did it will argue much for his Power if we can imagine as some do that they turned their Rods into real Serpents the Power is evident and there is this that favours that Opinion it is said They could not make Lice which seems to imply they really did the other things and it had been as easy to delude the Senses in the matter of Lice as in the Rods if it had been no more than a Delusion neither are some a-wanting to give a reason of such a Power viz. Serpents Lice c. being the Off-spring of Putrefaction by his dextrous application of the seminal Principles of things he might quickly produce them If we go lower and take up with the Opinion of those that think that they were neither meer Delusions nor yet true Serpents but real Bodies like Serpents though without life this will argue a very great Power Or if we suppose as some do that Satan took away the Rods and secretly conveyed Serpents in their stead or which is the lowest apprehension we can have that Pharaoh's sight was deceived The matter is still far from being contemptible for as much as we see the Spectators were not able to discern the Cheat. Thirdly The next Instance produceable for evidencing his Power is that of Apparitions It cannot be denyed but that the Fancy of melancholick or timerous Persons is fruitful enough to create a thousand Bugbears And also that the villany of some Persons hath been designedly imployed to deceive People with Mock-Apparitions of which abundance of Instances might be given from the knavery of the Papists discovered to the World beyond contradiction but all this will not conclude that there are no real Appearances of Spirit or Devils Such sad effects in all Ages there have been of these things that most Men will take it for an undenyable Truth Instead of others let the Apparition at Endor to Saul come to examination Some indeed will have us believe that all that was but a subtil Cheat managed by that Old Woman and that neither Samuel nor the Devil did appear but that the Woman in another Room by her self or with a Confederate gave the answer to Saul But whosoever shall read that Story and shall consider Saul's Bowing and Discourse and the Answers given must acknowledg that Saul thought at least he saw and spake with Samuel and indeed the whole Transaction is such that such a Cheat cannot be supposed Satisfying our selves then that there was an Apparition we must next enquire whether it was true Samuel or Satan it cannot be denyed but that many judg it was true Samuel but their Reasons are weak 1. That Proof from Ecclesiasticus 46. 23. is not Canonical with us 2. That he was called Samuel is of no force Scripture often gives names of things according to their appearances 3. That things future were foretold was but from conjecture in which Satan yet all things considered had good ground for his guessing 4. That the Name Jehovah is oft repeated signifies nothing the Devil is not so scarce of words Jesus I know saith that Spirit in the Acts. 5. That he reproved Sin in Saul is no more than what the Devil doth daily to afflicted Consciences in order to despair I must go then with those that believe this was Satan in Samuel's likeness 1. Because God refused to answer Saul by Prophets or Vrim And 't is too harsh to think he would send Samuel from the Dead and so answer him in an extraordinary way 2. This if it had been Samuel would have given too much countenance to Witchcraft contrary to that check to Ahaziah 2 King 1. 3. Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub 3. The prediction of Sauls Death though true for substance yet failed as to the exactness of time for the Battel was not fought the next day 4. The acknowledgment of the Witches Power Why hast thou disquieted me shews it could not be true Samuel the Power of Witchcraft not being able to reach Souls at rest with God 5. That Expression of Gods ascending out of the Earth is evidently suspicious The reality of Apparitions being thus established Satan's Power will be easily evinced from it To say nothing of the Bodies in which Spirits appear the haunting of Places and Persons and the other Effects done by such Appearances speak abundantly for it Fourthly The last Instance is of Possessions the reality of which can no way be questioned because the New Testament affords so much for it I shall only note some things as concerning this Head As First The multitudes of Men possessed scarce was there any thing in which Christ had more opportunities to shew his Authority than in casting out of Satan such Objects of Compassion he met with in every place Secondly The multitudes of Spirits in one Person is a consideration not to be passed by Thirdly These Persons were often strongly acted sometime with fierceness and rage Matth. 8. 28. some living without Cloaths and without House Luke 8. 27. some by an incredible strength breaking Chains and Fetters Mark 5. 3. Fourthly Some time the Possessed were sadly vexed and afflicted cast into the Fire and Water c. Fifthly Some were strengely influenced we read of one Acts 16. 16. that had a Spirit of Divination and told many things to come which we may suppose frequently came to pass else she could have brought no gain to her Master by South-saying Another we hear of whose Possession was with a Lunacy and had fits at certain times and seasons The Possessed Person with whom Mr. Rothwell discoursed within the memory of some living could play the Critick in the Hebrew Language Sixthly In some the Possession was so strong and so firmly seated that ordinary means and ways could not dispossess them This kind comes not out but by Prayer and Fasting Mat. 27. 21. which shews that all Possession was not of one kind and manner nor alike lyable to ejection To all these may be added Obsessions where the Devil afflicts the Bodies of Men disquiets them haunts them or strikes in with their melancholy temper and so annoys by hideous and black representations Thus was Saul vexed by an evil Spirit from the Lord which as most conceive was the Devil working in his melancholy Humor That the Devil should take possession of the Bodies of Men and thus act drive trouble and distress them so distort distend and rack their Members so seat himself in their Tongues and Minds that a Man cannot command his own Faculties and Powers but seems to be rather changed into the nature of a Devil than to retain any thing of a Man this shews a Power in him to be trembled at Satan's Power being thus explained and proved I shall next speak something of his Cruelty CHAP. VI. Of Satan's Cruelty Instances thereof in his dealing with wounded Spirits in ordinary Temptations of the
truculent temper whose power being put forth from such an implacable malice must needs become rage and fierceness Fourthly His Diligence which together with his Cruelty are consequences of his Malice and Power he goes about and seeks he is restless in his pursuit and diligent as one that promiseth himself a satisfaction or joyful contentment in his Conquests CHAP. II. Of the Malice of Satan in particular The Grounds and Causes of that Malice The Greatness of it proved and Instances of that Greatness given I Shall first give some account of his Malice by which it shall appear we do not wrong the Devil in calling him malicious the truth of which Charge will evidence it self in the following particulars First The Devil though a Spirit yet is a proper Subject of Sin We need no other evidence for this than what doth by daily experience result from our selves we have sins which our Spirits and Hearts do act that relate not to the Body called a filthiness of the Spirit in contradistinction to the filthiness of the Flesh 'T is true it cannot be denyed but that those Iniquities which have a necessary dependance upon the Organs of the Body as Drunkenness Fornication c. cannot properly as to the formality of the Act be laid at Satan's door though as a tempter and provoker of these in Men he may be called the Father of these sins yet the forementioned Iniquities which are of a Spiritual Nature are properly and formally committed by him as Lying Pride Hatred and Malice And this distinction Christ himself doth hint Joh. 8. 44. When he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of his own where he asserts such spiritual Sins to be properly and formally acted by himself The certainty of all appears in the Epithites given him the wicked One the unclean Spirit as also those places that speak his fall They kept not their first Estate Jude 6. The Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. If sins Spiritual are in a true and proper sense attributed to the Devil then also may Malice be attributed to him Secondly The wickedness of Satan is capable of increase a magis minus though he be a wicked Spirit and as to inclination full of wickedness though so strongly inclined that he cannot but sin and therefore as God is set forth to us as the Fountain of Holiness so is Satan called the Author and Father of Sin Yet seeing we cannot ascribe an infiniteness to him we must admit that as to acts of Sin at least he may be more or less sinful and that the wickedness of his heart may be more drawn out by Occasion Motives and Provocations besides we are expresly taught thus much Rev. 12. 12. The Devil is come down having great wrath because his time is short where we note 1. that his wrath is called great implying greater than at other times 2. That External Motives and Incentives as the shortness of his time prevail with him to draw forth greater acts of fury Thirdly Whatsoever Occasions do draw out or kindle malice to a rage Satan hath met with them in an eminent degree in his own fall and Man's happiness Nothing is more proper to beget malice than hurts or punishments degradations from happiness Satan's Curse though just fills him with rage and fretting against God when he considers that from the state and dignity of a blessed Angel he is cast down to darkness and to the basest condition imaginable for the part of his Curse which concerned Satan as well as the Serpent Vpon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shall be thy Meat implies a state most base as the use of the phrase proves they shall lick the dust of thy feet Thine enemies shall lick the dust Psal 72. 9. They shall lick the dust as a Serpent Mich. 7. 17. Where the Spirit is so wicked that it cannot accept the punishment of its iniquity All punishment is as a poyson and invenoms the heart with a rage against the hand that afflicted it thus doth Satan's fall enrage him and the more when he sees Man enstated into a possibility of enjoying what he hath lost The envy and pride of his heart boils up to a madness for that is the only use that the wretchedly miserable can make of the sight of that happiness which they enjoy not especially if having once enjoyed it they are now deprived this begot the rage and wrath in Cain against Abel and afterward his Murther The eye of the wicked is evil where God is good Hence may it be concluded that Satan being a wicked Spirit and this wickedness being capable of acting higher or lower according to occasions and with a suitableness thereto cannot but shew an unconceiveable malice against us our happiness and his misery being such proper occasions for the wickedness of his heart to work upon Fourthly This Malice in Satan must be great First If we consider the greatness of his wickedness in so great and total an Apostacy He is so filled with iniquity that we can expect no small matters from him as to the workings of such cursed Principles not only is he wicked but the spirit and extract of wickedness as the phrase signifies Ephes 6. 12. Secondly The Scripture lays to his charge all Degrees Acts and Branches of Malice As 1. Anger in the impetuous hast and violence of it Rev. 12. great wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies Excandescentia the Inflammation of the Heart and whole Man which is violent in its motion as when the Blood with a violent stream rusheth through the Heart and sets all Spirits on fire and therefore this Wrath is not only called great but is also signified to be so in its threatning a wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth 2. Indignation is more than Anger as having more of a fixed fury and this is applyed to him Ephes 4. 27. in that those that have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are said to give place to the Devil which is true not only in point of temptation but also in respect of the resemblance they carry to the frame and temper of Satan's furious heart 3. Hatred is yet higher than Wrath or Indignation as having deeper roots a more confirmed and implacable resolution Anger and Indignation are but short Furies which like a Land Flood are soon down though they are apt to fill the Banks on a sudden but Hatred is lasting and this is so properly the Devil's disposition that Cain in hating his Brother is 1 John 3. 12. said to be the proper Off-spring and lively Picture of that wicked One who is there so called rather than by the name of the Devil because the Apostle would also insinuate that hatred is the Master-piece of Satan's wickedness and that which gives the fullest Character of him 4. All Effects of his cruelty arise from this Root this makes him accuse and calumniate this puts him upon breathing after those murthers and destructions which damned
the Trinity he ran to a contrary Extreme and that he might give the highest proof of a Trinity of Persons he affirmed that Jesus Christ had a beginning and that there was a time when he was not c. Thus Socrates speaks of the Rise of that Heresy We might further follow the footsteps of this Device and trace it in most Opinions where we might find the humour of running to a contrary Extreme hath still either set up a contrary Error or at least leavened the Truth with harsh and unjustifiable Expressions and Explanations The Disputes betwixt Faith and Works have been thus occasioned and aggravated Some speak so of Faith as if they slighted Works others so urge a necessity of Works as if they intended to make Faith useless Some talk of Grace to an utter Contempt of Morality others on the contrary magnify Morality to the annihilating of Grace Some in their practice acquiesce in the outward Performance of Ordinances if they pray or receive the Sacraments though never so formally they are at peace supposing they have done all that is required others observing the Mistake and knowing that God looks more to the performance of the Soul and Spirit than to the Act of the Body upon a pretence of worshipping God in Spirit throw off the observation of his Ordinances altogether Neither is there any thing that doth more generally and apparently undoe us in the present Dissentions as many have complained than Mens violent Over-doing and running to contrary Extremes 6. Satan makes use of Rewards or Punishments on the one hand to bribe or on the other to force the Affections and they being strongly possessed easily prevail with the Understanding to give Sentence accordingly Men are soon perswaded to take that for Truth which they see will be advantageous to them Some Men indeed take up with a Profession of Truth which yet their Hearts approve not but the Advantages they have by their Profession do silence their dissatisfactions these are said to use the Profession of Truth as a Cloak of Covetousness 2 Thes 2. 5. But others go further and are really brought to an Approbation of that Doctrine or Way that makes most for their Profit their Minds being really corrupted by a self-seeking Principle they perswade themselves where there is any Contest about Doctrines that that Doctrine is true which is gainful and will accordingly dispute for it Hence that Expression in 1 Tim. 6. 5. supposing that Gain is Godliness To this may be added that the Affections are quickly sensible of the Ease and sensual Gratifications of any Doctrine and these are usually thrown into the same Scale to make more weight Men have naturally a good liking to that Doctrine that promiseth fair for Ease Liberty Gain and Honour and this hath made it an usual piece of Satans business in all Ages to gild an Error with outward Advantages and to corrupt the Mind by secret Promises of Advancement On the other side he labours as much to prejudice Truth by representing it as hazardous and troublesom to the Professors of it And this not only affrights some from an open Confession of the Truth they believe but also by the help of the Affections doth perswade some to believe that to be an Error which unavoidably brings Persecution with it By this Engine are the Minds of Men turned about to think well or ill of a Doctrine presented to them This is so well known that I shall forbear a further Prosecution of this Head and go to the next Course than Satan takes to corrupt the Judgment by the Affections Which he doth 7. By stirring up some particular Passions which in Opinions do usually more influence the Vnderstanding And here I shall only insist upon these two Pride and Anger with the peculiar means that Satan hath to engage them in his Service That Pride and Anger are the two usual Firebrands of Contention and Fountains of Error all Ages have acknowledged and bewailed These two Companions in Evil do so darken the Mind that the miserable Captive in whom they domineer is carryed blindfold he knows not whither nor how Pride usually begins and Anger follows with all its forces to justify what Pride hath undertaken Hence the Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 4. rakes up all the concomitant Filth of Error as Envy Strife Railings evil Surmisings and perverse Disputings of Men and lays them at the Door of Pride He is proud knowing nothing For the ingaging of these two Thieves that rob the Understanding of its Light Satan hath many Artifices in readiness Pride which is forward enough of it self is soon excited by laying before it an Opportunity of a seeming rare Discovery or of advancing the Glory of Knowledge above the common Pitch of being seen and admired as more excellent than others c. for upon such unworthy Grounds have some dared to adventure upon strange Notions yet there is nothing that doth more firmly ingage it than Contention or Dispute for though the proper end of Disputation be the sifting out of Truth yet such is Mans Pride and Satans Advantage by it that it seldom attains its true end in those that are ingaged By-standers that keep their Minds calm and unbyassed may receive more satisfaction than the Contenders themselves and there needs no other evidence of this than the common Experience which Men have of our frequent Contentions where we have Confutations Answers and Replies and yet still all Parties continue in their Opinions without Conviction So that they that would unfeignedly feels Truth in my Mind take not the best Course in their Pursuit that presently engage themselves in a publick Dispute for the usual Heats that are begot in a Contention alienate their Minds from a just Impartiality and the dust they raise blinds their Eyes that they discern not truly Let us look into this Artifice of engaging Pride by Disputation and by it the Judgment First we find that when an humor of contending is raised certain Truths are neglected as to their improvement and Practice For so much of the Strength of the Soul is laid out upon disputable Questions that little is left for more weighty matters Secondly In Disputes Mens Credit is so concerned that 't is a most difficult thing to preserve a faithful regard to Verity especially where they are managed with Affronts and Contumelies They that by calm handling might be induced to acknowledge a Mistake will scarce come near that Point of Ingenuity when they must be called Fool Knave or Ass for their labour Hence ordinarily though they profess otherwise Men seek rather Victory than Truth Thirdly in Disputes Pride and Passion are usually heightned and the stronger the Passions are the weaker is the Judgment Eager Altercations bring a Confusion both upon the matter of which they dispute and upon the Understanding that should judge Fourthly in the heart of Disputation when the Mind is inflamed Men usually behave themselves like those in a Fray
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
by the aid of Satan Neither was this the act of one Man who might possibly together with that present Age be under a mistake concerning Witches though it be a thing not to be supposed but long after him Nebuchadnezzar in Dan. 2. 4. being astonished with his Dreams calls for the Sorcerers or Witches and Magicians to give him the Interpretation which had been a matter very improper for them if their skill had lain only in mixing Poysons When we have thus silenced this Imagination we have yet another to encounter with and that is of those that think these Witches of which the forecited Texts do speak are but meer Cheats and by some tricks of Delusion and Legerdemain pretend they can do things which indeed they cannot do at all and yet finding death threatned to such which in a business of meer Jugling would seem too great a severity they have framed this answer to it That the death is threatned not for the jugling but for their presumptuous and blasphemous undertaking to do things that belong to a Divine Power and for taking his Name in vain Or as others are pleased to say though they have no real power they are justly punished for the belief they have that they can do such mischief joyned with their purpose to do it if they can In Answer to this apprehension I shall not much insist upon these Reasons which yet are sufficiently weak the latter accusing God's Laws of unreasonable severity and the former accusing them of unnecessary redundancy seeing enough in other places is provided against Blasphemers but shall offer a Consideration or two which I judg will be of force to rectifie the Mistake First Though it cannot be denyed but that a great many Cheats there have been in all Ages by which Men have endeavoured to raise the repute and esteem of their own Skill and Excellencies or for other base ends yet form hence to conclude that all these things that have been done under the name of Witchcraft were such must be an unsufferable piece of insolence not only denying that credit which all sober Men owe to History to the constant belief of all Ages to the faithfulness and wisdom of Judges Jurors Witnesses Laws and Sanctions but also dangerously overthrowing all our Senses so that at this rate we may well question Whether we really Eat Drink Move Sleep and any thing else that we do this Reason is urged by grave and serious Men. Secondly It cannot be imagined that such things are meerly delusory where the voluntary Confessions of so many have accused themselves and others not of Thinking or Jugling but of really Acâ—ing and doing such things with such Circumstances as have particularized Time Place Thing and Manner Thirdly The real Effects done by the Power of Witchcraft shew it not to be Delusion Such are the Transportation of Persons many miles from their Habitations and leaving them there their telling things done in remote Places raising of Storms and Tempests Vomiting of Pins Needles Stones Cloth Leather and such like and these some of them attested by sober and intelligent Persons who were Eye-witnesses Large accounts you have of these in Bodinus Sprengerius and several others that have borrowed these Relations from them The Notion of Poysonings or delusory Juglings being below what the Scripture intends to set forth as Witchcraft it is evident that Witchcraft is a power of doing great Things by the aid of the Devil By which our way is open to improve this Instance to demonstrate which was the second thing promised that Satan's Power must be Great For First 'T is acknowledged that a great part of those things that are done in this Matter as concurrent with or helpful toward the promoting of such Acts are Satan's proper Works as the troubling the Air raising Storms Apparitions various Shapes and Appearances Transportations from Place to Place and a great many more things of Wonder and Amazement all which exceed humane Power Secondly Many things of Wonder done by such Persons to which some suppose the secret Powers of Herbs or Things contribute their natural Aids or concurrance are evidences of Satan's deep knowledg of and insight into Natural Causes Of this nature is that Ointment with which Witches are said to besmear themselves in order to their Transportation The power and efficacy whereof is by some imagined to consist in this That it keeps the Body Tenantable and in a fit condition to receive the Soul by re-entry after such Separations as by all Circumstances are concluded have been really made in pursuit of those Visionary Perambulations and Transactions Which things if they be so as they are not improbable Witches have them from Satan's discovery and they are to be ascribed to his Power Thirdly Those Actions that are most properly the Witches own Actions and in which the Power of Hurting doth as some suppose reside are notwithstanding either awakened or influenced by Satan So though we grant what some would have that the Power of Hurting is a Natural Power and a venomous Magnetism of the Witch and that her Imagination by her Eye darts those Malignant Beams which produce real Hurts upon Men after the manner of the Imaginations force upon a Child in the Womb which hath as by daily Experience and History is confirmed produced Marks Impressions Deformities and Wounds and that Satan doth but cheat the Witch into a belief of his Aid in that Matter that with a greater advantage he may make use of her Power without which he could do nothing yet even this speaks his Ability in that at least he doth awaken and raise up that Magical Force which otherwise would lie a-sleep and so puts the Sword into their hand Yet some attribute far more to him to wit the infusion of a poysonous Ferment by that action of â—ucking the Witch in some part of the Body by which not only her Imagination might be heightned by Poysonous Streams breathed in which might infect Blood and Spirits with a noxious Tincture The Second grand Instance of his Power I shall produce from those Actions of Wonder and Astonishment which he sometime performs which indeed have been so great that they have occasioned that Question Whether Satan can do Miracles To this we answer 1. That God alone can work Miracles A Miracle being a real Act done visibly and above the Power of Nature Such Works some have ranked into three heads 1. Such as created Power cannot produce as to make the Sun stand still or go backward 2. Such as are in themselves produceable by Nature but not in such an order as to make the Dead to live and those that were born Blind to see which is strongly argued John 9. 32. to be above humane Power and John 10. 21. to be above the Power of Devils 3. Such as are the usual Works of Nature yet produced above the principles and helps
whereof they conclude to be such and so general that most Men are in hazard to be imposed upon by delusive Appearances But with far greater shew of likelihood do some make all such things to be nothing else but the Issues of Melancholly and corrupt Humors which makes Men believe they hear see and suffer strange things when there is nothing near them or really to undergo strange fits as in Lunacy and Epilepsy Leaving these Men as not capable of Information from Scripture evidence because disowning it Let us enquire what mistaken apprehensions there have been in this Matter among those that have pretended a reverence to and belief of Scripture The Sadducees deserve the first place because they are by name noted in Scripture to have denied the Resurrection and to have affirmed that there is neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. Matth. 22. 23. This opinion of theirs could we certainly find it out would make much for the confirmation of the Truth in question seeing what ever it was it is positively condemned in Scripture and the contrary asserted to be true Many and that upon considerable grounds do think that they do not deny absolutely that there were any Angels at all but that acknowledging that something there was which was called an Angel yet they imagining it to be far otherwise than what it is indeed were accused justly for denying such a kind of Angels as the Scripture had every where asserted and described For considering that they owned a God and at least the five Books of Moses if not all the other Books of the Old Testament as Scaliger and others judge not without great probability for neither doth the Scripture nor Josephus mention any such thing of the Prophets it is unimaginable that they would altogether deny that there was Angel or Spirit at all They read of Angels appearing to Lot to Abraham and met with it so frequently that believing Scriptures to be true they could not believe Angels to be an absolute fiction for one Fable or Falsity in Scripture which so highly asserts it self to be an unerring Oracle of the true God must of necessity have destroyed the credit of all and rendred them as justly suspected to be true in nothing when apparently false or fabulous in any thing Again If we call to mind what Apprehensions they had of God which all consent they did acknowledge we might more easily imagine what apprehensions they had of Angels for in regard that Moses made mention of Gods Face and Back-parts and that frequently Hands and other parts of Mans Body were attributed to him they concluded God to be Corporeal and seeing the best of Creatures which God created cannot be supposed to have a more noble Being than was that of their Creator and at the utmost to be made according to the Pattern of his own Image and likeness they might upon this Bottom easily fix a denial of Incorporeal Spirits and by consequence that the Soul of Man was mortal and therefore that there could be no Resurrection so that the nature of Angels being described under the notion of Spiritual Substances they are judged to deny any such thing supposing that to be Incorporeal was as much as not to be at all and yet it were unreasonable to deny that they had not some Interpretation for those passages of Scripture that mentioned Angels which in their apprehensions might be some Salvo to the truth of those Historical Writings which they acknowledged but what that was we are next to conjecture And indeed Josephus by a little hint of their Opinion seems to tell us that they did not so much deny the Being of the Soul as the permanency of it and so by consequence they might not so much deny absolutely the existence of Spirits as their Natural Being and continuance Something there was that was called by the name of Angel that they could not but own and that this must be a real and not an imaginary thing is evident from the real Effects and things done by them yet observing their appearances to have been upon some special occasion and their disappearing to have been on a sudden they might conjecture them to be created by God for the present service and then reduced to nothing when that service was done Their Opinion then of Angels seems to be one of these two Either that they were Corporeal Substances created upon a special emergency but not permanent Beings or that they were but Images and Impressions supernaturally formed in the Fancy by the special Operation of God to signify his Mind and Commands to Men upon which they might fitly be called God's Messengers and Ministers I put in this last into the conjecture because I find it mentioned by Calvin as the Opinion of the Sadducees but both are noted by Diodate on Acts 23. 8. as with equal probability belonging to them his words are They did not believe they were subsisting and immortal Creatures but transitory Apparitions or some divine Actions and Motions to produce some special and notable Effect Others also have been lately hammering out the same apprehension concerning Angels and profess themselves delivered from it with great difficulty differing only in this from some of the Heathens before mentioned that what those ascribed to the Puissance of the Stars Natural Powers or to weakness of Senses and corrupt Humors they by the advantage of the general notions of Scripture have ascribed to God putting forth his Power upon the Minds and Fancies of Men or working by the Humours of the Body upon this foundation they will easilier make bold with Devils to deny if not their Being yet their Temptations imagining that we may possibly do him wrong in fathering upon him these Sollicitations and Provocations to Sin which we by experience find to be working and acting upon our Minds thinking that our own Fancies or Imaginations may be the only Devils that vex us and this they more readily hearken to from the nature of Dreams and Visions which happen to Men in an ordinary Natural way where our Fancies play with us as if they were distinct from us as also from this consideration that the Lunatick Epileptick and Frenzical Persons are in Scripture called Demoniacks as Matth. 17. 15. with Luk. 9. where the Person is called Lunatick and yet said to be taken and vexed by a Spirit so also Joh. 10. 20. he hath a Devil and is mad But these reasonings can do little with an intelligent considering Man to make him deny what he so really feels and is so often forewarned of in Scripture for suppose these were called Demoniacks by the Vulgar it doth not compel us to believe they were so Men are apt to ascribe Natutural Diseases to Satan and Christ did not concern himself to cure their Misapprehensions while he cured their Diseases This some suggest as a Reason that may answer many Cases though indeed it cannot answer that of
The Light of their own Experience of the vileness and odiousness of Sin they know what an evil and bitter thing it is 2. They have a more full discovery of God which will make them abhor themselves in dust and ashes 3. They have the advantage of a new Heart the Law of the Spirit of Life making them free from the Law of Sin and Death 4. They have also the help and assistance of the Spirit in its Motions Suggestions and Teachings 5. They fortifie themselves with the strongest Resolutions not to give way to Sin Notwithstanding all these 'T is too true that both Regenerate and Unregenerate Men do sin The reason whereof cannot be given from any other account than what we have asserted to wit they are some way or other deluded or deceived some Curtain is drawn 'twixt them and the Light some Fallacy or other is put upon the Understanding some way or other the Will is bribed or byassed there is treachery in the case for 't is unimaginable that a Man in any act of Sin should offer a plain open and direct violence to his own Nature and Faculties so that the whole business is here Evil is presented under the notion of God and to make this out some considerations of pleasure or profit do bribe the Will and give false light to the Understanding Hence is it that in every act of Sin Men by complyance with Satan are said to deceive or to put tricks and fallacies upon themselves Fifthly All kinds of Subtilty are in Scripture directly charged upon Satan and in the highest degrees Sometime under the notion of Logical fallacies those sleights which Disputants in arguing put upon their Antagonists Of this import is that expression 2 Cor. 2. 11. We are not ignorant of his Devices where the word in the Original is borrowed from the Sophistical reasonings of Disputants Sometime 't is expressed in the similitude of Political deceits as the Scripture gives him the title of a Prince so doth it mark out his Policies in the management of his Kingdom Rev. 12. 7. expressly calling them Deceits and comparing him to a Dragon or Serpent for his subtilty Sometime he is represented as a Warriour Rev. 12. 17. The Dragon was wroth and went to make War c. and here are his Warlike Stratagems pointed at Mention is made 2 Tim. 2. 26. of his Snares and the taking of Men alive or Captive directly alluding to Warlike proceedings The subtile proceedings of Arts and Craft are charged on him and his Instruments Men are said to be enticed Jam. 1. as Fish or Fowl by a Bait Others deluded as by Cheaters in false Gaming Eph. 4. 14. By the sleight of Men and the cunning craft of those that ly in wait to deceive The over-reaching of Merchants or crafty Tradesmen is alluded to in 2 Cor. 2. 11. All these sleights are in Satan in their highest perfection and accomplishment He can transform himself into an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11. 14. where he hath an occasion for it In a word all deceiveableness of unrighteousness is in him 2 Thess 2. 10. So that a general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dexterity and ability for all kind of subtile Contrivances is ascribed to him 2 Cor. 11. 3. and that in his very first essay upon Eve when the Serpent deceived her thorow subtilty so that whatsoever Malice can suggest or Wit and Art contrive for Delusion or whatsoever Diligence can practise or Cruelty execute all that must be imagined to be in Satan Sixthly All this might be futher proved by Instances What Temptation can be named wherein Satan hath not acted as a Serpent who can imagine the cunning that Satan used with David in the matter of Vriah How easily he got him to the roof of the house in order to the Object to be presented to him How he directs his Eye wrought upon his Passions suggested the Thought contrived the Conveniencies What Art must there be to bring a darkness into David's mind a forgetfulness of God's Law a fearlesness of his displeasure and a neglect of his own danger surely it was no small matter that could blind David's Eye or besot his Heart to so great a Wickedness But above all Instances let us take into consideration that of Eve in the first transgression wherein many things may be observed as first That he chose the Serpent for his Instrument wherein though we are ignorant of the depth of his design yet that he had a design in it of subtilty in reference to what he was about to suggest is plain from the Text Now the Serpent was more subtile then any Beast of the field it had been needless and impertinent to have noted the Serpents subtilty as Satans Agent if he had not chosen it upon that score as advantageous for his purpose 2. He set upon the weaker Vessel the Woman and yet such as once gained he knew was likely enough to prevail with the Man which fell out accordingly 3. Some think he took the advantage of her Husbands absence which is probable if we consider that 't is unlikely that Adam should not interpose in the discourse if he had been present 4. He took the advantage of the Object It appears she was within sight of the Tree She saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the Eyes thus he made the Object plead for him 5. He falls not directly upon what he intended lest that should have scared her off but fetcheth a compass and enters upon the business by an enquiry of the affairs as if he intended not hurt 6. He so enquires of the matter Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden as if he made a question of the reality of the Command and his words were so ordered that they might cast some doubt hereof into her mind 7. He under a pretence of asserting God's Liberality secretly undermines the threatning as if he had said Is it possible that so bountiful a Creator should deny the liberty of eating of any tree to what purpose was it made if it might not be tasted 8. When he finds that by these Arts he had gained a little ground and brought her to some kind of questioning of the reality of the threatning for she seems to extenuate it in saying lest we die he grows more bold to speak out his mind and plainly to annihilate the threatning Ye shall not die this he durst not do till he had gained in her mind a wavering suspition that possibly God was not in good earnest in that prohibition 9. Then he begins to urge the conveniency and excellency of the Fruit by equivocating upon the name of the Tree which he tells her could make them knowing as Gods 10. He reflects upon God as prohibiting this out of envy and ill-will to them 11. In all this there is not a word of the danger but impunity and advantage promised 12.
This deadly advice he covers with a pretence of greater kindness and care than God had for them See in this as in a clear Glass Satan's way of Policy after this rate he proceeds in all his Temptations If any enquire why so mighty and potent a Prince useth rather the Fox's Skin than the Lyon's Paw these reasons may satify First There is a necessity upon him so to do He must use his craft because he cannot compel He must have Gods leave before he can overcome He cannot winnow Peter before he sue out a Commission nor deceive Ahab till he get a License neither can he prevail against us without our own consent The Scripture indeed useth some words that signify a force in tempting as that he put it into the heart of Judas filled the heart of Annanias provoked David rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience and leads them captive at his will c. yet all these and the like expressions intend no more than this that he useth forcible Importunities frames strong Delusions and joyns sometime his Power to his Temptations as sometime Fowlers shew themselves to the Birds they intend to ensnare that so they may be affrighted into an awe and amazement to give a better opportunity to spread their Nets over them Secondly If he could compel yet his way of craft and subtilty is generally the most prevalent and successful Force stirs up an opposition it usually alarms to caution and avoidance and frights to an utter aversness in any design so that where Force should gain its thousands Subtilty will gain its ten thousands Thirdly His Strength is not useless to him For besides that it enables him to deceive with higher advantage than otherwise he could do as hath been said he hath times and occasions to shew his Strength and Cruelty when his cunning hath prevailed so far as to give him possession What was said of Pope Boniface that he entred like a Fox and ruled like a Lion may be applyed to him he insinuates himself by subtilty as a Fox or Serpent and then rules with rigour as a Lion CHAP. IX Of Satan's Deceits in particular What Temptation is Of tempting to Sin His first general Rule The Consideration of our Condition His second Rule Of providing sutable Temptations In what cases he tempts us to things unsutable to our Inclinations His third Rule The cautious Proposal of the Temptation and the several ways thereof His fourth Rule is to entice The way thereof in the general by bringing a darkness upon the Mind through lust OUr next business is to enquire after these ways of Deceit in particular in which I shall first speak of such as are of more general and universal concernment Such are his Temptations to Sin his Deceits against Duty his cunning in promoting Error his attempts against the Peace and Comfort of the Saints c. and then I shall come to some ways of Deceits that relate to Cases more special As an Introduction to the first I shall speak a word of Temptation in the general This in its general notion is a Tryal or Experiment made of a thing the word that signifies to tempt comes from a word that signifies to pierce or bore thorow implying such a Tryal as goes to the very heart and inwards of a thing In this sense 't is attributed to God who is said to have tempted Abraham and to put our Faith upon tryal and sometime to Satan who is said to have tempted Christ though he could not expect to prevail But though God and Satan do make these tryals yet is there a vast difference betwixt them and that not only in their Intentions the one designing only a discovery to Men of what is in them and that for most holy ends the other intending ruine and destruction but also in the way of their Proceedings God by providence presents Objects and Occasions Satan doth not only do that but farther inclineth and positively perswadeth to evil Hence is it that Temptations are distinguished into Tryals meerly and Seducements sutable to that of Tertullian Diabolus tentat Deus probat the Devil tempts God only trys We speak of Temptation as 't is from Satan and so 't is described to be a drawing or moving Men to sin under colour of some reason By which we may observe that in every such Temptation there is the Object to which the Temptation tends the endeavour of Satan to encline our hearts and draw on our consent and the Instrument by which is some pretence of reason not that a real and solid reason can be given for Sin but that Satan offers some considerations to us to prevail with us which if they do we take them to be reasons This may a little help us to understand Satan's method in tempting to sin c. of which I am first to speak In temptations to Sin we may observe Satan walks by four general Rules First He considers and acquaints himself with the condition of every Man and for that end he studies Man God's question concerning Job Hast thou considered my Servant Job doth imply not only his diligent enquiry into Job's state for the Original expresseth it by Satan's putting his heart upon Job or laying him to his heart but that this is usual with Satan so to do as if God had said 'T is thy way to pry narrowly into every Man hast thou done this to Job hast thou considered him as thou usest to do and indeed Satan owns this as his business and imployment in his answer to God I come from going to and fro in the Earth from walking up and down in it This cannot be properly said of him who is a Spirit Bodies go up and down but not Spirits so that his meaning is he had been at his work of enquiring and searching And so Broughton translates it from searching to and fro in the Earth as 't is said of the Eyes of God that they run to and fro which intends his Intelligence Search and Knowledge of things 't is such a going to and fro as that in Dan. 12. 4. which is plainly there expressed to be for the encrease of Knowledg The matter of his enquiry or particulars of his study are such as these 1. Man's State he considers and guesseth whether a Man be Regenerate or Unregenerate 2. The Degree of his State if Unregenerate how near or far off he is the Kingdom of God if Regenerate he takes the compass of his Knowledge of his Gifts of his Graces 3. He enquires into his Constitution and Temper he observes what Disposition he is off 4. His Place Calling and Relation his Trade Employment Enjoyments Riches or Wants 5. His Sex 6. His Age c. The way by which he knows these things is plain and easie most of these things are open to common observation and what is intricate or dark that he beats out either by comparing us
10. was by the influence of the evil Spirit and this as Junius Tirinus and others interpret must of necessity be understood of such a kind of action and speaking as the true Prophets of the Lord usually expressed under the Influences of the blessed Spirit for from the likeness of the action in both must the name be borrowed The experience that we have of inward Disputings the bandying of Arguments and Answers in several Cases is a proof of this beyond exception Wounded Consciences express an admirable dexterity in breaking all Arguments urged for their peace and establishment as also in framing Objections against themselves so far above the usual measure of common Capacities that we cannot ascribe it to any other than Satan's private aid this way Fourthly The motion being made if there be need he doth irritate and stir up the mind to the embracement of it and this he doth two ways First By an earnestness of Sollicitation when he urgeth the thing over and over and gives no rest when he joyns with this an importunity of begging and intreating with the repeated motion when he draws together and advantageously doth order a multitude of considerations to that end and when in all this he doth hold down the mind and thoughts and keep them upon a contemplation of the Object Motions and Reasons Thus he provoked David 1 Chron. 21. 1. And this kind of dealing occasioned the Apostle to name his Temptations and our resistance by the name of wrestlings in which usually there appears many endeavours and often repeated to throw down the Antagonist Secondly He doth irritate by a secret power and force that he hath upon our Fancies and Passions When Men are said to be carried and led by Satan it implyes in the judgment of some more than importunity and that though he cannot force the spring of the Will yet he may considerably act upon it by pulling at the Weights and Plummets that is by moving and acting our Imaginations and Affections The motion being thus made notwithstanding all his importunity often finds resistance in which case he comes to the practice of a fourth Rule which is to draw away and entice the heart to consent as 't is expressed Jam. 1. 14. Everyman is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed I shall avoid here the variety of the apprehensions which some declare at large about the meaning of the words satisfying my self with this that the Apostle points at those Artifices of Satan by which he draws and allures the will of Man to a complyance with his motions which when he effects in any degree then may a Man be said to be prevailed upon by the Temptation But then here is the wonder how he should so far prevail against that Reason and Knowledg which God hath placed in Man to fence and guard him against a thing so absurd and unreasonable as every sin is The Solution of this knot we have in 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this World blinds the eyes of Men draws a curtain over this Knowledg and raiseth a darkness upon them which darkness though we cannot fully apprehend yet that it is a very great and strange darkness may be discovered 1. Partly by considering the subject of it Man a rational Creature in whom God hath placed a Conscience which is both a Law and Witness and Judge It cannot be supposed an easie matter to cloud or obliterate that Law to silence or pervert that Witness or to corrupt that Judge but it will rise higher in the wonder of it if we consider this in a godly Man one that sets God before him and is wont to have his fear in his heart such a man as David was that in so plain a case in so high a manner so long a time with so little sense and apprehension of the evil and danger Satan should so quickly prevail 't is an astonishment neither will it be less strange if we consider 2. The issue and effect of this blindness Some rise up against this Law of Conscience arguing it false and erronious and making conclusions directly contrary as Deut. 29. 19. I shall have peace though I walk on in the imaginations of my heart I have fellowship with him though I walk in darkness 1 Joh. 1. 6. We will not hearken unto thee but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth Jer. 45. 16 17. in which cases the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or principles of Conscience are quite overthrown Some are hardned and as to any application of their acts to this Rule quite dead and sensless though they rise not up against the light yet are they willingly ignorant without any consideration of what they are doing here the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or witnessing and excusing power of Conscience is idle and asleep Some though they know the Law and in some measure see their actions are sinful yet they pass no judgment apprehend no danger No man smites upon his thigh saying what have I done Jer. 8. 6. Nay some are so far from this that they presumptuously justify themselves though they see their own blame and ruine before them I do well to be angry and that to the death saith Jonah when Satan had spread a darkness upon him What shall we say of these things here is darkness to be felt Egyptian darkness to explain the way of it fully is impossible for us to do it in any tollerable way is difficult To make some discovery herein I shall 1. Shew that the Devil doth entice to sin by stirring up our lust 2. That by the power and prevalency of our lust he brings on the blindness spoken of CHAP. X. That Satan enticeth by our Lust The several ways by which he doth it Of the power and danger of the violence of Affections THe way then by which he doth entice is by stirring up our lust By lust I mean those general desirings of our minds after any unlawful object which are forbidden in the tenth Commandment thus we read of worldly lusts of the lusts of the flesh of lustings to envy and in a world we read of divers lusts the whole attempt and striving of corrupt Nature against the Spirit being set forth by this expression of lusting against the Spirit That Satan takes advantage of our own lusts and so plows with our Heifer turning our own Weapons against our selves is evident by the general vote of Scripture The Apostle James 1. 14. tells us that every Temptation prevails only by the power and working of our own lusts Satan is the Tempter but our lusts are the advantages by which he draws and enticeth the corrupt principle within us is called flesh but the way whereby it works either in its own proper motion or as stirred up by the Devil is that of lust and affection and therefore he that would stop that issue must look to mortify it in its affections and
it have but Body enough they never enquire whether it have Spirit or Life within a dead Carcass in Robes that may put them to the exercise of their Postures and ceremonious Complements doth make up a more grateful Religion for a carnal Man than a living spiritual Service that necessarily will put them upon inward care and watchfulness in the constant exercise of holy Spiritual Graces without affording any considerable gratification to the Senses Hence is it truly more difficult and yet inwardly more beautiful and glorious to pray in Faith and Humility even in short breathings after God than to say a thousand Ave Maria's or to perform a task of ordinary Penance But as those that have no Children of their own delight themselves in playing with a Monkey or Baboon so those that know not how to worship God in Spirit and Truth seek to satisfie themselves in the performance of external Gesture and Ceremony Secondly On the other hand he sometimes is willing that an Errour should affect an excess of plainness and simplicity In this he takes advantage of those expressions in Scripture wherein the Gospel is commended for its simplicity and the inventions of Men under the pretences of Wisdom Humility and neglecting of the Body are condemned Upon this ground he runs Men upon such an excess of dotage that they never think the things of God are rightly managed but when they are brought down to a contemptible silliness By this means he arms conceited ignorant Men with exceptions against Learning and the necessary decencies of languague in Preaching and with them they are the only Preachers and most likely to be inspired that use least study and preparation for their work 'T is indeed very true that the affected fooleries of a bombast Stile or startcht Discourse and needless citations of Sentences for ostentation without any true advantage to the matter in hand are things very pedantick and exceedingly unsuitable to the gravity of the Work of the Ministry and renders it very ungrateful to a pious Mind but this contrary folly makes the solemn Ordinances of God so nauseous and contemptible that it often makes way by Satan's cunning improvement of the Temptation to an Atheistical rejection of all Worship In the mean time 't is wonderful to observe how some Persons please themselves with this conceit that their way of Worship is plain and that they speak what immediately comes into their Mind and though it be Non-sense or Contradictions which sufficiently evidenceth that 't is nothing of kin to the Spirits Inspiration which they utter yet 't is argument enough to them that their opinions and ways are right because they proceed in a designed neglect of all necessary order and under pretence of the simplicity of the Gospel they reduce all they do to childish silliness Neither is this all the mischief which the Devil raiseth out of this conceit for the contempt and disuse of the Sacraments may in great part be ascribed to it Those erroneous ways of Worship that are most noted for decrying those Institutions of Christ have this for their Plea that the Worship which God is best pleased with is spiritual and that all bodily services and external observations are things that God stands not upon such as profit little and were no further in use but to recommend an internal spiritual communion with God so that the more they reject these things they perswade themselves they have a more true understanding of the design of God in Religion Either of these ways Satan makes use of for the befooling of Men into an humour of pleasing themselves with Errour But Thirdly He hath of old endeavoured to cloud and enervate the Doctrine of the Bible by traditionary Fables We meet with many passages to this purpose sometimes he sets up unwritten Traditions not only of equal authority to the written Word but as completions and perfections of it This he practised among the Jews with such success that the Traditions of the Elders were of greater force with them than the Commands of God as Christ himself noted of them Matth. 15. 13. Of these unwritten Traditions which they called the Law by the word of Mouth feigned by them to be given to Moses when he was in the Mount and so delivered from hand to hand the Apostles gave many warnings and signified the hazards that Truth stood in by them through the cunning of Satan as Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through the Traditions of Men. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies Tit. 1. 14. Not giving heed to Jewish Fables and Commandments of Men. 2 Tim. 4. 4. And they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables The Papists at this day give the same entertainment to this device that the Jews did of old they boast as high of their Traditions and are every whit as fabulous and foolish in them as they were Satan in his attempts upon the Gentiles to confirm them in their false Worship though he kept up the substance of this design yet he was necessitated to alter the scene a little that he might more handsomly accommodate it to their condition and therefore he set up amongst them fabulous imitations of the Truths and Ordinances of the Scripture insomuch that there is scarce any grand Mystery or remarkable History or Ordinance mentioned in the Scripture but we may find something among the Heathens in Tradition or Practice that doth allude to it What traditionary imitations had they of the Creation recorded in the Book of Genesis That of Ovid concerning the Chaos and first beginning of things is known to every School-Boy The Phoenicians in their Theology give an odd account of it from their Taautus to this purpose That the first beginnings of all things were a dark disordered Chaos and the spirit of the dark Air hence proceeded Moth that is Mire from thence issued the Seeds and Generation of all Creatures in Earth and Heaven c. The wickedness of Men before the Flood mentioned Gen. 6. 1 2. is fabulously related in an ancient Book falsly ascribed to Enoch wherein the Watchmen or Angels are reported to take them Wives of the Daughters of Men and that from thence was the race of Giants For the description of Paradise the Heathens had the Poetical Fiction of the Elyzian Fields as they had the Story of Deucalion instead of Noahs Ark and the Deluge The Story of Lots Wife was abused by the Fiction of Orpheus his Wife suddenly snatched from him for looking back The History of Sampson was turned into their Story of Hercules and his ten labours From the Sun standing still in Joshua and Hezekiahs time came that Fiction of Jupiters doubling the night that he might enjoy Alemena In some of these disguises of sacred Story they go so near in name and circumstances that 't is past doubt they imitated the true History which they
Errour it only now remains that something be spoken of his attempts against the Peace and Comfort of the Children of God That 't is also one of Satans chief designs to cheat us of our Spiritual Peace may be fully evinced by a consideration of his Malice the great concern of inward Comfort to us and the many Advantages which he hath against us by the disquiet of our Minds First whosoever shall seriously consider the Devil 's implacable Malice will easily believe that he so envies our Happiness that he will industriously rise up against all our Comforts 'T is his inward fret and indignation that Man hath any interest in that Happiness from which he irrecoverably fell and that the Spirit of God should produce in the hearts of his People any spiritual joy or satisfaction in the belief and expectation of that Felicity and therefore must it be expected that his Malice heightned by the torment of his own guilt which as some think are those Chains of darkness in which he is reserved at present to the judgment of the great day will not cannot leave this part of our Happiness unattempted He endeavours to supplant us of our Birth-right of our Blessing of our Salvation and the comfortable hopes thereof From his common imployment in this matter the Scripture hath given him names importing an opposition to Christ and his Spirit in the ways they take for our Comfort and Satisfaction Christ is our Advocate that pleads for us Satan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Calumniator The Spirit interceds for us Satan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Accuser of the Brethren who accuseth them before God night and day The Spirit is our Comforter Satan is our Disturber a Beelzebub who is ever raking in our Wounds as Flyes upon Sores The Apostle Paul had his Eye upon this when he was advising the Corinthians to receive again the penitent incestuous Person his caution was most serious 2 Cor. 2. 11. lest Satan get advantage of us lest he deceive and circumvent us for his expression relates to Men cunningly deceitful in Trade that do over-reach and defraud the unskilful and the reason of this caution was the known and commonly experienced subtilty of Satan for we are not ignorant of his devices implying that he will and frequently doth ly at catch to take all advantages again 〈◊〉 Some indeed restrain these advantages to Vers 10. as I ld 〈◊〉 only meant that Satan was designing to fix the Corinthians upon an Opinion that Backsliders into great Sins were not to be received again or that he laid in wait to raise a Schism in the Church upon the account of this Corinthian Others restrain this advantage which he waited for to Vers 7. where the Apostle expresseth his fear lest the excommunicated Person should be swallowed up of too much sorrow but the caution being not expressly bound up to any one of these seems to point at them all and to tell us that Satan drives on many designs at once and that in this Mans case Satan would endeavour to put the Corinthians upon a Pharisaical rigour or to rend the Church by a division about him and to oppress the Penitent by bereaving him of his due comfort so that it appears still that it is one of his designs to hinder the Comfort and molest the Hearts of God's Children Secondly Of such concern is inward spiritual Peace to us that 't is but an easie conjecture to conclude from thence that so great an Adversary will make it his design to rob us of such a Jewel For 1. Spiritual Comfort is the sweet Fruit of Holiness by which God adorns and beautifies the ways of Religious Service to render them amiable and pleasant to the Undertakers Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 17. and this is the present rest and refreshment of God's faithful Servants under all their toil that when they have tribulation from the World yet they have peace in him Joh. 16. 33. and that being justified by Faith they have peace with God and sometimes joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. and this they may the more confidently expect because the fruits of the Spirit are Love Joy Peace c. Gal. 5. 22. 2. Spiritual Comfort is not only our satisfaction but our inward Strength and Activity for all holy Services doth depend upon it By this doth God strengthen our Heart and gird up our Loyns to run the ways of his Commandments it doth also strengthen the soul to undergo Afflictions to glory in Tribulations to triumph in Persecutions the outward Man is also corroborated by the inward peace of the Mind A merry Heart doth good like a Medicine but a broken Spirit drieth the Bones Prov. 17. 22. all which are intended by that expression Neh. 8. 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength 't is strength to the Body to the Mind and that both for service and suffering the reason whereof the Apostle doth hint to us Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your Hearts and Minds that is Peace doth so guard us as with a Garison for so much the word imports that our Affections our Hearts being entertained with divine satisfactions are not easily enticed by baser proffers of worldly delights and our Reasonings our Minds being kept steady upon so noble an object are not so easily perverted to a treacherous recommendation of vanities 3. Joy and Peace are propounded to our careful endeavours for Attainment and Preservation as a necessary duty of great importance to us Rejoycings are not only recommended as seemly for the Vpright but injoined as Service and that in the constant practice Rejoyce evermore In every thing give thanks 1 Thess 5. 16 18. Rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. In the Old Testament God commanded the observation of several Feasts to the Jews these though they had their several respective grounds from God's appointment yet the general design of all seems to have been this that they might rejoyce before the Lord their God Lev. 23. 40. as if God did thereby tell them that it was the comely complexion of Religion and that which was very acceptable to himself that his Children might always serve him in chearfulness of Heart seeing such have more cause to rejoyce than all the World besides They are then much mistaken that think mounful Eyes and sad Hearts be the gretest Ornaments of Religion or that none are serious in the Profession of it that have a chearful Countenance and a rejoycing frame of Spirit 'T is true there is a Joy that is devilish and in Mirth which is madness to which Christ hath denounced a Wo Wo be to them that laugh now for they shall mourn and weep but this is a Joy of another nature a carnal delight in Vanity and Sin by which Men fatten their hearts to
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
that Scriptures and Ordinances are but low and sorry things c. That Satan doth delight to force such Thoughts upon Men is evident 1. From his Nature He is a blasphemous Spirit and withal so malicious that whatsoever is in his cursed Mind he will be ready to vent upon all occasions 2. From his Practice for where he can obtain the rule over Mens Imaginations as in some distracted Persons and those that are distempered with Feavers he usually makes them vomit forâ— Oaths Cursings and Blasphemies and this he doth to some that while they have had the use of their Reason have not been observed to give their Tongue the liberty of swearing or cursed speaking 3. From his professed Design in the case of Job concerning whom he boasted to God himself that he would make him curse him to his face and accordingly tempted him by his Wife to curse God and die 4. From the sad experience of those that have suffered under this sad Affliction for many have complained of blasphemous Thoughts and those whom he cannot conquer he will thus trouble Neither need we think it strange that the Devil can impress Blasphemies upon the Imaginations of Men against their wills when we consider that he could make Saul in his fits to behave himself like an inspired Person and cause him to utter things beyond and unsutable to his disposition after the rate and manner of those raptures which Idolatrous Priests used to be transported withal this in 1 Sam. 18. 10. is called Sauls prophesying when the evil Spirit from the Lord vexed him and is the same with that which is spoken concerning Baal's Priests 1 King 18. 29. They prophesied until the time of the offering of the Evening Sacrifice that is they were exercised with Trances and rapturous Furies in which they uttered strange Sounds and Speeches How easily then may Satan possess the Fancies of Men with Blasphemies so that the unwilling may be troubled with them and those that are deprived of the benefit of Reason may from the power of the impression upon their imagination vent them with a kind of unwilligness Melancholy Persons do very frequently meet with this kind of Trouble Satan having a great power upon their Imagination and great advantages from the darkness of that Humor to make the fear arising from such thoughts the more astonishing and to delude them into an apprehension that they are guilty of all that passeth through their thoughts and also to work this perplexity to more dismal effects In these kind of Men he doth play the Tyrant with such Injections abusing them to such an height as if they were his Vassals and Slaves whose Thoughts and Tongues were in his and not their own keeping and so strongly doth he possess them with this perplexity sometimes that all the counsels reasonings or advice of others cannot in the least satisfie or relieve them yet notwithstanding I have known several under this Affliction who when by Physick the state of their Bodies hath been altered have found themselves at ease immediately the Trouble gradually and insensibly ceasing of it self Others there are that have great vexation from these Thoughts and these are commonly such as by some long and grievous Pain Sickness or other Crosses have their Spirits fretted and imbittered then is Satan ready to suggest that God is cruel or regardless of his People and these Thoughts are the more dreadful because fretting and murmuring Spirits have a natural tendency to to think harshly of God so that Satan in this case doth with the more boldness obtrude these Suggestions upon them finding so great a forwardness toward such Imaginations and also with greater severity he doth reflect upon them as being in some likelihood compliant and consenting When other Persons not so concerned as these two sorts of Men above mentioned are assaulted with blasphemous thoughts the fits are less permanent and because they easily discover the design and Author of them not highly affrightful though still troublesome The burthen of these injections are much like the former very sadly afflicting For who can easily bear the noise of Satan while he shouts continually into their Ears odious Calumnies and Blasphemous Indignities against God David could not hear wicked Men blaspheme God but it was as a Sword in his Bones exceeding painful the impressions of Nature that teach us to revere and honour God the power of Education that confirms these impressions the perswasion of Faith that assures us of the reality and infinite Excellency of a Godhead and the force of Love that makes us more sensibly apprehensive of any Injury or Dishonour done to him whom we love above all all these do suffer by these violent Incursions of Satan and the Sufferer finds himself to be pained and tortured in these noble parts How grievous must it be to a Child of God to have his Ear chained to these intollerable ingrateful Reproaches Especially when we consider that the Devil will in this case utter the most dreadful Blasphemies he can devise which will still add to the Affliction for even those Men that through habit can well bear ordinary petty Oaths will yet startle at outragious prodigious Swearing and therefore what ever Covert and consequential Blasphemies may be to some Men these impudent hideous abuses of the Holy and Just God must needs sadly trouble those that are forced to hear them And the more constant the greater trouble Who would not be weary of their Lives that must be forced to undergo this Vexation still without intermission And yet the Devil can advance the trouble a little higher by the Apparatus or Artificial Dread which he puts upon the Temptation in the manner of the injection As the Roaring of the Lion increaseth terrour in the Beasts of the Field who without that would tremble at his presence and as the Thundering and Lightning at the giving of the Law increased the fear of Israel So when Satan is upon this design he shakes as it were the House and makes a noise that the fright may be increased 3. Suspicious fears of being excluded out of Gods eternal Decree of Election is another of his affrightments This is when Satan boldly takes upon him to determine God's secret Counsel concerning any Man peremptorily asserting that he is none of Gods Elect. In which case he often doth only inject the suspicion confidently without offer of Proof or if he use Arguments they never amount to a proof of his Assertion neither is it possible they should for these are among God's secrets and out of Satans reach though possibly they may prove the Person to be not Converted at present So that this kind of trouble differs exceedingly from those disquiets of Temptation which frequently Men suffer about their state of Regeneration And indeed the Question should not be confounded it being of great concern to Men when their Peace is assaulted to be able to observe the difference betwixt these two Assertions Thou
cry out of themselves as miserable 2. Another piece of his Sophistry is the improving certain false Notions which Christians of the weaker sort have received as proofs of their Unregeneracy or bad Condition As there are Vulgar Errors concerning Natural things so there are Popular Errors concerning Spiritual things These mistakes in a great part have their Original from the Fancies or Misapprehensions of unskilful Men. Some indeed have it may be been preached and taught as Truths others have risen without a Teacher from meer Ignorance being the conclusions and surmises which weak Heads have framed to themselves from the Sayings or Practices of Men which have not been either so cleared from the danger of mistake or not so distinctly apprehended as was necessary These false Inferences once set on foot are traditionally handed down to others and in time they gain among the simple the opinion of undoubted Truths Now where ever Satan finds any of these that are fit for his purpose for to be sure whatever mistake we entertain he will at one time or other cast it in our way he will make it the foundation of an Argument against him that hath received it and that with very great advantage For a falshood in the Premises will usually produce a falshood in the Conclusion And these falshoods being taken for granted the Devil is not put to the trouble to prove them if then he can but exactly fit them to something in the party which he cannot deny he forthwith carries the cause and condemns him by his own concessions as out of his own mouth 'T is scarce possible to number the false Notions which are already entertained among Christians relating to Grace and Conversion much less those that may afterward arise But I shall mention some that Satan frequently makes use of as grounds of Objection 1. 'T is a common apprehension among the weaker sort that Conversion is always accompanied with great fear and terrour This is true in some as hath been said and though none of the Preachers of the Gospel have asserted the universality of these greater measures of Trouble yet the People taking notice that many speak of their deep humiliations in Conversion and that several Authors have set forth the greatness of Distress that some have been cast into on that occasion though without any intention of fixing this into a general Rule have from thence supposed that all the Converted are brought to their Comforts through the flames of Hell Upon this mistake the Devil disquiets those that have not felt these extream Agonies of Sorrow in themselves and tells them that it is a sure sign that they are not yet Converted Though 't is easie for a Man that sees the falshood of the Notion to answer the Argument yet he that believes it to be true cannot tell what to say because he finds he never was under such Troubles and now he begins to be troubled because he was not troubled before or as he supposeth not troubled enough 2. Another false Notion is That a Convert can give an account of the time and manner of his Conversion This is true in some as in Paul and some others whose Change hath been sudden and remarkable though in many this is far otherwise who can better give account that they are Converted than by what Steps Degrees and Methods they were brought to it But if any of these receive the Notion they will presently find that Satan will turn the edge of it against them and will tell them that they are not Converted because they cannot nominate the time when nor the manner how such a Change was wrought 3. Some take it for granted that Conversion is accompanied with a remarkable measure of Gifts for Prayer and Exhortation and then the Devil objects it to them That they are not Converted because they cannot Pray as others or Speak of the things of God so readily fluently and affectionately as some others can Thus the poor weak Christian is baffled for want of Abilities to express himself to God and Men. 4. False Notions about the nature of Faith are a sad stumbling-Block to some Many suppose that Saving Faith is a certain belief that our Sins are Pardoned and that we shall be Saved making Faith and Assurance all one This mistake is the deeper rooted in the Minds of Men because some have directly taught so and those Men of Estimation whose words are entertained with great Reverence by well-meaning Christians For whom notwithstanding this may be pleaded in excuse that they have rather described Faith in its height than in its lowest measures How ever it be those that have no other understanding of the nature of Faith can never answer Satan's Argument if he takes them at any time at the advantage of fear or doubting For then he will dispute thus Faith is a belief that sins are Pardoned but thou dost not believe this therefore thou hast no Faith Oh what numbers of poor doubting Christians have been distressed with this Argument 5. Some take it for a truth that growth of Grace is always visible and the progress remarkable And then because they can make no such discovery of themselves the Devil concludes their Grace to be counterfeit and hypocritical 6. Of like nature are some mistaken signs of true Grace as that true Grace fears God only for his Goodness And then if there be any apprehension of Divine Displeasure impressed upon the Heart though upon the necessary occasion of miscarriage they through the Devils instigation conclude that they are under a spirit of Bondage and their supposed Grace not true or not genuine at least according to that disposition which the New-Testament will furnish a Man withal 'T is also another mistaken sign of Grace That it doth direct a Man to love God singly for himself without the least regard to his own Salvation for that they think is but Self-love Now when a Child of God doth not see his love to God so distinct but that his own salvation is twisted with it Satan gets advantage of him and forceth him to cast away his love as adulterate and selfish Like to this mistake but of an higher strain is that of some That where Grace is true 't is so carried forth to honour God that the Man that hath it can desire God may be honoured though he should be damned God doth not put us to such Questions as these but upon supposition that this is true the grace of most Men will be shaken by the Objection that Satan will make from thence he can and will presently put the mistaken to it Canst thou say thou art willing to go to Hell that God may be glorified If not where is thy Grace From such mistakes as these he disputes against the holiness of the Children of God and 't is impossible but that he should carry the Cause against those who grant these things to be true Satan can undeniably shew them that their Hearts
the most Beautiful Object the World in its Glory The Affections in that which is most Swaying Pride and delight in extraordinary Testimonies of Divine Power and Love in supporting him in the Air c. Tenthly Some of these warranted as Duty and to supply necessary hunger others depending upon the security of a promise He shall give his Angels charge c. The greater appearance of Duty or warrantableness is put upon Sin the greater is the Temptation By these ten Particulars may we as by a Standard judg when any Temptation is great or less Let us then take heed of small Temptations or the smoother proceedings of Satan as we would avoid the greater attempts that are to follow Where he is admitted to beat out our Lusts with a Rod or a Staff he may be suspected to bring the Wheel over them at last Let us also after our Assaults expect more and greater because the greatest are last to be looked for This holds true in three cases 1. In solemn Temptations where Satan fixeth his Assaults there the utmost rage is drawn out last 2. In the Continuance and Progress of Profession the further we go from him and the nearer to God be sure of the highest measure of his spite 3. At the end of our race for if he miss his prey then it is escaped for ever as a Bird unto its Hill But some may say I am but a Messenger of sad tidings and that by bringing such a report of Gyants and Walled Cities I may make the hearts of the People to faint I answer This is bad news only to the sluggish such as would go to Heaven with ease and in a fair and easy way but to the laborious resolute Souldiers of Christ this is no great discouragement for 1. It doth but tell them of their work which as they are perswaded of so it is in some measure their delight as well as their expectation 2. It doth but tell them Satans Malice and Fury which they are assured of and are most afraid of it sometimes when it seems to lye Idle and as asleep 3. It doth tell them that Satans thoughts concerning them are desparing he fears they are going oâ— gone from him If they were his willing Servants there would be no hostility of this nature against them I have thus compared these special Temptations with those wherewith our Lord Christ was exercised during the forty days I shall Secondly Compare these Temptations of Christ with those that usually betal his Members in which there is so much suitableness and agreement both in matter and manner that it cannot be unuseful to take notice of it which will the better appear in Instances First Then let us consider the first Temptation of Eve Gen. 3. 6. And when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise c. Here are all the Arguments and ways summed up by which Satan prevailed upon her It was good for Food here he wrought upon the desire of the natural Appetite It was pleasant to the Eyes here he took the advantage of the External Senses It was to be desired to make one wise here he enflamed the Affections Let us again call to mind the general Account of Temptations in the 1 Joh. 2. 16. All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life where the Apostle designedly calls all off from a love of the World because of the hazard and danger that we lye open unto from the things of the World striking upon and stirring up our Lusts which he ranks into three general heads according to the the various ways whereby these outward things do work upon us in exciting our natural powers and apprehensions to sinful lustings And these are so fully agreeing with those three in Eves Temptation that I need not note the Parallel Let us now cast our Eyes upon these Temptations and the suitableness of Satans ways and dealings will immediately appear When he tempted Christ to turn Stones into Bread there he endeavoured to take advantage of the Lust of the Flesh which in the 1 Joh. 2. I understand in a more restrained Sense not for the lustings of corrupt Nature but for the lustings of the Body in its Natural Appeâ—ite according to that exâ—â—â—ssion of Christ the Spirit is willing but the Flesh or body is weak And if we should not so restrain it in this place the Lust of the Flesh would include the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life contrary to the clear scope of the Text for these are also the lustings of corrupt Nature When he further tempted him to cast himself down he pushed him upon the Pride of Life When he shewed him the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them he attempted to gain upon him by the Lust of the Eyes From this proportion and suitableness of Temptation to Christ and his Members observe That Satan usually treads in a beaten path using known and experienced Methods of Temptation 'T is true in regard of Circumstances he useth unspeakable varieties in tempting and hath many more Devices and Juggles than can be reckoned up yet in the General he hath digested them into Method and Order and the things upon which he works in us are the same thus he walks his round and keeps much-what the same Track not only in different Persons but also in the same Men using the same Temptations over and over and yet this argues no barrenness of Invention or sluggishness in Satan but he hath these reasons for it First Because the same Temptations being suited to humane Nature in General will with a small Variation of Circumstance suit all Men their Inclinations generally answering to one another as Face answers to Face in Water Secondly These standing Methods are Famous with him as generally powerful and taking and it can be no wonder if Satan practise most with these things that have the largest Probatum est of Experience to follow them Thirdly The more Experienced he is in any Temptation the more dexterously and successfully still he can manage it so that we may expect him more cunning and able in what he most practiseth This may be some satisfaction to those that are apt to think of themselves and their Temptations as Elias did in his perswasion I alone am left Where Satan useth any thing of Vigour and Fierceness we are apt to say none are tempted as we none in like case we are singular they are peculiar and extraordinary Temptations c. But 't is a mistake even that of Solomon may be applyed to these there is nothing new nor any thing befaln us which others have not undergon before us and would but Christians be so careful to observe the way of the Serpent upon their hearts and as they might and so communicative of
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
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
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