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
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
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
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
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
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
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
c. This Instance Luther made use of to prove the knowledg that we shall have of one another in Heaven which shews that Adam's Understanding was then incomparably more sublime than ours and of a nearer approach to the knowledg which a state of Glory shall furnish us withal To this might be added a further proof from the rare Inventions and excellent Discoveries that some raised Wits have made of things that have laid deep and far out of the view of common Capacities As also those views sights and more than ordinary comprehensions which the Souls of Men have had when they were a little freed from the clog and hinderance of the Body either in Extasies or by approaching Death all which put together will go far to prove a very great measure of Knowledg in Satan if we take along with us this Foundation That in all the Works of God we find the highest Knowledg in the noblest Being Living Creatures are more excellent than Stones or Trees and therefore hath God furnished them with Senses and hath also distinguished them by higher degrees of Sagacity according to their excellency above others Thus the Ape Fox Elephant c. have such Abilities above the Worm and Fly c. that some have questioned whether they had not some lower degrees of Reason Yet as these are below Man so doth his Reason far excel their greatest quickness of Sense Angels are an higher Being than Man for he made him lower than the Angels and consequently their Knowledg is proportionably greater So that if Adam in Innocency understood the Nature of Things how much more exactly and fully must we imagine Satan to know them Secondly But the Proof is more full and direct from those Appellations and Titles which the Scripture and the Experience of Men have put upon him his usual name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Matth. 8. 31. Mark 5. 12. Rev. 16. 14. we translate Devil properly signifieth one that is wise knowing or skilful And however the wickedness of that Spirit hath so far dishonoured this word that 't is always as some think used to signifie Vnclean Spirits yet still it carries an evidence of their Nature in reference to Knowledg that though they are wicked Creatures yet are they wise and knowing 't is said Gen. 3. 1. The Serpent was more subtil than any Beast of the Field which though it be true literally of the Serpent whose Wisdom and Subtilty Naturalists have abundantly noted yet that expression hath an eye upon Satan who was the principal Agent and the Serpent there is called subtil as influenced by Satan whose Instrument he was which we may believe not only upon the credit of Austin and Lyra but more securely upon the Testimony of other Scriptures which name him the Old Serpent Rev. 17 9. and impute all that Craft in the management of that Temptation to a particular remarkable skill and subtilty of Satan The Serpent beguiled Eve through subtilty 2 Cor. 11. 3. and if Beza conjecture right the Appellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do so fitly suit this History of the Tree of Knowledg that the title of Knowledg seems to be given him for this singular Master-piece of Craft Thirdly That Satan hath Great Knowledg is by these Arguments discovered but if further inquiry be made into the Nature of his Knowledge we shall be nearer to a satisfaction in this particular and here we may observe a three-fold Knowledg in Satan First A Natural Knowledg which the School-men have distinguished into these two 1. An Evening Knowledg which he received from things Created whereby the species of things were impressed upon his Mind and so received being a Knowledg à posteriori from the Effects of Things which because it is more dark and obscure than that which ariseth from the Causes of things they tearmed Evening Knowledg 2. The other is Morning Knowledg which is a Knowledg of Things in the Power and Wisdom of God in which he saw the Idea's and Images of all Things this Knowledge they prefer before the other as Lines and Figures are better known from Mathematical Instruction than by their bare tract as written in Dust Secondly Besides this he hath an Experimental Knowledg which is the improvement of that natural Stock by further Acquisitions and Attainments and indeed Satan had very high Advantages for an increase of Knowledg he had a great Stock to begin withal he hath had fit and sutable Objects to work upon in his Contemplations so that by comparing things with things in so large a Field of Variety and that for so many years together it cannot be but that he should be grown more experienced and subtil than he was at first and the Scripture doth fairly countenance this Supposition by telling us of his Devices 2 Cor. 2. 11. of his Wiles Ephes 6. 11. and of his Depths Rev. 2. 24. All which Phrases imply That Satan hath so studied the Point of Temptation that he hath now from long Experience and Observation digested it into an Art and Method and that with such exactness that it is become a Mystery and a Depth much covered and concealed from the notice and observation of Men. Thirdly To both the former may be added another Knowledg which because 't is from another Spring I may call it an Accessory Knowledg consisting in occasional Discoveries made to him either when God is pleased to make known so much of his Mind and Purpose as he imploys him as an Instrument or Servant to execute as he did in the case of Job and Ahab or when he informs himself from the Scriptures or catcheth hints of Knowledg from the Church and the Ordinances thereof If good Angels have an encrease of Knowledg this way as is evident they have for to Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places is made known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Ephes 3. 10. we cannot but imagine that Satan hath some addition of Knowledg from such Discoveries While we are upon this Point it will be necessary to offer some satisfaction to two Questions First Whether Satan knows our Thoughts It 's undoubtedly God's Prerogative to know the Thoughts he knows them intuitively which is beyond the power of any Creature Jer. 17. 9. Who can know it This is a Challenge to all implying the utter impossibility of it to any but to God alone I the Lord search the Heart he knows the most inward Thoughts Rev. 2. 23. I am he which searcheth the Reins and the Heart he knows them evidently and certainly All things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do Those secret Thinkings and Intendments which are hid from others and which we our selves cannot distinctly read because of their secret intricacy or confusedness yet the very inside and outside of them are uncased cut up and anatomized by his eye in all which Expressions God is careful to reserve this to
himself I the Lord do it or I am he that searcheth and signifies that none else is able to do the like Yet Satan can do much this way for if we consider how he can come so near to our Spirits as to communicate his Injections to us and that he often entertains a Dispute with us in this secret way of access that he hath to our Thoughts if we observe his Arguings his Answers and Replys to our refusals so direct so pertinent so continued we shall be constrained to grant that he can do more this way than is commonly imagined That I may explain this with a due respect to God's Prerogative of knowing the Heart I shall First Shew that there are two things which are clearly out of Satan's reach 1. Our future Thoughts he cannot tell what shall be our Thoughts for time to come he may possibly adventure to tell what Suggestions he resolves to put into our Hearts but what shall be our Resolves and Determinations thereupon he knows not This is singled out as one part of God's Prerogative that he knoweth the determinate Purposes and Resolves of the Heart aforehand because he turneth the Heart as he pleaseth Prov. 21. 1. 2. Our present formed Thoughts the immediate and imminent Acts of the Mind he cannot directly see into He may tell what floating Thinkings he hath put into our Heart but our own proper Thoughts or formed Resolves he cannot directly view this is also particularly insisted on as proper to God alone John 2. 24 25. Christ knew all Men so directly that he needed not that any should testifie of Man this Satan stands in need of he sometimes knows Men and their Thoughts but he needs a Sign or notification of these Thoughts and cannot immediately look into them the reason why Christ needed not this is rendred thus for he knew what was in Man that is intuitively he knew his Thoughts and could immediately read them Secondly I shall endeavour to explain how much or how far he can pry into our Thoughts Several things are granted which argue Satan can go a great way toward a discovery As First That he knows the Objects in our Fancy or Phantasins and this as clearly as we do behold things with our Eyes and the proof given hereof is this That there are Diabolical Dreams in which the Devil cannot create new Species and such as our Senses were never acquainted withal as to make a Blind Man dream of Colours but that he can only call forth and set in order those Objects of which our Imagination doth retain the Shadows or Impressions and this he could not do if he did not visibly behold them in our fancy Secondly 'T is certain he knows his own Suggestions and Temptations darted into our Minds upon which he can at present know what our Thoughts are busied upon Thirdly He knows the secret workings of our Passions as Love Desire Fâ—ar c. because these depend upon or are in a concomitancy of the motions of the Blood and Spirits which he can easily discern though their motions and workings may be kept secret from the observation of all by-standers Fourthly Some go further as Scotus referente Barthol Sybilla supposing that he knows what is in our Thoughts at any time only he knows not to what these Thoughts incline but I leave this to those that can determine it certainly In the mean time I proceed Thirdly To shew what a guessing Faculty he hath of what he doth not directly know he hath such grounds and advantages for Conjecture that he seldom fails of finding our Mind As First His long experience hath taught him what usually Men do think in such cases as are commonly before them by a cunning observation of their Actions and Ways he knows this Secondly He by study and observation knows our temper and inclination and consequently what Temptations do most sute them and how we do ordinarily entertain them Thirdly He knows this the more by taking notice of our Prayers our complainings and mournings over our defects and miscarriages Fourthly He is quick and ready to take notice of any Exteriour Sign by which the Mind is signified as the Pulse the motion of the Body the change of the Countenance all which do usually shew the assent or dissent of the Mind and at least tell him what entertainment his Offers have in our Thoughts Fifthly Being so quick-sighted he can understand those particular Signs which would escape the observation of the wisest Men there are some things small in themselves and therefore unobserved which yet to wise Men are very great indicia of things the like may be said of us in reference to our inclinations our acceptance or resistance of Temptations which yet he hath curiously marked out Sixthly No doubt but he hath ways to put us upon a discovery of our Thoughts while we conceal them as by continuing and prosecuting Temptations or Suggestions till our trouble or passions do some way discover how it is with us By all which it appears that his guessings and conjectures do seldom fail him 'T is now time to speak to the other Question which is Whether and how far Satan knows things to come To this I shall return Answer in these two Conclusions First There is a way of knowing future things which is beyond the knowledg of Devils and proper only to God Esa 41. 23. there God puts the competition 'twixt Himself and Idols about the truth of a Diety upon this issue That he that can shew the things that are to come hereafter he is God which because they cannot do he doth hereby evince them to be no Gods If Satan could truly and properly have done this he had had a Plea for a Godhead In Divine Predictions two things are to be considered 1. The Matter foretold when the events of things contingent and as to second Causes casual depending upon indeterminate Causes are foretold 2. The Manner when these things are not uncertainly or conjecturally or darkly but clearly certainly infallibly and fully predicted Of this nature are Divine Predictions which Satan cannot perform nor yet the Angels in Heaven Secondly Yet Satan hath such advantages for the knowledg of future Things and such means and helps for a discovery of them that his Conjectures have often come to pass First He knows the Causes of Things which are secret to us Upon which he seems to foretel many things strange to us As a Physician may foretel the Effects Workings and Issues of a Disease as seeing them in the Causes which would pass for little less than Prophesie among the Vulgar Thus an Astrologer foretells Eclipses which would be taken for a Divine Excellency where the knowledg of the ground of these foretellings had not taken away the wonder Secondly Many things are made known to him by immediate Divine Revelation We know not the intercourse betwixt God and Satan in the
but straight takes another course such is his Diligence that we may say of him as it was said of Paul upon a better ground he will become all things to all Men that he may gain some Fifthly Diligence will most shew it self when things are at the greatest hazard or when the hopes of success are ready to bring forth In this point of diligence our Adversary is not wanting if Men are upon the point of Errour or Sin how industriously doth he labour to bring them wholly over and to settle them in Evil one would think at such times he laid aside all other business and only attended this How frequent incessant and earnest are his Perswasions and Arguings with such the like diligence he sheweth in obstructing disturbing and discouraging us when we are upon our greatest Services or near our greatest Mercies what part of the day are we more wandring and vain in our thoughts if we take not great care than when we set about Prayer at other times we find some more ease and freedom in our Imaginations as if we could better rule or command them but then as if our thoughts were only confusion and disorder we are not able to master them and to keep the door of the heart so close but that these troublesome unwelcome guests will be crouding in is impossible Let us observe it seriously and we shall find that our thoughts are not the same and after the same manner impetuous at other times as they are when we set about holy things which ariseth not only from the quickness of our Spiritual Sense in our readier observation of them at that time but also from the Devils busie Molestation and special diligence against us on such occasions Besides when he foresees our Advantages or Mercies he bestirs himself to prevent or hinder us of them if Ministers set themselves to study and preach Truths that are more piercing weighty or necessary they may observe more molestations interruptions or discouragements of all sorts than when they less concern themselves with the business of the souls of Men. He foresees what Sermons are provided and often doth he upon such foresight endeavour to turn off those from hearing that have most need and are most likely to receive benefit by them Many have noted it that those Sermons and Occasions that have done them most good when they came to them they have been some way or other most disswaded from and resolved against before they came and then when they have broken through their strongest hindrances they have found that all their obstruction was Satans diligent foresight to hinder them of such a Blessing as they have beyond hope met withal The like might be observed of the constant returns of the Lords day if Men watch not against it they may meet with more than ordinary either Avocations to prevent and hinder them or Disturbances to annoy and trouble or bodily Indispositions to incapacitate and unfit them And 't is not to be contemned that some have observed themselves more apt to be Drousie Dull or Sleepy on that day Others have noted greater bodily Indispositions then ordinarily than at other times all which make no unlikely conjecture of the Devils special diligence against us on such occasions Let 's cast in another instance to these and that is Of those that are upon the point of Conversion ready to forsake Sin for Christ Oh! what pains then doth the Devil take to keep them back He visits them every Moment with one hindrance or other sometimes they are tempted to former Pleasures sometime affrighted with present Fears and future Disappointments sometimes discouraged with Reproaches Scorns and Afflictions that may attend their alteration otherwile obstructed by the perswasion or threatning of Friends and old Acquaintances but this they are sure of that they have never more Temptations and those more sensibly troubling than at that time a clear evidence that Satan is as Diligent as Malicious I should now go on to display the Subtilty of this Powerful Malicious Cruel and diligent Adversary There is but one thing in the way which hitherto I have taken for granted and that is Whether indeed there be any such things as Devils and wicked Spirits or that these are but Theological Engines contrived by Persons that carry a good will to Morality and the publick Peace to keep Men under an awful fear of such Miscarriages as may render them otherwise a Shame to themselves and a Trouble to others It must be acknowledged a transgression of the rules of Method to offer a proof of that now which if at all ought to have been proved in the beginning of the Discourse And indeed the question at this length whether there be a Devil hath such affinity with that other though for the matter they are as different as Heaven and Hell whether there be a God that as it well deserves a confirmation for the use that may be made of it to evidence that there is a God because we feel there is a Devil so would it require a serious endeavour to perform it substantially But it would be not only a needless labour to levy an Army against professed Atheists who with high scorn and derision roundly deny both God and Devils seeing others have frequently done that but also it would occasion too large a digression from our present design I shall therefore only speak a few things to those that own a God and yet deny such a Devil as we have described and yet not to all of these neither for there were many Heathens who were confident Assertors of a Deity that nevertheless denied the Being of Spirits as severed from Corporeity and others were so far from the acknowledgment of Devils that they confounded them in the number of their Gods others there were who gave such credit to the frequent relations of Apparitions and disturbances of that kind that many had attested and complained of that they expressed more Ingenuity than Lucian who pertinaciously refused to believe because he never saw them and yet though they believed something of reality in that that was the affrightment and trouble of others they nevertheless ascribed such extraordinary things to Natural Causes Some to the powers of the Heavens and Stars in their Influences upon Natural Bodies or by the mediation of certain Herbs Stones Minerals Creatures Voices and Characters under a special observation of the motion of the Planets Some refer such things to the subtilty and quickness of the Senses of hearing and seeing which might create Forms and Images of things or discover I know not what Reflections from the Sun and Moon Some fancy the Shapes and Visions to be exuviae thin Scales or Skins of Natural things giving representations of the Bodies that cast them off or Exhalations from Sepulchres representing the shape of the Body Others make them the Effects of our untrusty and deceitful Senses the debility and corruption
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
way of blinding us Follows next The fourth way by which our Lust prevails in Satan's hand to blind Knowledg and that is by distracting and disturbing it in its work This piece of subtilty Satan the rather useth because 't is attended with a double advantage and like a two-edged sword will cut either way For 1. A confusion and distraction in the Understanding will hinder the even and clear apprehensions of things so that those principles of Knowledg cannot reach so deep nor be so firm and full in their application For as the Senses if any way distracted or hindred though never so intent must needs suffer prejudice in their operations a thick Air or Mist not only hinders the sight of the Eye but also conduceth to a misrepresentation of Objects Thus is the Understanding hindred by confusion But 2. If this succeed not yet by this he hinders the peace and comfort of God's Children 'T is a trouble to be haunted with evil thoughts To work this distraction First Satan useth a clamorous importunity and doth so follow us with Suggestions that what way soever we turn they follow us we can think nothing else or hear nothing else they are ever before us Secondly He worketh this disturbance in our thoughts by levying a legion of Temptations against us many at once and of several kinds from within from without on every side he gathers all from the Dan to the Bersheba of his Empire to oppress us with a multitude so that while our thoughts are divided about many things they are less fixed and observant in any particular Thirdly He sometimes endeavours to weary us out with long Sollicitations As those that besiege a City when they cannot storm endeavour to waste their Strength and Provisions by a long Siege His design in this is to come upon us as Ahitophel counselled Absolom when we are weary and weak-handed by watching and long resistance Fourthly But his chief design is to take the advantage of any trouble inward or outward and by the help of this he dangerously discomposeth and distracts our Counsels and Resolves If any have a Spirit distemper'd only under the apprehensions of Wrath 't is easie for him to confound and amaze such that they shall scarce know what they do or what they think The like advantage he hath from outward Afflictions and these opportunities he the rather takes for these Reasons First Usually inward or outward troubles leaves some stamp of murmuring and fullenness upon our Hearts and of themselves distemper our Spirits with a sad inclination to speak in our haste or to act unadvisedly Job's affliction imbittered his Spirit and Satan misseth not the advantage then he comes upon him with Temptations and prevailed so far that he spake many things in his anguish of which he was ashamed afterward and hides his face for it Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Secondly By reason of our Burthen we are lâ—ss weildy and more unapt to make any resistance God himself expresseth the condition of such under the similitude of those that are great with young who because they cannot be driven fast he gently leads them But Satan knows a small matter will discompose them and herein he deals with us as Simeon and Levi dealt with the Sechemites who set upon them when they were sore by circumcision Thirldly Troubles of themselves occasion Confusion multitudes of Thoughts Distractions and Inadvertencies If Men see a hazard before them they are presently at their wits end they are puzled they know not what to do thoughts are divided now resolving this then presently changing to a contrary purpose 'T is seldom but as in a multitude of words there is much folly so in a distraction of Thoughts there are many Miscarriages and Satan with a little labour can improve them to more here he works unseen in these troubled Waters he loves to angle because his Baits are not discerned Fifthly Our Considerations and Reasonings against Sin are hindred by a bold forward precipitancy When Men are hasted and pressed to the committing of Sin and like the deaf Addar stop their Ears against the voice of the Charmer in this case the rebellious Will is like a furious Horse that takes the Bridle in his Teeth and instead of submitting to the government of his Rider he carries him violently whither he would not Thus do Men rush into Sin as the Horse into the Battel The devices by which Satan doth forward this we may observe to be these among others First He endeavours to affright Men into an hopelesness of prevailing against him and so intimidates Men that they throw down their Weapons and yield up themselves to the Temptation they conclude there is no hope by all their resistance to stand it out against him and then they are easily perswaded to comply with him To help this forward Satan useth the Policy of Souldiers who usually boast high of their strength and resolutions that the hearts and courage of their Adversaries failing the Victory may fall to them without stroke The Devil expresseth a disdain and scorn of our weak opposition as Goliah did of David Am I a Dog that thou comest to me with Staves doest thou think to stand it out against me 't is in vain to buckle on thine Armour and therefore better were it to save the trouble of striving than to fight to no purpose With such like arguings as these are Men sometimes prevailed with to throw down their Weapons and to over-run their Reason through fear and hopelesness Secondly Sometimes he is more subtile and by threaping Men down that they have consented already he puts them upon desperate adventures of going forward This is usually where Satan hath used many sollicitations before after our hearts have been urged strongly with a Temptation when he sees he cannot win us over to him then he triumphs and boasts we are conquered already and that our thoughts could not have dwelt so long upon such a subject but that we had a liking to it and thence would perswade us to go on and enjoy the fulness of that delight which we have already stoln privately over Shooes over Boots Now though his arguings here be very weak for though it be granted that by the stay of the Temptation on our thoughts he hath a little entangled us it cannot hence be inferred that it is our wisdom to entangle our selves further yet are many overcome herewith and give up themselves as already conquered and so give a stop to any further consideration Thirdly When Men will not be trapanned into the Snare by the former delusions he attempts to work them up to a sudden and hasty resolve of sinning he prepares all the materials of the Sin puts every thing in order and then carries us as he did Christ into the Mountain to give us a prospect of their beauty and glory All these saith he will I give thee
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
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
careful to keep Jeroboam quiet in his sinful course of Idolatry that he stirs up Amaziah to banish Amos from the Court lest his plain dealing should startle or awaken the Conscience of the King Amos 7. 12 13. Go flee thee away into the land of Judah c. but Prophesie not any more at Bethel for it is the Kings Chappel it is the Kings Court. Thirdly In order to the keeping out the Light from the consciences of Men he insinuates himself as a lying Spirit into the mouthes of some of his mercenaries and they speak smooth things and deceit to Satan's Captives telling them that they are in a good condition Christians good enough and may go to Heaven as well as the precisest 't is a fault in unfaithful Ministers they do the Devil this service God highly complains of it Jer. 6. 14. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Ezek. 13. 10. They have seduced my people saying Peace and there was no peace and one built up a Wall and others daubed it with untempered morter Besides this Stratagem is the more likely to prevail because it takes the advantage of the humours and inclinations of Men who naturally think the best of themselves and delight that others should speak what they would have them so that when Men by the Devil's instigation prophesie deceit to sinful Men 't is most likely they should be heard seeing they desire such Prophets and love to have it so Fourthly Satan keeps off the Light by catching away the Word after it is sown This policy of his Christ expresly discovers Math. 13. 19. When anyone heareth the Word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart such opportunities the Devil doth narrowly watch to be sure he will be present at a Sermon or good discourse and if he perceive any thing spoken that may endanger his peaceable Possession how busie is he to withdraw the heart sometime by the sight of the Eyes sometimes by vain thoughts of business occasions delights and what not and if this come not up to his end then he endeavours after Men have heard to justle all out by impertinent Discourses urgencies of Imployment and a thousand such divertisements that so Men may not lay the warning to heart nor by serious meditation to apply it to their Consciences Fifthly He sometimes snuffs out the Light by Persecution Those hearers Mat. 13. 20 21. that had received the Word with some workings of affections and joy are presently offended when Persecution because of the Word ariseth By this he threatens Men into an acquiescency in their present condition that if they depart from iniquity they shall make themselves a prey Bonds Imprisonments and Hatreds he suggests shall abide them and by this means he scares Men from the Light Sixthly He sometimes smothers and choaks it with the Cares of the World As those that received Seed among Thornes by earnest engagements in business all that time strength and affection which should have been laid out in the prosecution of Heavenly things are wholly taken up and spent on outward things by this means that Light that shines into the hearts of Men is neglected and put by Seventhly He staves off Men from coming to the Light by putting them upon misapprehensions of their Estate in judging themselves by the common opinion Satan hath so far prevailed with Men that they are become confident of this conceit That Men may take a moderate liberty in Sinning and yet nevertheless be in a good condition that Sin is not so great a matter in God's esteem as in the judgment of some rigorous precisian that he will not be so extream to mark what we do amiss as some strict Professours are What can be of greater hindrance to that ingenuous search strict examination and impartial judging or shaming our selves for our iniquities which the Light of Scripture would engage us unto than such a conceit as this and yet that this opinion is not only common but ancient is manifest by those warnings and cautions given by the Apostle to the contrary Gal. 6. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he also reap Eph. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience If it had not been usual for Men to live in Uncleanness Covetousness and such like offences which he calls sowing to the flesh and yet in the midst of these to think they were not under the hazard of Wrath or if Men had not professedly and avowedly maintained such an opinion it had been superfluous for the Apostle to have warned us with so much earnestness Be not deceived let no man deceive you with such vain words Eighthly 'T is usual for Satan to still and quiet the stirring thoughts of Sinners with hopes and assurances of secresie As children are quieted and pleased with toyes and rattles so are Sinners put off and diverted from prosecuting the discoveries that the Light would make in them by this confidence that though they have done amiss yet their miscarriages shall not be laid open or manifested before Men. 'T is incredible how much the hopes of concealment doth satisfie and delight those that have some sense of Guilt Sometime Men are Impudent that they declare their Sin as Sodom they hide it not But before they arrive at so great an Impudency they usually seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us Isa 29. 15. Like those foolish Creatures that think themselves sufficiently concealed by hiding their heads in a Bush though all their bodies be exposed to open view Isa 28. 15. Those that made lies their refuge and under falshood hid themselves became as confident of their security as if they had made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell and when they have continued in this course for some time with impunity the Light is so banished that they carry it so as if God observed their Actions done in the dark as little as Men do How doth God know say they can he judge through the dark clouds thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and hence proceed they to promise themselves a safety from judgements When the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come nigh unto us for we have made lies our refuge c. Ninthly Satan keeps them from going to the Light by demurrs and delays If the Light begin to break in upon their Consciences then he tells them that there is time enough afterward Oh saith he thou art young and hast many days before thee 't is time enough to repent when you begin to be old or thou art a Servant an
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
the least relaxing of the Spring that must bend our thoughts Heaven-ward they incline to their natural bend and current As a Stone rolled up a Hill hath a renitentia a striving against the hand that forceth it and when that force slackens it goes down-ward How easily then is it for Satan to set our thoughts off our Work If we slacken our Care never so little they recoyle and tend to their old Byas and how easie is it for him to take off our hand when 't is so much in his power to inject thoughts and motions into our Hearts or to present Objects to our Eyes or Sounds to our Ears which by a natural force raiseth up our apprehension to act for in such cases non possumus non cogitare we cannot restrain the act of thinking and not without great heedfulness can we restrain the pursuit of those thinkings and imaginations 2 Satan can also do it insensibly our distractions or roveings of thoughts creep and steal upon us silently we no more know oft when they begin than when we begin to sleep or when we begin to wander in a journey where oft we do not take our selves to be out of the way till we come to some remarkable turning 3 And when he prevailes to divide our thoughts from our Duty he always makes great advantage for thus he hinders at least the comfort and profit of Ordinances While we are busied to look to our hearts much of the Duty goeth by and we are but as those that in Publick Assemblies are imployed to see to the order and silence of others who can be scarce at leasure to attend for their own advantage Besides much of the sweetness of Ordinances are abated by the very trouble of our Attendance When we are put to it as Abraham was to be still driving away those Fowls that come down upon our Sacrifice the very toil will eat out and eclipse much of the comfort Thus also he at least provides matter to object against the sincerity of the Servants of God and will assurly find a time to set it home upon them to the purpose that their hearts were wandring in their Services Thus he further gets advantage for a temptation to leave off their Duty and will not cease to improve such distractions as we have heard to an utter overthrow of their Services Nay if he prevail to give us such distractions as wholly takes away our minds and serious attentions from the Service then is the service become nothing worth though the outward circumstances of attendance be never so exact and Saint-like Who could appear in a more religious dress than those in Ezek. 33. 31. who came and sate and were pleased with Divine Services as to all outward discovery as Gods People yet was all spoiled with this that their hearts were after their Covetousness Now this Distraction Satan can work two wayes First By outward Disturbances He can present Objects to the Eyes on purpose to entice our thoughts after them The closing of the Eyes in Prayer is used by some of the Servants of God to prevent Satan's Temptations this way And we find in the Story of Mr. Rothwel that the Devil took notice of this in him That he shut his eyes to avoid distraction in prayer Which implies a Concession in the Devil that by outward Objects he useth to endeavour our distraction in Services The like he doth by noises and sounds Neither can we discover how much of these Disturbances by Coughings Hemmings Tramplings c. which we hear in greater Assemblies are from Satan by stirring up others to such noises We are sure the Damsel that had an unclean Spirit Act. 16. that grieved and troubled Paul going about these Duties with her Clamours was set on by that Spirit within her to distract and call off their thoughts from the Services which they were about to undertake Besides the common ways of giving trouble to the Servants of God in outward Disturbances he sometimes though rarely doth it in an extraordinary manner thus he endeavoured to hinder Mr. Rothwel from praying for a Possessed Person by rage and blaspheming The like hinderance we read he gave Luther and others and truly so strict an attendance in the exercise of our Minds spiritual Sences and Graces is required in matters of Worship and so weak are our hearts in making a resistance or beating off these assaults that a very smal matter will discompose us and a smaller discomposure will prejudice and blemish the Duty Secondly He distracts or disturbs us also by inward Workings and injections of Motions and representations of things to our Minds and as this is his most general and usual way so doth he make use of greater variety of contrivance and art in it As First By the troublesome impetuousness and violence of his Injections they come upon us as thick as Hail No sooner do we put by one Motion but another is in upon us he hath his Quiver full of these Arrows and our hearts under any Service swarm with them we are incessantly infested by them and have no rest At other times when we are upon worldly business we may observe a great ease and freedom in our thoughts neither doth he so much press upon us but in these Satan is continually knocking at our door and calling to us so that it is a great hazard that some or other of these Injections may stick upon our thoughts and lead us out of the way or if they do not yet 't is a great molestation or toil to us Secondly He can so order his dealings with us that he provokes us sometimes to follow him out of the Camp and seeks to ensnare us by improving our own spiritual resolution and hatred against him even as courage whetted on and enraged makes a Man ventersome beyond the due bounds of prudence or safety To this end he sometimes casts into our thoughts hideous Blasphemous and Atheistical suggestions which do not only amaze us but oftentimes engage us to dispute against them which at such time is all he seeks for for whereas in such cases we should send away such thoughts with a short Answer Get thee behind me Satan We by taking up the Buckler and Sword against them are drawn off from minding our present Duty Thirdly He doth sometimes seek to allure and draw our thoughts to the Object by representing what is pleasant and taking 1 He will adventure to suggest good things impertinently and unseasonably as when he puts us upon Praying while we should be Hearing or while we are Praying he puts into our hearts things that we have heard in Preaching these things because good in themselves we are not so apt to startle at but give them a more quick welcome 2 He also can allure our thoughts by the strangeness of the things suggested sometimes we shall have hints of things which we knew not before or some fine and excellent notions so that
ruine and whatsoever is said against this can be no prejudice to Spiritual holy Joy in God his Favour and Ways 4. Spiritual Comfort is also a badg of our Heavenly Father's kindness As Joseph the Son of his Fathers affections had a special testimony thereof in his party-coloured Coat so have Gods Favourites a peculiar token of his good Will to them when he gives them the Garments of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness if Spiritual Comfort be so advantagious to us it will be no wonder to see Satan so much rage against it it would be a satisfaction to him to tear these Robes off us to impede so needful a Duty to rob us of so much Strength and to bereave us of the sweet fruits of our Labours Thirdly It further appears that Satan's design is against the Comforts of God's Children by the many advantages he hath against them from the trouble and disquiet of their Hearts I shall reckon up the chief of them As 1. From the Trouble of the Spirit he raiseth confusions and distractions of Mind For 1. 'T is as natural to Trouble to raise up a swarm of muddy Thoughts as to a troubled Sea to cast up Mire and Dirt and hence is that comparison Isa 57. 20. a thousand fearful Surmises evil Cogitations Resolves and Counsels immediatly offer themselves This disorder of Thoughts Christ took notice of in his Disciples when they were in danger Why do thoughts arise in your hearts Luk. 24. 38. And David considered it as matter of great anxiety which called for speedy help Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Sometimes one fear is suggested then presently another now this doubt perplexeth then another question is begot by the former they think to take this course then by and by they are off that and resolve upon another and as quickly change again to a third and so onward one Thought succeeding another as Vapours from a boyling Pot. 2. Such Thoughts are vexatious and distracting the very Thoughts themselves being the poysonous steams of their running Sores are sadly afflictive and not unfitly called Cogitationes onerosae burdensom Thoughts But as they wrap up a Man in Clouds and Darkness as they puzzle him in his Resolves non-plus him in his Undertakings distract him in his Counsels disturb and hinder him in his Endeavours c. so do they bring the Mind into a labyrinth of confusion What advantage the Devil hath against a Child of God when his heart is thus divided and broken into Shivers 't is easie to imagine And David seems to be very sensible of it when he put up that request Psal 86. 11. Vnite my heart to fear thy Name 2. By disquiet of Heart the Devil unfits Men for Duty or Service Fitness for Duty lies in the orderly temper of Body and Mind making a Man willing to undertake and able to finish his work with comfortable satisfaction if either the Body or Mind be distempered a Man is unfit for such an undertaking both must be in a suitable frame like a well-tun'd Instrument else there will be no melody Hence when David prepared himself for Praises and Worship he tells us his Heart was ready and fixed and then his Tongue was ready also so was his Hand with Psaltery and Harp all these were awakened into a suitable posture That a Man is or hath been in a fit order for Service may be concluded from 1. His Alacrity to undertake a Duty 2. His Activity in the prosecution 3. His Satisfaction afterward right Grounds and Principles in these things being still presupposed This being laid as a foundation we shall easily perceive how the troubles of the Spirit do unfit us for Duty For 1. These do take away all Alacrity and forwardness of the Mind partly by diverting it from Duty Sorrows when they prevail do so fix the Mind upon the present Trouble that it can think of nothing but its Burthen they confine the Thoughts to the pain and smart and make a Man forget all other things as David in his trouble forget to eat his Bread and sick Persons willingly discourse only of their Diseases partly by indisposing for action Joy and Hope are active Principles but Sorrow is sullen and sluggish As the Mind in trouble is wholly imployed in a contemplation of its Misery rather than in finding out a way to avoid it so if it be at leisure at any time to entertain thoughts of using means for recovery yet 't is so tired out with its Burden so disheartned by its own Fears so discouraged with Opposition and Disappointment that it hath no list to undertake any thing by this means the Devil brings the soul into a spiritual Catoche so congealing the Spirits that it is made stiff and deprived of motion 2. Disquiets of Heart unfit us for Duty by hindering our activity in prosecution of Duty The whole Heart Soul and Strength should be engaged in all religious Services but these Troubles are as Clogs and Weights to hinder motion Joy is the dilatation of the Soul and widens it for any thing which it undertakes but Grief contracts the Heart and narrows all the faculties hence doth David beg an enlarged heart as the principle of Activity Psal 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my Heart for what can else be expected when the Mind is so distracted with Fear and Sorrow but that it should be uneven tottering weak and confused so that if it do set it self to any thing it acts troublesomly drives on heavily and doth very little with a great deal ado and yet were the unfitness the less if that little which it can do were well done but the Mind is so interrupted in its endeavours that sometimes in Prayer the Man begins and then is presently at a stand and dare not proceed his words are swallowed up he is so troubled that he cannot speak Psal 77. 4. Sometimes the Mind is kept so imployed and fixed on Trouble that it cannot attend in Hearing or Praying but presently the Thoughts are called off and become wandring 3. Troubles hinder our satisfaction in Duty and by that means unfit us to present Duties and indispose us to future Services of of that kind Our satisfaction in Duty ariseth 1. Sometimes from its own lustre and sweetness the conviction we have of its pleasantness and the spiritual advantages to be had thereby these render it alluring and attractive and by such considerations are we invited to their performance as Isa 2. 3. Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths Hos 6. 1. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up but trouble of Spirit draws a black Curtain over the excellencies of Duty and presents us with
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
Job's Troubles were very great and his case extraordinary Satan had maliciously stript him of all outward Comforts this he â—ore with admirable Patience Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mothers womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. The Devil seeing now himself defeated obtains a new Commission wherein Job is wholly put into his hand life only excepted chap. 2. 9. he sets upon him again and in his new encounter labours to bring upon him spiritual distresses and accordingly improves his losses and sufferings to that end as appears by his endeavours and the success for as he tempted him by his Wife to a desperate disregard of God that had so afflicted him Curse God and die so he tempted him also by his Friends to question the state of his Soul and his Integrity and all from the consideration of his outward miseries To that purpose are all their discourses Eliphaz Chap. 4. 5 6 7. from his sufferings and his carriage under them takes occasion to jear his former Piety as being no other than feigned It is come upon thee and thou faintest is not this thy fear thy confidence thy hope and the uprightness of thy ways that is is all thy Religion come to this and also concludes him to be wicked Who ever perished being innocent and where were the righteous cut off Bildad Chap. 8. 6 13. chargeth him with Hypocrisie upon the same ground and while he makes his defence Zophar plainly gives him the lye Chap. 11. 3. and at this rate they go their round and all this while Satan whose design it was to afflict his Conscience with the sense of divine Wrath secretly strikes in with these Accusations insomuch that though Job stoutly defended his Integrity yet he was wounded with inward Distresses and concluded that these dealings of God against him were no less than God's severe observance of his Iniquity as is plain from his bemoaning himself in Chap. 10. 2. I will say unto God Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Vers 16 17. Thou huntest me as a fierce Lion thou renewest thy Witnesses against me c. David was a Man that was often exercised with Sickness and Troubles from Enemies and in all the instances almost that we meet with in the Psalms of these his Afflictions we may observe the outward occasions of Trouble brought him under the suspition of Gods Wrath and his Iniquity so that he was seldom sick or persecuted but this called on the disquiet of Conscience and brought his sin to remembrance as Psal 6. which was made on the occasion of his Sickness as appears from vers 5. wherein he expresseth the vexation of his Soul under the appehension of Gods Anger all his other griefs running into this Channel as little Brooks losing themselves in a great River change their name and nature he that was at first only concerned for his Sickness is now wholly concerned with sorrow and smart under the fear and hazard of his Souls condition the like we may see in Psal 38. and many places more Having made good the assertion That discomposures of Soul upon outward occasions by long continuance and Satans management do often run up to spiritual distress of Conscience I shall next for further confirmation and illustration shew how it comes to be so 1. Discomposures of Spirit do obstruct and at last extinguish the inward comforts of the Soul so that if we suppose the discomposed Person at first before he be thus disordered to have had a good measure of spiritual joy in Gods favour and delight in his ways yet the disturbances 1. Divert his thoughts from feeding upon these Comforts or from the enjoyment of himself in them The Soul cannot naturally be highly intent upon two different things at once but whatsoever doth strongly engage the Thoughts and Affections that carries the whole Stream with it be it good or bad and other things give way at present When the heart is vehemently moved on outward Considerations it lays by the thoughts of its sweetness which it hath had in the enjoyment of God they are so contrary and inconsistent that either our Comforts will chase out of our Thoughts our Discomposures or our Discomposures will chase away our Comforts I believe the Comforts of Elias when he lay down under his grief and desired to die and of Jeremiah when he cried out of violence run very low in those fits of Discontent and their Spirits were far from an actual rejoycing in God but this is not the worst we may not so easily imagine that upon the going away of the fit the wonted Comforts return to their former course For 2. The Mind being distracted with its Burthen is left impotent and unable to return to its former exercise the warmth which the Heart had being smothered and suspended in its excercise is not so quickly revived and the thoughts which were busied with disturbance like the distempered humors of the Body are not reduced suddainly to that evenness of composure as may make them fit for their old imployment And 3. If God should offer the Influences of joyful support a discomposed Spirit is not in a capacity to receive them no more than it can receive those counsels that by any careful hand are interposed for its relief and settlement Comforts are not heard in the midst of noise and clamour the calmness of the Souls faculties are praesupposed as a necessary qualification towards its reception of a message of Peace Phineas his Wife being overcome of grief for the Arks captivity and her Husbands death could not be affected with the joyful news of a Son But 4. Sinful discomposures hinder these gracious and comfortable offers if we could possibly which we cannot ordinarily receive them yet we cannot expect that God will give them The Spirit of Consolation loves to take up his lodging in a meek and quiet Spirit and nothing more grieves him than Bitterness Wrath Anger Clamour and Malice which made the Apostle Eph. 4. 30 31. subjoyn his direction of putting these away from us with his advice of not grieving the Spirit by which we are sealed unto the day of Redemption And then 5. The former stock of Comfort which Persons distempered with discomposures might be supposed to have will soon be wasted for our Comforts are not like the Oil in the Cruse or Meal in the Barrel which had as it were their Spring in themselves we are comforted and supported by daily communication of Divine Aid so that if the Spring head be stopped the Stream will quickly grow dry 'T is evident then that inward Consolations in God will not ripen under these Shadows nor grow under these continual droppings seeing a discomposed Spirit is not capable to receive more nor able to keep what comfort it had at first we may easily see how it comes to pass that these disturbances may
in time bring on spiritual troubles for if our Comforts be once lost Trouble of Conscience easily follows Where there is nothing to fortify the Heart the poyson of malicious suggestions will unavoidably prevail 2. Discomposures of Soul afford the Devil fit matter to work upon They furnish him with strong objections against sincerity of Holiness by which the peace of Conscience being strongly assaulted is at last overthrown The usual Weapons by which Satan fights against the assurance of Gods Children are the guilt of sins committed and the neglect of Duty and the disturbed Soul affords enough of both these to make a Charge against it self For 1. Where there is much Discomposure there is much Sin If in the multitude of words there wants not Iniquity then much more in the multitude of unruly thoughts A disturbed Spirit is like troubled Water all the Mud that lay at the bottom is raised up and mixeth it self with the Thoughts If any injury or loss do trouble the Mind all the Thoughts are tinctured with Anger Pride Impatience or whatsoever root of bitterness was in the Heart before we view them not singly as the issue of wise Providence but ordinarily we consider them as done by such Instruments and against our selves as malicious spiteful causless ingrateful wrongs and then we give too great a liberty to our selves to rage to meditate revenge to threaten to reproach and what not and if our Disposition have not so strong a natural inclination to these Distempers yet the Thoughts by discomposure are quickly leavened it is the comparison used by the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 8. to express the power of Malice which is an usual attendant in this service to infect all the Imaginations with a sharpness which makes them swell into exorbitancy and excess hence proceed Revilings Quarrelings c. When the Tongue is thus fermented it is a Fire a World of Iniquity producing more sins than can be reckoned it defileth the whole Body engaging all the faculties in heady pursuit Jam. 3. 6. 2. Discomposures obstruct Duties This is the inconvenience which the Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 7. tells us doth arise from disturbances among Relations if the Wife or Husband do not carry well so that discontents or differences arise their Prayers are hindered Duties then are obstructed 1. In the Act. When the Heart is out of frame Prayer is out of season and there is an aversness to it partly because all good things are in such confusions burthensome to the Humor that then prevails which eats out all desire and delight to spiritual things and partly because they dare not come into Gods presence conscience of their own guilt and awe of God hindring such approaches 2. They obstruct the right manner of Performance straitning the Heart and contracting the Spirit that if any thing be attempted 't is poorly and weakly performed 3. And also the success of Duty is obstructed by discomposure God will not accept such Services and therefore Christ adviseth to leave the Gift before the Altar though ready for offering where the Spirit is overcharged with Offences or angry Thoughts and first to go and be reconciled to our Brother and then to come and offer the Gift it being lost labour to do it before From these sins of Omission and Commission Satan can and often doth frame a dreadful charge against those that are thus concern'd endeavouring to prove by these evidences that they are yet notwithstanding pretence of Conversion in the gall of Bitterness and bond of Iniquity whereby the peace of Conscience is much shaken and the more because also 3. These discomposures of Soul give Satan a fit season for the management of his Accusation Strong Accusations do often effect nothing when the season is unsutable Many a time he hath as much to say against the Comforts of Men when yet they shake all off as Paul did the Viper off his hand and fell no harm But that which prepares the Conscience to receive the Indictment is a particular disposition which it is wrought into by suspicious credulity and fearfulness These make the Heart as Wax to the Seal ready to take any impression that Satan will stamp upon it Now by long disturbances he works the Heart into this Mould very often and upon a double account he gains himself a fit opportunity to charge home his exceptions 1. In that he sets upon the Conscience with his Accusations after the Heart hath been long molested and confused with its other Troubles for then the Heart is weakned and unable to make resistance as at other times An Assault with a fresh Party after a long conflict disorders its Forces and puts all to flight 2. In that long and great discomposures of Mind bring on a distemper of Melancholy for 't is notoriously known by common experience that those acid Humors producing this distemper which have their rise from the Blood may be occasioned by their violent Passions of Mind the Animal Spirits becoming inordinate by long discomposures of Sadness Envy Terrour and fretful Cares and the motion of the Blood being retarded it by degrees departs from its temperament and is infected with an acidity so that Persons no way inclined naturally to Melancholy may yet become so by the disquiets of their troubled Mind Both these ways but chiefly Melancholy the Devil hath his advantage for disturbing the Conscience Melancholy most naturally inclines Men to be solicitous for their Souls welfare but withall disposeth them so strongly to suspect the worst for 't is a credulous suspitious humour in things hurtful and afflicts so heavily with sadness for what it doth respect that when Satan lays before Men of that humour their Miscarriages under their discontents their Impatience Unthankfulness Anger rash Thoughts and Speeches against God or Men c. withall suggesting that such an Heart cannot be right with God after serious thoughts upon Satan's frequently repeated Charge they cry out Guilty guilty and then begins a new trouble for their Unregenerate Estate and their supposed lost Souls 4. In this case usually Satan hath greater liberty to accuse and by his Accusations to molest the Conscience in that Men of discomposed Spirits by the manifold evils arising thence provoke God to desert them and to leave them in Satans hand to be brought into an hour of Temptation Satan's Commission is occasioned by our Provocations and the Temptations arising from such a Commission are usually dreadful they are solemn Temptations and called so after a singular manner for of these I take those Scriptures to be meant Watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation Mat. 26. 41. And lead us not into Temptation Mat. 6. 13. Such Temptations are not common Temptations and are of unknown force and hazard to the Soul which way soever they are designed either for Sin or Terror For several things do concur in a solemn Temptation As 1. Satan doth in a special manner challenge a Man to the Combate or rather
vexation yet we might justly on that single account call him the troubler of the Spirits of Men considering that naturally the thoughts of Men are restless and their imaginations ever rowling If Men sequester themselves from all business if they shut themselves up from commerce with Men turn Eremites as Jerom did on purpose to avoid disquiet yet their thoughts would hurry them from place to place sometimes to the Court sometimes to the Market sometimes to Shews and Pastimes sometimes to quarrellings sometimes they view Fields Buildings and Countries sometimes they fancy Dignities Promotions and Honours they are ever working upon one object or other real or supposed and according to the object such will the affections be high or low joyful or sorrowful so that if the utmost of what Satan could do were no more than to provide occasions discomposures would follow naturally The evil dispositions of Men would thereby be set a working though Satan stood by as an Idle Spectator The Serpent in our Breasts as Solomon tells us Eccles 10. 11. would bite without inchantment that is except it were charmed But Satan can do more than tempt objectively when he hath provided the Fewel he can also bring Fire For 2. He can also set our passions on work and incense them to greater fury than otherwise they would arrive at We see persons that are distempered with passion may be whetted up to an higher pitch of rage by any officious Flatterer that will indulge the humor and aggravate the Provocation Much more then can Satan do it by whispering such things to our Minds as he knows will increase the Flame and therefore is it that where the Scripture doth caution us against anger as the proper product of our own corruption calling it our wrath Eph. 4. 26 27. There also it warns us against the Devil as the incendiary that endeavours to heighten it And where it tells us of the disorders of the tongue which though a little Member can of it self do great mischief Jam. 3. 6. there it also tells us that the Devil brings it an additional Fire from Hell It is set on Fire of Hell And there are several ways by which Satan can irritate the Passions As 1. By presenting the occasions worse than they are or were ever intended unjustly aggravating all circumstances By this means he makes the object of the passions the more displeasing and hateful this must of necessity provoke to an higher degree 2. He can in a natural way move as it were the Wheels and set the passions a going if they were of themselves more dull and sluggish for he hath a nearer access to our Passions than every one is aware of I will make it evident thus our Passions in their workings do depend upon the fluctuations excursions and recursions of the Blood and animal Spirits as Naturalists do determines Now that Satan can make his approaches to the Blood Spirits and Humors and can make alterations upon them cannot be denied by those that consider what the Scripture speaks in Jobs case and in the cases of those that were by possession of the Devil made Dumb Deaf or Epileptick for if he could afflict Job with grievous Boils 't is plain he disordered and vitiated his Blood and Humors which made them apt to produce such Boils or Ulcers and if he could produce an Epilepsy 't is evident that he could infect the Lympha with such a sharpness as by vellicating the Nerves might cause a Convulsion and these were much more than the disorderly Motions of Blood Spirits or Humors which raise the passions of Men. If any object to this That then considering Satan's malicious diligence we must expect the Passions of Men would never be at rest 'T is answered that this power of Satan is not unlimited but oft God prohibits him such approaches and without his leave he can do nothing and also grace in God's Children working calmness submission and patience doth ballance Satan's contrary endeavour For as hurtful and vexatious occasions being represented by the Sence to the imagination are apt to move the Blood and Spirits so on the contrary the Ballast of Patience and other Grace doth so settle the Mind that the Blood and Spirits are kept steady in their usual course 3. When the Passions are up Satan can by his suggestions make them more hâ—ady and violent He can suggest to the Mind Motives and Arguments to forward it and can stir up our natural corruption with all its powers to strike in with the opportunity Thus he not only kindles the Fire but blows the Flame 4. And he can further fix the Mind upon these thoughts and keep them still upon the Hearts of Men. And then they eat in the deeper and like Poyson diffuse their malignity the further We see that Men who are at first but in an ordinary fret if they continue to meditate upon their Provocation they increase their vexation and if they give themselves to vent their Passions by their Tongues though they begin in some moderation yet as motion causeth heat so their own words whet their rage according to Eccles 10. 13. The beginning of the words of his Mouth is foolishness but the latter end of his talk is mischievous madness The same advantage hath Satan against Men by holding down their thoughts to these occasions of discomposure If occasions be so much in Satan's power and he have also so great an hand over Mens Passions 't is too evident that he can do very much to discompose the Spirits of Men that are naturally obnoxious to these troubles except God restrain him and Grace oppose him Thus have I spoken my thoughts of the first sort of troubles by which Satan doth undermine the peace of Mens Hearts CHAP. VII Of the second way to hinder Peace Affrightments the general Nature and Burthen of them in several Particulars What are the Ways by which he affrights 1. Atheistical Injections Observations of his proceeding in them 2. Blasphemous Thoughts 3. Affrightful Suggestions of Râ—probation Observations of his proceedings in that course 4. Frightful Motions to Sâ—n. 5. Strong immediate impressions of Fear 6. Affrightful scrupulosity of Conscience THe next rank of troubles by which the Devil doth endeavour to molest us I call Affrightments It is usual for those that speak of Temptations to distinguish them thus Some are say they Enticements some are Affrightments but then they extend these Affrightments further than I intend comprehending under them all those Temptations of sadness and terror of which I am next to speak but by Affrightments I mean only these perplexities of Spirit into which Satan casts Men by overacting their fears or astonishing their minds by injecting unusual and horrid thoughts against their consents Some there are that have thought those Temptations of which the Apostle complains 2 Cor. 12. 7. there was given me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me were of this kind
and inclination to harbour such Monsters within it self how would nature reluct and abominate the drinking down of noisome pudled Water or the swallowing of Toads and Serpents and hence was it that Persecutors in their devilish contrivances invented such kind of Tortures and what less doth the Devil do when he forceth Blasphemies upon their Thoughts and commits a rape by a malicious violence upon their Imaginations David under these Temptations Psal 73. 21. crys out Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins and it cannot be otherwise for the reason already mentioned Nature abhors to be forced to what is most contrary to it self and so doth Grace Now the things by which Satan works these Affrightments are contrary to Nature or Grace or both together and as they will strive to the utmost of their ability to cast out what is so opposite to them so must the Devil to the utmost of his ability if he would carry his design strength himself in his force and from hence as when Fire and Water are committed together ariseth a most troublesome conflict and indeed if there were a compliance of our consent there would be no Affrightment neither can this kind of Temptation be managed except there be the utmost dissent of the Mind If any think there is no great ground for these Temptations because some of the particulars by which he is said to affright Men are natural to us as for instance Atheistical Thoughts which are by some called the Master-vein of our original Corruption and by others said to be in the heart of every Man naturally and then consequently not so troublesome as is imagined c. I answer That when Divines call these or blasphemous Thoughts natural they do not mean that they are natural impressions engraven on us by Creation for they assert the contrary that 't is a natural and unextinguishable impression upon every Man that there is a God c. and usually give in this for proof that the greatest Atheists in fear and extremity will manifest a secret belief of a Deity by calling out O God c. or by some other posture as Caligula by hiding himself when it thundered but they mean only that our natural corruption may produce these Thoughts and that they are the natural issues thereof and therefore Perkins in answer to a question of this nature tells us that these two Thoughts there is a God and there is no God may be and are both in the same heart Now as this will give us the reason why Satan doth make choice of these Thoughts to trouble us withall which may also rise from our selves which I have hinted before and shall presently again touch upon so it tells us still that whether these Thoughts arise from our own Corruption or from Satan our natural impressions are strong against them and withall that they cannot be so affrightful but when Satan doth manage them and when the contrary impressions of Nature are awakened to give strong resistance and then that strugling must be as the tearing of our Bowels and still the worse in that we are incessantly pursued Satan still casting back with unwearied labour the same Thoughts as they are repulsed and rejected as Souldiers that besiege Cities use to cast over the Walls their fir'd Granado's 2. These are also grievous as they set the Mind upon the Rack and stretch it under laborious and doubtful enquiries after the grounds or causes of this kind of trouble for the Heart astonished with such cursed Guests against his Will presently reflects upon God and it self What have I done and wherefore am I thus disquieted with Monsters why doth the Righteous Lord suffer Satan to break open my Heart and fill me with such fearful Thoughts but when Mens enquiries are not so high but detained in a consideration of the nature of the trouble and manner of its working without looking up to the Providence of God then are their troubles increased 3. As these Injections necessitate Men in their own defence to oppose and every way to resist 't is an increase of the Burthen What Pleadings are they put to what Defiances what endeavours to call off the thoughts and all to little purpose while the trouble continues they are forced to ly in their Armour and to be constantly in their Ward 4. And yet are they further troublesome in the After-Game that Satan plays by these Thoughts 'T is not all of his design to affright Men but he usually hath another Temptation to come in the rear of this and that is to turn these Affrightments into Accusations and by urging them long upon the hearts of Men to make them believe that they are their own Thoughts the issues of their own natural Corruption and after Men are by continual Assaults weakned their Senses and Memory dulled their Understanding confounded c. they easily conclude against themselves The Tempter imputes all the horrid Blaspemy to them boldly calls them guilty of all and because their Thoughts have dwelt long upon such a Subject and withall knowing that corrupt Nature of it self will lead Men to such horrid Blasphemies or Villanies which makes it probable that it might be their own fault and for this reason Satan makes choice of such Injections as may in the Accusation seem most likely to be true being strongly charged as guilty they yield and then begins another trouble more fearful than the former Oh! what sad thoughts have they then of themselves as the most vile blasphemous Wretches sometimes they think that 't is impossible that other Mens Hearts should entertain such intollerable things within them as theirs and that none was ever so bad as they sometimes they think that if Men knew what vile imaginations and monstrous things are in their Minds they would in very Zeal to God and Religion stone them or at least exclude them from all commerce with Men sometimes they think their Sin to be the Sin against the Holy Ghost sometimes they think God is engaged in point of Honour to shew upon them some remarkable Judgment and they verily look for some fearful stroke to confound them and live under such a frightful expectation These and many more to this purpose are their thoughts so that these Temptations are every way troublesome both in their first and second effects Thus I have in the general expressed the nature of these affrightments what the particular injections are by which he studies to affright Men I shall next declare They are principally six 1. Atheistical Thoughts By injecting these into the Mind he doth exceedingly affright Men and frequently for that end doth he suggest that there is no God and that the Scriptures are but delusive contrivances c. Concerning these I shall note a few things As 1. Though there be an observable difference betwixt Atheistical injections and Temptations to Atheisme not only in the design Satan chiefly intending seduction in the latter and
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
baffle with every poor Objection and impose what he will upon them 3. Especially having the advantage of the working guilt of Conscience which he can readily stir up to present to a Mans remembrance all his failings and miscarriages of what nature soever And when Guilt rageth in an unskilful Heart it must needs create great disquiet 4. But most of all when our natural fears are awakened As when a Man hath been under any great Conviction though he be cured of his Trouble yet it usually leaves a weakness in the part as Bruâ—ses and Maims do in any Member of the Body which at the change of Weather or other accidental hurt will renew their old Trouble and then when fresh Guilt begins to press hard upon the Conscience not only do the broken Bones ake by the reviving of former fears But the impressions of his old suspitions bad conceit of himself and jealousies of the deceitfulness of his Heart which had then fixed themselves by a deep rooting do now make him most fearful of entertaining any good thought of himself So that if any consideration tending to his support be offered he dare not come near it suspecting his greatest danger to lie on that hand These advantages considered we should not think it strange that any Child of God is driven to Spiritual Sadness as some do but may rather wonder that this is not the common condition of all Christians 3. Another reason that must be assigned for these Troubles is Divine Dispensation such are his Children some so Careless others Proud others Stubborn many Presumptuous that God is forced to correct them by this piece of Discipline and to cure them by casting them into a Feaver Others of his Children he thus Exerciseth for other ends sometimes to take occasion there-from of making larger discoveries of his Love sometimes thereby preventing them from falling under some grievous Miscarriage or for the tryal and exercises of their Graces We may observe accordingly that there are three sorts of Men that usually have Exercises of this kind 1. Those who at their Conversion are either Ignorant Melancholy or were grosly Scandalous are usually brought through with great fear and sadness And this is so observable that by the mistake of Men it is made a general Rule that none are Converted but they are under great and frightful apprehensions of Wrath and dismal Terrors This indeed is true of some but these ordinarily are the Scandalous Melancholy and Ignorant sort though sometimes God may deal so with others for who can limit him Yet are there many whose Education hath been good and their Instruction aforehand great whose Conversion is so gradual and insensible that they are strangers to these troubles of Conscience and profess that if these heights of fear be necessary to Conversion they must be at a loss neither can they give an account of the time of their Conversion as others may 2. Those whose Conversion was easie when after their Conversion they miscarry by any great Iniquity they meet with as great a measure of Terrour and Fear and some think far greater as those whose new Birth was more difficult David's greatest troubles of Soul came upon him after he began to appear more publick in the World for then he met with many Temptations and great Occasions for God's exercising his Discipline over him I believe when he kept his Fathers Sheep his Songs had more of Praises and less of Complainings than afterward It is the Opinion of some that God's dealing in this kind of Dispensation even when miscarriage is not the cause is more sharp usually to those whose Conversion hath been most easie 3. There is another sort of Men to whom God vouchsafes but seldom and short fits of Spiritual Joy as breathing times betwixt sharp fits of Soul-trouble for necessary refreshment and recovery of strength but the constant course which God holds with them is to exercise them under fears while he hides his Face from them and suffers Satan to vex them by urging his Objections against their holiness and integrity Heman was one of this Rank and the great Instance which God hath given in his Word for the support of others that may be in the same case For he testifies Psal 88. that he suffered the Terrours of God almost to destraction and this from his Youth up 'T is not fit for us too narrowly to question why God doth thus to his Children seeing his Judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out but we may be sute that God sees this dealing to be most fit for those that are exercised therewith it may be to keep Pride from them or to prevent them from falling into some greater inconvenience or sin Unto which he takes notice of a more than ordinary proneness in their disposition or for the benefit of others who may thereby take notice what an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against God and what a malicious Adversary they have to deal with Whoso shall consider these reasons of Spiritual Sadness must needs confess that seeing the advantages which Men give to a malicious Devil to vex their Consciences are so many and great and the weakness of Gods Children so hazardous for the prevention whereof a wise careful Father will necessarily be engaged to exercise his Discipline it cannot be expected but that Spiritual Troubles should be very frequent among the Servants of God Here it is requisite that I give satisfaction to this Quaery Seeing that God doth sometime wound the Consciences of his Children and that Satan also wounds them what are the differences betwixt God and Satan in inflicting these Wounds Answ For the right understanding of this Question I shall propound two things 1. That it is a truth that God doth sometimes wound the Consciences of his Children and this 1. Before Conversion but in order to it as preparatory to that change Men are then in their sins walking in the vanity of their minds To translate them from this estate he awakens the Conscience shews them their Iniquities and the danger of them that at present they are in their Blood Children of wrath as well as others and that without Christ they are miserable the effect of this must needs be serious Consideration deep thoughts of Heart with some trouble only as to the measure and degree there is great difference God doth not in the particular application of these things to the Conscience tie up himself exactly to the same manner and measure of proceeding though he keep still to his general Method Hence is it that some in regard of Gods gentle leasurely dealing and the frequent interposure of Incouragements are if compared with the case of others said to be allured and drawn with Cords of Love But others have a remarkable measure of trouble sharp fits of Fear and Anguish and those most commonly are such whose Conversion is more quick and the Change visible from one extream to another as Paul
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
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
be in a state of Grace that they in that state are in a very bad unsuitable condition to it For if his Arguments fall short of the first they seldom miss the latter mark This was his first Engine Now follows 2. The other Engine by which he fixeth these Conclusions which though it be not Argumentative yet it serves to sharpen all his Fallacies against the Comforts of God's Children this is fear which together with his Objections he sends into the Mind That Satan can raise a storm and commotion in the Heart by fear hath been proved before I shall now only in a few things shew how he doth forward his design by astonishing the Heart with his frightful thundrings 1. His Objections being accompanied with Affrightments they pass for strong undeniable Arguments and their Fallacy is not so easily detected Fear as well as Anger darkens Reason and disables the Understanding to make a true faithful search into things or to give a right judgment As Darkness deceives the Senses and makes every Bush affrightful to the Passenger or as muddied Waters hinder the sight so do Fears in the Heart disable a Man to discover the silliest Cheat that Satan can put upon it 2. They are also very Credulous When Fear is up any Suggestion takes place As suspitious Incredulity is an effect of Joy the Disciples at first hearing that Christ was risen for Joy believed it not so suspitious Credulity is the effect of Fear And we shall observe several things in the Servants of God that shew a strange Inclination as it were a Natural aptitude to believe the evil of their Spiritual Estate which Satan suggests to them As 1. There is a great forwardness and Precipitancy in the Heart to close with evil Thoughts raised up in us When jealousies of God's Love are injected there is a violent Hastiness forthwith all calm deliberation being laid aside to entertain a belief of it This is more than once noted in the Psalms In this case David acknowledgeth this hasty Humour I said in my haste Psal 31. 22. and Psal 116. 11. This hasty forwardness to determine things that are against us without due examination Asaph calls a great weakness This is my Infirmity Psal 77. 10. 2. There is observable in those that are under Spiritual Troubles a great kind of Delight if I may so call it to hear Threatnings rather than Promises and such Discourses as set forth the misery of a Natural State rather than such as speak of the Happiness of the Converted Because these things in their apprehension are more suitable to their Condition and more needful for them in order to a greater measure of Humiliation which they suppose to be necessary However thus they add fuel to the Flame 3. They have an aptitude to hide themselves from Comfort and with a wonderful nimbleness of Wit and Reasoning to evade and answer any Argument brought for their Comfort as if they had been Volunteers in Satans service to fight against themselves 4. They have also so great a blasting upon their Understanding that Satan's tempting them to doubt of their good Estate is to them a sufficient reason to doubt of it and that is Ground enough for them to deny it because Satan questions it 3. These Fears make all Satan's suggestions strike the deeper they point all his Arrows and make them pierce as it were the Joynts and Marrow they poyson and envenom them to the great increase of the Torment and hinderance of the Cure they bind the Objections upon them and confirm them in a certain belief that they are all true We have now viewed Satan's Engines and Batteries against the Servants of the Lord for the destuction of their Joy and Peace by Spiritual Troubles but these are but the beginnings of sorrows if compared with those distresses of Soul which he sometimes brings upon them Of which next CHAP. IX Of his fourth way to hinder Peace by Spiritual Distresses 1. The Nature of these Distresses the Ingredients and Degrees of them Whether all distresses of Soul arise from Melancholy 2. Satan's method in working them the Occasions he makes use of the Arguments he urgeth the strengthening of them by Fears 3. Their Weight and Burthen explained in several Particulars Some concluding Cautions THe last sort of Troubles by which Satan overthrows the peace of the Soul are Spiritual Distresses these are more grievous Agonies of Soul under deepest apprehensions of Divine Wrath and dreadful Fears of everlasting Damnation differing in nature and degree from the former sorts of Troubles though in these Satan observes much what the same General Method which he used in Spiritual Troubles last mentioned For which cause and also that these are not so common as the other I shall speak of them with greater Brevity Herein I shall shew 1. Their Nature 2. Satan's Method in working them 3. Their Weight and Burthen 1. The Nature of Spiritual Distresses will be best discovered by a consideration of those Ingredients of which they are made up and of the different degrees thereof 1. As to the Ingredients there are several things that do concur for the begetting of these violent Distresses As 1. There is usually a Complication of several kinds of Troubles Sometimes there are outward Troubles and inward discomposures of Spirit arising from thence sometimes Affrightments of blasphemous thoughts long continued and usually Spiritual Troubles in which their State or Condition have been called to question have gone before Heman who is as famous an Instance in this case as any we meet withal in Scripture in Psal 88. seems not obscurely to tell us so much his Soul was full of troubles ver 3. And in ver 7. he complains that God had afflicted him with all his Waves And that these were not all of the same kind though all concurred to the same end he himself Explains ver 8 18. where he bemoans himself for the unkindness of his Friends Thou hast put away mine Acquaintance Lover and Friend hast thou put far from me 2. These Troubles drive at a further end than any of the former for their design was only against the present Quietness and Peace of God's Children but these design the ruine of their hopes for the future they are troubled not for that they are not Converted but for that they expect never to be Converted This is a trouble of an high nature making them believe that they are eternally Reprobated cut off from God for ever and under an impossibility of Salvation 3. These troubles have the consent and belief of the Party In some other troubles Satan disquieted the Lords Servants by imposing upon them his own cursed suggestions violently bearing in upon them temptations to Sin and Blasphemy or objections against their state of Regeneration while in the mean time they opposed and refused to give consent but in these Satan prevails with them to believe that their case is really such as their Fears represent it to be
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
every petty occasion nay thou canst not so much as pray for Pardon Is not this not only a Heart that doth not but that cannot Repent Besides saith he thou knowest the secret thoughts that thy Heart is privy to do they not boyl up in thy Breast against God Art thou not ready to tax him for dealing thus with thee What is this untowardness but desperate obdurateness And if with all these there be blaspemous Injections then he tells him it is a clear case that he is judicially hardned in that he acts the part of the damned in Hell already By all or some of these Deceits the Devil doth often prevail so far with Men that they conclude their Heart to be so obstinate so stupid that 't is impossible that it should be ever mollified or brought into a penitential frame and consequently that there is no hope of their Salvation 3. There is but one thing more besides the occasions which he takes and the Arguments which he makes use of relating to Satan's method for the procurement of Spiritual Distresses and that is his endeavour to strengthen these Arguments by the increase of fears in their Hearts What Satan can do in raising up misgiving tormenting Fears hath been said and how serviceable this is to his design I shall shew in a few Particulars having only first noted this in the General That as his design in these Distresses is raised to express his utmost height of Malice against Men in pushing them forward to the greatest mischief by excluding them totally from the lowest degree of the hope of Happiness and by perswading them of the inevitable certainty of their eternal Misery So he doth endeavour by the strongest impressions of Fear to terrifie them to the utmost degree of affrightful Amazement and consequently the effects of that Fear are most powerful For 1. By this means the Spirits of Men are formed and moulded into a frame most suitable for the belief and entertainment of the most dismal impressions that Satan can put upon them For strong fears like Fire do assimulate every thing to their own nature making them naturally incline to receive the blackest the most disadvantagious interpretations of all things against themselves so that they have no capacity to put any other sense upon what lies in their way but the very worst hence are they possessed with no other thoughts but that they are remediless Wretches desperate Miscreants utterly forsaken of God They are brought into such a woful partiality against their own Peace that they cannot judg aright of any Accusation Plea or Argument that Satan brings for a proof of their Unhappiness but being fill'd with strong prejudices of Hell they think every Sophism a strong Argument every Supposition a Truth and every Accusation conclusive of no less than their Eternal Damnation Insomuch that their Fears do more to discomfit them than all Satan's Forces A dreadful sound being in their Ears their strength fails them at the appearance of any Opposition As when fear comes upon an Army they throw away their Weapons and by an easie Victory give their Backs sometimes to an inconsiderable Enemy 2. Men thus possessed with fear do not only receive into their own Bowels every Weapon which Satan directs on purpose to the wounding and slaying of their Hopes but by a strange kind of belief they imagine every thing to be the Sword of an Enemy All they hear or meet with turns into Poyson to them for they think every thing is against them Promises as well as Threatnings Mercies as well as Judgments and that by all these one as well as another God as with a Flaming Sword turning every way doth hinder their access to the Tree of Life Bilney the Martyr as Latimer in his Sermons reports of him after his denial of the Truth was under such horrours of Conscience that his Friends were forced to stay with him Night and Day No Comforts would serve If any comfortable place of Scripture was offered to him it was as if a Man should cut him through with a Sword Nothing did him good he thought that all Scriptures made against him and sounded to his Condemnation Neither is it so rare a thing for Fears to form the Imagination into such mishapen apprehensions as that we should think such Instances to be only singular and unusual but 't is a common effect of Terrour which few or none escape that are under Spiritual Distresses The blackness of their thoughts make the whole Scripture seem black to them The unfit medium through which they look doth discolour every Object So that the Book of Life as Mrs. Kath. Bretterge in the like case expressed her self concerning the Bible seems to be nothing else but a Book of Death to them 3. From hence it follows that no Counsel or Advice can take place with them Excessive Fears do remove their Souls so far from Peace that they will not believe there is any Hope for them though it be told them The most compassionate serious Admonitions of Friends the strongest Arguments against Despair the clearest discoveries of the Hopes that are before them c. effect but little while they are spoken it may be they seem to relieve them a little but the Comfort abides not with them 't is soon gone Though they cannot answer the Arguments brought for them yet they cannot believe them as if their Souls were now deprived of all power to believe any thing for their good Suitable to that Expression of Spira in answer to his Friends that laboured to comfort him I would believe Comfort but cannot I can believe nothing but what is contrary to my Comfort Nay when they are told that many others have been under the like dreadful apprehensions of everlasting Misery who have at last been Comforted and by manifold Experience we find that it is the greatest ease to distressed Souls to hear especially to speak with some that have been in the like case for this will oft administer some hope that they also may at last be comforted when the most comfortable Promises of the Scripture are a Terrour to them Yet this doth not effect the least ease for them sometimes because some are so wholly possessed with unalterable Prejudice against themselves that they think none are or ever were like them They compare themselves to Judas and Cain and think their Iniquity to be aggravated by many Circumstances far beyond the pitch of them Thus Spira judged of himself I tell you saith he my case is mine own 't is singular none like it 4. Though Fears make the Soul unactive to any thing of Comfort because they wholly destroy its inclination and alter its Byas to Hope yet on the contrary they make it very nimble and active to pursue the conclusions of Misery which they have helped to frame For the spring of all the faculties of the Soul are bent that way Hence it is that those who are possessed with these
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
distrustfully question and deny the other He clave the Rock but can he provide Flesh can â—e give Bread Strange unbelief that sees and acknowledgeth Omnipotency in one thing and yet denies it in another Fifthly Providence hath been an old Question 't is an Atheism that some have been guilty of to deny that God ordereth all affairs relating to his Children here below who yet have not so fully extinguished their natural Impressions as to dare to deny the being of God That God is they confess but withal they think that he walketh in the Circuit of Heaven and as to the smaller concerns of Men neither doth good nor evil This being an old Error to which most are but too inclinable and the more because such things are permitted as the punishment of his Children and their Tryals while others have all their heart can wish as seem scarce consistent with that love and care which Men look for from him to his Servants they are apt enough to renew the thoughts of that perswasion upon their Minds for which the failure of ordinary ways of help seems to be an high probability that he keeps himself unconcerned and therefore there seems to be no such cause of relyance upon him The Psalmist so expresseth that Truth Men shall say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth that it is discovered to be a special retrivement of it by many and signal convincing Evidences from that distrust of God and his Providences that Men usually slide into upon their Observation of the many seeming failures of outward means of help Secondly The other Branch of the Observation That from a distrust of Providence he endeavours to draw them to an unwarrantable attempt for their relief is as clear as the former Sarai being under a distrust of the promise for a Son because of her Age gave her Hand-maid to Abraham that in that way the Promise seeming to fail she might obtain Children by her David because of the many and violent pursuits of Saul not only distrusted the Promise thinking he might one day perish by him but resolves to provide for his own safety by a speedy escape into the Land of the Philistines a course which as appears by the Temptations and evils he met with there was altogether unwarrantable That from a distrust Men are next put upon unwarrantable Attempts is clear from the following Reasons First The affrightment which is bred by such distrusts of Providences will not suffer Men to be idle Fear is active and strongly prompts that something is to be done Secondly Yet such is the confusion of Mens minds in such a case that though many things are propounded in that hurry of thoughts they are deprived usually of a true Judgment and deliberation so that they are oppressed with a multitude of thoughts as David on the like occasion takes notice in the Multitude of my thoughts within me c. and as he expresseth the case of Sea-men in a Storm they are at their wits end Thirdly The desparing grievance of Spirit makes them take that which comes next to hand as a drowning Man that grasps a Twig or Straw though to no purpose Fourthly Being once turned off their Rock and the true stay of the Promise of God for help whatever other course they take must needs be unwarrantable If they once be out of the right way they must needs wander and every step they take must of necessity be wrong Fifthly Satan is so Officious in an evil thing that seeing any in this condition he will not fail to proffer his help and in place of Gods Providence to set some unlawful Shift before them Sixthly And so much the rather do Men close in with such overtures because a sudden fit of passionate fury doth drive them and out of a bitter kind of despite and crossness as if they meditated a revenge against God for their disappointment they take up an hasty wilful resolve to go that way that seems most agreeable to their passion saying with King Joram What wait we upon the Lord any longer for We will take such a course let come on us what will The Service which the Observation well digested may perform for us is very fully contained in an advice which David gives on the like occasion Psal 37. 34. which is this Wait on the Lord and keep his way Failures of ordinary means should not fill us with distrust neither then should we run out of God's way for help He that would practise this must have these three things which are comprehended in it First He must have full perswasions of the Power and Promise of God I do not mean the bare hear-say that God hath promised to help and that he is able to deliver but these Truths must be wrought upon the heart to a full Assurance of them and then we must keep our Eye upon them for if ever we lose the Sight of this when troubles beset us our Heart will fail us and we shall do no otherwise than Hagar who when her Bottle of Water was spent and she saw no way of supply sate down gave up her Son and self for lost and so falls a weeping over her helpless condition This was that Sight of God in regard of his Power Goodness Faithfulness and Truth which are things Invisible which kept up the Heart of Moses that it sunk not under the pressure of his fears when all things threatned his ruine Secondly He that would thus wait upon God had need to have an equal Ballance of Spirit in reference to second causes Despise or Neglect them he may not when he may have them for that were intollerable presumption and so to center our Hopes and Expectations upon them as if our welfare did certainly depend upon them is an high affront to Gods Omnipotency and no less than a sinful idolizing of the Creature but the engagements of our Duty must keep carefully to the first and the consideration of an Independency of an Almighty Power as to any subordinate means or causes must help us against the other miscarriage When all means visible fail us we must look to live upon Omnipotent Faithfulness and Goodness which is not tyed to any thing but that without all means and contrary to the Powers of second Causes can do what he hath promised or sees fit Thirdly There is no waiting upon God and keeping his way without a particular trust in God to this we are not only warranted by frequent Commands Trust in the Lord I say Trust in the Lord but highly encouraged to it under the greatest Assurances of help Psal 37. 5. Trust in him and he shall bring it to pass Trust in the Lord and do Good and verily thou shalt be fed ver 3. The Lord shall help and deliver them because they trust in him And this we are to do at all times and in the greatest Hazards and with the highest Security I laid me
that 't is not only a denyal of God that is above but usually a vesting some mean and contemptible thing with those Attributes which only suit a God Infinite and Eternal As Israel did not only forsake the Almighty by their distrust but place their hopes upon Ashur upon their own Horses and Warlike Preparations and at last upon the works of their hands which they called their Gods How offensive this is to the Lord we may observe by that notable check which the Prophet gave Ahaz Esay 7. 8 13. notwithstanding his complement of refusing a Sign which God offered him for the strengthning of his hope upon a pretence that he would trust without it though indeed he absolutely distrusted him as appears by 2 Chron. 28. 20. that it was a weaning and tyring out the Patience of a long-suffering God Is it a small thing for you to weary Men but will you weary my God also God is so active and jealous of all incroachments of this kind that they may expect he will give up such Offenders to be punished by the terrors of an higher distrust He that is not owned as a God in his Providences will not be owned as a Father for Spiritual Mercies they that will not own him for the Body shall not be able to lay hold upon him or his strength to be at peace with him for their Souls and by this piece of just discipline he often cures the distrust of Providence in his Children who when they see themselves plunged into terrors and fears about their everlasting Welfare do not only call God Just and accept of the punishment of their Iniquity in distrusting him for smaller matters but now wish with all their hearts that they might have no greater thing to trouble them than what relates to the Body or this Life To Sum up all these reasons in one word Satan hath from the forementioned considerations a certain expectation of prevalency For not only in this case doth God as it were fight for him by giving them up to distrust their Filial Interest that have provoked him by a distrust of Providence and our Faith is also so weakned by the former overthrow that 't is not able to maintain its ground in an higher matter but also this distrust carries that in the nature and grounds of it that will of it self work up to a disbelief of spiritual Mercies He knows then that this piece of the Victory is an easy Consequence of the former and we may say of it as the Prophet Nahum chap. 3. 12. of the Strong-holds of Nineveh 't is like a Fig-tree with the first ripe Figs if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater This Temptation of distrusting our Son-ship falls into Satans Mouth with a little Labour when once he hath prevailed so far as to make us distrust the Providence of God in outward matters This must warn and caution us against any unbeseeming unbelieving entertainment of jealousy against the Lords Providence we are but too apt in our straits to take a greater liberty to question his Mercy and Power not foreseeing how closely this borders upon a greater evil we may say of it as the Apostle speaks of babling in Controversies that they lead to more ungodliness and that such words eat as a Canker so doth this distrust usually carry us further and when we fall out with God for small matters he will be angry in earnest and withdraw from us our Consolations in greater In the depth of your distresses when your fears are round about you and God seems to compass you about with his Net when Lover and Friend forsakes and when there is no appearance of help endeavour for the keeping hold of your Interest in God to behave your selves according to the following directions First Look upon the Providences of God to be as a great deep the bottom of whose ways and designs you cannot reach think of them as of a Mystery which indeed you must study but not throw away because you cannot at first understand it Providences are not to be dealt with as Alexander did by Gordius his knot who when he could not loose it he cut it If you see not the end of the Lord or cannot meet with a door of hope in it yet lay your Hand upon your Mouth speak not think not evil of things you know not but wait till the time of their bringing forth Secondly You must keep up in your hearts high and honourable thoughts of God yea of his Mercy and Goodness and where you cannot see your way or God's way before you yet as it were by a kind of implicit Faith must you believe that he is Holy and Good in all his ways Thirdly Though you may read your Sins or God's displeasure in them and accordingly endeavour to humble your selves and call your selves vile yet must it be always remembred that Eternal Love or Hatred is not to be measured by them Fourthly Restrain complainings 'T is indeed an ease to complain I will speak saith Job that I may be refreshed notwithstanding a vent being given 't is difficult to keep within bounds Our complainings entice us to distrust as may appear in Job who took a boldness this way more than was fit as Chap. 10. 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress and that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands All this hath been said in the opening of the Temptation it self now must I consider the motive that Satan used to bring on the Temptation by If thou be the Son of God c. The Question that is here moved by some is whether Satan really knew or truly doubted Christ to be the Son of God Several Learned Men think that he was in doubt and the reasons are variously conjectured Cyprian conceives that the unity of the two Natures in one Person did blind him he knew it to be impossible that the Divine Nature should hunger and might think it strange that the Humane Nature should fast so long Cornelius a Lapide thinks that Satan knew that there should be two Natures united in one Person and that this occasioned Satans Fall while he proudly stomacked the exaltation of the Humane Nature but he imagins Satan's doubt arose from a doubtful Sence of that phrase This is my beloved Son as not knowing whether Christ were the Natural or an Adopted Son of God But notwithstanding these apprehensions others conceive that Satan knew very well who Christ was and that being privy to so many things relating to him as the Promises which went before and directly pointed out the time the Angels Salutation of Mary at his Conception the Star that conducted the Wise Men to him the Testimony from Heaven concerning him with a great many things more he could not possibly be ignorant that he was the Messias and the Son of God by Nature Neither doth that expression If thou be the Son of God
became an Argument against him Joh. 7. 41. while some were convinced and said This is the Christ others said shall Christ come out of Galilee Thirdly Another part of his Design in the use of Scriptures is to put a Varnish upon Hypocrisy He is ready to serve Men by putting Scripture Expressions in their Mouths and inuring them to a constant use of the phrases of those Divine Writings that they may less suspect themselves of the Pride Formality and secret wickedness of their Hearts and to help on their mistakes concerning their Spiritual Condition he can urge upon their Consciences those Scriptures that serve to engage them in external Observances of Religion It may appear by the Pharisees boast of Fasting twice a Week of paying Tythes of giving Alms that their Consciences were some way concerned in these things so that though they were left without check of Conscience to devour Widows Houses yet were they urged to make long Prayers Suitable to this is that which Solomon speaks of the Harlot who to colour over her Wickedness had her Offerings and Vows and when her Conscience is appeased with these performances she can excuse her self in her way of sinning She eats and wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no wickedness Prov. 30. 20. Satan doth but hereby help to paint a Sepulchre or guild a Potsheard and to furnish Men with Excuses and Pretexts in their way of sinning Not unlike to this was that Service which the Devil with great readiness performed as I was informed from some of good credit to a young Student who had faln upon some Books of Magick in a Colledg-Library into which having stoln privately one Night in pursuit of that Study was almost surprised by the President who seeing a Candle there at an unseasonable time suddenly opens the Door to know who was up so late in which strait the Devil to gratify his Pupil with a ready excuse snatcheth away his Book and in a moment lays Montanus his Bible before him that he might pretend that for his imployment Secondly Another point of Satan's unfaithful dealing with Scripture is his falsecitation of it 't is nothing with him to alter change or leave out such a part as may make against him If he urge Promises upon Men in order to their Security and Negligence he conceals the Condition of them and bannisheth the Threatning far from their Minds representing the Mercy of God in a false Glass as if he had promised to save and bring to Heaven every Man upon the common and easy tearms of being called a Christian If it be his purpose to disquiet the Hearts of God's Children to promote their fears or to lead them to dispair then he sets home the Commands and Threatnings but hides the Promises that might relieve them and which is remarkable he hath so puzled some by setting on their Hearts a piece of Scripture that when the next words or next verse might have eased them of their Fears and answered the sad Objections which they raised against themselves from thence as if their Eyes had been holden or as if a mist had been cast over them they have not for a long time been able to consider the relief which they might have had This hiding of Scripture from their Eyes setting aside what God may do for the just chastisement of his Childrens Folly is effected by the strong Impression which Satan sets upon their Hearts and by holding their Minds down to a fixed Meditation of the dreadful inferences which he presents to them from thence not suffering them to divert their Thoughts by his incessant Clamours against them Thirdly He unfaithfully handleth Scriptures by wresting the true Import and Sense of them We read of some 2 Pet. 3. 16. who wrest the Scripture the word in the Original signifies a racking or torturing of it as Men upon a Rack are stretched beyond their due length to a dislocation of their joints and sometimes forced to spake what they never did nor intended so are the Scriptures used Those that do so are Satan's Scholars and taught of him though in regard of the Spirits true teaching they are called unlearned which is sufficient to shew Satan's deceitful dealing he often lays his dead and corrupt Sense as the Harlot did with her dead Child in the room of the living Infant in the place of the living meaning of the Scripture this may be seen evidently First In Heresies or Errors these are Satans Brood and there are none so vile that pretend to Christian Religion but they claima kindred to Scripture and are confident on its Authority for them Now seeing Truth is but one and these Errors not only contradictory to Truth but to each other Satan could never spin out such conclusions from the Divine Oracles but by wresting them from their true intendments and he that would contemplate the great Subtilty of Satan in this his Art need but consider what different strange and monstrous shapes are put upon the Scripture by the several Heresies which march under its Colours The Quakers in their way represent it like an old Almanack out of date and withal in the use they make of it they render it as a piece of nonsensical furious roving The Socinians take down the sublime Mysteries of Christs satisfaction and Justification by Faith with External Rewards and Punishments to a strain as low as the Turkish Alcoran The Papists make it like a few leaves of an imperfect Book wanting Beginning and End and so not fit to be set up as a sufficient Rule The Ranters make it seem rather like Language from Hell than the Commands of the Pure and Holy God Some will have it to countenance most ridiculous inventions in Worship others will have it to discharge all outward observations and Ordinances as Childish Rudiments Some raise it all to the pitch of Aenigmatical unintelligible Mysteries Others can find no more in the precepts of it than in Aristotles Ethicks Thus by distorting and wresting Satan hath learn'd these unskilful Ones to make it serve their vilest Lusts and Humours Secondly The same Art of wresting Scripture is observable in his secret Suggestions If he would encourage any in Sin he can Wrest Scripture for that and tell him that God is Merciful that Christ died for Sinners that there is hope of Pardon that Saints have done the like things very true in themselves but perverted by him to another sense than ever they were intended to by God who hath spoken these things that we sin not If he would discourage a Saint he can tell him when he finds him doubting his estate that the fearful and unbelieving have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone when he finds him under a known Sin he tells that of the Apostle If we sin willfully after we have received the knowldg of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins When he observes them discomposed and wandering in
though in his haste that all Men were Lyers it was an unbelieving Reflection on the Promise given him by Samuel In Mal. 3. 13. the People did not believe that they had spoken so much against God when yet their Words had been stout against him Secondly Satan endeavours this by violent Injections of Blasphemous thoughts that are directly such In this I shall note to you First That the vilest Thoughts of God of his Ways and Providences of Scripture and of Christ are frequently suggested things of greatest out-rage against Heaven and Contempt of the Almighty as Bernard expresseth it terribilia de Fide horribilia de Divinitate as that there is no God or that he is not Just or not Faithful to his Promises or that Christ was but an Impostor he sticks at nothing in this kind though never so contrary to the Hope and Perswasion of those whom he thus molests Secondly These are frequently reiterated upon them and their minds so troubled by them that they cannot free themselves from such thoughts but he follows on and clamours in their Ears as Gerson observes Nega Deum Meledic Deo Deny God Curse God Thirdly And this with so great a force and Impetuosity that they are compelled to form these thoughts in their Minds and to speak contrary to what they would as if their Thoughts and Tongues were not under their own Government the Devil not satisfying himself to bear in these Thoughts upon them but he endeavours as it were to make them say after him and to cast his Suggestions into their own Mould that so they might seem properly to be their own and this they are forced to whether they will or no even then when their Minds are filled with Horrour their Heart with Grief and their Body with Trembling I have discoursed with some who have bitterly complained that their Tongues and their Thoughts seemed not to be their own but that Satan ruled them at his Pleasure and that when in opposition to the Temptation they would have formed their Tongues to speak Blessing of God they have spoken Cursing instead of Blessing and that when a blasphemous Thought had been cast into their Mind they could not be at rest till they had thought it again Fourthly These troublesome Temptations are oft of long continuance Joannes Climacus tells us of a Monk that was troubled with blasphemous Thoughts for twenty years together and could not quit himself of them though he had macerated his Body with Watchings and Fastings Some have them going away and returning again by fits according as the prevalency and ferment of their Melancholy gives Satan the advantage of dealing thus with them For if we enquire why it is thus especially with the Children of God we must partly resolve it into the unsearchable Wisdom of God who for Holy Ends of Teaching and Disciplining his Servants permits Satan thus to molest them and partly into those particular advantages which Satan hath against them according to the variety of their Conditions which usually are these First He takes advantage of such Bodily Distempers as do deprive Men of the use of their Reason as Feavers Frenzies Madness in these he oft forms the Tongues of Men to horrid blasphemous Speeches Secondly a Pressure of outward Afflictions gives him his desired opportunity and this he knows to be generally so successful that he promised himself by this means a Victory over Job Ordinarily Straits and Miseries do produce Blaspheming Esa 8. 21. the Prophet notes that when the People should be hardly bestead and hungry they should fret themselves and curse their King and their God and look upward as avouching what they had done Thirdly Worldly Plenty Fulness and Pleasure lay often Foundations of this Temptation when their Cups are full and their Hearts high Satan can easily make them set their Mouth against Heaven A Proud Heart will readily say our Tongue is our own or who is the Lord This was the Engine which the Devil managed if it were as Job suspected against the Sons and Daughters of Job to make them Curse God in their Hearts and by this did he seek to prevail upon Christ in this blasphemous Temptation Fourthly A Melancholy Distemper doth usually invite Satan to give blasphemous Suggestions the disturbed and plyable Fancies of such are the advantages which he improves against them Fifthly Inward Terrors and Distresse of Conscience are also an occasion to Satan to move them as by a desperate Humor to utter hard things of God and against themselves But there is yet a third way by which Satan tempts Men to Blaspheming by sudden Glances of blasphemous Imaginations which like Lightnings do astonish the Heart and then suddenly Vanish these are very common and the best of Men observe them frequently Satan seems as it were rather to Frolick and Sport himself in these Suggestions than to intend a serious Temptation their danger is not so much yet are they not to be despised lest these often visits carelesly entertained and not dismissed with just abhorrency do secretly envenom the Soul and prepare it for stronger Assaults I shall next enquire into the Reasons of this trouble which Satan gives the Children of God First These Temptations are very affrighting though they prevail not yet they are full of perplexing annoyance Corrupt Nature startles at them and receives them not without dread and horrour 't is sadly troublesome to hear others Blaspheme God The reproaches of those that reproached thee saith David fell upon me It was as a Sword in his Bones to hear the blasphemous Scoffs of the wicked when they said to him where is thy God And if it were confusion and shame to him to hear the Enemy Reproach and Blaspheme as he professeth it was Psal 44. 15 16. how sadly afflicting would it be for any Child of God to observe such things in his own Imaginations If there were no more in its than this it is enough to put Satan upon that Design because 't is a troublesome kind of Martyrdom Secondly This is also a spiteful revenge against God all he can do is to blaspheme and rage and 't is a kind of Delight to put this force upon those that carry his own Image he would do all he can to make his own Children to vilify and reproach their Heavenly Father and to render Cursing for Blessing Thirdly This Temptation though it have not the Consent or Complyance of God's Children yet it opens a way to many other Sins as Murmuring Distrust Despair weariness of God's Ways and Services When we find Satan thus to run upon us it is apt to breed strange thoughts of God that thus permits Satan to take us by the Throat or to make us judge of our selves as rejected of God and given up to Satan's Power and if it do this his labour is not in vain we are as one observe more to fear his Subtilty in bringing us by this into other snares than the
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
which all Commentators do take notice of From this we have another Direction for the right way and order of resisting Temptations which is That Temptations are best repelled by Arguments drawn from the Word of God For the explanation of this it may be considered what is 1. presupposed in this Direction for when it is affirmed that we must answer by Reasons from Scripture this Implies First That Temptations are not to be opposed by groundless refusals 't is no way safe to say we will not because we will not nor to insist upon our own bare resolve for this would be wilfulness rather than an obediential refusal and unwarrantable self-confidence rather than an humble wrestling There are some of whom it may be said as the Prophet once charged the Jews Esa 22. 11. that when Satan comes up against them they look in that Day to the Armour of the House of the Forrest they repair the Wall and cast Ditches for Fortification they prepare themselves to the Battel in their own Strength but they look not unto the Maker thereof to him who by his mighty Power must fashion our Hearts to resistance The Vanity of such undertakings is enough manifested in the Event for commonly such Men go on in a Bravado of resolution but are so altered at the first appearance of the Enemy that they yeild without a stroak Who could be more confident than Peter that he would not deny his Master whatever others did and yet how soon did his Heart fail him We may warrantably deny a sinful Motion without being explicite in our reason against it especially in usual Temptations and when they thrust themselves into our Minds at such times when our Thoughts are charged with an attendance upon other Duties in which nevertheless the Heart hath a secret and implicite regard to the Command of God But in no case must we go down to the Battel in the strength of a Wilfulness lest it go against us And thus do they who when they are reproved for some miscarriage as of Drinking will presently with great confidence make engagements not to drink Wine or strong Drink not to go into a Tavern or Alchouse without any humble respect to Duty or the Power of God for the Conquest of the Sin and accordingly we see that usually such Promises and Obligations do not hold either they wilfully break them or they become sinfully witty to make Evasions for the practice of Sin without the breach of the Oath or Promise Secondly The Direction supposeth that we must deny the Sin with the Arguments of greatest Strength and Authority There were occasions and hints of other Answers to these Temptations that offered themselves in Christ's way and yet he waves them all fixing only upon Scripture reasons as the best and strongest 'T is no Christian Wisdom to urge those inferiour considerations of Shame Loss Inconvenience c. Some have no other reason betwixt them and Sin but What will Men say Or what will become of me But besides that these would only be a Train to bring on disputings and that it is no way safe to venture our Souls upon such defences when better may be had for who will venture his Life upon a Staff when he may have a Sword 't is easy for Satan to break these Bows and to cut these Spears in sunder he can ballance such reasons with equal reasons and presently make us believe that we have as good reason to commit the Sin as those urged by us for the not committing of it Thirdly This Direction of using Scripture-reason doth clearly imply that the force and Power of Scripture is not in the Words or Characters but in the Mind and Reason of it that not Scripture used as a charm or spell as if the Devil were affraid of the sound and words of it can beat back the Devil but 't is the Authority of its Command which works upon the Mind the highest Impressions of fear and care and as a strong Argument prevails with us to forbear Notwithstanding the plainness and undeniableness of this inference not only do ignorant Men bless themselves against the Devil by repeating some Phrases or Sentences of Scripture impertinently and such as have no direct signification of the matter in hand betwixt Satan and them as if the Devil could not endure to hear the Pater noster or durst not come within the sound of the name Jehovah but also Papists and of them such as might be supposed more considerate than to be carried by such conceits have placed a vertue in the Words and Sounds of Scripture and therefore do they command though under some limitations and restrictions the hanging of Sentences of Scripture about the Neck in Scrolls for the driving away of evil Spirits though in a clear contradiction to the reason which they give in the general against this course which is this that the Power of Scripture is not in the Figures and Characters but in the mind and understanding of it and therefore profits as pondered in the Heart not as hung about the Neck and upon as slender grounds do they place a more than ordinary vertue in the Angelical Salutation in the seven words upon the Cross in the triumphal Title Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews c. Such kind of oppositions are but a mock to Satan we cannot think to bore the Jaw of this Leviathan with a Thorn or to come to him with this Bridle or to play with him as with a Bird he durst alledg Scripture himself to Christ and therefore 't is not the phrase or sound that affrights him Fourthly The Direction doth imply an argumentative proper and fit use of Scripture Commands or Promises We see Christ urged not any Scripture indifferently but he used fit words and chose to himself select smooth Stones out of this Brook to sling against this spiritual Goliah Every Temptation had an Answer that doth most fully and properly confront it he regarded the main of the Temptation and suffered not himself to be diverted from that prosecution by engaging himself in that which might have been perplexed and controversial though he had a fit opportunity to reprove Satan for a dishonest craft of representing Scripture in a sense of his own making and so might have rejected the Temptation of casting himself down as leaning upon a false Foundation in that God did not promise in Psal 91. to preserve any that should presumptuously expect a protection while they run out of God's ways yet he waved this Answer and opposed the assault by a plain Scripture which chargeth the contrary duty Secondly Having seen what this Direction doth imply in these things that are to be removed from the sense and intendment of it I shall next for ascertaining of the reality and importance of it shew that Temptations are to be resisted by Scripture Arguments by these two Evidences First God's recommending of the Commands of Scripture for such a purpose
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