their own just consequences yet there are some choice principles of his which if he can but fasten upon the Mind they presently open the gap to all kind of Errours imaginable they are like the firing a Train of Gunpowder which in a Moment blows up the whole Fabrick of Truth such are the delusions of Enthusiasm Inspirations and Prophetick Raptures let these be once fixed and then there is nothing so Inhumane Irreligious Mad or Ridiculous but Satan can with ease perswade Men to it and also under the highest pretences of Religion and Certainty the experience of all Ages hath made any further proof of this altogether needless This is his way when he acts alone But if he use Instruments though he is also gradual in his procedure yet 't is in a different method for there he sometimes proceeds from the abuse of something innocent and lawful by the help of a long tract of time to introduce the grossest Falshood Thus may we conceive he brought Idolatry to its height first Men admired the wisdom or famous acts of their Progenitors or Benefactors next they erected Pillars or Images of such Persons to perpetuate the Names Honour and Memory of them and their Actions Another Age being at a greater distance from the things done and consequently greater Strangers to the true ends and reasons of such practices which being as it usually falls out in such cases abused by false reports or misrepresentations of things for Time covers things of this nature with so thick a Mist that 't is difficult to discover the true Metal of an original Constitution they in a devout ignorance gave the Images a greater respect than was at first intended then did they slide into a conceit they were not of the ordinary rank of Mortals or at least they were exalted to a condition which ordinary Mortals were not capable of thus they supposed them Deities and gave them worship of Prayers and Sacrifices hence they went further and multiplied Gods and that of several sorts according to the natures of things that were good or hurtful to them and then at last consulting how mean their offerings were and how unlikely to please their Godships they concluded Humane sacrifices most sutable especially to expiate greater provocations and in times of great calamity The burthensom heap of ceremonious Superstitions in Popery was the work of several Ages they were not brought in all at once One in a devotional heat fancied such a Ceremony as a fit testimony of Zeal or a proper incitement of his Affections Another deviseth a second and so all along as the minds of Men were best pleased with their own inventions and had so much credit or authority to recommend them to others they encreased the sum by new additions till at last they are become a burthen not to be born and still as they receeded from the primitive purity and became more careless and corrupt in their lives for from good Bishops they declined to but tollerable Arch-Bishops till at last they are become incurable Babylonians so they departed gradually from the simplicity of the Gospel and abounded in contrivances of Ceremonies Thirdly In corrupting established Truths Satan's proceedings are not by sudden and observable leaps but by lingring and slow motions as Flowers and Plants grow insensibly and as Men gradually wax old and feeble Violent and hasty alterations he knows would beget Observation Dislike and Opposition neither will he make such attempts but where he is sure of a strong prevalent Party which by force and power is able to carry all before it In this case he is willing to enforce Errour by Fire and Sword Thus he propagated Mahumetism at first and still continueth to do so by the conquering Arms of the Turks but where he hath not this advantage he betakes himself to another course and studieth to do his work so that he may not be observed The possibility of such a change with the manner of effecting it we may observe in many Churches that have declined from the Doctrine which they at first received but most of all in the Church at Rome which at first was a pure Church as the Apostle testifieth but now so changed from the Truths upon which they were bottomed in their first Constitution as if she had not been the same Church They boast indeed that as they were at first so they are now but nothing is more evident than the contrary and the possibility of their insensible corruption is as demonstrable as the alteration of Doctrine in any other Church The manifold ways that Satan takes in this matter in the abuse of Scripture by raising perverse Interpretations and unnatural Inferences and the advantages of a long succession in Authority of the negligence and ignorance of the common People of the crafty subtilty of the Teachers especially when Religion began to be abused to secular Interest is described by Acontius and others If we should single out any of their noted Errours and follow up the History of it to its first original we shall find that whatever strong current it hath now gotten it was very small and inconsiderable in the Fountain The Invocation of Saints though it be now an established Article among them yet its first rise was from the unwary Prosopopoea's of of the Ancients and the liberty of their Oratorical declamatory stile these gave occasion to some private Opinions these Opinions to some private devotional liberty in Practice and from private Opinions and Practices at last it obtained so strong a Party that it procured a publick Injunction The like method was used for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation whose beginning was from the abuse of such Sentences as this in ancient Writers That after Consecration it was no more Bread and Wine but the Body and Blood of Christ by which expression the Authors intended no more than this that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were relatively altered and were more than ordinary Bread and Wine because they were representatives of the Body and Blood of Christ however this gave them courage to interprect literally and strictly these words of Christ This is my Body and thus by degrees from the Opinion of a few it became the judgment of many and from the toleration of a private Opinion of some Doctors and unimposed it obtained at last a Canon to make it Authentick Publick Doctrine Fourthly This insensible proceeding is in nothing more evident than in the power of Custom and Education Custom doth by degrees take off the startling of Conscience and those Opinions or Practices which at first look affright it are by a little familiarity made more smooth and tollerable The dissents of Men by frequent seeing and hearing become tame and gentle but the force of Education is incomparably great for this makes an Errour to become as it were natural they suck it in with their Milk and draw it in with their Air. This general advantage the Devil hath
the wasting of his strength which the Apostle takes notice of and adviseth against it Drink no longer water c. The Corinthians were so when out of a high detestation of the miscarriage of the Incestuous Person they were backward to forgive him and to receive him into the Church again Peter is another instance to us of excess Jo. 13. 8. First in a modest humility he refuseth to let Christ wash his feet but after understanding the meaning of it then he runs to the other extream and offers not only his feet but his hands and his head When the Servants of God are conscious of defects in their Services as if they would make amends for these by the length and continuance of their Services they are easily drawn into an excess every way disadvantagious to themselves and the Service Thirdly When Satans Designs do not take to spoil the Duties either by the manner of the attempt or in the Act he then seeks to play an after game and endeavours to spoil them by some after-miscarriage of ours in reference to these Services As First When he makes us proud of them we can scarce perform any Service with a tollerable suitableness but Satan is at hand to instill thoughts of Applause vain Glory and Boasting and we readily begin to think highly of our selves and performances as if we were better than others whom we are apt to censure as low and weak in comparison of our selves Though this be an apparent deceit yet 't is a wonder how much the minds even of the best are apt to be tainted with it even where there are considerable endeavours for humility and self-denial these thoughts are apt to get too much entertainment Now though we run well and attain some comfortable strength and watchfulness in the Services of God yet if they be afterward fly-blown with Pride or if we think to embalm them with Praises or reserve them as matter of Ostentation though they be Angels food yet like the Manna of the Israelites when kept too long they will putrifie and breed Worms and so be good for nothing after that we have been at the pains of gathering it Secondly When well-performed Services are perverted to security then are they also spoiled we are ready to say of them as the rich Man of his abundance Soul take thine ease thou hast much laid up for many years Satan is willing for a further advantage that we think our selves secure from him and as after a full Meal we are apt to grow drowsie so after Services we are apt to think our selves out of harms way The Church after an High Feast with Christ presently falls asleep and highly miscarries in Security and Neglect by this means do the best of Saints sometimes lose the things they have wrought and throw down what they formerly built up DAEMONOLOGIA SACRA OR A TREATISE OF Satans Temptations The Second Part. CONTAINING The manifold Subtilties and Stratagems of Satan for the corrupting of the minds of Men with Errour and for the destruction of the Peace and Comfort of the Children of God By R. G. London Printed by J. D. for Richard Randel and Peter Maplisden Booksellers in New-Castle upon Tine 1677. PART II. CHAP. I. That it is Satan's grand Design to corrupt the Minds of Men with Errour The Evidences that it is so And the Reasons of his Endeavours that way NExt to Satan's Deceits in tempting to Sin and against Duty his design of corrupting the Minds of Men by Errour calls for our search and indeed this is one of his principal endeavours which takes up a considerable part of his time and diligence He is not only called in Scripture an Vnclean Spirit but also a Lying Spirit and there are none of these cursed qualifications that lie idle in him as by his Uncleanness we may easily conjecture his attempts upon the Will and Affections to defile them by Lust so by his Lying we may conclude that he will certainly strive to blind the Understanding by Errour But a clear discovery of this we may have from these Considerations First From God's interest in Truth in reference to his great designs of Holiness and Mercy in the World Truth is a Ray and Beam of him who is the Father of Lights All revealed Truths are but Copies and Transcripts of that Essential Archetypal Truth Truth is the Rod of his Strength Psal 110. 2. the Scepter of his Kingdom by which he doth subdue the hearts of Men to his obedience and service in conversion Truth is that Rock upon which he hath built his Church the foundations are the Prophets and Apostles Eph. 2. 20. that is the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Truth is that great depositum committed to the care of his Church which is therefore called the pillar of Truth because as Princes or Rulers put their Proclamations on Pillars for the better information of their Subjects so doth his Church hold out Truth to the World Holiness is maintained by Truth our ways are directed by it and by it are we forewarned of Satan's Devices Now the Prince of Darkness carrying himself in as full an opposition to the God of Truth as he can in all his ways God's interest in Truth will sufficiently discover the Devil's design to promote Errour for such is his hatred of God that though he cannot destroy Truth no more than he can tear the Sun out of the Firmament yet he will endeavour by corrupting the Copy to disgrace the Original though he cannot break Christ's Scepter yet by raising Errour he would hinder the encrease of his Subjects though he cannot remove the Rock upon which the Church is built he will endeavour to shake it or to interrupt the Building and to tear down God's Proclamation from the Pillar on which he hath set it to be read of all and if we can conceive what an hatred the Thief hath to the Light as it contradicts and hinders his Designs we may imagine there is nothing against which the Devil will use greater contrivances than against the light of Truth He neither can nor will make a league with any but upon the terms that Nahash propounded to the Men of Jabesh-Gilead that is that he may put out their right eye and so lay it for a reproach upon the Israel of God 'T is the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us into Truth and by the rule of contraries 't is the Devil's work to lead into Errour Secondly Though the Scripture doth charge the Sin and danger of Delusion and Errour upon those Men that promote it to the deception of themselves and others yet doth it chiefly blame Satan for the great Contriver of it and expressly affirms him to be the grand Deceiver Instruments and Engeniers he must make use of to do him service in that work but still it is the Devil that is a Lying Spirit in their
Silver but also of Wood and of Earth some to honour and some to dishonour By these very Apologies it appears That Satan by this device of Errour designs to shake Mens Faith and to drive them from their Religion Seventhly Neither can this that corrupt Doctrines bring forth corrupt Practices be of any less weight with Satan or less engageing for the pursuit of this Design than any of the fore-mentioned reasons Corrupt Doctrines are imbraced as the very truth of God by the Deluded and one way or other directly or consequentially they lead on Practice and that with the highest security and confidence as if they were very Truths indeed The Devil then hath this great advantage by Errour That if he can but corrupt the minds of Men especially in the more weighty and Fundamental Points of Religion then by a great ease and without any more labour he hath gained them to the practice of whatsoever these corrupted Principles will lead unto No course can be taken that with greater expedition and prevalency can introduce profane Debaucheries than this Thus he conquers Parties and Multitudes as a victorious General takes Cities and whole Countries by Surrender whereas his particular Temptations to Sin are but inconsiderable less successful picqueerings in comparison and when he hath once corrupted the understandings of Men he hath by that means a command over their Consciences and doth not now urge to Evil in the notion of a Devil or tempter but as an Angel of Light or rather as an Vsurper of Divine Authority he requires he commands these wicked Practices as necessary Duties or at least gives a liberty therein as being harmless allowances This difference was of old observed in Satans management of Persecution and Errour that in the former he did compel Men to deny Christ but by the latter he did teach them That the Lives and Practices of Men are so concerned by corrupt Doctrines may appear to any that are but indifferently acquainted with Scripture or History We are told by the Apostle Paul That Faith and Conscience stand so related to each other that they live and die together and that when the one is Shipwracked the other is Drown'd for company In Phil. 3. 2. he seems severely harsh against those of the Concision he calls them Dogs Beware of Dogs beware of evil Workers The reason of which expression I apprehend lyes not so much in these resemblances That Dogs spoyl the Flock by devouring or that they are fawning Creatures or that they are industrious in prosecution of their Prey though in all these particulars false Teachers may be compared to Dogs for they spare not the Flock they compass Sea and Land to gain Disciples and they intice them with fair speeches but rather he intends the similitude to express the prophane Life and carriage of these Seducers for Dogs are filthy creatures to a Proverb The Dog to his vomit And common Prostitutes for their uncleanness were called Dogs in the old Testament So some expound Deut. 23. 18. The hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog And we have full and clear descriptions of Seducers from their wicked and abominable Practices 2. Pet. 2. 10. They that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise Government Presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities Vers 14. Having eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from Sin an heart exercised with covetous Practices cursed Children Vers 18. They allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness Jude vers 4. There are certain Men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly Men turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness Vers 16. These are Murtherers Complainers walking after their own Lusts c. 2. Tim. 3. vers 2 3 4 5. Men shall be lovers of their own selves Coveteous Boasters Proud Blasphemers disobedient to Parents Vnthankful Vnholy without natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers Incontinent Fierce despisers of those that are Good Traitors Heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God of this sort are they which creep into Houses All which do set forth Heretical Persons as the most scandalous wicked Wretches that we shall meet with grosly filthy in themselves corrupted in all the Duties of their Relations natural and civil defiled in all the ways of their converse with Men. Neither are these wicked practices issuing from gross Errours to be looked upon as rare accidental or extraordinary effects thereof but as the natural and common fruits of them for Christ makes this to be the very special property and note whereby false Prophets may be discovered Matth. 7. 16. Ye shall know them by their Fruits Do Men gather Grapes of Thornes or Figs of Thistles c. These Fruits were not their Doctrines but their Lives for to know false Prophets by false Doctrines is no more than to know false Doctrine by false Doctrine If any object That many false Teachers appeared in the shape of seeming Holiness and strictness of Life they may be answered from Christ's own words for there he tells us to avoid mistakes That their first appearance and it may be the whole Lives of some of the first Seeds-men of any Errour is under the form of Sanctity They come to you in Sheeps-cloathing In an outward appearance of Innocency and plausible pretences but then he adds that their Fruits afterward will discover them A Tree at its first Planting is not discovered what it is but give it time to grow to its proper fruitfulness and then you may know of what kind it is so that we need not affirm That damnable Doctrines produce wicked Lives in all that entertain them at the very first 't is enough for discovery if there be a natural consequential tendency in such Doctrines to practical Impieties or that at last they produce them though not in all yet in many And that this matter hath been always found to be so all History doth confirm Such there were in the Apostles dayes as is evident by their complaints Such there were in the Church of Pergamos Rev. 2. 14. Thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto Idols and to commit Fornication There were also the Nicolaitans of whom Christ declares his abhorrency Vers 15. In the Church of Thyatira there was the woman Jezebel who taught and seduced many of that Church to the like abominable Doctrines and Practices Vers 20. Besides these the Apostle John was troubled with the abominable Gnosticks The filthy Carpocratians who taught That Men must sin and do the will of all the Devils or else they could not evade Principalities and Powers who would no otherwise be pleased to suffer them to escape to the Superiour Heavens Of these Men and their licencious Doctrine doth he speak 1 John 3. 6. c.
doth earnestly beg that Satan might not make it a snare to them Vers 6. Let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake And further declares it as a wonderful preservation and escape of this danger that notwithstanding these reproaches he had not declined his duty Vers 13. But as for me my prayer is unto thee Lord. Paul seems to speak his sense of this piece of Policy his Imprisonment administred matter of reproach to his Profession though his cause were good yet he suffered trouble as an evil doer this he knew the Devil would improve to a shame and disgrace unto the service of God and therefore he chargeth Timothy to be aware of that Temptation 2 Tim. 1. 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord nor of me his Prisoner And vers 16. He takes notice of Onesiphorus that had escaped that snare and was not ashamed of his Chain And we have the greater reason to fear the danger of this Art when we find that the Tempter made use of it to turn away the affections of the Capernaumites from Christ himself Mat. 13. 57. When he had preached in their Synagogues to the applause and astonishment of all his hearers the Devil fearing the prevalency of his Doctrine finds out this shift to bring them to a dislike of him and his Preaching Is not this the Carpenters Son And they were offended in him Secondly Duties are brought under dislike by the hazards that attend them the Devil leaves it not untold what Men shall meet with from the World if they run not with them into excess of vanity and neglect if Bonds Imprisonments Banishments Hatreds Oppositions Spoyling of Goods Sufferings of all kinds will divert them he is sure to set all these affrightments before them which though they do not move some from their steadfastness such as Daniel whose constancy in duty was not pierced by the fear of Lyons and the three Children who would not decline the ways of the Lord for the terrour of a fiery Furnace Yet these considerations prevail with most as Christ notes in those that received Seed in stony places whose joy in the Word was soon blasted and they offended at the ways of Duty When Tribulation and Persecution because of the Word arose Christ pronouncing him Blessed that should not be offended in him because of the dangers of his Service shews that the escape of such a Temptation is not a common mercy And if we shall observe Paul's practice upon his first undertaking of the Ministry when it pleased God to call him to preach his Son Christ among the Heathen we shall see 1 That he was aware of such objections as these 2 That flesh and blood are apt to comply with them and to take notice of them 3 And that the best way to avoid them is to stop the Ears against them and not to hearken to them or consult with them 4 And that he that must do it to purpose must without delay immediately resolve against such hinderances it being most difficult for Men that will be inclining to such motions and hearkning to what the Devil offers under pretence of Self-preservation to disingage themselves after they have suffered their Souls to take the impression Thirdly The meanness of Religious Appointments as to the outward view is also made use of to beget a loathing of them In this the Devil hath this advantage that however they are all glorious within and as the curtains of Solomon yet are they as to their outward appearance like the tents of Kedar without any of that Pomp and Splendor which the Sons of Men affect and admire Christ himself when he had vailed his glory by our Flesh was of no exteriour form or beauty The Ministration of his Word which is the Scepter of his Kingdom seems contemptible and a very foolishness to men insomuch that Paul was forced to make an Apology for it in that it wanted those outward braveries of excellency of speech and wisdom by shewing it was glorious in its power and was indeed an hidden wisdom though not like that wisdom which the Princes of Wisdom and Philosophy affected among such as were perfect The Sacraments both of the old and new Testament seemed very low and contemptible things to a common eye neither need we any other evidence to shew that Men are apt to disrelish them and to entertain strange thoughts of them upon this very account than this that some raise up Batteries against these Ordinances upon this ground that because they seem low and mean to them therefore they think it improbable that God should have indeed appointed them to be used in the literal sense or that at best they are to be used as the first rudiments of Christianity and not enjoyned upon the more grown Christians Neither may I altogether pass over that remarkable humour that is in some to give additional ornaments of outward Garb and Form for the greater honour and lustre of these injunctions of Christ so that while they endeavour to shew their greatest respects to them they betray their inward thoughts to have carryed some suspition of their reality because of their plainness and by this means whilst they endeavour to put an honour upon Christs Institutions they really despise them and shew their respects to their own inventions But that we may be further satisfied that Satan works by this Engine let us consider that of 1 Cor. 1. 23. The Jews were for Signs from Heaven to give a Credit and Testimony to that Doctrine which they would receive The Greeks who were then the only people for Learning were for Philosophical Speculations and Disputes Now saith the Apostle the Doctrine of the Gospel which is the Preaching of Christ crucified because it came not within the compass of what both these expected therefore the Devil so wrought upon this advantage that both contemned it It was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness Of this also he speaks more fully 2 Cor. 11. 3. Where he shews that the minds of the Corinthians were ready to be corrupted with Error against the plain import of the Gospel and that which they took offence at was its Simplicity they looked upon it as contemptible because not containing such gorgious things as might suit a soaring and wanton fancy Now he resolves all this into a cheat of Satan taking the advantage of this as he did upon Eve from the seeming inconsiderableness of the prohibition of eating a little Fruit to perswade them that so mean a thing as the Gospel could not be of God I fear saith he lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Fourthly The Sins of Professors through the craft of Satan beget a loathing
Mouths 't is he that teacheth and prompts them and therefore may they be called as Elymas was by Paul the Children of the Devil or as Cerinthus of old the first-born of Satan The Church of Corinth among other distempers laboured under dangerous Errours against which when the Apostle doth industriously set himself he doth chiefly take notice 1. Of the false-Teachers who had cunningly wrought them up to an aptitude of declining from the simplicity of the Gospel these he calls false-Apostles as having no commission from God and Satan's Ministers 2 Cor. 11. 13 15. thereby informing us who it is that sends them out and imploys them upon this errand 2. He especially accuseth Satan as the great Contriver of all this evil if any shut their Eyes against the Light he gives this for the principal cause that the God of the World blinded their Minds If any stumbled at the simplicity of the Gospel he presently blames the subtilty of the old Serpent for it 2 Cor. 11. 3. When false Doctrine was directly taught and varnished over with the glorious pretexts of Truth still he chargeth Satan with it Vers 14. No marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light where he doth not only give a reason of the corrupting or the adulterating the Word of God by false-Apostles as Vintners do their Wines by mixtures a Metaphor which he makes use of cap. 2. 17. that they learned it of Satan who abode not in the Truth but was a Lyar from the beginning But also he further points at Satan to furnish us with a true account of the ground of that cunning Craft which these deceitful Workers used while they metamorphosed themselves by an imitation of the way and manner zeal and diligence of the Apostles of Christ they were taught by one who had exactly learned the Art of Imitation and who could to all appearance act to the life the part of an Angel of Light And to take away all objection or wonder that so many with such seeming earnestness and zeal should give up themselves to deceive by false-Doctrine he tells us that this hath been the Devil's work from the first beguiling of Eve vers 3. and that as he then made use of a Serpent for his Instrument so ever since in all ages he hath made so often and so much use of Men as his Emissaries that it should now neither seem a marvel nor a great matter to see the Devil at this work by his Agents Thirdly That this is Satan's great design may be further cleared from the constant course of his endeavours The Parable of the Tares Matth. 13. 25. shews that Satan is as busie in sowing Tares as the Master of the Field is in sowing Wheat that by Tares not Errors in the abstract but Men are to be understood is evident from the Parable it self but that which makes Men to be Tares is Sin and Errour so that in a complex sense we are taught how diligent the Devil who is expressly signified by the Enemy vers 39. is in that imployment much of his time hath been taken up that way There were false Prophets saith Peter 2 Epist 2. 1. and there shall be false-Teachers that is so it was of old and so it will be to the end The shortest abstract of Satan's acts in this matter would be long and tedious judge of the rest by a few instances In the Apostles times how quickly had the Devil broached false Doctrine That it was necessary to be circumcised was early taught Acts 15. 1. In Col. 2. 8. the vain deceit of Philosophy Traditions and the Elements of the World which were the body of Mosaical Ceremonies are mentioned as dangerous Intrusions and in vers 18. the worshipping of Angels as it seems was pleaded for with no small hazard to the Church The denial of the Resurrection is expressly charged upon some of the Corinthian Church 1 Cor. 15. 12. and that the Resurrection is past already 2 Tim. 2. 18. is affirmed to have been the Doctrine of Hymeneus Philetus and others but these are comparatively little to that gross Errour of denying Christ Jud. v. 4. or that Jesus is the Christ 2 Joh. 2. 22. or Jesus Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 3. which are branded for Antichristian Errours and were boldly asserted by many false Prophets that were then gone out into the World and to such a height came they at last that they taught the lawfulness of committing Fornication and to eat things offered to Idols Rev. 2. 20. All these falsehoods took the boldness to appear before all the Apostles were laid in their Graves And if we will believe what Austin tells us from Epiphanius and Eusebius there were no less than ten sorts of Heretical Antichrists in the Apostle John's days the Simonians Menandrians Saturnilians c. This was an incredible increase of false Doctrine in so short a time and in the times and preachings of the Apostles themselves whose power and authority one would think might have made Satan fall before them as lightning What progress then in this work of delusion might be expected when they were all removed out of the World They left indeed behind them sad predictions of the power of delusion in after-times Of your selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things After my departing shall grievous Wolves enter c. Acts 20. 30. The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4. 1. and Paul 2 Thess 2. 3. prophesies of a general Apostacy upon the revealing of the Man of Sin and the Mystery of Iniquity and that these should be perilous times 2 Tim. 3. 1. To the same purpose John mentions the coming of the great Antichrist as a thing generally known and believed 1 Joh. 2. 18. But before all these Christ also had fully forewarned his Servants of false-Christs the power and danger of their delusion and of the sad revolt from the Faith which should be before his second coming Matth. 24. 24. And as we have heard so have we seen all ages since the Apostles can witness that Satan hath answered the Prophecies that were concerning him what a strange increase of Errours hath been in the World since that time Iraeneus and Tertullian made Catalogues long since after them Epiphanius and Eusebius reckoned about eighty Heresies Austin after them brings the number to eighty eight Now though there be just exceptions against the largeness of their Catalogues and that it is believed by many that there are several branded in their Rolls for Hereticks that meerly suffer upon the account of their Name and Nation for Barbarism Scythism Hellenism are mustered in the Front and others also stand there for very small matters as the quarto decimani c. and that some ought altogether to be crossed out of their Books yet still it will appear that the number of Errours is great and that
Scripture though enough to let us know that such things there are and to humble us for our ignorance are in their own nature sublime bounded on all sides with Rocks and Praecipices where our near and bold approaches are prohibited such are those things that concern the Decrees of God the Trinity c. Other things are dark and uncertain to us from their very proximity to us as some are pleased to fancy the reason such are the nature faculties and workings of our own Souls within us which we cannot directly see as the Eyes sees not it self and do but as it were guess by dark reflections Some things in Scripture are accidentally obscure to us that were plain to those that heard them first to whom they were spoken and written for now to the understanding of a great many passages there is necessary the knowledg of the Tongues in which they were dictated of the Histories of those times to which they severally related as also of the particular Customs of the Jewish Nation which gave a mold and form to a great many Scripture Assertions all which are easie and familiar to those that knew the exact propriety of such Languages were acquainted throughly with such Histories Customs Usages and manner of Speakings and besides all these the application of general Rules to particular Cases where a little circumstance may make a great alteration is full of puzzle and intricacy Insomuch that some have thought that there are several cases of Conscience that are not yet fully determined and that are like so to remain Fourthly Neither is the nature of Knowledg it self without an Argument to prove the insufficiency of our Knowledg to Know is properly to understand things by their Causes or at least by their Effects and to make a right result of Particulars from a general Maxim Such a kind of Knowledg is necessary in Religion for setting aside some particulars of mysterious height about which God hath set bounds lest Men in presumptuous boldness should adventure to break through unto the Lord to gaze And some things which are the Principles of Nature or their next results which are upon that score beyond all need of enquiry in all which 't is enough to believe that what the Scripture saith is true without asking a further account yet in other things the Scripture gives us the Grounds Reasons and Proofs of what it declares or asserts as may appear by infinite Examples so that to know Christ dyed or that we are justified by Faith or that Christ shall come to Judgment without a knowledge of the grounds and reasons of these things is indeed but gross ignorance The like may be said of the Knowledg of general Precepts without the Knowledg of their necessary Application But how few are there that do thus know the greatest part of Men satisfie themselves with the bare affirmations of Scripture and they resolve all into this That the Word of God saith so or That it is the Will of God it should be so without further enquiry And as for others though they may know the Reasons of many things yet are there a vast number of Particulars whose reasons we know not though the Scripture may contain them and as for Consequences and the application of general Rules their just limitation and the Enumeration of the Cases wherein they are true or false it is that that keeps the Wits of Men upon the rack perpetually Fifthly The unsuitableness of our Capacities to those Objects of Words we have but a mole-hill of substantial Matter Nay seeing we make but a sorry shift at best by these Artifices to come to some rude conceptions of things which otherwise we cannot in any tolerable manner comprehend it is as great a proof of our imperfection in Knowledg as the necessary use of staves and crutches is an evidence of lameness If I should pass from this to the consideration of the Multitude beyond all number of Books that are written we shall find them but so many Proclamations of our Ignorance for if we could believe them all to contain so many wholsome Precepts of necessary Truth which yet we cannot rationally imagin this would imply That the greatest part wanted these informations and that common Ignorance is not only a general distemper but also a Distemper hard to be cured that stands in need of such Multitudes of Instructors and such varieties of helps But if we believe that among this infinite number of Volumes there are thousands of Lyes millions of unproved Conjectures millions of millions of idle unprofitable Fancies then do we in express terms pronounce them guilty of Ignorance and of Ignorance so much the more dangerous by how much the more bold it is to avouch it self in the Light and to obtrude it self upon the belief of others who instead of being better informed by it shall but encrease their own blindess were there nothing to be said but this That there are such a vast multitude of Commentators upon the Bible which do all pretend to expound and explain it it would of necessity admit of these Conclusions 1 That the Bible hath in it things so dark or at least our capacities are so dull that there is need of great endeavours to explain the one or assist the other 2 That the Knowledg of Men is imperfect for if all or most Men could certainly interpret the Scripture there needed not so many Volumes but that one or two might have signified as much as now whole Libraries can do The imperfection of our Knowledg being thus laid open 't is easie to see what advantages the Devil may make out of it for the promoting of Errour for it must now become our wonder not that any Man errs but that all do not We find it easie to impose any thing upon Children 't is an easie matter for a trifle to cheat them out of all they have Surely then Satan may do as much by Men who are but Children in understanding The Apostle Ephes 4. 14. puts us in mind of this hazard under that very similitude That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine How fitly doth he resemble us to Children Their weaknesses are 1 Want of discerning they see not the true worth of things 2 Credulity they believe all fair speeches and specious Promises and the hazard of both these is in this That it makes them unconstant uncertain and fickle and such are we made by our Ignorance so little do we truly discern so apt are we to believe every pretence for the simple believes every word Prov. 14. 15. That as the Apostle's Metaphors do tell us we are easily tossed from one conceit or Opinion to another as a Ship is by the Waves or a Feather in the Wind. Thirdly A third advantage which the Devil takes against us in his design of Errour is the byass of the Mind were our Understandings purely free
common Rhetorick One gives us an Observation to that purpose of his own Preaching and so may many others While then Men hear such language they have a reverence to it And as Physitians cover their Pills with Gold that the Patient might more willingly take them so do Men often swallow down Errour without due consideration because conveyed to them in a Language which they respect Secondly Satans second care for the advancement of Errour after he hath given it all the countenance he can from Scripture is to gild it over with specious pretences he sets it off with all the bravery he can and then urgeth that as an Argument of its Truth Men are apt to judg that what doth better their Spiritual Condition cannot be a Lye or delusion and the Argument were the more considerable if the advantages were such as he pretends them to be but the very noise and boast of advantages please the unwary without a due enquiry into their reality The Apostle in Rom. 16. 18. reduceth all this Policy of the Deceiver to two heads 1. Good words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that set out the profit and advantage of the thing 2. And fair Speeches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speeches that flatter the Condition of the party His Art as to the first of these is to tell them that the Notions offered to them are special Discoveries rare Mysteries which have been hidden from others and thence infers that it must of necessity conduce much to their happiness and Spiritual Perfection to know and embrace them Those that troubled the Church in Pauls days with false Doctrines used this slight of boasting as appears by that expression in 1 Tim. 6. 20. Oppositions of Science it seems they called their opinions though they were but prophane and vain-bablings by the name of Science or Knowledg implying that all others even the Apostles themselves were in the Dark and came short of their Illumination The like we have in Rev. 2. 24. of that abominable Prophetess Jezebel who recommended her blasphemous filthy Doctrines under the name of Depths Profundities or hidden Knowledg though the Spirit of God told that Church they were not such but if Depths they were depths of Satan as 't is added there by way of Correction and not of the Spirit of God We may trace these â—ooâ—steps of Satan in all considerably prevailing Errors for what hath been more common than to hear Men speak of the designs they have been carrying on under the specious Titles Of Christ's coming to set up a Righteous Kingdom The Churches coming out of Babylon and out of the Wilderness the dawning of the day of the Lord the day of Reformation the time of the Restitution of all things with abundance of Brags of the same kind I shall add no particular Instance of this nature but a few strains of H. Nicholas with whom such high promising vaunts were ordinary His Service of Love he compares to the most Holy whereas Johns Doctrine of Repentance was but a preparation to the Holy and the Service of Christ he allowed to be no more than as the Holy of the Temple this his Service he calls the perfection of Life the completion of Prophecies the perfect conclusion of the Works of God the Throne of Christ the true Rest of the Chosen of God the last Day the sure Word of Prophecy the New Jerusalem and what not If we make further enquiry into the nature of these fair promising Mysteries we shall find that Satan most frequently pitcheth upon these three First He befools Men into a belief that the Scriptures do under the Vail of their Words and Sentences contain some hidden Notions that are of purpose so disguised that they may be locked up from the generality of Men at least from learned and wise Men and that these Rarities cannot be discerned from the usual significations of the Words and Phrases as we understand other Books of the same Language but they fancy these Sacred Writings to be like the Writings of the Aegyptians by which they absconded their Mysteries especially like that kind of Writing whereby under words of common known sence they intended things which the Words themselves could not signify and that which occasions this imagination is this that we read frequently of Mysteries in Scriptures and hidden Wisdom and the special Revelation of them to God's Children which are very great Truths but yet not to be so understood as this Delusion supposeth for these expressions in Scripture intend no more than this that the design of God to save Man by Christ is in it self a Mystery which never would have been found out without a special Revelation and that though this Mystery is now revealed by the Gospel yet as to the application of it to the Hearts of Men in Conversion by the Operation of the Spirit it is yet a Mystery But none of these intend any such suggestion that there are private Notions of Truth or Doctrine that are lying under ground as it were in Scripture words which the words in the common Language will not acquaint us withal nay the contrary is expresly affirmed when we are told that all is plainly laid open to the very simple so that from the Scriptures they may as well understand the fundamental principles of Religion as they may understand any other thing which their language doth express to them However in this Satan takes advantage of Mens Pride and Curiosity to make them forward in the acceptation of such offers especially when such things are represented as the only saving discoveries which a Man cannot be ignorant of but with hazard of Damnation Secondly In this boast of Mystery Satan sometimes takes another course somewhat differing from the former and that is to put Men upon Allegorical reflections and allusions by which the Historical Passages of Scripture are made besides the import of the History resemblances of spiritual Truths which supposeth the Letter of Scripture to be true but still as no better than the first Rudiments to train up Beginners withal yet withal that the spiritual meaning of it raiseth the skilful to a higher Form in Christ's School At this rate all are turned into Allegories If they fall upon the first of Genesis they think they then truly understand it when they apply the Light and Darkness and God's separating of them with such other Passages to the regeneration of the Soul The like work make they with the Sufferings of Christ But then the crafty Adversary at last enticeth them on to let go the History as if it were nothing but a Parable not really acted but only fitted to represent Notions to us Allegories were a Trap which the Devil had for the Jews and wherein they wonderfully pleased themselves How much Origen abused himself and the Scriptures by this humour is known to many and how the Devil hath prevailed generally by it upon giddy people in later times I need not tell you The
for a Remembrancer according to Prov. 3. 3. Bind them about thy neck write them upon the Table of thine heart However if they were literally enjoyned they would have them as Christ tells them broader than others as an evidence of their greater care The Cathari boasted of Sanctity and good Works and rejected second Marriages the Apostolici were so called from a pretended stricter imitation of the singular holiness of the Apostles The Valesians made themselves Eunuches according to the Letter for the Kingdom of God The Donatists accounted that no true Church where any spot or infirmity was found The Messalians or Euchytae were for constant praying The Nudipedales for going bare-foot c. The Papists urge Canonical Hours Whippings Pennances Pilgrimages voluntary Poverty abstinence from Meats and Marriage in their Priests and Votaries In a word all noted Sects have something of special singularity whereby they would difference themselves from others as a peculiar character of their greater strictness and for want of better stuff they sometimes take up affected gestures devotional looks and outward garbs all which have this note That what they most stand upon God hath least or not at all required at their hands their voluntary Humility or neglecting of the Body being but will-worship and a self-devised piece of Religion Thirdly When once Men are set in the way of exercising severities Satan endeavours by working upon their fancies to press them on further to a delight and satisfaction in these wayes of strictness so that the practiser themselves are not only confirmed in these usages and the opinions that are concomitant with them but others are the more easily drawn to like and profess the same things Any serious temper under any Profession of Religion easily comes to be devout and readily complies with opportunities of evincing its Devotion by strictness And therefore we shall find among Heathens a great devotional severity and such as far exceeds all of that kind which the Papists do usually brag of the Magi abstained from Wine eat not the flesh of living Creatures and professed Virginity The Indian Brachmans did the like and besides used themselves to incredible hardship they laid upon skins sustained the violence of the Sun and Storms and exercised themselves therewith some spending Thirty seven years in this course others more We read strange things of this nature concerning the Aegyptian Priests and others The Mahumetans are not without their Religious Orders which pretend a more holy and austere Life than others and though of some as of the Torlachs and Dervizes several private Villanies are reported yet of others as of the Order of Calender we are assured from History That they profess Virginity and expose themselves to Hardship and a stricter Devotion in their way and generally 't is said of all of them That they go meanly clad or half naked some abstinent in Eating and Drinking professing Poverty renouncing the World some can endure cutting and slashing as if they were insensible some profess perpetual Silence though urged with Injuries and Tortures others have Chains about their Necks and Arms to shew that they are bound up from the World c. If such things may be found among Heathens no wonder that Errour boasts of them for in both there is the same reason of Mens pleasing themselves in such hardships which is from a Natural Devotion assisted by Satans cunning and the same Design driven on by it for the Devil doth confirm Heathens and Mahumetans in their false Worship by the reverence and respect they carry to such practices Fourthly Because Religious Holiness hath a beauty in it and is very lovely he doth all he can to affect Men with the highest revernce for these pretences of Religious strictness so that they that will not be at pains to practise them can bestow an excessive respect and admiration upon those that are grown famous in the use of such things and by that means being almost adored they are without doubt perswaded that all they teach or do is right and in a doting fondness they multiply Superstitious Errours Idolatry is supposed to have a great part of its rise from this While Men endeavoured to express their thankful and admiring remembrances of some excellent Persons by setting up their Pictures their Posterity began to worship them as Gods Pilgramages were first set on foot by the respects that Men gave to places that were made famous by Persons and Actions of more than ordinary Holiness and because the Devil found Men so very apt to please themselves in paying such Devotional Reverences he wrought upon their Superstitious humour to multiply to themselves the occasions thereof and by fabulous Traditions sent them to places no otherwise made memorable than by Dreams and Impostures Much of this you might see if you would accompany a Caravan from Cairo to Mecca and Medina where you would see the zealous Pilgrims with a great many Orisons and Prayers compassing Abrahams house kissing a Stone which they are told fell from Heaven blessing themselves with a relique of the old Vesture of Abrahams House washing themselves in the Pond which as their Tradition goes the Angel shewed to Hagar saluting the Mountain of Pardons throwing Stones in defiances of the Devil as their Legend tells them Ismael did their Prayers on the Mountain of Health their visit to the Prophets Tomb at Medina c. The like might you observe among the Papists in their Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Sepulchre to the Lady of Loretto's Chappel and other places By such devices as these the unobservant people are transported with a pleasure insomuch that they not only perswade themselves they are very devout in these Reverences but they also become unalterably fixed to these Errours that do support these delightful Practices or as consequences do issue from them Sixthly A more plausible Argument for Errour than the Learning and Holiness of the Persons that profess it is that of Inspiration in which the Devil soars a loft and pretends the highest divine warrant for his falshoods for God is Truth and we know that no lye is of the Truth Now to make Men believe that God by his Holy Spirit doth in any manner dictate such Opinions or certainly reveal such things for Truths is one of the highest Artifices that he can pretend to and such a confirmation must it be to those that are so perswaded that all disputes and doubtings must necessarily be silenced That the Devil can thus transform himself into an Angel of Light we are assured from Scripture which hath particularly cautioned us against this cheat The Apostacy of the later times 1 Tim. 4. 1. the Apostle foretells should be carried on by the prevalency of this pretence Some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits That by Spirits there Doctrines are intended rather than Doctors is Mr. Medes interpretation but it will come all to one if we consider that the word