Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A61206
|
Satana noēmata, or, The wiles of Satan in a discourse upon 2 Cor. 2. 11 / by William Spurstow ...
|
Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.
|
1666
(1666)
|
Wing S5096; ESTC R22598
|
68,825
|
114
|
sins waste and destroy by making the heart brawny and stiff a path that is trodden onely by the foot of a Childe will by its often going upon contract a hardness as well as the beaten Road and so will the heart in which little sins have a common passage too and fro as well as the heart that is as the high-way that leades to destruction for all sin hath the same tendency though it do not work the effect in the like degree As then they who would keep themselves from a confirmed Stone use daily helpes to carry away the smaller gravell so to prevent a flinty and obdurate heart the care must be constant and the practise frequent of purging the conversation from little sins Oh if once the exercise of this duty be neglected it can hardly be imagined how suddenly Men come to do worse than ever Whence is it that Men sport themselves in the commission of those sins at the mention of which they would once have trembled and brutishly wallow in the midst of that mire the least speck of which they would not formerly should have been found upon their garments Is it not from their compliance of lesser sins that make them grow regardless of greater Is it not from their neglect of the fear of God a powerfull Antidote against the growth of sin this is made the cause by God himself of Israels multiplyed wickedness Jer. 9. 3. They proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord. Fourthly By way of Palliâ—â—ion and hiding them when done All sin as it hath death for the wâ—ges of it Rom. 6. 23. so it hath shame for the companion of it thence it is that Men seek to cover one sin with another deeming it better to be guilty of two faults then to be evicted of one And usually a greater sin is made the covering of a lesser as the vizard which is worn to disguise and hide a Person is more deformed then the Face that it is put upon Sarah at the Angells Tidings that she should have a Childe laughed and when he observes it she denies it Gen. 18. 15. to hide one sin she commits another she tells a lye to free her self from the charge of laughter And this second sin if circumstances be weighed will be found greater then the first David to conceale his Adultery with Bathsheba covers it with the Murder of Uriah her Husband A strange Fig-leaâ—e to spread over so soule a Crime but whether will not the shame of sin drive a Man if so holy a Person as David make this his security having done evill to do worse And thus also that excellent Woman Eudocia the Empress and Wife of Theodosius the younger as Sixtus Senensis relates the Story having an Apple given unto her by the Emperor of a wonderful bigness that had been presented unto him as a rarity she bestowes it upon Paulinus a learned Person and for that cause of great intimacy and familiarity with her he not knowing from whom the Empress had received it tenders it to the Emperour hereupon the Emperour sendeth for his Wife asketh her for the Apple she fearing because of his earnest enquiring after it that her giving it away might displease the Emperour made answer that she had eaten it he urged her to tell the truth she swore that she had eat it upon this the incensed Emperour brings forth the Apple as a Testimony against her and in his jealousie killed innocent Paulinus and hated his Wife who before was greatly beloved by him Is it not then matter of complaint as well as of wonder that this practise should be the common salve that many use to make others to deem them innocent when they have done evill to add to denialls oathes curses and bitter imprecations of themselves little regarding what guilt they contract before God so they may but seem blameless before Men. But let such know that they sow the Winde and shall reap the Whirle-winde and that as they cover one work of darkness with another God shall add one judgement to another and by the scorching flames of his Wrath shall make them to read the Truth of that divine Maxim He that hideth his sins shall not prospor but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 14. SECT II. SEcondly A second device and circumvention of Satan is A vexatious and restless importunity in urging to the doing of that sin to which he tempts In a temptation are three parts First Suggestion or the casting of evill thoughts into the Minde John 13. 2. It is said that the Devill put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master Immisit ut sagittam He threw as a Dart that thought into him finding it then a sit season both for him to make such a Motion and for Judas to receive it Secondly Perswasion or the backing of the suggestion with Arguments which may sway the understanding to approve and incline the will to consent to that evill as good And then he presseth sometime by way of Terror propounding sad events that will undoubtedly follow if there be not a yeilding to do what is suggested Thus many are moved to a practise of stealing and couzening through a conceived fear of want and penury which will else inevitably fall on them Others unto lying and perjury to preserve their life and liberty which may be otherwise hazarded if not lost Thus Peter both denied and forswore his Lord to save himself from that danger which his being with him might otherwise have exposed him unto Sometimes by way of enticement setting before them the profit and advantage that will accrew by their complyance with his motion And thus Ahabs Prophets through the suggestion of a lying spirit perswaded him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead because of the prosperous success that should attend his undertaking 1 King 22. 21. And with a far more alluring bait would the Devil have courted our Saviour to have done homage and fealty unto him by promising to invest him in a right to all the Kingdomes of the World upon that single condition Matth. 4. 9. Thirdly The last part is a vehement and continued instigation to put in a speedy execution what is suggested and this is the utmost extent of Satanical Power 1 Chron. 21. 1. It is said Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the People The Syriack renders it Praecipitem tulit Davidem He hurried David headlong not by compelling him but with instance again and again inforcing the motion till it was effected notwithstanding Joabs just expostulations and averseness to it The Fencers rule which saith Lypsius is repete double and follow the blow when made is Satans practise to the tempted who pursues oft times his suggestions with that violence as to rob them of their sleep that they may wake to his temptations to urge them whether in company or alone whether in their callings and recreations or in their
solemne duties to God to give them no freedome nor respit till he gaine that from them by importunity which he could not by argument and perswasion Now how powerfull a meanes this is to obtain an end when persisted in and after received denialls and repulses to turn opposition into a yielding the Scripture will furnish us with full and pregnant evidence What was it that drew from Samson the discovery of that secret that cost him his life but Dalilahs restless importunity who pressed him daily with her wordes and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death Judges 16. 16. He whom the combined power of the Philistines could not overcome is foiled by the flattering solicitations of a Woman so as to become both their laughter and their prey What was it that made the unjust Judge in the Parable to resolve of avenging the Widow of her enemies but a fear least by her continuall coming she should weary him Luke 18. 5. The Originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very emphaticall which Beza renders Ne me obtundat least she should beat or buffet him It is the same with that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection alluding to the Roman Cestus in which kinde of Fight or Cuffs it was the aime of the adversary to bring each other to stoop and fall under his blowes Yea our Saviour seemeth to ascribe a more prevailing power to importunity then to friendship that the one will extort what the other cannot intreate Luke 11. 8. I say unto you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him Can it then be matter of wonder to any Christian as if some strange thing had befallen him to find himself not onely tempted to evill but incessantly pressed with vehemency to the doing of it Or need he as not knowing the cause of his trouble inquire as Rebekkah did Why am I thus Is not Satan a subtile enemy and is it not his designed aime to make the life of every believer uncomfortable or unholy the one by an irksome importunity to evill the other by a consent and yielding to the doing of it Is it not one of his arâ—s and methods to work a despondency in those that resist him by continuing his assaults after a long and tedious conflict in which they have born up against him that so despairing to be Conquerours they may yield themselves Captives yea hath he not by this policy staggered many Christians so as to make them say Malum illud verbum victus sum that evil word as Parisiensis calls it I am overcome and so to choose rather to do the sin then any longer to endure the trouble of his assaults True it is haply that such who have not experienced the continued violence of Satans instigations in this kind of putting them upon the Commission of a particular sin may judge it no hard task to persist in the deniall of it and to turne a deafe eare to all his Sollicitations and Importunity it being easie to conceive many things to be more facile then we finde them to be when assayed But to them who thus think let me recommend a due weighing of these three considerations First The frailty and weakness of the Flesh which can as ill bear long temptations as long afflictions What the length of afflictions will expose unto David hints to us when he saith The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous least the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity Psalm 125. 3. And will not the rod of the wicked one do as much by its long continuance The Devill knoweth saith Luther that we are earthen Vessels which cannot alwayes bear multiplied knockes and violent stroakes and therefore those of whom he cannot obtain his will by force and fraud he seeketh to overcome by a continued importunity and this way he vanquisheth many who want patience to endure though they have at first courage to resist Secondly The art that Satan mingleth with his violence His urgency is not to a course and way of sin but to the single act and commission of it That which is often repeated and sayed over by him in his pressing of it is do it but once try this time onely Why not once Why not now Is it not better to ease our selves of the vexation by yielding once to the motion then to be alwayes under it He knowes that if a sin be once committed it will leave a proneness to do it again and if the terrors of doing of it which are commonly greatest at first be once broken through it will not be a matter of difficulty to obtain the consent to the doing of it the second and third time because the heart must needs be less bent against it in Prayer and the power of grace and faith less vigorous to resist it when weakened by yielding to sin Conscience also less tender and affected with the sense of it Thirdly The inequality of temper which is in the best Grace that makes the opposition to Temptations that are both violent and long doth not alwayes work alike in the Soul no more then the Pulse beates alike in the Body it hath sometimes operations that are quick and strong and at other times such as are slow and languid there being none that stand quite out of the shadow of sin though out of the region of death Can it therefore be an easie work to bear up against Satans pressing instigations unto evill when the spiritual part is often clogged and made less active by the Flesh yea when it is weakened by its treachery Surely were it not that the bowels of Christ were moved in him unto his when in such a condition as he was towards Peter when Satan desired to have him that he might sift him as wheat their faith would faile Let me then bespeak compassions for all those who labour under restless importunities of the Tempter dayes moneths yeares prompting them to some one sin being no more able to flee from them then to out-run themselves or to cast them off then to shake off their own Flesh To any that have tasted the sweetness of holiliness what can be more hatefull then daily instigations to sin And to such who understand the blessedness of Communion with God what can be more bitter then to find themselves fast chained as it were to a Devil who makes such applications of vile objects to their fancy continually that they cannot turn in the least from If it were burthensome to Antipheron Orietes whom Aristotle reports to behold alwayes his own Image standing before him how irksome must it needs be to a gracious heart to be alwayes haunted with the spectacle and image of some sin as black as Hell May I not say then on their behalfe what Hezekiah spake by his messengers to Isaiah the