relyed upon for Preservation if the belief of supply of Bread can consist with a neglect or refusal of ordinary means for the procurement thereof then may the belief of Preservation in casting thy self from the Pinacle of the Temple consist also with a neglect of the ordinary Means Thus like a cunning Sophister he endeavours to conclude Sin from Duty from a seeming parity betwixt them though indeed the cases were vastly different For though it be duty to depend upon Providence when God in the pursuit of Service and Duty brings us out of the sight and hopes of outward means yet it can be no less than sinful Presumption for us to make such Experiments of Providences when we need not and when ordinary means are at hand After the same manner doth he endeavour to put Fallacies upon us and to cheat us into Presumptuous undertakings by arguing from a necessary trust in some cases a necessity of presuming in others upon a seeming likeness and proportion Secondly It was no small piece of Satan's craft to take this advantage while the Impression of Trust in the want of outward means was warm upon the Heart of Christ he hoped thereby the more easily to draw him to an excess For he knows that a Zealous earnestness to avoid a Sin and to keep to a Duty doth often too much incline us to an extream and he well hoped that when Christ had declared himself so positively to depend upon God he might have prevailed to have stretched that dependance beyond its due bounds taking the opportunity of his sway that way which as a Ship before Wind and Tide might soon be overdriven And this was the design of his Haste in this second Temptation because he would strike while the Iron was hot and closely pursue his advantage while the strength and forwardness of these resolves were upon him Thirdly He endeavours to animate him to this Presumption by popular Applause and to tickle him into an humour of affecting the Glory and Admiration which by such a strange undertaking might be raised in the minds of the Spectators and therefore did he bring him to the most conspicuous place of a great and populous City not thinking the matter so feasible if he had tempted him to it in a solitary Desert Fourthly He propounds to him a plausible End and a seeming advantage viz. the clear and undoubted discovery of his Divine Nature and near Interest in God urging this as a necessary Duty for his own satisfaction and the manifestation of his Son-ship to others Fifthly To drive out of his Mind those fears of miscarrying in his attempt which otherwise might have been a Block in his way he is officious in strengthning his confidence by propounding treacherous helps and preservatives suggesting a safety to him from the Priviledg of the place where this was to be acted an Holy City and Temple producing more of a Divine Presence for his safety than other places Sixthly To make all sure he backs all this with a Promise of Preservation that nothing might be wanting to his Security By this Method applyed to other things and Cases he endeavours to bring us to Presumption The consideration of this should put us upon a special care and watchfulness against Presumption It is more designed and hath a greater prevalency than Men are aware off Two things I shall only at present propound for our Preservation out of Psal 19. 12 13. First He that would be kept from Presumptuous Sins must make Conscience of Secret Sins to search for them to mortify them to beg pardon for them With what Face or Hope can we expect from God help against these when we provoke him to leave us to our selves by indulging our selves in the other Secondly He that would avoid them must be under the awe and fear of being overcome by them he that slights and contemns such visible hazards shall not long be innocent David here first shews his Conscience to be concerned with Secret Sins and then begs to be kept from Presumptuous Sins and by such earnest begging he next shews how much he dreaded such miscarriages CHAP. XV. Self-Murther another of his Designs in this Temptation How he tempts to Self-murther directly and upon what advantage he urgeth it How he tempts to it indirectly and the ways thereof Of necessary Preservatives against this Temptation WE have seen and considered the main End of Satan in this Temptation Let us further consider whether this was the sole End that he propounded to himself we have little reason to think that he would confine himself to one when the thing it self doth so clearly suggest another which might possibly have followed In most cases the Ends of the Devil are manyfold we may therefore easily suppose and several have noted it that the Devil that great Murtherer had herein a secret design against the Life of Christ and that he tempted him here indirectly to Self-Murther And indeed supposing that Christ had attempted to fly in the Air and had failed in the Interprise what else could have followed but Death and Ruine Hence let us Note That Satan seeks the ruine of our Bodies as well as of our Souls and tempts Men often to Self-Murther That the Devil goes about seeking how he may destroy Men by putting them upon attempts against their own Lives is evident not only from the Experience and Confessions of such as have suffered under Satan's suggestions to that End and it is a Temptation more common than we think off because most Men are unwilling to lay open themselves to others in this matter but also from those many sad Instances of Men over whom Satan so far prevails that they execute upon themselves this design by destroying themselves Yet by the way we may note That such thoughts are often in the minds of Men where Satan is not industriously designing their destruction for he often casts in such thoughts not only to try how Men take with them but to affright and disquiet them and 't is usually with Men of sad and Melancholly tempers to mistake their own fears of such a Temptation for Satan's endeavours against them when indeed their fear and trouble lest they should be so tempted makes them think they are tempted indeed Satan drives on the Design of Self-Murther two ways First directly when in plain terms he urgeth Men to destroy themselves This because 't is directly repugnant to the Law of Nature which vehemently urgeth them to Self-Preservation he cannot effect but by the help of some advantages yet some ways and methods by experience he hath found to be so available to such an unnatural resolve that he frequently puts them in practice As first He works upon the Discontents of Men and improves the disquiet of their
not kill If we may not murther another as Austin argues we may not murther our selves for he that kills himself kills no other then a Man nay we may much less lay hand upon our own Life 'T is a greater violation of the Law of Nature and of Love Every Man is nearest to himself and his love to himself is the Pattern of his love to another Self-Murther must then be a Sin of higher aggravations by far than the Murther of another Person And the wiser Heathens were far from countenancing any such cruelty If Plato had thought it best for an immediate enjoyment of Immortality which is the highest pretence of Self-Murther imaginable to make an end of Life violently he would certainly have practised it himself or recommended it to others but he is so far from this that he speaks against it as a great wickedness Thirdly 'T is necessary that Men keep in mind the Danger that follows such an act Death brings God's unalterable Mittimus and seals up the Condition of every Man so that in the same posture he comes to Judgment it puts an end to all Hopes and endeavours Suppose then such tempted Creatures to have Fears and Terrors as great as you can imagine them to be yet there is a possibility that they may be deceived in them that their case is not so bad as they fear or if it be bad enough at present that it may be better afterwards for many that have in their anguish resolved against themselves have been prevented of the Execution of their resolves and have lived to see the Lord and his Salvation And who is able to determine that secret that their name is not in the Book of Life Who can say he is certainly excluded out of God's Decree What madness is it then to rush into certain ruine when our Fears that distress us may be but mistakes It is not so certain that Men shall be damned because of what they feel or fear at present as it may be if they destroy themselves Fourthly To prevent occasions to this Temptation it must be our care not to give way to discontents for outward things nor to distressing fears such as are desparing and hopeless for our Spiritual Estate or if we have a burthen either way upon our Mind we must avoid as much as may be impatient fretfulness lest Satan get advantage of us Discontented Moods and casting away Hope are sad occasions for this Temptation If we find our selves thus burthened we must look to it betimes and not suffer it to go too far And if this Temptation come we must take heed we keep not the Devils Counsel but discover the matter to some that are wise and faithful able to advise and pray for us remembring still that if only outward things trouble us we have a better way of ease and Remedy by submitting to a chastising Providence if Spiritual Troubles move this way we should not run from him but rather resolve to perish at his Foot as humble Suppliants for Mercy and Pardon Fifthly The Temptation must also be opposed with Fasting and Prayer if this be sincerely practised it will go away at last Sixthly Something may also be said for caution against unnecessary thrusting our selves while under such Temptations into places of Danger or into a converse with Instruments of Death this may be too great a daring of the Temptation and in the consequence a mischief Yet on the other hand we must not be so cowardly as to be affraid of such Places and Things unto which our Callings and lawful employments do engage us not to dare to go over a Bridg or to walk by a River or a Pit if it be our necessary way is but to give an advantage to Satan to keep us under continual affrightments and therefore I subscribe to Capels advice We must abide by it and fight it out by Faith we must not fly the way the place the imployment but go on and look to God and at last we shall make Satan fly But if some object to this That their weakness is great and their fears are strong and Satan never idle and that therefore they have little ground to expect an escape I shall desire they would consider seriously the Instance of Christ in this particular when he was upon the Pinacle of the Temple a small push might have overthrown him and yet it was not in Satans power to do it himself though he tempted Christ to cast himself down which may sufficiently satisfy us that there is a sure hedg of Providence about us and that Satan cannot do us the least hurt by pushing us into a Pit or River or any such danger CHAP. XVI Of Pride Satan's chief Engine to bring on Presumption What Pride is and how it prepares Men for sinning presumptuously Considerations against Pride The Remedies for its Cure Pride kindled by a confidence of Priviledges and Popular Applause THe aims of Satan in this Temptation being thus explained I must now offer to your consideration the Means by which he sought to bring his End about which we have noted already was Pride this he endeavoured to raise up in him two ways First By urging to him the Priviledges of his Condition as taking himself to be the Son of God Secondly By offering him the occasion of Popular Applause to which purpose he brought him into the Holy-City where he might be sure of many Spectators I shall hence note That Pride is Satan's proper Engine to bring Men on to Presumption If we should trace the History of presumptuous Sins we shall ever find it to have been so Adam's first Sin was an high Presumption against God's express Command but Pride was the Stair by which he knew they must ascend to it and therefore he used this Argument to corrupt the Hearts of our first Parents Ye shall be as God's The Presumption of Vzziah in burning Incense upon the Altar was from his Pride 2 Chron. 26. 16. His Heart was lifted up because he was become strong David's Presumption in numbring the People was from hence thus might we run through many Instances But Satan's own case may be instead of all his first Sin though we have but conjecture what it was particularly is concluded by all to have been highly Presumptuous and the Scripture expresly asserts that it was his Pride that brought him to it 1 Tim. 3. 6. He that is lifted up with Pride falls into the Condemnation of the Devil And in the general we are told by the Prophet Hab. 2. 4. That the Soul that is lifted up cannot be so upright as patiently to wait upon God in a way of believing but it will be presuming to evade a trouble by indirect contrivances To explain the Observation I shall do no more but shew what Pride is and how fit it is to beget Presumption Pride is a self-idolizing an over-valuation or admiration of our selves upon a real or
supposed excellency inward or outward appertaining to us 'T is in Scripture frequently expressed by the lifting up or exaltation of the Soul And this is done upon the consideration of any kind of thing which we apprehend makes us excel others so that inward gifts of Mind as Knowledg Humility Courage c. or outward gifts of the Body as Beauty Strength Activity c. or additional Advantages of Riches Honour Authority c. or any thing well done by us c. may all be abused to beget and nourish Pride and to fill us with high and lofty thoughts concerning our selves and being thus blown up we are fitted for any presumptuous undertaking For. First The Mind thus corrupted begets to its self apprehensions of a self-sufficiency and therefore as it is not apt to remember from what Fountain all those Excellencies come and to what Ends they are to serve so it brings them to a contempt of others and to a confidence of themselves Thus are Men by degrees so intoxicated by their own humour that they mount up to irrational and absurd conceits fancying that they are more than they are and that they can do far more than is possible for them to accomplish till at last they become apparently foolish in the pursuit of their imaginations I need not instance in the follies of Alexander who being elated in Mind would be Jupiter's Son and go like Hercules in a Lyons Skin or in the mad Frenzies of Caius who as he would need fancy himself a God so would he change his Godship when he pleased to day he would wear a Lyons skin and Club and then he must be Hercules to morrow in another Garb he conceits himself Apollo a Caduceus made him Mercury a Sword and Helmet made him Mars c. Or in Xerxes who would whip the Seas and fetter Neptune The Scripture affords enough of this nature as the Boast of Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built In the Insolency of Nineveh Zeph. 2. 15. I am and there is none besides me The Blasphemy of Tyre Ezek. 28. 2. who set her Heart as the Heart of God saying I am a God I sit in the Seat of God The arrogancy of Sennacherib Esa 36. 19 20. Where are the Gods of Hamath that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand Though all Pride in all Men ariseth not to so great an height of Madness yet 't is the nature of it and none have any of it without this humour of conceiting themselves above themselves which strangely prepares them for any Presumption Secondly He that is Proud as he looks upon himself in a flattering Glass and measures himself by the length of his Shadow so doth he contemn and undervalue things that lye before his attempts as easy and small hence doth he put himself upon things that are far beyond him David notes the working of a proud Heart Psal 131. 1. in this particular Neither do I exercise my self in great matters or in things too high for me Shewing that 't is the guize of Pride to out-bid it self in its attempts Thirdly It is not only forward to attempt but also desperate to execute without consideration of hazard Difficulty and Danger when they stand in the way should usually deter Men from their enterprize but Pride hardens the Heart and in a blind rage engageth it to contemn all inconveniencies if Sin and the Breach of Gods Law be set before a Person whose Pride engageth him to an unlawful undertaking he over-looks it as a thing of naught Through the Pride of his countenance he will not seek after God God is not in all his Thoughts Psal 10. 4. Fourthly Pride ariseth up to a scornful competition with any thing that opposeth it and the more 't is opposed the more it rageth for the contest is for having its Will This was the Voice of Pride in Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should serve him Hence Men are said to despise the Commandments of God when in the strength of their Pride they are carried on to an open contest for their own ways and desires against peremptory Commands and Threatnings Fifthly All this is done by a pleasing allurement 't is a Witchcraft that strongly holds Men and they think they are sufficiently rewarded if they be but gratified though other things go to wrack yet they apprehend if Credit and Honour be kept up 't is enough Saul when Samuel had declared that God would forsake him yet sought to please himself by keeping up his Esteem and Authority Honour me saith he before the People If all these particulars be weighed what presumptuous act can be propounded by Satan which Pride may not lead to He that swells himself to a conceit of absoluteness that will needs be attempting things too high that contemneth all hazards and is made more forward by opposition and yet pleaseth himself in all as in a Golden Dream he is as much prepared for any figure or shape that Satan is ready to impress upon him as melted Metals for their Mould or Stamp Hence must we be warned against Pride as we would avoid Presumption if we admit this we cannot well escape the other And we are the more concerned to resist Pride First Because 't is a Natural Sin it was the first Sin and our Natures are so deeply tainted with it that it is a Sin that first shews it self in our Infancy for Children will express a Pride in their Cloaths very early and 't is a general infection from which none are exempted in some degree or other The Apostles Phrase 1 Joh. 2. 16. shews that our whole life and all the concerns thereof is but the Sphere in which Pride acts and therefore whereas he restrains other lusts to some particular ends or peculiar Instruments he calls this iniquity the Pride of Life implying how impossible it is to confine it in a narrow compass Secondly It is a subtile Sin and often lyes where 't is least suspected Every man sees it as 't is exprest in haughty looks in boasting Speeches in gorgeous Apparel in insolent behaviour but often Men are insensibly possessed with this Sin and know not of it under an affected contempt of Honours and fine Clothes they secretly hug themselves in their private conceits and raise up in their own thoughts Imaginary Trophies of Honour and Victory for despising what others so much dote upon It was observed of Diogenes that he did intus gloriari inwardly boast and with greater Pride contemned Honour Riches Plenty c. than they were troubled with that enjoyed them Some decry Pride in others vehemently declare against it as a Sin recommend Humility as an Ornament of great price in the sight of God and yet are proud that they are above others in a fancied Humility and in the management of themselves in their Reproofs and Exhortations express such sad Symptomes of an insulting Humour that the latent Pride of their
not to chuse if we have a liberty of Enjoyment when we are forbidden we are troubled with Impatient Longings for it and cannot be at quiet till we do enjoy it When Satan makes nice with Men offering the Pleasures of the World and yet hedging up the way with difficulties they should make no other construction of it but that Satan doth so far as he is concerned more strongly entice them He Plays at Peep with them that he may make them more earnest to follow him and to bid high for the Possession of these Delights CHAP. XIX Satan's ends in tempting Christ to fall down and worship him Of Blasphemous Injections What Blasphemy is The Ways of Satan in that Temptation with the Advantages he takes therein and the Reason of urging Blasphemies upon Men. Consolations to such as are concerned in such Temptations Advice to such as are so afflicted THese Observations which the Preparation to the Temptation hath afforded us being dispatched the Temptation it self follows which is this fall down and worship me This motion from such an one as Satan to such an one as Christ who was Holy and Undefiled God and Man seems to be an incredible piece of Arrogancy Pride and Malice for to propound himself as the Object of Divine Worship was certainly a desperate Assault It includes 1. the highest Blasphemy 2. the grossest Idolatry imaginable both these are frequently noted as the design of this Temptation But 3. the comprehension of this motion takes in the whole withdrawing of the mind from God and Religion or the care of the Soul and Eternal Life in which sense Satan doth frequently practise this Temptation upon Men by the motive of Worldly Pleasures I shall consider the Temptation first as Blasphemous and so it will give us this Observation That the best of God's Children may be troubled with most vile and hideous blasphemous Injections Blasphemy in the largest sense is any thing spoken or done by which the Honour and Fame of God may be wounded or prejudiced but the formality of Blasphemy lies in the purpose or intendment of reproaching God Such was the Blasphemy of the Israelitish Womans Son recorded in Levit. 24. 11. where Blaspheming is explained by the addition of the word Cursing which in the Original comes from a word that signifies to set light by one So that hence and from the Circumstances of the Story we may safely conjecture that this Man having an Egyptian to his Father which probably might in scorn be objected to him by his contending Adversary he more readily might be drawn out to vilify the true God but be it what it will it was certainly more than that Blasphemy which the Rabbins fancy to be in the repetition of naming the word Jehovah which in reverence they either leave out as when they say the Arm of the Almighty or change it into some other as Adonai or the like and accordingly we may observe that Reproaching God and Blaspheming God are joyned together as Psal 44. 16. Esa 37. 23. In Blasphemy as the matter there must be Thoughts Words or Actions that may aptly express a contempt or reproach of God so also as to the Form of it there must be an intendment of reproaching Now though this be a Sin which the Heart of a Servant of God would most abhor yet Satan doth sometimes trouble the best with it We have an Instance in Job his Design was to bring him to Curse God for so he professeth in express terms Chap. 1. 11. 2. 5. Lay thine Hand upon him and he will Curse thee to thy Face And in Prosecution of this his Boast he breaks the matter plainly to him by his Wife chap. 2. 9. Curse God and die Whatever may be spoken of the Word as signifying Blessing though some affirm the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the proper Idiom of that Language and not by an Antiphrasis or Euphemismus as some think signifies as properly to Curse as to Bless and is determinable to its signification either way by the Circumstances of the Place or whatever Men indeavour to excuse his Wife 't is plain not only by Jobs Answer that it was evil Counsel but also by Satan's avowed Design that it was directly for Cursing God Besides this Instance if we consider the Expression of fiery Darts Eph. 6. we shall find that this Temptation is more common to all sorts of Christians than we would imagine 't is plain that these words allude to the poysoned Arrows which Scythians and others used these not only wounded but poysoned and the Venom inflamed with a fiery Heat the Part or Member pierced By this Similitude it must be granted that not common Temptations are hereby understood but such as were more than ordinarily hurtful vexing and dangerous it may be Persecutions are one of these Darts but all reckon Temptations of Spiritual Terrors and Blasphemy to be undoubtedly pointed at The ways of Satan in this Temptation are three First He endeavours to bring Men to Blaspheme by secret and subtile ways of ensnaring them and this is most what practised in Consequential and Covert Blasphemies When though Men do not directly intend an open out-rage against God yet Satan brings them to that which might be so Interpreted This seems to have been the Case of Jobs Sons according to his Jealousy of them It may be my Sons have sinned and cursed God in their Heart not that they were open Blasphemers for they were surely better educated neither doth Job express such a Fear of them but that in their Mirth their Hearts might have been so loosned from the Fear of God that they might be tempted to undue Thoughts of God slighting his Threatnings or Goodness To this purpose Broughton translates They have little Blessed God in their Hearts The same thing we may observe in Joh himself when the Devil could not prevail with him to charge God foolishly yet he pressed him so hard by his Miseries that he hoped at last to bring him to utter the anguish of his Mind in impatient and reflecting Expressions and so far prevailed that he bitterly Curseth the Day wherein he was Born and wisheth that he had given up the Ghost when he came out of the Belly which though it came far short of what Satan had boasted of in his Atchievement against him yet it had such an unwarrantable tendency that way that when his Friend Eliphaz took notice of his Expressions as savouring of too much Distrust he is forced to make Apology for himself and to excuse it by the desperateness of his Condition Job 6. 26. Do you imagine to reprove Words and the Speeches of one that is desperate In such cases the Devil provokes Men beyond their intentions to speak in their haste so inconsiderately that they know not or mind not the just Consequence of their Speeches It was a degree of Blasphemy in David to say
violence of the Adversary in this Suggestion Fourthly This is a Stratagem for laying the Foundation of direful Accusations the Devil in this doth as the Russians are reported to do they when they have a spite against any of their Neighbours hide secretly some of their Goods in their Houses and then accuse them of Theft When blasphemous Thoughts are injected and Men refuse to consent then Satan raiseth an accusation against them as Josephs Mistress did as if they were guilty of all that Blasphemy that he tempted them unto and 't is a difficult task to perswade them that these things should be in their Minds and that they should not be the proper Issues of their own Heart And very often doth he from hence accuse them of sinning against the Holy Ghost because of the hideous Blasphemies which he had first suggested to them First This will give us considerations of Consolation and that 1. In regard of others We observe often our sick Friends speak what we would not willingly hear and it cannot chuse but be sadly afflictive to hear their Curses and blasphemous Speeches but when we consider the advantage that Satan takes of their Distemper if their lives heretofore have been Pious and Religous we comfort our selves in this that it is more his Malice than their own Inclinations neither should we suffer our Hope or Charity to be distressed on their behalf 2. It is the like ground of Consolation for our selves or others that are violently afflicted with blasphemous Thoughts For First If we call to mind that our Lord and Master suffered such things we that are of his Houshold need not think we receive a strange or unusual Measure in that we are molested as he was Secondly If we consider that Christ was tempted without Sin on his part then may we fetch this conclusion from it That it is possible that such thoughts should be cast upon us and yet that we may not be chargeable with them as our Iniquities Thirdly We may hence see that such Temptations are more frightful than hurtful these as one observes seldom take they carry with them so much horror to those that believe and love the true God that it keeps them from a participation with Satan in the Sin it self nay it fills them with fear and striving against it they rather as Bugbears scare and disquiet them than produce the real Effects of compliance with them Secondly The consideration of this kind of Temptation may fill the Hearts and Mouths of those of us as have not hitherto been troubled with it with Praise for so Merciful a Preservation If we have not been under this kind of Exercise it is not from any good Will that Satan hath to us but because our God withholds a Commission from him A poor weak Christian wonders that Satan hath not made him a Mark for this Arrow that he hath not broken him with this Tempest To answer that Wonder he may know that the same tenderness in God that will not put new Wine into old crazy Bottles nor a new stiff piece of Cloth in to an old tender Garment nor that will oppress the weak and infirm with strong Exercise or Burthens that same tenderness of a Compassionate Father doth keep off such Tryals because he will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able Thirdly This Temptation calls for advice to those that are under it to whom I shall direct a few things First When any are troubled with blasphemous thoughts let it be considered in what state and temper their Body is if it be distempered with Melancholy as is most usual then the Prescription of an able Physitian is necessary in the first place without which he that would spiritually advise or counsel shall but beat the Air and his words be so far from the fastness of Nails that they shall be as Wind. I have known many under great complaints and fears by reason hereof that have been cured by Physick alone for when in this Case the Fewel is withdrawn the Fire goes out correct the Melancholy Temper that gives the Devil this advantage and the Trouble will cease Secondly It is of great Consequence to understand the Nature of these Temptations if the tempted could see these to be their Sufferings rather than their Sins they would with greater ease bear it as an Affliction And to those that complain abhor resist and pray against them they are not Sins no more than when an Harlot layeth her Child at an Honest Womans Door that Child is to be reckoned as the Fruit of her Wickedness A Gyant may dash the Son against his Father but so far will the Father be from imputing it as rebellious Insolence in his Child that he will pitty him the more as suffering by a double Injury for 't is not only against his natural Affection and Reverence to his Parent but 't is a bodily hurt beside thus will God much more pitty his Children under these Sufferings Thirdly We must not suffer such thoughts to lodge in us but before they settle if possible we must repel them as Abraham drove away the Fowls that came down upon his Sacrifice I know the Tempted will say this advice is not Practicable they find these thoughts swarm about them as Bees and when one is driven back another straight comes in its place But to them I Answer that blasphemous thoughts are repelled two ways 1. By stout and resolute resistance This though it do not extinguish them nor free us of the trouble yet it keeps them from setling upon us and us from the Guilt of them 2. By Diversion which the work of a lawful Imployment or good Society and other Discourses may do this may give some ease from the Molestation and the other preserves us innocent Fourthly In Temptations to Blasphemy confident Refusals do better then Disputings here we are to resist with Courage and a Holy Contempt of Satan if we be too timerous and fearful he insults suits the more upon us as Dogs when they are observed follow the Passenger with greater eagerness and noise Abhorrencies and positive Discharges like that of Christ in the same Case Get thee hence Satan do more for us than to debate the matter with him CHAP. XX. The Nature of Idolatry Satan's Design to corrupt the Worship of God The Evidences thereof with the Reasons of such endeavours His general Design of withdrawing the Hearts of Men from God to his Service The Proof that this is his Design upon whom he prevails That Professions and Confidences are no Evidences to the contrary His deceit of propounding Sin as a small Matter The Evidences of that Method and the Reason thereof THus have I considered the Temptation as Blasphemous I proceed next to consider it as Idolatrous the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thou wilt fall down and worship do give us the true Notion of Idolatry The Word which we call Worship comes
by which Satan effects this Design I shall not now touch but shall in lieu of that give you the reasons of his endeavours this way First He knows that this is a Sin of an high provocation Worship is the proper Tribute that is due to God and 't is peculiarly his Prerogative to prescribe the way and manner of it neither of these Honours will he give to any other but will express his jealousy when any invasion is made upon these his sole Prerogatives Now his Worship cannot be corrupted but one of these at least will in some degree or other be touched If we set up another Object of Worship we deny him to be God if we worship him in a way of our own invention we deny his Wisdom and set up our selves above him as if we could order his Worship better than he hath done in his Word Secondly If the Worship be corrupted all the Exercise of the Affections of the Heart and all the Service it self is lost and become unacceptable he knows that such Worshippers shall meet with this Answer who hath required this at your hands Thirdly Corruption in Worship Satan by long experience knows to have been the ground of those hatreds quarrels persecutions and troubles under which the Church hath groaned in all ages every difference imposing their way and perswasion upon all dissenters to the disturbance of Peace breach and decay of Love hinderance of the growth of Piety to the biting and devouring of one another Fourthly Besides God is provoked by this to leave his Sanctuary to remove his Glory and his Candlestick to make his Vineyard a desolation and his Churches as Shilob Fifthly Satan is the more industrious in this because his ways are capable of many advantages to further his design and many specious pretences to cover it In Col. 2. 8. he made use of Philosophy to corrupt Religion and by unsound Principles of some Heathens famous for that Learning introduced worshipping of Angels what that could not effect he laboured to perform by the Traditions of Men and where that came short the rudiments of the World the Mosaical Ceremonies were so called here and in the Epistle to the Hebrews were his Engine by which he battered the plain Worship of the New Testament And as to pretences the Apostle doth there and elsewhere note that Deceny and Order Humility Wisdom and Self-denyal are things very taking and yet usually pretended for such bold Innovations as may corrupt the pure streams of the Sanctuary Hence may I leave with you a few Memorials First This may make us jealous of any alterations in the way of God's Worship We have reason under the most plausible pretexts to suspect the hand of Satan because 't is one of his main businesses to corrupt the Worship Secondly This may justify those that out of a conscientious fear of complying with Satans design dare not admit of a Pin in the Tabornacle beside what God hath prescribed nor leave behind a Shoe Latchet of what he hath enjoyned Thirdly This will tell us that that Worship is best and safest that hath least of Mixture of humane Invention We cannot offend in keeping close to the Rule though the Worship thereby become more plain and not so gorgeous in outward appearance We may soon overdo it by the least addition and cannot be so certain of God's acceptation as we are of pleasing the Senses of Men by such introducements This motion of Satan Fall down and worship me is now in the last place to be considered as a particular instance of Satans general design of drawing the hearts of Men from God his Service and ways to the pleasures of Sin as if he should say to him follow my advice give up thy self to my Service and thou shalt be gratified with all the delights that the World can give thee to this doth the bait here offered most fitly agree Hence Observe That it is Satans general design to withdraw the hearts of Men from God that they may be enslaved to him in the Service of Sin That the Devil doth level all his endeavours to this cannot be doubted For 1. he hath a Kingdom in this World from which he is denominated the Prince of this World And this is not only a rule of Exteriour force such as Conquerous have over their captivated Slaves who are compelled to subject their Bodies while yet their minds are full of hatred against him who hath thus forced them to subjection but it is a rule over the Hearts and Affections of Men working in the Children of Disobedience a love and liking of these ways and begetting in them the Image of Satan so that what work he imposeth they are pleased withal and love to have it so Therefore he is not only called their Prince but their God and their Father Ye are of your Father the Devil in that with a kind of inward devotion they will and endeavour to perform the Lusts which he propounds to them Secondly This Kingdom is contrary to God's Spiritual Kingdom that being of Darkness this of Light and it is managed by Satan with an envious competition and Corrivalship to that of God so that as God invites Men to the Happiness of his Kingdom and sends his Spirit in his Word and Ordinances to perswade them Satan doth the like he sends out his Spirit which the Apostle calls the Spirit of the World 1 Cor. 2. 12. and imploys all his Agents to engage Men for him he requires the Heart as God doth he promiseth his rewards of Pleasure Honour Riches if they will fall down and worship him Now 't is so natural to prosecute an Interest thus espoused in a way of opposition especially to any other that set up for themselves in a contradictory Competitorship that the very natural Laws of Satans Kingdom will engage him to stand up for it and to enlarge it all he can Those upon whom he prevails are of two sorts First Some are visibly in his Service these answer the Character which was given of Ahab 1 Kings 21. 20. Who sold himself to work Wickedness in the sight of the Lord. The first expression shews that such are wholly in Satans Power and Disposal as things sold are in the Possession and Power of the Buyer they are at Satans will if he say to them Go they go and if he say Come they come their Bodies and Spirits are Satan's they are not their own and they are his for the ends of Sin for that imployment only so that they are wholly corrupt and abominable The latter expression that he did so in the Sight of the Lord manifests their shameless impudency in Sin that they declare their Sin as Sodom and hide it not that they do not Blush but openly wear the Devils Livery and avouch his Service As the works of the Flesh are manifest so these in their practice of such works are manifestly Satans Subjects These kind of Men are frequently in
the Old Testament stiled Sons of Belial a name very significant shewing either their devoting of themselves to the Devils Service in that they reject the Yoke of God's Law in that they break his Bonds and cast his Cords from them or their Pride that they will have none above them not considering that there is a God or that the most High rules or their aversness to what is good being wholly unprofitable and to every good work reprobate Secondly Some are secretly his Servants they come to the Devil as Nicodemus did to Christ by Night they will not openly profess him but yet their hearts are wholly his such are called by the name of Hypocrites The Pharisees and Scribes seemed to declare for God called themselves Abrahams Seed Fasted gave Alms made long Prayers and yet were a Generation of Vipers and of their Father the Devil The secresy of this underhand engagement to Hell is such that many who are in a league with the Devil and at an agreement with Death do neither know nor believe it concerning themselves For First This private Covenant may be where there are the greatest seeming desilements of Satan and high Professions of Service to God The Pharisees as have been said were the Devils Servants under all the fair shew they made of Religion and zeal for the Law and yet when Christ plainly told them that they were not Abrahams Seed but the Devils Seed they with high indignation and scorn throw back the accusation to Christ Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil we are Abraham's Children so little believed they the truth when it was told them Secondly This may consist with some designement and intention to give God Glory The Jews though they submitted not to the Righteousness of God yet by the Testimony of Paul they had a Zeal to God The very Heathens that sacrifice to Devils had not formal intentions so to do as appears by their inscription on the Altar at Athens Acts 17. 23. To the unknown God The true God though unknown they propounded as the Object of their Worship yet falling into those ways of devotion which the Devil had prescribed these intentions could not hinder but that they became his Servants Thirdly Men may be Servants to Satan under great assurances and confidences of their Interest in God many go to Hell that have lived with Lord Lord in their Mouths those mentioned in Esa 48. 2. that had no interest in Truth and Righteousness when they solemnly sware by the name of the Lord yet they called themselves of the Holy City and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel If it seem strange to any that these Professions Intentions and Confidences are not enough to secure Men from this charge but that they may be secretly Slaves to Hell I Answer First That those do not necessarily conclude that the Heart of such Men is right with God Formality natural Conscience and the power of Education may do much of this for though we grant that such are not conscious to themselves of any real design of serving Satan yet they may either so far miss it in the way of their Service offering that as well pleasing to God which indeed he hates and that through wilful and affected Ignorance as those of whom Christ speaks Joh. 16. 2. that should think the killing of God's Children a peice of acceptable Service Or they may be so mistaken as to the Sincerity of their Hearts that they may think they have a design to please God in doing of what he requires in order thereunto when indeed it may not be singly for God but for themselves that they work in a self-gratification of their natural Zeal for their way or their Esteem Credit and Advantage may privately influence them rather than a Spirit of Life and Power Secondly The work which they do and the Ends they serve will be evidence against professions and intentions 'T is a sure rule that the work shews to whom Men are related as Servants and it is laid down as a certain Standard to measure the Hearts of Men by when pretences and perswasions seem to carry all before them Rom. 6. 16. His Servants ye are to whom you obey 1 Joh. 3. 8 10. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil that is when it becomes a question to whom a Man belongs whose Child and Servant he is it must be determined by the works he doth if he engage in the ways of Sin he is of the Devil let him profess what he will to the contrary This same Ballance Christ useth to try the truth of the Jews pretences to God Joh. 8. 34. Whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin they boasted high but he shews them that seeing their designs and works were Hatred Envy Murther c. which are apparently from Satan it was evident they had learned these of him and he concludes by this proof ver 44. that they were of their Father the Devil Thus may we say of those that pretend they honour God they defie the Devil they intend well if yet they give themselves up to the pleasing of the Flesh if worldly minded if they live in Pride Strife Envy Maliciousness c. which are works of the Devil it is not all their pretences that will intitle them to God but they are for all this the Devils Servants as doing his works This may put Men upon enquiries who are ye for whose Servants are ye There are but two that can lay claim to you and these two divide the whole World betwixt them there is no state of Neutrality you are either God's Servants or the Devils ye cannot serve them both now if the Lord be God serve him Satan's Service is Base Dishonourable Slavish the Service of God Freedom Honour Life and Peace there is indeed no comparison betwixt them Happy then is that Man that can say the Lord is his Lot and Portion that can come into God's Presence and there in his Integrity avouch the Lord for his God that can stand upon it My Soul hath said unto the Lord thou art my God and I have none besides thee other Lords have had dominion over us but we will make mention of thy Name only This Temptation though it were in it self horrid and as a Brood of Vipers knotted together which at once could send out several stings and make many wounds as hath been noted yet in the way of propounding Satan seems to insinuate the largeness of his proffer and the smalness and inconsiderableness of the Service required as if he should say See how free I am in my Kindness I will not stick to give thee the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them and all this for so small a matter as bowing before me or doing me a little Reverence This gives us to Observe That when Satan doth design no less
than to enslave Men to his Service yet he will propound Sin as a small thing or but one act of Sin as a thing not valuable to engage them to him Not but that he desires to run Men to excess in Wickedness and delights to see them with both hands earnestly work Iniquity with greediness yet where he sees the Consciences of Men squemish and that they cannot bear Temptations to open and common Prophaneness without danger of revolt from him there he seems modest and requires but some small thing at least at first till the ways of Sin become more familiar to them and then when they can better bear it he doubles the tale of Bricks and with greater confidence can urge them to things of greater Shame and Enormity That this is his way appears First from the common Argument which he useth at first to those whom he would draw off from a more careful Conversation which is this Do such a thing it 's but for once and but little others do the like and demur not or the best do as great matters as this comes to 't is but a small thing considering the Strait or the Advantage that may accrew This is his usual Note to candidate Iniquity as experience of all doth testify Secondly That this is so is also evident from a Consideration of the several ways and courses of Sinners Some are tempted and overcome by one kind of Sin and not at all urged to others Some go to Hell in a way of Covetousness Others are pretty unblameable in most of their carriages but are overcome by a proud Humour Others are given to Drink and yet will not Steal nor deal falsely Others take a more cleanly way to Hell rely upon their own Righteousness or are engaged in Error and their Life otherwise smooth and fair The Jews in Christ's time were only engaged against Christ and for their Traditions but not molested with Temptations to open Idolatry as formerly Those who are Ignorant are not troubled with Temptations to despair or inward Terrours The Reasons of his dealing thus are these First He sees that one Sin heartily prosecuted is enough to signify Homage to him and to give him Possession As we take Possession of Land by a Turf or a Twig so by one Sin admitted with full purpose of Mind Satan is let into the Heart As a Penny will be sufficient earnest for a Bargain of a thousand Pound so may one Sin be a Pledg or earnest for the whole Soul in a League with Hell Secondly He knows that one Sin persisted in may be enough to destroy the Soul as one Wound may Kill one Leak may sink a Ship Thirdly He knows that one Sin breaks the Covenant of God and turns the Heart from him if Men give up themselves to it Fourthly One Sin wilfully pursued makes a Man guilty of the Breach of the whole Law it destroys love and respect to God undervalues his Authority contemns his Threatnings and Promises Fifthly One Sin is enough to make way for more where Satan would have more yet at first he is pleased with it as a hopeful beginning it makes room enough for the Serpents Head and then he will afterward easily wind in his whole Body This may warn us not to be imboldned to any Sin by the plea of diminution not to venture because it may seem little or be but for once A true Christian should be a perfect Vniversalist he should be universally against all Sin and universally for All Duty CHAP. XXI Of Worldly Pleasure Proofs that this is Satan's great Engine What there is in Worldly Delights that make them so Counsels and Cautions against that Snare I Come now to the Argument which Satan used for all this All these things will I give thee he casts a Golden Apple before him and seeks to entangle him by Worldly Greatness and Delight I shall not examine how true or false Satan spake when he called all these things his and that he could give them to whom he would 't is enough for our purpose to take notice of his pretence so far as might make his Offer probable and then observe That the great Engine which Satan useth to draw away the Heart from God to his Service is Worldly Pleasures and Delights I shall first shew that this is Satans great Engine and then explain what is in it that fits it so much for his purpose The first of these is evidenced by these particulars First The Scripture doth particularly note to us a Deceit or Guile to be in Worldly Pleasures Christ in Matth. 13. 22. speaks of the deceitfulness of Riches and that deceit is expressed by such a word as signifies a drawing out of the way a misleading so that he means not the uncertainty of these delights in which sence 't is said that Riches take themselves Wings and fly away which often disappoint and deceive the expectations of those that do most hug them Nor can this be understood of Riches in an active sense as we attribute deceit to Men who as rational agents can contrive and devise Snares but it only means that these are so Objectivè as things that are abused by Satan to delude and betray the Sons of Men. And these are so frequently made use of by him for such purposes and with such advantages of Power and Provocation that Christ elsewhere Matth. 19. 23. speaks of it as a thing almost impossible to have Riches and not to be ensnared by them A rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which Mark and Luke express by an affectionate amazement O how hardly can a rich Man be saved Secondly These are Satans great Net which incloseth Multitudes a general Bait by which most are hooked into the Service of Sin Most Temptations come from this Ocean as Springs from the Sea the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eys the Pride of Life have their Original from the World 1 Joh. 2. 16. Christ speaks of this Mammon of unrighteousness as the only thing that stands up in competition for the Hearts of Men against God Matth. 6. 24. and the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 4. reckoning up the various ways of particular Lusts as Covetousness Boasting Pride Blaspheming c. concludes them all under this that they are lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God shewing us thereby that though the Lusts of Men might run out diverse ways and be exercised upon diverse particular Objects yet they all borrow their Original from Worldly Pleasures and their design is nothing but that in the general Hence is it that some make the World the great Traytor to God for though they reckon up three great Enemies to God and Man the World the Flesh and the Devil yet these three agree in one the pleasing of the Flesh is the great end and desire of natural Men the World is the Store-house from which Men draw out several Pleasures according to the
Appetite Senses or Affections fetch all their delights from hence Secondly Besides the common Materials of Sin that are digged out of this Mine the World hath something of an aptitude in it to tempt Not that it hath properly and formally insidiationis animum an active Subtilty to lay snares for Men but yet it is not so purely passive as to make it altogether Innocent There is something of a Curse upon it ever since by the fall of Man it was loosned from its proper primitive ends and as the Devil spake by the Serpent so doth he urge speak tempt and insinuate by the World so that it is still an occasion of danger to us and hath a special advantage over our affections upon several accounts As 1. in that it is in its self lawful to be used 2. In that it is suitable to our desires and tempers 3. In some respects it might be necessary and advantageous for the comfort of Life for the support of Families and to enable us to be helpful to others 4. It is near to us under our Eye we have familiar converse with it it is still with us 5. We have a natural propensity to be in love with it the Flesh would fain be pleased and nothing is more answerable to it than the pleasures of the World We need not wonder then when we see it so highly captivating the affections of Men and leading them bound in Chains and Fetters Some make it their God Gain is all their Godliness and Religion they seek their Portion in this Life this is their Treasure and here is their Heart and it would be no less wonder if Satan should be guilty of so much oversight as to neglect the use of an Instrument which is every way so fitted for his purpose Thirdly Besides this fair prospect which it gives to Sin it hath an enmity to God and his ways which is no less advantagious to the Devil This is positively affirmed Jam. 4. 4. the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God not only is this true in a lower sense as a hinderance being backward and averse to it but it is a direct opposition and contrariety to God and his Service it s drawing back and hindring is charge enough against it for it 1. withdraws those thoughts affections time care and endeavours which should be laid out upon better things so that Holiness must needs be obstructed dwindle and decay by it 2. It hinders the influence of Heaven it shuts out the light causally quencheth and resisteth the Spirit and meritoriously also it provokes God to withdraw to remove his Glory and to give over his striving with them But the contrariety that it hath to all the parts of Holiness is yet more Christ notes it Matth. 6. 24. These two Masters God and the World are contrary in their Deisigns in their Commands in their Natures so that it is impossible for any Man to serve them both they both require the Heart and they both require it to contrary and incompitable Services and Ends These then are such Masters as would be Domini in Solidum Masters of the whole Now there cannot be two Masters of one thing in that sense neither if there were could the Hearts of Men serve these different commands but their work would necessarily engage their affections to one only they would either love the one and hate the other or hold to the one and despise the other This very consideration if there were no more doth render the World a desirable Instrument for Satan Fourthly In all this the World hath so many Cunning Disguises and plausible Shifts that it becomes thereby wonderfully serviceable to Satan 'T is the perfection of wicked Policy to manage wicked designs under plausible pretences these the World hath in readiness when 't is accused of Rebellion and Treachery against God The pleas of Necessity of Prosecution of a lawful Calling of providing for a Family of not neglecting the benefits of God of chearing the Heart and taking the Comforts of the Labours of their Hands and a great many more are ready excuses to ward off the force of the convincing Word these the Devil drives home and fastens them into such strong perswasions that the deluded Sinner cannot see the danger that is before him nor the Spiritual Adultery or Idolatry of his Soul in his excessive love to Worldly Pleasures Fifthly The World hath also a Spiritual Fascination and Witchcraft by which where it hath once prevailed Men are inchanted to an utter forgetfulness of themselves and God and being drunk with Pleasures they are easily engaged to a madness and height of Folly Some like foolish Children are made to keep a great stir in the World for very trifles for a vain shew they think themselves great honourable excellent and for this make a great bustle when the World hath not added one Cubit to their Stature of real worth Others are by this Circe transformed into Savage Creatures and act the part of Lyons and Tygars Others like Swine wallow in the Lusts of uncleanness Others are unmanned putting off all natural affections care not who they ride over so they may rule or be made Great Others are taken with ridiculous Frenzies so that a Man that stands in the cool shade of a sedate composure would judg them out of their wits It would make a Man admire to read or the Frisks of Caius Caligula Xerxes Alexander and many others who because they were above many Men thought themselves above humane Nature they forgat they were born and must die and did such things as would have made them but that their greatness over-awed it a laughing-Stock and common scorn to Children Neither must we think that these were but some few or rare instances of worldly intoxication when the Scripture notes it as a general distemper of all that bow down to worship this Idol They live without God in the World saith the Apostle that is they so carry it as if there were no God to take notice of them to check them for their madness God is not in all his thoughts saith David Psal 10. 4 5. The Judgments of God are far above out of their Sight he puffs at his Enemies and saith in his Heart he shall never be moved c. The whole Psalm describes the Worldling as a Man that hath lost all understanding and were acting the part of a Frantick Bedlam what then can be a more fit Engine for the Devil to work with than the Pleasures of the World I shall briefly apply this to two sorts of Men those that are straitned with want and necessities and those whose cups run over having all that their Heart can wish First To those that think their measure of outward Comforts little I would from the Doctrine now explained tell them that they have not so much cause to vex and disquiet themselves for their Poverty or Troubles as they apprehend The World is not so
desireable a thing as many dream did but Men consider how great a snare it is and what dangers attend the fullness of it they would not so earnestly covet it nor so passionately lament when it flys from them If thou hast so much Godliness as can quiet thy Heart in a contented enjoyment of thy little that little which thou hast is better than great riches of the wicked thou little knowest from what Pride Insolency Contempt of God and Men and many other Temptations and Lusts God doth preserve thee by denying thee Earthly things thou art now it may be often looking up to God striving to believe his Word often examining thy Heart labouring to live upon God and his Allsufficiency looking after the Bread that endures to Eternal Life when if thou hadst the Temptations of Plenty it may be feared thou wouldst be another Man and be carried away to forget God to be careless of Holy walking and so make way for Bitterness and Sorrow at last Secondly I would also caution Poor Men not to enlarge their desires too much after the World but to fear the Temptations of the World it is not only a snare to those that enjoy it but to those that want it for while they admire it and engage their Affections for it it ensnares them in sinful undertakings they are tempted to Lye Cheat Dissemble to use unlawful Shifts to Rob Steal over-reach in Bargaining and to neglect the care of the Soul in all Let such call to mind 1. that often the Providence of God doth of purpose thwart and cross the designs of such so that though they toyland sweat running from Market to Market rising early and sitting up late yet he blowes upon their gettings and they wither to nothing while it is yet in their hand or if they seem to keep them longer yet all the end they make with them is but to put them into a bag with holes they perish by evil travel Eccles 5. 14. 2. They often are at a great deal of labour in pursuit and then when the desired object is within their reach they are overwhelmed with their disappointment as if Providence designed to mock them for their Folly This is excellently set forth in the Emblem of a Man climbing up a Rock with great labour to reach a Crown that hung upon the Precipice who when he had stretched himself to grasp it falls down and breaks his Neck 3. And when they do by great toyl rake together an heap of Riches they are starved frequently in their Plenty and so cursed that they have no more than the beholding of their Goods with their Eyes in that God denies them a Heart to use them 4. Their gettings allay not their Thirst for more He that loveth Silver shall not be satisfyed with Silver Eccles 5. 10. 5. Often they are given as a scourge and Plague as the Quales given to the Israelites came out of their Nostrils The wise Man notes it Eccles 5. 13. Riches are kept for the Owners thereof to their hurt Secondly To those that have the delights of the World plentiful Estates full Tables beautiful Houses rich Tradings Honours and Dignities I would desire to give the greatest caution that they take heed to themselves because they walk in the midst of Snares These should consider 1. that the great God hath laid most serious charges upon them not to love the World but to withdraw their Affections from it nay to be Crucified to it as to any captivating delight and to use it with such an Indifferency of mind that they should be in their deportments towards it as if they used it not 2. They should have their danger in their Eye How careful is he of his steps that knows he walks in the midst of Serpents which are ready to sting him the thoughts of this should blunt the edg of our Delights If you were at a Feast where you knew there were poysoned Dishes you would be affraid to eat any thing Do you think that Captain Smith when he was taken by the Salvages of America and had plenty of Meat set before him which he knew was given to fatten him that he might be better Meat when he was killed had any Stomack to Eat or to Drink Was that Feast pleasing to him that fat under a sharp Sword hung over his Head in a Horse Hair when he expected every moment it should fall upon him and kill him Such are great Men rich Men with what fear and care should they use these things when they know there is hazard of mischief from them upon every occasion How much doth Christ speak in that one Sentence it is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He means not that 't is absolutely impossible but extreamly difficult and the difficulty lies in the hinderances which their Riches casts before them 3. They should carefully consider for what ends God gives these and to what use they are to be put Rich Men are but God's Pursers they do but carry the Bag and what is put therein for publick uses if accordingly as faithful Stewards they lay it out upon those that have need they shall make Friends of the unrighteous Mammon and it will turn to a Spiritual Account but if they think that all is for themselves and so shut their Bowels and Purses from others then they carry the Bag no otherwise than as Judas did and will be easily perswaded to sell Christ and Heaven for a little more of Earth CHAP. XXII Of Christ's Answer in the general That these Temptations were upon design for our Instruction Of the Agreement betwixt Ephes 6. and Matth. 4. The first Direction Of couragious Resolves in resisting Temptations It s consistency with some kind of fear The necessity of this Courage Wherein it consists and that there is a courage in mourning Spirits THese Answers of Christ to the several Temptations which are now to be explained are different as to their matter yet the general Purport of them being the same I shall therefore handle them together They may be considered two ways First As they are fit and pertinent answers to particular Temptations of Distrust of Presumption of Debauching the Heart by Worldly Delights to the Service of Satan and thus may they be useful in their consideration to those who are directly moved by Satan to such Sins And when at any time we are tempted in straits to cast away our reliance upon the careful Providence of God we may look upon Christ's Answer that Man's Life doth not so depend upon the usual means but that any other thing blessed by Divine Appointment may be useful to that end When we are enticed to presume of extraordinary supports then by Christ's Example the Temptation may be resisted by considering that however God be to be trusted yet he is at no time to be tempted by unnecessary expectations
time if ye faint not Gal. 6. 9. Upon this hazard are the Children of God cautioned Heb. 12. 3. lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind 3. There is also a particular kind of courage expressed in an holy and humble contempt of Satan's Suggestions when after all means used they cease not to be troublesome this is not to slight Sin but to slight Satan who though he is resisted ceaseth not to molest I shall particularly apply this first Direction 1. to those that propound Ease to themselves in their Race or Warfare which is a thing impossible to one that doth the work of a Souldier not considering that work and couragious endeavours do abide them 2. To those that pretend themselves Christ's Souldiers Courage and Christian Magnanimity is your cognizance by this must you be known How do ye stand what are your resolutions and undertakings Those Christians that have Joy and Peace in believing can more easily satisfy themselves in this but those that fight in Tears and Grief in disquiets and troubled Thoughts are apt to conclude themselves unbelieving because they are fearful or to think that they look not up to Jesus the Author and finisher of their Faith because they apprehend themselves weary and faint in their Minds For the ease and help of such I shall shew in a few things that there is as real a Christian Courage in such Mourners as in some that sing Songs of Triumph First 'T is a real courage and undertaking against Sin for any to resolve his utmost out of detestation of it before he can satisfy himself that God will accept of it To oppose Sin under such a discouragement or at such a venture is a couragious hatred and yet so do these Mourners Secondly To be under continual grievings because of miscarriages so that other things of outward enjoyment cease to be pleasing is a couragious hatred but this is their case Thirdly To wrestle against Sin under high discouragements when afflicted and tossed when Satan runs upon them and shakes them by the Neck and yet they continue their wrestling and withstanding as they are able This is faithful resistance a resistance unto Blood striving against Sin Heb. 12. 4. that is if that expression be proverbial like that ad Sanguinem usque they resist Sin faithfully under great Hazards and Inconveniencies even to Wounds and Blood till they have broken Heads and broken Faces and can say to God though we have been broken in the place of Dragons and have these Wounds to shew yet have we not departed from thee nor quitted our desires after thee and Holiness for all these buffetings of Satan but this is the Character of these dejected ones Fourthly 'T is a couragious hatred that cannot suffer a sinful Motion to fall upon the Soul but it puts all into a combustion within and raiseth disquiet for it is an Argument that there is a contrariety betwixt the Heart and Sin but this is their case also Fifthly 'T is Courage and Constancy to bold on in gracious endeavours and strivings so that when they fall as soon as they can recollect their Strength they set on where they left and renew the Battel never changing their first resolve for Holiness against Sin This is implyed in the Apostles Phrase of standing Eph. 6. That ye may withstand and when ye have done all to stand He is accounted to stand that runs not out of the Field but stands to his Holy Resolve to the last though the Battel go sore against him by fits but such are these Mourners There is true Courage under Mourning and disquiet of Heart so that we may say to such O thou afflicted and tossed fear not The Glory of the Lord shall shine upon thee They that are weak in this Sence shall be strong as David CHAP. XXIII The second Direction that Temptations are not to be disputed The several ways of disputing a Temptation In what Cases it is convenient and necessary to dispute with Satan In what Cases inconvenient and the Reasons of it THe next thing observable in Christ's carriage to Satan is this That Christ though he rejected every Temptation by giving a reason of his refusal from the Command of God did not suffer Satan to dispute his Temptations further than the first Proposal and in his Answers he takes no notice of the Reasons or Motives by which he laboured to make his Temptations prevailing In the two first Temptations he gives no reply to what Satan insinuated by his supposition If thou be the Son of God neither by affirming that he was so nor discovering to him his knowledg of the secret Subtilty which he had wrapt up under these plausible pretences In the third he answers not a word to the Vanity and falsehood of his deceitful offer of the Kingdoms of the World though as hath been observed he might have opposed strong Reasons against them all and besides when Satan became Insolent and Impudent in tempting Christ to fall down and worship him he chaseth him away with a severe Abomination Get thee hence Satan From which we have a second Direction which is this That Temptations to Sin are to be opposed by peremptory denials rather than by disputings This is a Note which most Commentators have on this place but it stands in need of a distinct Application because it is not a Rule so general but that the practice of God's Children have made exception against it For the clearer Explanation of it I shall First Give you the several kinds of disputings by which we may see that all are not alike For First The serious working of the thoughts in a quick denial of a Temptation with a reason implyed or expressed though it admit not Satan to any further dispute or Argument may in some sense be called a disputing for the Scripture useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for any inward serious Thought Such a kind of disputing as this is necessary it cannot be wanting to any that refuse a sinful Motion this being as we shall see afterward one of those Directions which Christ intended us by his Example and the very thing which Christ practised in every Temptation for he contented not himself to give a naked denyal but still adds a Reason of such refusal Those who in general terms urge that Temptations are not to be disputed do not reckon this as any disputing And others that do taking disputing for the refusal of a thing with a reason assigned think that his procedure in the two first Temptations is not imitable by us but only that of the third wherein he chased away the Devil with angry denyal but the mistake is obvious Secondly There is a disputing of unnecessary Curiosity and Conference this is when a sinful Motion injected into our Hearts is not directly consented to but then instead of a full denyal Men begin to raise Questions and make Objections of lesser moment or some impertinent Quaeries
in some cases necessary to dispute a Temptation which Satan offers to us by the Mouths of Men who entice us to share with them in their wickedness for here by arguing we may not only discourage their further Sollicitation and so free our selves from the like Temptation for the future but we also by the exercise of an Holy Charity endeavour to pull them out of the Fire When Josephs Mistress tempted him he considered that he had to deal both with the Devil and his Mistress Gen. 39. 7 8. and therefore that he might resist the Devil he peremptorily refused the Temptation but that he might take off his Mistress from her unlawful prosecution he argues with her about the Ingratitude Danger and Unlawfulness of such an act My Master woteth not what is with me in the House and he hath committed all that he hath to my Hand there is none greater in this House than I neither hath he kept any thing back from me but thee because thou art his Wife how then can I do this great Wickedness and Sin against God When Sinners do entice us to cast in our Lot amongst them pitty to them and care of our selves will engage us to argue the folly and danger of their ways with them except they behave themselves as Dogs and Swine their carriage giving us just ground to conclude that they are so set on Wickedness that it may endanger us rather than profit them to debate with them And so was it likely and the Text seems to hint so much that when Joseph perceived his Mistress was resolved upon the pursuit and that his reasonings were not minded he persisted in his denyal but forbore his arguings But however it may be convenient to dispute in the last mentioned Sense in these four cases and others may probably be added yet there are cases in which it will be inconvenient and hazardous to dispute or argue and of this order I shall reckon four First It is not safe to dispute the matter in vile infectious Temptations such as are either suitable to our Inclinations or may receive a favourable aspect and countenance from the posture of our Affairs and Condition These Temptations even in our debating against them are like the opening of a Sepulchre which sends forth a poysonous stream which may infect those that loath and resist it 'T is dangerous to admit Fire into the same Room where there is Gunpowder though there be no intention to kindle it It hath been an old Observation that the very confession of infectious Sins though designed to beget shame and resolution against them for the Future have kindled a new Flame by the unnecessary declaration of the Manner and Circumstances so that they have returned from the Confessor more infected than when they went and those very Persons whose care it should have been to have put the highest disgrace upon Sins so confessed to the begetting of loathing and abhorrency in the Parties and themselves have by too curious an enquiry received such Poyson at the Ear that the Heart hath been forthwith infected The like Hazard remains to those that are willing to debate such Sins with Satans for though they begin upon the score of resistance yet the very dwelling on such a subject when admitted to lay it self open doth convey such Amorous looks unto the treacherous Affections that the Heart is in danger of a secret Poyson There is no better way in such cases than to command all such Thoughts and Confiderations out of our Coasts and as we do when the City or Town we live in is infected to withdraw our selves from the air of such a Temptation We may observe the like care in Joseph though he thought himself concerned at first as hath been said to oppose the unlawful suit of his Mistress yet seeing her desperately set upon her Folly he declined all Communication with her and would not be with her Gen. 39. 10. and at last when she caught him by his Garment he left it in her hand and fled ver 12. He might easily have rescued his Garment from her had he not been aware that his contesting against her might have been an occasion of ensnarement to himself Christ himself when he was tempted by Peter to spare himself which was a Temptation very taking to Humane Nature especially when Suffering and Death is in view is more short and sparing in his reasoning against it than he was when the Devil tempted him He gives no positive reasons against it as he did when he was tempted to fall down and worship the Devil but dischargeth himself from any further consideration of the matter by a declared abhorrency of the thing Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God but the things which be of Men. Which is as if he had plainly said this is so apparently from the Devil and so much abhorred by me because so suitable to my Condition that I will not so much as discourse of it or consider it Secondly Generally in all Temptations though they have not the advantage of our present special estate or inclination as hath been noted of an apparent withdrawment from Obedience or of things unquestionably sinful it is not convenient to dispute them but to dismiss them by a denyal except some of the forementioned Considerations do alter the case In known cases we need not parly but stoutly deny Our resolutions for Duty and against Sin should not be to seek we are certain that Sin is to be avoided and Duty to be practised here we should be peremptory Abraham being certain of Duty when God called him to a place which be should afterward receive for an Inheritance he disputed not the uncertainty the danger or inconvenience that possibly might attend his removal but went out not knowing whither he went Heb. 11. 8. Paul being called by God to preach among the Heathen though Flesh and Blood were ready with Arguments against it yet he would not so much as confer with them but immediately obeyed Gal. 1. 16. Like instances I might fetch from other holy Men. Cyprian when the President gave it to his own choice whether he would obey or be put to Death commanding him to take it into consideration he readily replyed In re tam Sanctâ non est deliberandum that it was not fit to deliberate in so plain a case Mrs. Ann Askew when at the Stake ready to be burnt a Pardon was offered by the Lord Chancellor she would not so much as look on it but returned this Answer that she came not thither to deny her Lord and Master Bishop Hooker in the same Condition had a Box laid before him with a Pardon in it which when he understood he was so affraid of tampering with a Temptation he cryed out If ye love my Soul away with it if ye love my Soul away with it And many others there were in all ages so far from accepting such unlawful
deliverances that they would not take into consideration the unrighteous terms upon which they might have escaped Thirdly When a Temptation after all means used continues to be troublesom and is rather an annoyance than an infection then must we not dispute it but by an Holy Contempt despise it Temptations to Blasphemy are oft of this nature as hath been noted in its place and there are other things by which Satan creates to God's Children great disquiet while they in the mean time abhor the Sin and cry out of the Tryal Here when the Messenger of Satan will not depart 't is an advice that hath the general approbation of Holy experienced Men that we should despise the Temptation as an approved way to our quiet and ease for while we think to repel such assaults by strugling with Arguments we do but increase the force of them as he that thinks to shelter himself against the Wind by holding up his Cloak before him doth but derive upon himself a stronger blast Fourthly In Temptations of inward trouble and terror it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan David in Psal 42. 11. seems to correct himself for his mistake his Soul was cast down within him and for the cure of that Temptation he had prepared himself by Arguments for a Dispute but perceiving himself in a wrong course he calls off his Soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and the Promises Trust still in God for I shall yet praise him but in Psal 11. 1. he is more aforehand with his work for while his Enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him he rejects the Temptations at first before it setled upon his thoughts and chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to In thee Lord do I put my trust how say ye then to my Soul flee as a Bird to your Mountain And there are weighty reasons that should disswade us from entring the lists with Satan in Temptations of inward trouble As 1. the determination of the Sincerity of the Soul and its converted state is a Question of no small difficulty a knotty Controversy more intricate and abstruse than those Controversies that in the Schools are of greatest Name for difficulty for this is lyable to more weighty Objections and stands in need of nicer distinction As Dr. Goodwin Observes They that converse with dejected Spirits find so much quickness and nimbleness of reasoning turning every way to ward off the force of an Argument brought for their consolation that even wise and able Heads are oft put to a stand and know not what to answer Would it then be fit to give Satan this advantage or to admit him so far into our reasoning He that will invite Satan to such a contest shall be sure to have his hands full Secondly This kind of Temptation doth usually disable Men for arguing it oftentimes confounds the Brain stupifies the understanding and weakens the Memory Heman complains of himself as distracted by terrors Job calls himself desperate Such Persons are not surely in a fit case to manage a Temptation with so cunning a Sophister as Satan Thirdly If they descend into the Battel he is not only too strong for them but commonly after a while they take Satan's part against themselves and comply with him concluding against their own peace Fourthly There is also a better way at hand than to enter into a Dispute and that is By going to God by a present Faith Love or Repentance when the truth of any of these is questioned It is a difficult task to prove some time that former acts of Faith Love or other Graces were sincere this may admit of such objections from a wounded Spirit that it will be hard to answer them but in this case 't is a nearer way to see if there be not in all these complainings some present acts of these Graces whether such complainants are not willing to embrace Christ upon any terms whether they do not have Sin whether they would not unfeignedly be reconciled to God c. It oft falls out that this doth stay the trouble when examinations of former acts do nothing for them Some Men are at more pains as one saith to repair and fit an old Building then would serve to rear a new one Yet must it be remembred that though it were the best course to resist Temptations of this nature at first by avoiding unnecessary disputings notwithstanding when this as I noted before of other Temptations hath seized upon the heart and taken possession then shall we be forced to fill our Mouths with Arguments and whether we will or no must we undergo a Contest As we see in David who when his troubles had prevailed upon him was forced to plead with God with himself with the Temptation and to have recourse to former Experience the days of old and the years of the right hand of the most High and all little enough Thirdly All that I shall further say concerning the inconvenienceies of disputing with Satan shall be to give you the reasons manifesting these unnecessary Communings with him to be every way hazardous and unsuitable As First 'T is an Honour to Satan and a disgrace to our selves Men are loth to be seen contesting with Persons of a far inferiour rank especially in such things which have procured to such a noted Infamy 'T is an usual peice of Generosity in Men of Spirit that they scorn to strive with a Scold or contend with a Beggar or be found in Company of those that are under an evil name deservedly and in matters that are vile and base 't is highly disgraceful to admit them to a debate Such things will either get more credit than they deserve while they seem to be countenanced by a dispute or else shall communicate their discredit to those that shall shew such familiarity with them Secondly By refusing to dispute Temptations we raise up in our hearts an active abhorrency of them and by that abhorrency we are cautioned and strengthned against them It must needs awaken our hatred into a present activity against that Sin which our consideration at first view presents to us so abominable that it deserves no other Answer but to be whipt out of our sight And when our Heart is thus alarmed it cannot but stand upon its Guard 'T is a course that Holy Men have taken to keep Men at a greater distance from Sin to present it as a thing of greatest abhorrency and that is the intendment of that Expression Rom. 6. 1. Shall we Sin that Grace may abound God forbid The vileness of that abuse of Gospel Grace he shews by setting it below the merit of any serious thought he sharpens their apprehensions against it by an out-cry of detestation The like he doth Eph. 5. 3. where he indeavours to set their Hearts against uncleanness and covetousness by telling them that it was unbecoming Saintship that such things should be
wrought out to us by the Scripture and its Ordinances Faith which is our Shield and Hope which is our Helmet they neither of them act without the warrant and encouragement of it and whereas other parts of the Armour are defensive this of the Scripture is compared to the Sword which not only defends but also offends and beats back the Enemy If the matter be seriously considered all these parts of Armour are but these two the Graces of the Spirit Faith Hope Patience in their sincere exercise and the word of Scripture as the Instrument by and in which they shew their Operations so that all this Armour being put to use in every particular Temptation it amounts to no more than this we are speaking of viz. That sinful Motions are to be rejected by a believing sincerely resolute opposing of them with Arguments from the Word of God Thirdly Scripture as it is the Word and Command of the great King of Heaven hath a dâ—â—nting and commanding Authority over the Consciences of Men. Where the Word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 4. and such is the Majesty of a Divine Law that it hath Power over the Consciences of those that are yet in their Sins and can wound affright constrain and bind even the Rebellious so that so long as they retain any of their Natural Impressions of a Divine Power they have some awe for his Commands which may be seen and argued where it would be least expected from the enragement of the Hearts of Sinners when Sin by the Commandment accidentally becomes exceeding sinful For as that outragious fierceness doth arise from the contrariety that is betwixt a Carnal Heart and a Spiritual Law so that contrariety would never work if the Authority of that Law having a Power to restrain and give check to the corruption of the Heart were not some way owned by the Conscience for where no countermanding Law is owned there can be no irritating provoking restraint This it can do to the vilest of Men but of how much more Power may we imagine the Word to be with good Men whose Hearts tremble at the Word when they bind the Law upon their Heart and charge their Consciences with it 't is surely quick and powerful sharper than a two edged Sword nor doth it only by unlovely affrightments terrify them from Sin but by commanding Duty make the Heart in love with it so that it becomes a delightful satisfaction to be preserved from the Snare Fourthly There is no Argument that can be used against Temptations that can be more afflictively discouraging to Satan Satan as bad as he is cannot but believe those Truths which he knows and he knows that there are many Truths in Scripture which respect him as threatnings of Punishment and Divine Vengeance he believes these things and trembles Jam. 2. 19. His unavoidable knowledg or remembrance of these things begets horrour in him he cannot but be under a dread of these Truths What can be supposed so to wound him as the bringing these things to memory by urging the Command of God against him Dr. Arrowsmith gives two instances of this kind the one of Christopher Haas in Sweedland from the Epistle Dedicatory to the 5 tomes of Brentius's works The other of Daniel Cramer Rector of a School at Stetin in Germany on both which the Devil made a bold attempt in a personal Appearance from the first demanding a Catalogue of his Sins in Writing from the other demanding a Paper in which one of the Students had obliged himself to Satan's Service they both referred him to that Text of Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent And this was retorted upon him with such a strong exercise of Faith that he presently desisted the suit and vanished Fifthly This Weapon cannot easily be wrested out of our hands When we urge a Divine Prohibition against a Temptation what can he say in Answer he cannot deny it to be the Word of God or to be true or that we are not obliged to it he made none of these returns to Christ but by his silence owned that it was God's Holy Command obliging us to Duty Neither dares he stand upon these exceptions to us except he find our Faith inclined to waver or our minds weak and wounded by inward troubles of Spirit and when he puts on a boldness to deny Scripture to be the Word of God or that it signifies God's real intendments in his threatning for by begetting unbelief of the Truth of Scripture and by suggesting hopes of escape and pardon notwithstanding the violation of the Commands of it the wrests when he doth prevail this Weapon out of our hands yet he is forced to fetch a compass and by many previous insinuations to make his way to these atheistical assertions Thus he did with Eve first finding her a little inclinaable he dropt in privily something that might argue the Improbability of the threatned Penalty and then at last positively denyed it But now if we hold to this that the Command is true and holy and just and good he cannot wrest our plea from us Sixthly Nothing doth more undermine Temptations by rendring the reasons and motives thereof vain and empty than doth the contrary commands of Scripture Temptation hath always some inticement of pleasure or profit and these only seem to be taking or reasonable while we consider not the Word of God as rotten wood or Fish shine only in the dark but when we are urged with sinful pleasures how mean base dangerous and unlovely be they when the command to the contrary gives information that they are snares and lead to Death or the provocation of the Almighty Seventhly While we resist with Scripture-Arguments we engage God whose Command we would stand by to go down to the Battel with us we lay hold upon his strength and put obligations upon him to take us out of the snare and to deliver us from him who is too strong for us Fourthly It remains that in a word I shew how the Commands or Arguments of Scripture are to be used in resisting Satan which is thus When you have any sinful thought cast into your mind presently reject the offer by charging your heart with duty from some opposite command As if you be urged to acts of Uncleanness presently refuse thus No I must not God hath commanded the contrary he hath said thou shalt not commit Adultery If a covetous thought arise reject it with this God hath said thou shalt not Covet If you be tempted to please the Flesh and follow vain delights answer it with this If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die and the like must be done in other Temptations Some may perhaps think that this is easy work and quickly done and that it seems to attribute a Virtue and Power to the words of Scripture as if Satan were charmed by the language or phrase However
several ways they take in gratifying their Lusts and Humours and the Devil is only officious to help all this forward by inticing and perswading them to make these provisions for the Flesh And who can think other but that this must be Satans great Engine when as hath been said first the World and the Pleasures of it is the sum of all Iniquity containing in it virtually or actually the Transgression of the whole Law the root it is of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. all prophaneness against God all neglect of Duty all Outrage Wrong or Injustice to Man may and usually doth spring from hence insomuch that some have particularly traced it through every Command of the Decalogue and found it guilty either as Principal or Accessary of every Iniquity 2. Our thoughts may be the more confirmed in this when we see all Men intangled by it for albeit that some Temptations seem directly to carry Men from a love or care of the World as Despair terrours of Mind voluntary Humility neglecting of the Body and others of the same kind yet if the matter be considered the truth in hand cannot be prejudiced by such an objection For 1. those who seem in distress of Conscience most to loath the World were yet first entangled by it and the consideration of that Guilt whether at present justly or unjustly charged upon them is the usual occasion of these troubles And 2. those who seem to undervalue Money Riches Plenty c. are it may be no less Slaves to other Worldly Lusts for Pleasures of the World comprehend whatsoever may arise from any thing that is in the World to the delight of Life Honour Pride Ambition Prodigality are wordly Lusts as well as Covetousness and desire of Power or Rule And those that seem to deny themselves of faring deliciously or wearing soft Rayment may be as much distressed with an inward desire of Applause and Honour as those that would gratify their Senses are by sensual Lusts Thirdly How much the World stands Satan in stead may be observed from the force of that Temptation upon those that have very much engaged in their Profession of the ways of God it hath often fetch'd off those that seemed to have given up themselves to God Demas was once commended by Paul as his Fellow-Labourer Philem. v. 24. yet at last it so prevailed upon him that he complained 2 Tim. 4. 10. that Demas had forsaken him and turned his back upon his Profession and so far if Dorotheus do him right that he became an Idol-Priest in Thessalonica the cause of which horrid Apostacy was his love to the present World Balaam seemed resolute not to act any thing against Israel yet the ways of unrighteousness so far blinded him that he taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel The highest of nominal Professors noted by the thorny ground in Matth. 13. 22. who seemed to differ from the good ground only in this that their Fruit was green and not ripe as Luke expresseth it they brought not Fruit to Perfection They were choaked in these fair beginnings and offers for Holiness by the Cares and Pleasures of the World All Ages abound with instances of this kind Aeneas Sylvius preached against the Pope set up the Council above him commended the Germans for opposing him but Preferment made him alter his note and at last he became Pope himself Bonner the Persecutor seemed at first a good Man a Favourer of Luther's Doctrine but advancement changed him to a bloody Woolf a cruel Tygar Spalato forsook Popery but missing those Dignities which he aimed at in England was upon hopes of greater preferment induced to lick up his Vomit and to own Popery again How many Examples have we of those who the higher they grew in the World became more careless of Religion as Sixtus Quintus who went as fast back in Religion as he went forward in Promotion so that he that at first entring into Orders had a good hope of his Salvation by that time he came to be Pope he became so wicked that he despaired of Happiness Fourthly This Temptation is one of Satan's last Refuges and often prevails where Persecution cannot The Thorny-ground-hearers were above those of the Stony-ground in this that they stood out the Storm and bore the scorching Heat of Persecution but then the World choaked them Sad experience tells us that Churches that did thrive and grow as the Palm-tree under their Pressures were spoiled by ease and plenty which so cherished the Seeds of Pride Vanity and Contention that they grew up a-main and did more to their desolation than the cruelty of all their feircest Enemies Julian who by the greatest Art and Policy studied to overthrow the Christians name so observed this that he made it his rule rather to corrupt Men by Honours then to compel them by Torments we have also found that though the Romans Synagogue joyn force to Subtilty in the advancement of their Dagon yet they have still looked upon this Temptation of the World as most likely to gain the Hearts of their rational opposers Cruelty could over-aw the Sensless Multitude and could take out of the way those of whose opposition they were affraid but it seldom with success wrought upon Persons guided by Light and Conscience to a compliance that would hold long for though at first some good Men were over-awed to make subscription and to recant as it did with Bilney Bainham Cranmer and several others yet upon the working of Conscience after the stound and dazle of the Temptation was over they recoiled so resolutely upon them that they lost more than they gained that way But those that were willing to nibble at preferments became theirs wholly Thus they set upon Luther Galeacous Carracciolus Dr. Taylor and a great many more though to no purpose for they were ready to bid their Money perish with them and to bid defiance to their Favour as well as to their Frowns Notwithstanding they have made many real Conquests by this Weapon and accordingly this is reckoned among the Temptations of greatest force Heb. 11. 37. They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted that is by the Pleasures and Preferments of the World it seems the Holy Ghost would point at this how fair and plausible soever it be as one of the Devil 's most powerful Engines Next I promised to discover what it is in the World which makes it so fit for Satan's designs First The World brings or affords fit matter to be made the Fewel of Lust For this reason the Apostle in the place aforecited forbids us so earnestly to love the World or the things of the World because there is nothing in it which is not improveable as an occasion or Provocation to Lust Whatsoever is in the World is Lust of Flesh or Eyes or Heart and there is no Lust but it may be furnished with a proper Object from hence the