deliverances that they would not take into consideration the unrighteous terms upon which they might have escaped Thirdly When a Temptation after all means used continues to be troublesom and is rather an annoyance than an infection then must we not dispute it but by an Holy Contempt despise it Temptations to Blasphemy are oft of this nature as hath been noted in its place and there are other things by which Satan creates to God's Children great disquiet while they in the mean time abhor the Sin and cry out of the Tryal Here when the Messenger of Satan will not depart 't is an advice that hath the general approbation of Holy experienced Men that we should despise the Temptation as an approved way to our quiet and ease for while we think to repel such assaults by strugling with Arguments we do but increase the force of them as he that thinks to shelter himself against the Wind by holding up his Cloak before him doth but derive upon himself a stronger blast Fourthly In Temptations of inward trouble and terror it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan David in Psal 42. 11. seems to correct himself for his mistake his Soul was cast down within him and for the cure of that Temptation he had prepared himself by Arguments for a Dispute but perceiving himself in a wrong course he calls off his Soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and the Promises Trust still in God for I shall yet praise him but in Psal 11. 1. he is more aforehand with his work for while his Enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him he rejects the Temptations at first before it setled upon his thoughts and chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to In thee Lord do I put my trust how say ye then to my Soul flee as a Bird to your Mountain And there are weighty reasons that should disswade us from entring the lists with Satan in Temptations of inward trouble As 1. the determination of the Sincerity of the Soul and its converted state is a Question of no small difficulty a knotty Controversy more intricate and abstruse than those Controversies that in the Schools are of greatest Name for difficulty for this is lyable to more weighty Objections and stands in need of nicer distinction As Dr. Goodwin Observes They that converse with dejected Spirits find so much quickness and nimbleness of reasoning turning every way to ward off the force of an Argument brought for their consolation that even wise and able Heads are oft put to a stand and know not what to answer Would it then be fit to give Satan this advantage or to admit him so far into our reasoning He that will invite Satan to such a contest shall be sure to have his hands full Secondly This kind of Temptation doth usually disable Men for arguing it oftentimes confounds the Brain stupifies the understanding and weakens the Memory Heman complains of himself as distracted by terrors Job calls himself desperate Such Persons are not surely in a fit case to manage a Temptation with so cunning a Sophister as Satan Thirdly If they descend into the Battel he is not only too strong for them but commonly after a while they take Satan's part against themselves and comply with him concluding against their own peace Fourthly There is also a better way at hand than to enter into a Dispute and that is By going to God by a present Faith Love or Repentance when the truth of any of these is questioned It is a difficult task to prove some time that former acts of Faith Love or other Graces were sincere this may admit of such objections from a wounded Spirit that it will be hard to answer them but in this case 't is a nearer way to see if there be not in all these complainings some present acts of these Graces whether such complainants are not willing to embrace Christ upon any terms whether they do not have Sin whether they would not unfeignedly be reconciled to God c. It oft falls out that this doth stay the trouble when examinations of former acts do nothing for them Some Men are at more pains as one saith to repair and fit an old Building then would serve to rear a new one Yet must it be remembred that though it were the best course to resist Temptations of this nature at first by avoiding unnecessary disputings notwithstanding when this as I noted before of other Temptations hath seized upon the heart and taken possession then shall we be forced to fill our Mouths with Arguments and whether we will or no must we undergo a Contest As we see in David who when his troubles had prevailed upon him was forced to plead with God with himself with the Temptation and to have recourse to former Experience the days of old and the years of the right hand of the most High and all little enough Thirdly All that I shall further say concerning the inconvenienceies of disputing with Satan shall be to give you the reasons manifesting these unnecessary Communings with him to be every way hazardous and unsuitable As First 'T is an Honour to Satan and a disgrace to our selves Men are loth to be seen contesting with Persons of a far inferiour rank especially in such things which have procured to such a noted Infamy 'T is an usual peice of Generosity in Men of Spirit that they scorn to strive with a Scold or contend with a Beggar or be found in Company of those that are under an evil name deservedly and in matters that are vile and base 't is highly disgraceful to admit them to a debate Such things will either get more credit than they deserve while they seem to be countenanced by a dispute or else shall communicate their discredit to those that shall shew such familiarity with them Secondly By refusing to dispute Temptations we raise up in our hearts an active abhorrency of them and by that abhorrency we are cautioned and strengthned against them It must needs awaken our hatred into a present activity against that Sin which our consideration at first view presents to us so abominable that it deserves no other Answer but to be whipt out of our sight And when our Heart is thus alarmed it cannot but stand upon its Guard 'T is a course that Holy Men have taken to keep Men at a greater distance from Sin to present it as a thing of greatest abhorrency and that is the intendment of that Expression Rom. 6. 1. Shall we Sin that Grace may abound God forbid The vileness of that abuse of Gospel Grace he shews by setting it below the merit of any serious thought he sharpens their apprehensions against it by an out-cry of detestation The like he doth Eph. 5. 3. where he indeavours to set their Hearts against uncleanness and covetousness by telling them that it was unbecoming Saintship that such things should be
specified if he finds that his Ignorance or Timerousness is such as may render the Temptation feazible he presently applies Damnation to them by the authority of those Texts For instance that Text of Rom. 14. 23. hath been frequently abused to that end He that doubteth is Damned if he eat The word Damned there strikes deep with a weak troubled Christian that is not skilful in the Word of Righteousness For whether Satan apply it to Sacramental eating as sometimes he doth to the Ignorant though contrary to the purpose of the Text or to Doubting in the general he makes this conclusion out of it Thou doubtest or thou hast eaten the Sacrament doubtingly therefore there is no hope for thee thou art Damned Whereas all this while the Devil doth but play the Sophister in the abuse of the signification of words For that Scripture evidently relates to the difference that then was in the Church about eating those Meats that were unclean by Moses's Law In which case the Apostle doth positively declare that the difference betwixt clean and unclean Meats is taken away so that a Christian might with all freedom imaginable eat those Meats that were formerly unclean with this Proviso that he were fully perswaded in his own mind The necessity of which satisfaction he proves from this That otherwise he should offend his own Conscience which in that case must needs Condemn him and that 's the Damnation that is there spoken of as is more evident by comparing this Verse with the next foregoing Happy is he that Condemneth not himself But he that doubteth doth Condemn himself because he eats not of Faith that is from full perswasion of the lawfulness of the thing This Scripture then hath nothing at all in it to the purpose for which Satan brings it It doth not speak of any finall sentence of Condemnation passed upon a Man for such an Act all and the utmost that it saith is only this That it is a sin to go against the perswasion of Conscience and consequently it puts no Man further off Salvation than any other sin may do for which upon repentance the Sinner may be pardoned Another Text which Satan hath frequently abused to the very great prejudice of many is that of 1 Cor. 11. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself With this Scripture he insults over the humble fearful Christian who is sensible of his unworthiness of so great a Priviledg Sometimes he keeps him off long from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper upon this very score That such an unworthy Wretch ought not to make such near and familiar approaches to Christ And if at last he is perswaded to partake of this Ordinance then taking the advantage of the Parties Consciousness of his great Vileness and the very low thoughts which he entertains of himself he endeavours to perswade him that now he hath destroyed himself for ever and run upon his own irrecoverable Damnation Thus he pleads it Can any thing be more plain than that thou hast eaten and drunken unworthily Thy own Conscience tells thee so and can any thing be more positively asserted than this that he that doth so eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself What then canst thou think of thy self but that thou art a damned Wretch Neither do I speak barely what may be supposed Satan would say in this matter but what may be proved by many Instances he hath said and urged upon the Consciences of the Weak who have from hence concluded to the great distress of their Souls that by unworthy receiving of the Sacrament they have sealed up their own Condemnation and all this by abusing and perverting the sense of this Text. For the unworthy receiving doth relate to the Miscarriages which he had taxed before and it implies a careless prophane eating such as might plainly express the small or unworthy esteem that they had in their Hearts for that Ordinance And the Damnation there threatned is not finall and irrecoverable Damnation but Temporal Judgment as the Apostle himself doth explain it in the next Verses For this cause many are sickly And if we would judg our selves we should not be judged That is as he further explains it we should not be thus Chastned or Afflicted and the word translated Damnation doth signifie Judgment At the furthest if we should take it for the Condemnation of Hell all that is threatned would be no more than this That such have deserved and God in Justice might inflict the Condemnation of Hell for such an offence Which is not only true of this sin but of all others which still do admit of the exception of Repentance All this while this is nothing to the poor humbled Sinner that judgeth himself unworthy in his most serious Examination and greatest Diligence Satan here plays upon the unexactness of the Translation and the ignorance of the Party in Criticisms for 't is not every one that can readily answer such Captious Arguments 2. But he hath another piece of Cunning which is this He doth by a sigular kind of Art threap upon Men some Scripture that really speaks of Eternal Condemnation without any sufficient evidence in matter of Fact for the due application of them only because they cannot prove the contrary His proceeding herein is to this purpose First After he hath prepared his way by forming their minds to a fearful suspition of their Estate he sets before them such Scriptures as these God hardned the heart of Pharaoh He hath prepared Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction Christ prayed not for the World And that concerning the Jews He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts Secondly He confidently affirms that they are such Thirdly He puts them to prove the contrary and herein he sends them to the search of God's Eternal Decrees in which Art Satan like an Ignis fatuus leads them out of the way And though he cannot possibly determine what he affirms he shifts off the positive proof from himself and leaves it upon them to make out that they are not thus determined of by God's unchangeable purpose And because the tempted under so great a Cloud have no such perswasion of their present Graces as may enable them to make sure their Election by the Fruits of their Vocation they are beaten off from their hold and are brought to believe that the Argument is unanswerable Because they cannot say they are Converted they conclude they must be Damned overlooking the true Answer that they might make by keeping close to the Possibility or Probability that they may be Converted and so escape the Damnation of Hell This general hope being of such high concern to the distressed for 't is the first thing that must relieve them till better Evidence come in it is Satan's great policy to Cheat them of it which he often doth by this Method now declared 2. Satan doth mainly endeavour to misrepresent God to troubled Souls
times he was in an Extasy and had converse with the Angel Gabriel But what he only in knavery pretended others have really felt the Stories of Familists and deluded Quakers are full of such things they frequently have fallen down and have lain as in a Swoon and when they have awaked told wonderful Stories of what they have heard and seen Thirdly Visions and Dreams were usual things in the Old Testament and famous ways of Divine Revelation but Satan was not behind in this matter his Instruments had their Visions too in Ezek. 13. 7. we have mention of Vain-Visions and Lying-Divinations and such Satanical Dreams are also noted Deut. 13. 1. If there arise among you a Dreamer of Dreams Those days of confusion that are not yet out of memory afforded store of these while unstable giddy-headed People began to dote on Novelties and Questions in Religion they gave opportunity to Satan to beguile them for he taking advantage of their nauseating of old Truths and their expectation of sublime discoveries which had sufficiently prepared them for any Impression did so over-work their Fancies that they easily conceited themselves to have had Divine Revelations and nothing was more ordinary than to hear Stories of Visions and Dreams And this spread further by a kind of Infection for it grew into a Religious Fashion and he was not esteemed that had not something of this nature to Experience And though the Folly and Impertinencies of such things generally and sometime the apparent wickedness of them as contradicting Truth and the Divine rules of Holiness were sufficient discoveries that Satans hand was in them yet until Time Experience and the Power of God had cooled the intemperate heat of this raving Humor it continued in the good liking and admiration of the more inconsiderate Vulgar And sometime those from whom more seriousness and consideration might have been expected fell into a reverence for these pretences in others and helped forward this Spiritual Witchcraft by their countenance and arguings often abusing that Text in Acts 2. 17. Your Young Men shall see Visions and your old Men shall dream Dreams by applying it to a justification of these apparently foolish dotages And indeed the effect hath discovered they were no better for many of those things which with great confidence were avouched as certain were by time proved to be false many things were useless vain ridiculous and some were brought to lament and confess their folly after they proceeded far in these ways and at last when the former opportunities are worn out Satan grew weary of that design as being no longer proper to be insisted on there is now a great calm so that 't is but seldom that we hear of such things talked of it were needless to give particular instances when you may at your leisure fetch them from hundreds of Pamphlets commonly known Fourthly One of the most noted ways by which God discovered his Mind was that of inspiration by which some eminent Persons called therefore Prophets spake the Will of God as they were moved or acted by the Spirit of God The Devil had also his false Prophets such are frequently taxed in the Old Testament and foretold in the New False Christs and false Prophets shall arise Mat. 24. 24. There were false Prophets among the People as there shall be false Teachers among you 2 Pet. 2. 1. Many false Teachers are gone out into the World Such an one was Montanus in Tertullians time David George John of Leyden Hacket our Country-Man were such and a great many such there have been in all ages 't is notoriously known that Satan hath thus inspired poor possessed wretches who have uttered threatnings against Sin and wo to Sinners The sayings of such possessed Creatures have not long since been gathered into a Volume and published as containing very perswasive Arguments to Repentance and amendment of Life Besides these our own times afford too many examples of this kind many have put on the Guise of the old Prophets in a foolish though adventurous imitation of their Actions and Prophecies Some have in our Streets resembled Jonah in Nineveh Yet forty days c. Some fancied to walk naked like Isaiah others have come with their Earthen Pitchers and broken them imitating these and other Types by which God in his true Prophets foresignifyed his judgments to come in all which Actions and Garbes with much earnestness and in an Affected Tone they have called out for Repentance in a confident denunciation of Woes and Miseries with a bold limiting of the time of forty days that the same might carry a Parallel to Jonah's Prophecy and sometime giving which is the surest way an unlimited uncertain time How the Devil acts in these matters and by what ways he seduceth them to believe they are inspired of God or have real Visions and Revelations 't is not my business now to enquire only let those that think such things strange consider that the Devil hath the advantage of deep fanciful apprehensions and a working Melancholy in such Persons by which he can easily work them to conceit any thing and confidently to believe what they have conceited Fifthly Sometime God notifyed his Mind by Signs and Miracles Satan hath also his Lying Signs and Wonders a Power God hath permitted him this way which is very great and the delusions wrought thereby are strong hazarding the deception of the Elect. This Power of doing Wonders the Devil usually applies to false Doctrines to strengthen and countenance Errors the Apostle testifies 2 Thess 2. 9. that Satan shall imploy this power for the advancement of the Man of Sin whose coming shall be with Signs and lying Wonders The Beast arising out of the Earth Rev. 13. 14. he shall deceive by the means of those Miracles which he hath Power to do And accordingly the Popish Legends are full of Stories of Miracles whereof though most be Lyes Forgeries and the false contrivements of those who sought to bring the People to receive their Doctrines the credit and advancement of which they sought by such ways some notwithstanding though not true Miracles yet were truly acted to countenance those Errors which are pretended to be established by them Sixthly God doth teach and lead his People by Impulses Christ was thus led of the Spirit into the Wilderness and Paul was bound in Spirit to go to Jerusalem 'T is common for Satan to imitate such Impulses We have clear Instances of Diabolical Impulses to Sin in Scripture a strong Impulse was on Ananias Satan filled his heart a strong Impulse on Judas Satan entred into his Heart and what then more easy to apprehend than that Satan can counterfeit better Impulses and violently stir up the Hearts of Men to actions seemingly good or indifferent Some Hypocrites are moved strongly to Pray or Preach Satan therein aiming at an increase of Pride or Presumption in them and they know no other but that it is the Spirit of God God's Children
wrought out to us by the Scripture and its Ordinances Faith which is our Shield and Hope which is our Helmet they neither of them act without the warrant and encouragement of it and whereas other parts of the Armour are defensive this of the Scripture is compared to the Sword which not only defends but also offends and beats back the Enemy If the matter be seriously considered all these parts of Armour are but these two the Graces of the Spirit Faith Hope Patience in their sincere exercise and the word of Scripture as the Instrument by and in which they shew their Operations so that all this Armour being put to use in every particular Temptation it amounts to no more than this we are speaking of viz. That sinful Motions are to be rejected by a believing sincerely resolute opposing of them with Arguments from the Word of God Thirdly Scripture as it is the Word and Command of the great King of Heaven hath a dâ—â—nting and commanding Authority over the Consciences of Men. Where the Word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 4. and such is the Majesty of a Divine Law that it hath Power over the Consciences of those that are yet in their Sins and can wound affright constrain and bind even the Rebellious so that so long as they retain any of their Natural Impressions of a Divine Power they have some awe for his Commands which may be seen and argued where it would be least expected from the enragement of the Hearts of Sinners when Sin by the Commandment accidentally becomes exceeding sinful For as that outragious fierceness doth arise from the contrariety that is betwixt a Carnal Heart and a Spiritual Law so that contrariety would never work if the Authority of that Law having a Power to restrain and give check to the corruption of the Heart were not some way owned by the Conscience for where no countermanding Law is owned there can be no irritating provoking restraint This it can do to the vilest of Men but of how much more Power may we imagine the Word to be with good Men whose Hearts tremble at the Word when they bind the Law upon their Heart and charge their Consciences with it 't is surely quick and powerful sharper than a two edged Sword nor doth it only by unlovely affrightments terrify them from Sin but by commanding Duty make the Heart in love with it so that it becomes a delightful satisfaction to be preserved from the Snare Fourthly There is no Argument that can be used against Temptations that can be more afflictively discouraging to Satan Satan as bad as he is cannot but believe those Truths which he knows and he knows that there are many Truths in Scripture which respect him as threatnings of Punishment and Divine Vengeance he believes these things and trembles Jam. 2. 19. His unavoidable knowledg or remembrance of these things begets horrour in him he cannot but be under a dread of these Truths What can be supposed so to wound him as the bringing these things to memory by urging the Command of God against him Dr. Arrowsmith gives two instances of this kind the one of Christopher Haas in Sweedland from the Epistle Dedicatory to the 5 tomes of Brentius's works The other of Daniel Cramer Rector of a School at Stetin in Germany on both which the Devil made a bold attempt in a personal Appearance from the first demanding a Catalogue of his Sins in Writing from the other demanding a Paper in which one of the Students had obliged himself to Satan's Service they both referred him to that Text of Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent And this was retorted upon him with such a strong exercise of Faith that he presently desisted the suit and vanished Fifthly This Weapon cannot easily be wrested out of our hands When we urge a Divine Prohibition against a Temptation what can he say in Answer he cannot deny it to be the Word of God or to be true or that we are not obliged to it he made none of these returns to Christ but by his silence owned that it was God's Holy Command obliging us to Duty Neither dares he stand upon these exceptions to us except he find our Faith inclined to waver or our minds weak and wounded by inward troubles of Spirit and when he puts on a boldness to deny Scripture to be the Word of God or that it signifies God's real intendments in his threatning for by begetting unbelief of the Truth of Scripture and by suggesting hopes of escape and pardon notwithstanding the violation of the Commands of it the wrests when he doth prevail this Weapon out of our hands yet he is forced to fetch a compass and by many previous insinuations to make his way to these atheistical assertions Thus he did with Eve first finding her a little inclinaable he dropt in privily something that might argue the Improbability of the threatned Penalty and then at last positively denyed it But now if we hold to this that the Command is true and holy and just and good he cannot wrest our plea from us Sixthly Nothing doth more undermine Temptations by rendring the reasons and motives thereof vain and empty than doth the contrary commands of Scripture Temptation hath always some inticement of pleasure or profit and these only seem to be taking or reasonable while we consider not the Word of God as rotten wood or Fish shine only in the dark but when we are urged with sinful pleasures how mean base dangerous and unlovely be they when the command to the contrary gives information that they are snares and lead to Death or the provocation of the Almighty Seventhly While we resist with Scripture-Arguments we engage God whose Command we would stand by to go down to the Battel with us we lay hold upon his strength and put obligations upon him to take us out of the snare and to deliver us from him who is too strong for us Fourthly It remains that in a word I shew how the Commands or Arguments of Scripture are to be used in resisting Satan which is thus When you have any sinful thought cast into your mind presently reject the offer by charging your heart with duty from some opposite command As if you be urged to acts of Uncleanness presently refuse thus No I must not God hath commanded the contrary he hath said thou shalt not commit Adultery If a covetous thought arise reject it with this God hath said thou shalt not Covet If you be tempted to please the Flesh and follow vain delights answer it with this If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die and the like must be done in other Temptations Some may perhaps think that this is easy work and quickly done and that it seems to attribute a Virtue and Power to the words of Scripture as if Satan were charmed by the language or phrase However