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.
Piacular Sacrifices they believed that except the life of a Man were given for the life of Men that the Gods could not be pacified In other Sacrifices both Eucharistical and for Atonement they retained this Principle that those things are to be offered to the Gods that are most pleasing and acceptable to us and that the offering of a Calf or a Pigeon was not sutable to such an end This Maxim they further improved by the addition of another of the same kind that if it were fit to offer an Humane Sacrifice it must also be innocent and consequently little Children are the fittest for such a purpose And some have also conjectured that the Devil hath not been a wanting to improve the example of Abraham sacrificing his Son or the Law in Levit. 27. 28. or the Prophecies concerning the death of Christ as the great Sacrifice of Atonement to justify and warrant his Hellish Cruelty In some cases Cruelty hath arisen from the very Principles of Reverence and Love which Children have to Parents and Friends to Friends as in Dragoian when any are sick they send to their Oracle to know whether the Parties shall live or die if it be answered they shall die then their Friends strangle them and eat them and all this from a kind of Religious respect to their Kindred to preserve as they imagine their Flesh from putrifaction and their Souls from torment The like they do at Java-major when their Friends grow old and cannot work only they eat not their own Friends but carry them to the Market and sell them to those that do eat them Lastly Let us call to mind how long the Devil domineer'd in the World at this rate of cruelty When the World grew to a freer use of Reason and greater exercise of Civility they found out ways of mitigation and changed these barbarous Rites into more tolerable Sacrifices as in Laodicea they substituted an Hart to be sacrificed instead of a Virgin in Cyprus an Ox was put instead of a Man in Egypt Waxen-Images instead of Men Images of Straw at Rome were cast into Tyber in the place of living Men and the terrible burnings of Moloch which was not peculiar only to the Nations near to Canaan but was in use also at Carthage and found in the American Islands by the Spaniards the like Brazen-Images were also found in Lodovicus Vives his time by the French in an Island called by them Carolina These were at last changed into a Februation and instead of burning their Children they only passed them betwixt two Fires but it was long before it came to this In the time of Socrates Humane Sacrifices were in use at Carthage and they continued in the Roman Provinces till the time of Tertullian Eusebius and Lactantius Though they had been severaly forbidden by Augustus Caesar and afterward by Tiberius who was forced to crucify some of the Priests that dared to offer such Sacrifices to affright them from those barbarous Customs In other places of the World how long such things continued who can tell especially seeing they were found at Carolina not so very long since How impossible is it to cast up the total Sum of so many large Items when these terrible customs have had so general a practice in most Nations upon so many occasions upon such seeming plausible Principles when such great numbers have been destroyed at once and these usages have been so long practised in the World and with such difficulty restrained what vast multitudes of Men must we imagine have been consumed by Satans execrable cruelty Sixthly There remains one instance more of the Devils Cruelty which is yet different from the former which I may call his Personal Cruelties because they are acted by his own immediate Hand upon certain of his Vassals without the help or interposure of Men who in most of the forementioned cases have been as Instruments acted by him Here I might take notice of his fury to those that are possessed some have been as it were racked and tortured in their Bodies and their Limbs and Members so distorted that it hath been not only matter of Pity to the Beholders to see them so abused but also of Admiration to consider how such abuses should be consistent with their lives and that such rendings and tearings have not quite separated the Soul from the Body In the Gospels we read of some such cast into the Fire and into the Water Others conversing with Tombs and Sepulchers in the cold nights without Cloaths and all of them spoken of as Creatures sadly tormented and miserably vexed The Histories of later days tell us of some that vomited crooked Pins pieces of Leather Coals Cloth and such like Of others snatched out of their Houses and tired even to fainting and waste of their Spirits as Domina Rossa mentioned by Bodin with a great many more to this same purpose We may take a view of his dealing with Witches who though he seem to gratify them in their Transportations from place to place and in their Feastings with Musick and Dancings are but cruelly handled by him very often the very Work they are put upon which is the destruction of Children Men Women Cattle and the Fruits of the Earth is but a base Imployment but the account he takes of them of the full performance of their Enterprizes and the cruel Beatings they have of him when they cannot accomplish any of their Revenges is no less than a severe Cruelty He gives them no rest unless they be doing Hurt and when they cannot do it to the Persons designed they are forced to do the same Mischief to their own Children or Relations that they may gratifie their Tyrannical Master Bodin relates the Story of a French Baron who was afterward put to death for Witchcraft that after he had killed eight Children was at last upon a design of sacrificing his own Child to the Devil and if at any time they grew weary of so execrable a Slavery or confess their Wickeness they are so miserably tormented that they chuse rather to die than live And what else but Cruelty can these Slaves expect from him when the Ceremonies of their Entrance into that cursed Service betokens nothing else for their Bonds and Obligations are usually writ or subscribed with their own Blood and some Magical Books have been writ with the blood of many Children besides the farewel that they have of him at their usual Meetings is commonly this thundering Threatning Avenge your selves or you shall die All these particulars are collected from the Confessions of Witches by Bodin Wierus and others But leaving these Let us further enquire into Satan's Carriage toward those that in America and other dark and barbarous Places know no other God and give their devoutest worship to him To those he is not so kind as might be expected but his constant way is to terrifie and torment them insomuch that some know no
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
from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog both being to the same purpose and signifying any action of reverence by which we signify the respect of our Minds to kiss the Hand or to Fawn as a Dog are Gestures which express the Honour we would give and being applyed to Divine Worship before or with respect unto an undue Object is Idolatry and as such doth Christ reject it in his Answer Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve We worship God when in Ways and Actions commanded or prescribed we testify our belief and resentment of his incommunicable Attributes It is Idolatry when either we use the same Actions of prescribed Worship to that which is not God or when we testify our respects to the true God in an undue way of our own devising Here might I take occasion to shew the Vanity of the Popish Subterfuges their distinction of Latria and Dulia is as Dr. Moore observes hereby overthrown Satan doth not here set himself up as the Omnipotent God for he acknowledgeth one Superiour to himself in that he confesseth that the Power he had of the Kingdoms of the World was given to him Luke 4. 6. and therefore not the Latria but the Dulia is required of him and yet this Christ denies him as being Idolatry in that no Religious Worship for that must needs be the sense of his Answer is due to any but God alone Their other distinction of worshipping an Idol Saint Angel Cross c. and before such a Creature is also hereby crushed as is commonly observed for what the Evangelist Matthew expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before me so that the Scripture makes no difference betwixt these two shewing it to be Idolatry to use religious Worship to that which is not God or before it but these things I shall not prosecute keeping therefore to my design I shall observe That it is one of Satan's great designs to corrupt the Worship of God That this is so will appear First If we consider what varieties of Worship hath been in the World God gave a fixed and stable Law and yet this so little prevailed that Men were upon new Inventions presently I shall not need to reckon up the almost numberless varieties of this kind among the Heathen The Instance is plain enough in those that professed the name of the true God they were still changing for new Fashions in Religon borrowing Patterns from their neighbours so that if there were but a new Altar at Damascus or a new Idol in any strange City they must presently have the like till as the Prophet tells them according to their Cities so were their Gods He that will call to mind that the Husbandman did first sow good Seed in his Field and that there is such Varieity of Tares and false Worship notwithstanding the plain and positive Command of God fixing and determining his Worship must needs conclude that an Enemy Satan hath done it Secondly If we call to mind how in all Ages there hath been a constancy in this inconstant Variety we hear of it among the Heathens We read enough of it among the Jews and when they were out of the humour of more shameful Idolatries they yet corrupted the Worship of God by their Traditions and of these they were so fond that they caused the Law of God it self to give place to them and made it void by them The times of the Gospel were not free though Christ came to seek such Worshippers as should worship him in Spirit and in Truth yet before the Apostles Deaths while yet they were perswading to the contrary there arose up some that corrupted the Worship by leading the People back again to the Jewish Ceremonies and others laboured to bring in worshipping of Angels and at last to eat things offered to Idols with greater defilements Since the Apostles days the same Design hath been carried on in the Churches Rome hath patched together a great deal of Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies and when the Man of Sin shall be revealed yet an higher Flood of such Abominations is to be expected Who hath wrought all this but Satan this is still the same design and though the work be not in all parts like it self yet the whole of it evidenceth the working of the same Spirit in all Thirdly Let us observe how early this began We cannot say but that in the days of Adam who doubtless had received particular Commands from God in which he would not fail to instruct his Children they were seeking to themselves many Inventions Gen. 4. 26. At the Birth of Enos as some conjecture there were such defilements brought into use in Worship that Seth had respect to it when he called his Son Enos Sorrowful as lamenting that Prophanation which was then begun in calling upon the Name of the Lord for so do many interpret that Passage which in our English we read thus Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both to prophane and to begin and may be as properly translated then prophaned they in calling upon the Name of the Lord. And there are several reasons that move learned Men to fix upon this Translation As 1. That it is not probable that Men began then to call upon God or publickly to do so as some would interpret and not before as the present English would imply 2. That Age was noted as corrupt and therefore it is noted as a rarity that Enoch walked with God 3. The Rabbins generally translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Prophane but if we should grant the present English Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord It would imply that the Worship practised by Adam and Abel had been corrupted and now it was restored again and reformed which will make the Corruption of Worship to be yet more early And after that we read of corruption crept into the Family of Seth as well as now in the Family of Cain so that the Worship of God stood not long in its Honour though Adam and Seth were alive to instruct them which shews that it was a rebellious departure from the way fomented and brought on by the malignant Spirit Satan Fourthly But to make all sure the Scripture lays all these kinds of corruption of Worship at Satan's Door The defilements of Worship taught in Thyatira by Jezebel are called the depths of Satan the Corruptions introduced by Antichrist are from the workings of Satan What was promoted by false Apostles to that purpose they had it from their great Teacher Satan who transforms himself for such ends into an Angel of Light so that nothing can be more plain than that this is an old and constant Design of Satan The particular ways