engageth Men to lay violent hands upon their own Convictions to stifle and extinguish them How many mournful examples have we of this kind How many have apostatised from Truth being terrifyed by the urging necessities of danger contrary to the highest Convictions of Conscience Secondly Necessity can do much to the darkning of the Understanding and change of the Judgment by the strong Influence it hath upon the Affections Men are apt to form their apprehensions according to the dictates of Necessity what they see to be hazardous they are inclinable to judg to be evil Men in straits not only violate their Reason but sometime by insensible steps unknown to themselves slide into a contrary Judgment of things directly cross to what they have believed and professed Which perswasion they owe not to any further accession of Light or new discovery of Argument for ofttimes the same Arguments which in the absence of trouble they have contemned as weak by the Appearance of danger put on another Face and seem strong but to the prevalency of their fears And thus many in all Ages have altered their Judgments and thoughts not because they knew more but because they feared more The like Necessities do Men form to themselves from exorbitant and greedy hopes and expectations of a better condition compared to that wherein they at present are and the like Influence it hath in the alteration of their Judgments Let the Bishop of Spalato be an example of this who loathed the Romish Religion first and in England whither he came for refuge writ against it but saw a necessity from the disappointment of expectation to change his mind returned to Rome again and perswaded himself that that was true which he had formerly pronounced false and so writ against the Church of England as before he had done against the Church of Rome To him we may add Ecebolius of whom Socrates reports that according to the various appearings of hazards he changed his Religion several times Under Constantine he was a Christian under Julian a Pagan and under Jovinian a Christian again Thirdly Necessity offers an excuse if not a Justification of the greatest miscarriages Lot offered to expose his Daughters to the raging Lust of the Sodomites for the preservation of his Angel-Strangers which surely he would in no wise have done but that he thought the present necessity might have excused him Esau profanâ—ly fells his Birth-right but excuseth the matter so Behold I am at the point to die and what profit shall this Birth-right do to me Aaron produceth a necessity from the violent resolves of the people in Justification of himself in the matter of the Golden Calf Thou knewest that this people are set on mischief Fourthly Necessity is an universal plea and fitted to the conditions of all Men in all callings and under all extravagancies The Tradesman in his unlawful gains or overreaching pleads a necessity for it from the hardness of the Buyer in other things the poor Man pleads a necessity for Stealing and the Rich pleads the same necessity for Revenge and thus it serves all with a Pretext These considerations discovering this course so hopeful as to this design of the Devil he will be sure to put us to this pinch where he can But besides this we may observe three Cheats in this plea of Necessity First Sometimes he puts Men upon feigning a necessity where there is none Saul sacrificed upon a needless Supposal that Samuel not coming at the time appointed there was a necessity for him to do it He spared also the Cattel upon the like pretence that it was a necessary provision for Sacrifice And thus would the Devil have perswaded Christ that there was an absolute necessity to turn Stones to Bread when in Truth there was no such need Secondly Sometimes he puts Men upon a necessity of their own sinful procurement Herod sware to gratify the Daughter of Herodias and this is presently pleaded as a necessity for the cutting off John Baptists head Saul forbad the tasting of Meat and sealed the penalty by an Oath and Curse and this is by and by made a necessity for the taking away of Jonathans Life who had tasted Honey not knowing his Fathers Curse had not the People rescued him Thirdly Sometime he stretcheth a necessity further than it ought he knows that God hath such a regard to real necessities that upon that ground he will dispence with his Sabbath and the present performance of Duty These instances he lays before men and endeavours to perswade them that in like manner God will upon a necessity dispence with Sins as well as with the present Opportunity of Service What a covering in all Ages Men have made of necessity for their highest outrages and extravagancies and with what confidence they have managed such pleas would be endless to relate This must warn us not to suffer our selves to be Imposed upon by the highest pretences of Necessity Whatever it may dispense with as in some cases it will suspend a present Service and warrant the performance of a Duty besides the common rule and way wherein it ought ordinarily to be managed it must never be pleaded to give warranty to any thing in its own nature sinful Necessity will not justify Lying Stealing Covetousness Adulteries c. Besides we must be wary in judging what is a necessity Men are apt to plead a necessity where there is none and if we give way to a facile admittance of excuses of this kind we shall presently multiply necessities and have them to serve us at every turn Some would warrant Sin by necessity others would turn off Duty and rule by pretending a necessity where none is both are to be avoided as Snares of Satan Once more before we dismiss this rise of the Temptation of Christ in hand let us observe that in perswading him to turn Stones to Bread he seems to express a great deal of care and tenderness to Christ with an invidious Reflection upon the Love and Providence of God as if he should say I see thou art hungry and this Wilderness affords nothing to eat and God hath not taken care to spread a Table for thee I therefore pittying thy Condition as a Friend advise thee to turn Stones to Bread Note That Satan manageth his most cruel designs under the highest pretences of Friendship He did so with Eve The Lord knoweth that ye shall be as Gods as if he had a greater regard to them than God himself He tempted Christ in the Mouth of Peter to spare himself under the shew of great kindness and no less are his common pretences to all Men. This is a deep Policy for by this means the mischief intended is the better concealed and the less care and provision made against it and besides the Affections and desires are stirred up to an hasty imbracement of the Motion and an eager swallowing of the Bait. So great a Subtilty
produce he professeth he was affraid lest he had bestowed upon them labour in vain Gal. 4. 11. And that he did no less than travel of them in birth the second time vers 19. If one Alexander could do Paul so much Evil by withstanding his Words that he complains of him and cautions Timothy against him If one Diotrephes by prating against John with malicious Words prevailed with the Church that they received not him nor the Brethren What hurt might a Multitude of such be able to do In the Primitive times of the Church after the Apostles days when those Worthies were to contest with the Heathen World the Serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the Woman which most interpret to be a Deluge of Heresies And some particularly understand it of the Arrian Heresie that he might hinder the progress of the Gospel Which design of his did so take that many complaints there were of hindring the Conversion of the Heathens by the Errours that were among Christians Epiphanius tells us That Pagans refused to come near the Christians and would not so much as hear them speak being affrighted by the wicked practices and wayes of the Priscilianists Austin complains to the same purpose That loose and lascivious Hereticks administred matter of Blaspheming to the idolatrous Heathens In after-times when Religion grew so corrupt by Popery that God extraordinarily raised up Luther Calvin and others in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries to discover those Abominations and to bring back his People from Babylon The Devil gave them no small trouble by a growth of Errours so that they were forced to Fight against the Papists before and those Philistines behind insomuch that Reformation attained not that height and universality which might rationally have been expected from such blessed undertakings This was the conjecture of many particularly of our Country-man Dr. Prideaux That if these Fanatick Enthusiasts which with so great a scandal to the Gospel then brake forth had not retarded and hindred those glorious proceedings that Apocalyptical Beast of Rome had been not only weakned and wounded but utterly overthrown and slain In particular Cities where any of the faithful Servants of Christ endeavoured to detect the Errours of Popery these instruments of Satan were ready to joyn with the common Adversary in reproaches and disturbances How they opposed Musculus at Augusta and with what fierceness they called him Viper false Prophet Woolf in sheeps cloathing c. you may see in those that write his Life How these Men hindred the Gospel at Limburg against Junius At Zurich against Zuinglius At Ausburg against Vrbanus Regius you may also see in their Lives In all which and others of like nature you will still find 1 That there was never a Reformation begun but there were erroneous Persons to hinder and distract the Reformers 2 That these Men expressed as great hatred against the Reformers and oftentimes more than against the Papists and were as spitefully bitter in Lies Slanders and Scorns against them as the Papists themselves Sixthly Satan can also make use of Errour either to fix Men in their present mistaken wayes and careless course or as a temptation to Atheism Varieties or Opinions and Doctrines do amuse and amaze Men while one cryes Lo here is Christ And another Lo he is there Men are so confounded that they do not know what to chuse 'T is one of the greatest difficulties to single out Truth from a croud of specious confident pretences especially seeing Truth is modest and oftentimes out-noised by clamorous bold Errour yea sometimes out vyed by the pretensions of Spirit and Revelation in an Antiscriptural falshood At what a loss is an unskilful Travellour where so many wayes meet while one party cries up this another that mutually charging one another with Errour They whose hearts are any thing loosened from a sence and reverence of Religion are easily tempted to disbelieve all Thus Errour leads to Atheisme and layes the Foundation for all those slanderous exceptions against Scripture by which Godless Men usually justifie themselves in their Religion Now though all wicked Men are not brought to this because the Consciences of some do so strongly retain the sentiments of a Deity that all Satans Art can not obliterate those Characters yet the consideration of the multitude of Errours doth rivet them in the perswasion of the Truth and goodness of that way of Religion wherein they had been Educated Papists are hardned by this and though they have no reason to boast of their unity among themselves as they have been often told and now of late by Dr. Stillingfleet who hath manifested that their Divisions among themselves are as great and managed with as great Animosity as any amongst us yet are their Ears so beaten with the Objection of Sects and Schisms elsewhere that they are generally confirmed to stay where they are Besides this is a stumbling-block which the Devil throws in the way of poor Ignorant People if they are urged to a serious strictness in Religion they are affrighted from it by the consideration of Sects and parties and the woful miscarriages of some erronious Persons that at first pretended to strictness imagining that strictness in Religion is an unnecessary dangerous thing and that the sober godly Christians are but a company of giddy unsetled conceited precise Persons who will in a little time run themselves into madness and distraction or into despair And thus out of fear of Schism or Errour they dare not be Religious in good earnest but content themselves with drawing near to God with their mouthes and confessing him with their lips whilst their hearts are far from him and in their works they deny him There is such a propensity in the hearts of Men to be staggered by the multitude and boldness of Errours that the Apostle Paul expresseth a sence of it and seems tenderly careful to avoid that blow which he knew Satan would readily give through that consideration by the apology that he makes for God in his holy wise providential Permission of them 1 Cor. 11. 19. There must be Heresies among you His intent is not barely to put them off with this That Heresies are unavoidable but to satisfie them that there is a necessity of them and that they are useful as God's Furnace and Fan to purifie and to cleanse that they which are approved may be made manifest The like care he hath in 2 Tim. 2. 19 20. upon the mention of the Errour of Hymeneus and Philetus where he obviateth the offence that might arise by reason of their Apostacy partly by removing the fears of the Upright in affirming their safety whatever became of other Men seeing the Foundation of God standeth sure and partly by declaring it no more suitable or dishonourable for God to permit the rise of Errours in his Church than for great Men to have in their houses not only Vessels of Gold and
their own just consequences yet there are some choice principles of his which if he can but fasten upon the Mind they presently open the gap to all kind of Errours imaginable they are like the firing a Train of Gunpowder which in a Moment blows up the whole Fabrick of Truth such are the delusions of Enthusiasm Inspirations and Prophetick Raptures let these be once fixed and then there is nothing so Inhumane Irreligious Mad or Ridiculous but Satan can with ease perswade Men to it and also under the highest pretences of Religion and Certainty the experience of all Ages hath made any further proof of this altogether needless This is his way when he acts alone But if he use Instruments though he is also gradual in his procedure yet 't is in a different method for there he sometimes proceeds from the abuse of something innocent and lawful by the help of a long tract of time to introduce the grossest Falshood Thus may we conceive he brought Idolatry to its height first Men admired the wisdom or famous acts of their Progenitors or Benefactors next they erected Pillars or Images of such Persons to perpetuate the Names Honour and Memory of them and their Actions Another Age being at a greater distance from the things done and consequently greater Strangers to the true ends and reasons of such practices which being as it usually falls out in such cases abused by false reports or misrepresentations of things for Time covers things of this nature with so thick a Mist that 't is difficult to discover the true Metal of an original Constitution they in a devout ignorance gave the Images a greater respect than was at first intended then did they slide into a conceit they were not of the ordinary rank of Mortals or at least they were exalted to a condition which ordinary Mortals were not capable of thus they supposed them Deities and gave them worship of Prayers and Sacrifices hence they went further and multiplied Gods and that of several sorts according to the natures of things that were good or hurtful to them and then at last consulting how mean their offerings were and how unlikely to please their Godships they concluded Humane sacrifices most sutable especially to expiate greater provocations and in times of great calamity The burthensom heap of ceremonious Superstitions in Popery was the work of several Ages they were not brought in all at once One in a devotional heat fancied such a Ceremony as a fit testimony of Zeal or a proper incitement of his Affections Another deviseth a second and so all along as the minds of Men were best pleased with their own inventions and had so much credit or authority to recommend them to others they encreased the sum by new additions till at last they are become a burthen not to be born and still as they receeded from the primitive purity and became more careless and corrupt in their lives for from good Bishops they declined to but tollerable Arch-Bishops till at last they are become incurable Babylonians so they departed gradually from the simplicity of the Gospel and abounded in contrivances of Ceremonies Thirdly In corrupting established Truths Satan's proceedings are not by sudden and observable leaps but by lingring and slow motions as Flowers and Plants grow insensibly and as Men gradually wax old and feeble Violent and hasty alterations he knows would beget Observation Dislike and Opposition neither will he make such attempts but where he is sure of a strong prevalent Party which by force and power is able to carry all before it In this case he is willing to enforce Errour by Fire and Sword Thus he propagated Mahumetism at first and still continueth to do so by the conquering Arms of the Turks but where he hath not this advantage he betakes himself to another course and studieth to do his work so that he may not be observed The possibility of such a change with the manner of effecting it we may observe in many Churches that have declined from the Doctrine which they at first received but most of all in the Church at Rome which at first was a pure Church as the Apostle testifieth but now so changed from the Truths upon which they were bottomed in their first Constitution as if she had not been the same Church They boast indeed that as they were at first so they are now but nothing is more evident than the contrary and the possibility of their insensible corruption is as demonstrable as the alteration of Doctrine in any other Church The manifold ways that Satan takes in this matter in the abuse of Scripture by raising perverse Interpretations and unnatural Inferences and the advantages of a long succession in Authority of the negligence and ignorance of the common People of the crafty subtilty of the Teachers especially when Religion began to be abused to secular Interest is described by Acontius and others If we should single out any of their noted Errours and follow up the History of it to its first original we shall find that whatever strong current it hath now gotten it was very small and inconsiderable in the Fountain The Invocation of Saints though it be now an established Article among them yet its first rise was from the unwary Prosopopoea's of of the Ancients and the liberty of their Oratorical declamatory stile these gave occasion to some private Opinions these Opinions to some private devotional liberty in Practice and from private Opinions and Practices at last it obtained so strong a Party that it procured a publick Injunction The like method was used for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation whose beginning was from the abuse of such Sentences as this in ancient Writers That after Consecration it was no more Bread and Wine but the Body and Blood of Christ by which expression the Authors intended no more than this that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were relatively altered and were more than ordinary Bread and Wine because they were representatives of the Body and Blood of Christ however this gave them courage to interprect literally and strictly these words of Christ This is my Body and thus by degrees from the Opinion of a few it became the judgment of many and from the toleration of a private Opinion of some Doctors and unimposed it obtained at last a Canon to make it Authentick Publick Doctrine Fourthly This insensible proceeding is in nothing more evident than in the power of Custom and Education Custom doth by degrees take off the startling of Conscience and those Opinions or Practices which at first look affright it are by a little familiarity made more smooth and tollerable The dissents of Men by frequent seeing and hearing become tame and gentle but the force of Education is incomparably great for this makes an Errour to become as it were natural they suck it in with their Milk and draw it in with their Air. This general advantage the Devil hath
in some old customs of Gentilism and upon a design to win them they made bold to bend the Doctrine of the Gospel toward their former usages they thought indeed it was best to wink at things and not to bear too hard upon them at first but that tollerating a lesser evil they might avoid a greater inconvenience and withall they deemed they had done great service to the Church and Christian Religion if they could any way divert the Heathen from Worshipping their Idols And to effect this the easilier they seemed to cherish their customs and rites of Worship as consonant in the general to the Principles of Christianity only they excepted against the Object of their Worship as unlawful so that upon the matter they did no more than change the name The manifold inconveniences that followed this kind of dealing they did not discover at first but besides the infecting the simplicity of Christian Religion with the dirt and dregs of Paganism which they might easily have seen Time hath since discovered that here the Devil secretly laid the chief foundations of Popery Whosoever shall impartially compare the Rites Customs Usages and Garbs of Popery with those of Paganism will to his admiration find such an exact agreement and consonancy that he must necessarily conclude that either Paganism imitated Popery or Popery imitated Paganism but the latter is true and that these corruptions in Religion by Popery came in by a designment of conforming Christianity to Heathenism though it may be upon pious intentions at first is no difficult thing to evince for besides that the Rites of Paganism were more ancient and so could not be borrowed from Popery which came long after the Scripture did foretel a great defection from Truth which should be in the last days and this under a profession of Religion and the things particularized are such as shew that the defection should carry an imitation of Paganism for no less seems to be signified by 1 Tim. 4. 1. The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils that is as Mr. Mede whose interpretation I follow doth prove Doctrines concerning Devils or Daemons as in Heb. 6. 2. we have the phrase of Doctrines of Baptisms which must needs signify Doctrines concerning Baptisms the Gentile Theology of Daemons is the thing which Paul prophesies should be introduced into Christianity How clearly this relates to Popery may be evident to any that doth not wilfully blind himself by prejudice Their Doctrine of Daemons was this they supposed two sorts of Gods supream and inferiour the supream they supposed did dwell in the Heavenly Lights Sun Moon and Stars without change of place these they judged were so sublime and pure that they might not be prophaned with the approach of earthly things and that immediate approaches to them were derogatory to their Soveraignty The inferiour order of Gods they imagined were of a middle sort betwixt the supream Beings and Men as participating of both these they called Mediators and Agents and supposed their business was to carry up Mens Prayers to God and to bring down Blessings from God upon Men these were in Scripture called Baalim and by the Greeks Daemons to this purpose Austin and others speak Now these Daemons they supposed were the souls of dead Men that had been more than ordinarily famous in their generation Thus Ninus made an Image to his Father Belus after he was dead and caused him to be worshipped Hermes confesseth that Aesculapius Grand-father to Asclepius and Mercury his own Grand-father were worshipped as Gods of this order Abundance of instances I might produce to this purpose but to go on these Daemons because to them was committed the care of Terrestrial affairs as Celsus argues against Origen and because of the help and advantage that Men might receive from them they supposed it gratitude and duty to worship them and this worship they performed at their Images Sepulchres and Reliques To this purpose Plutareb tells us of Theseus his Bones and Plato of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Shrines of their Daemons How evident is it that the Papists in their Doctrine and Practice about the Invocation of Saints and Angels have writ after this Copy and that they are the Men that have introduced this Doctrine of Daemons the thing it self declares without further evidence Had the Heathens their dead Hero's for Agents 'twixt the supream Gods and Men so have the Papists their dead Saints to offer up their Prayers Did the Heathen expect more particular aids from some of these Daemons in several cases than from others so do the Papists instead of Diana for Women in labour and Aesculapius for the diseased they have their St. Margaret and St. Mary for Travelling Sebastian and Roch against the Pestilence Apollonia against the Toothach St. Nicholas against Tempests c. Did the Heathen pray to these Daemons for their aid so do the Papists to their Saints as their Breviaries Rosaries and Ladies Psalters testify Had the Heathen their Feasts their Statas ferias to their Daemons so have the Papists Had they their Februalia Proserpinilia with Torches and Lights so have the Papists their Candlemas with Lights Did the Heathen erect Images and Pillars or keep the Ashes and Shrines of their Daemons so do the Papists the one had Processions and Adorations so have the other and a great many more things there are wherein Popery keeps a correspondence with Heathenism To this purpose you may read enough in Monsieur de Croy of the three Conformities To make it yet more clear that the corruptions in Religion by Popery came in by the design of suiting Christian Religion to Paganism I shall in a testimony or two shew you that they professedly avouched the design Gregory the Great writes chidingly to Serenus Bishop of Marseilles who it seems was no forward Man in this matter to this purpose Thou shouldest have considered that thou didst converse chiefly with the Gentiles to whom Pictures are instead of Reading to the end that no offence be given them under colour of lawful zeal wherewith thou art not cunningly endued And in another Epistle to Mellitus he adviseth That the Honours and Offerings which the Heathens gave to their Daemons should be transferred to the Martyrs and their Relickes and gives this reason for it it is impossible saith he to cut off all at once from stubborn minds Eusebius also endeavours to perswade to Christianity by this Argument that the Christians custom of honouring the memories of the Martyrs and solemnly assembling at their Sepulchres did agree with the custom of the Gentiles of doing the like honour to their Daemons and having mentioned what Hesiod speaks concerning Plato's Opinion that their Champions became Daemons after death Helpers and Protectors of Men for which cause they were worshipped at their Sepulchres as God
by which Satan effects this Design I shall not now touch but shall in lieu of that give you the reasons of his endeavours this way First He knows that this is a Sin of an high provocation Worship is the proper Tribute that is due to God and 't is peculiarly his Prerogative to prescribe the way and manner of it neither of these Honours will he give to any other but will express his jealousy when any invasion is made upon these his sole Prerogatives Now his Worship cannot be corrupted but one of these at least will in some degree or other be touched If we set up another Object of Worship we deny him to be God if we worship him in a way of our own invention we deny his Wisdom and set up our selves above him as if we could order his Worship better than he hath done in his Word Secondly If the Worship be corrupted all the Exercise of the Affections of the Heart and all the Service it self is lost and become unacceptable he knows that such Worshippers shall meet with this Answer who hath required this at your hands Thirdly Corruption in Worship Satan by long experience knows to have been the ground of those hatreds quarrels persecutions and troubles under which the Church hath groaned in all ages every difference imposing their way and perswasion upon all dissenters to the disturbance of Peace breach and decay of Love hinderance of the growth of Piety to the biting and devouring of one another Fourthly Besides God is provoked by this to leave his Sanctuary to remove his Glory and his Candlestick to make his Vineyard a desolation and his Churches as Shilob Fifthly Satan is the more industrious in this because his ways are capable of many advantages to further his design and many specious pretences to cover it In Col. 2. 8. he made use of Philosophy to corrupt Religion and by unsound Principles of some Heathens famous for that Learning introduced worshipping of Angels what that could not effect he laboured to perform by the Traditions of Men and where that came short the rudiments of the World the Mosaical Ceremonies were so called here and in the Epistle to the Hebrews were his Engine by which he battered the plain Worship of the New Testament And as to pretences the Apostle doth there and elsewhere note that Deceny and Order Humility Wisdom and Self-denyal are things very taking and yet usually pretended for such bold Innovations as may corrupt the pure streams of the Sanctuary Hence may I leave with you a few Memorials First This may make us jealous of any alterations in the way of God's Worship We have reason under the most plausible pretexts to suspect the hand of Satan because 't is one of his main businesses to corrupt the Worship Secondly This may justify those that out of a conscientious fear of complying with Satans design dare not admit of a Pin in the Tabornacle beside what God hath prescribed nor leave behind a Shoe Latchet of what he hath enjoyned Thirdly This will tell us that that Worship is best and safest that hath least of Mixture of humane Invention We cannot offend in keeping close to the Rule though the Worship thereby become more plain and not so gorgeous in outward appearance We may soon overdo it by the least addition and cannot be so certain of God's acceptation as we are of pleasing the Senses of Men by such introducements This motion of Satan Fall down and worship me is now in the last place to be considered as a particular instance of Satans general design of drawing the hearts of Men from God his Service and ways to the pleasures of Sin as if he should say to him follow my advice give up thy self to my Service and thou shalt be gratified with all the delights that the World can give thee to this doth the bait here offered most fitly agree Hence Observe That it is Satans general design to withdraw the hearts of Men from God that they may be enslaved to him in the Service of Sin That the Devil doth level all his endeavours to this cannot be doubted For 1. he hath a Kingdom in this World from which he is denominated the Prince of this World And this is not only a rule of Exteriour force such as Conquerous have over their captivated Slaves who are compelled to subject their Bodies while yet their minds are full of hatred against him who hath thus forced them to subjection but it is a rule over the Hearts and Affections of Men working in the Children of Disobedience a love and liking of these ways and begetting in them the Image of Satan so that what work he imposeth they are pleased withal and love to have it so Therefore he is not only called their Prince but their God and their Father Ye are of your Father the Devil in that with a kind of inward devotion they will and endeavour to perform the Lusts which he propounds to them Secondly This Kingdom is contrary to God's Spiritual Kingdom that being of Darkness this of Light and it is managed by Satan with an envious competition and Corrivalship to that of God so that as God invites Men to the Happiness of his Kingdom and sends his Spirit in his Word and Ordinances to perswade them Satan doth the like he sends out his Spirit which the Apostle calls the Spirit of the World 1 Cor. 2. 12. and imploys all his Agents to engage Men for him he requires the Heart as God doth he promiseth his rewards of Pleasure Honour Riches if they will fall down and worship him Now 't is so natural to prosecute an Interest thus espoused in a way of opposition especially to any other that set up for themselves in a contradictory Competitorship that the very natural Laws of Satans Kingdom will engage him to stand up for it and to enlarge it all he can Those upon whom he prevails are of two sorts First Some are visibly in his Service these answer the Character which was given of Ahab 1 Kings 21. 20. Who sold himself to work Wickedness in the sight of the Lord. The first expression shews that such are wholly in Satans Power and Disposal as things sold are in the Possession and Power of the Buyer they are at Satans will if he say to them Go they go and if he say Come they come their Bodies and Spirits are Satan's they are not their own and they are his for the ends of Sin for that imployment only so that they are wholly corrupt and abominable The latter expression that he did so in the Sight of the Lord manifests their shameless impudency in Sin that they declare their Sin as Sodom and hide it not that they do not Blush but openly wear the Devils Livery and avouch his Service As the works of the Flesh are manifest so these in their practice of such works are manifestly Satans Subjects These kind of Men are frequently in