Ecclesiastes to set forth the chief good shews that felicity consists not in the common abuse of outward things because that brings only vexation but in the fear of God leading to future happiness and in the mean time in a thankful comfortable use of things present without anxiety of Mind Hence doth he fix his conclusion as the result of his experience and often repeats it There is nothing better for a Man than that he should Eat and Drink and that he should make his Soul enjoy good in his Labour Eccles 2. 24. 3. 12 13. 5. 18 19. Not that Solomon plays the Epicure giving advice to eat and drink for to morrow we die nor that he speaks deridingly to those that seek their felicity in this life as if he should say If ye do terminate your desires upon a terrene felicity there is nothing better then to eat and drink c. But he gives a serious positive advice of enjoying the things of this life with cheerfulness which he affirms proceeds from the sole bounty of God as his singular gift It is the gift of God Eccles 3. 13. 't is our portion that is our allowance Eccles 5. 19. for these two expressions our Portion and God's gift they are of the same signification with Solomon here and when a Man hath power to enjoy this allowance in comfort 't is God that answereth him in the joy of his heart ver 20. 'T is plain then that God sows good Seed in his Field the springing up therefore of these Tares of vexation which so generally afflict the Sons of Men must be ascribed to this the Enemy hath done it 3. 'T is also a considerable ground of suspition that Satan can do much in discomposures of Spirit in that sometimes those whose tempers are most cool and calm and whose singular dependance upon and communion with God must needs more strengthen them against these passionate vexations are notwithstanding precipitated into violent commotions Moses was naturally meek above the common disposition of Men and his very business was converse with God whose presence kept his Heart under a blessed awe yet upon the Peoples murmuring he was so transported with fullenness and unbelief at the waters of Meribah Numbers 20. 10 12. that it went ill with him which David thus expresseth Psal 106. 33. they provoked his Spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his Lips Who can suppose less in this matter than that Satan having him at advantage hurried him to this rashness specially seeing such vehemencies were not usual with Moses and that his natural temper led him to the contrary This hath some affinity with the next consideration Which is 4. That when Men most foresee the occasions of their trouble and do most fear the trouble that might thence arise and most firmly design to keep their hearts quiet yet are they oft forced against all care and resolution upon extravagant heats David resolved and strenuously endeavoured to possess his Soul in Serenity and Patience for what could be more than solemn engagement Psal 39. 1. I said I will look to my ways and what endeavours could be more severe than to keep himself as with Bit and Bridle what care could be more hopeful to succeed than to be dumb with silence yet for all this he could not keep his Heart calm nor restrain his Tongue ver 3. My Heart waxed hot within me while I was musing the Fire burned then spake I with my Tongue Who suspects not the hand of Satan in this 5. 'T is also remarkable that when we have least reason to give way to discomposure when we have most cause to avoid all provocations yet then we have most occasions set before us When we would most retire from the noise of the World for private devotion when we would most carefully prepare our selves for a solemn Ordinance if we be not very watchful we shall be diverted by business disturbed with noises or some special occasion of vexation shall importune us to disquiet our selves when yet we shall observe if we have not these solemn affairs to wait upon we shall have fewer of these occasions of vexation to attend us This cannot be attributed to meer contingency of occasions nor yet to our tempers solely for why they should be most apt to give us trouble when they are most engaged to calmness cannot well be accounted for 't is evidently then Satan that maliciously directs these occasions for they have not a malicious ingeniousness to prepare themselves without some other chief mover at such times as he knows would be most to our prejudice These general considerations amount to more than a suspition that it is much in Satan's power to give disturbances to the Minds of Men yet for the clearer manifestation of the matter I shall shew that he can do much to bring about occasions of discomposure and also to stir up the Passions of Men upon these occasions 1. That occasions are much in his hand I shall easily demonstrate For 1. There being so many occasions of vexation to a weak crasy Mind we may well imagine that one or other is still occuring and while they thus offer themselves Satan needs not be idle for want of an opportunity 2. But if common occasions do not so exactly suit his design he can prepare occasions for such is his foresight and contrivance that he can put some Men without their privity to his intentions or any evil design of their own upon such actions as may through the strength of prejudice misinterpretation or evil inclination be an offence to others and in like manner can invite those to be in the way of these offences I am ready to think there was a contrivance of Satan if we well consider all circumstances to bring David and the Object of his Lust together while Bathshebah was Bathing he might use his Art in private motions to get David up to the Roof of his House But more especially can the Devil prepare occasions that do depend upon the wickedness of his Slaves these are Servants under his command he can say to one God and he goes and to another Come and he comes If contempt or injury affronts or scorns c. be necessary for his present work against any whom he undertakes to disturb he can easily put his Vassals upon that part of the Service and if he have higher imployment for them he ever finds them forward And hence was it that when Satan designed to plunder Job he could quickly perform it because he had the Chaldeans and Sabeans ready at a call 3. If both these should fail him he can easily awaken in us the memory of old occasions that have been heretofore a trouble to us these being raised out of their Graves will renew old disturbances working afresh the same disquiets which the things themselves gave us at first If Satan's power were bounded here and that he could do no more than set before Men occasions of
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
they are not apt to condemn themselves but think they do well Secondly Lusts also pervert our Reason and Knowledg indirectly and this is when we are not so far blinded as to believe the thing unto which we are tempted to be good absolutely yet notwithstanding we are perswaded of some considerable goodness in it and such as may for the present be embraced For this purpose Satan hath ready these two Engines First He sets before us the Pleasures Profits and other delights of Sin These he heightens with all his Art and Skill that he may fix in our Minds this conclusion that however it be forbidden yet it would conduce much to our satisfaction or advantage if it were practised and here he promiseth such golden ends and fruits of Sin as indeed it can never lead unto inviting us in the words of the Harlot I have decked my Bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved Works with fine Linnen of Egypt I have perfumed it with Myrrhe Aloes and Cinnamon Come let us take our fill of these delights Thus he set upon Eve Taste this Fruit and ye shall be as Gods Thus he attempted Christ himself All these will I give thee proffering the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them The pleasures of Sin are Satans great Bait and these strongly invite and stir up our Lusts yet because the fear of the danger may stick in the Heart 'T is pleasant but O I dare not saith the Sinner I fear the hazard or the evil that may fellow Therefore Satan hath his other Engine at hand to blind us and to carry our Minds from such considerations and that is Secondly His Sophistical Arguments by which the danger may be lessened of these his Quiver is full As First He urgeth that the Sin tempted to is little But a little one 't is not saith he so great a matter as you make it there are other Sins far greater and these also practised by Men that profess as much as you Thus he would shame us as it were out of our fear by calling it severity nicenss or an unnecessary preciseness If this prevail not Secondly He hath then another Argument Oh saith he be it so that it is a little more than ordinary yet it is but once taste or try it you need not engage your selves to frequent practice you may retreat at pleasure But if the fear of the danger prevail against this then Thirdly He labours to put us under a kind of necessity of sinning and this he pleads as a justification of the evil 'T is not altogether right but you cannot well avoid it This plea of necessity is large occasion example command of others strength of inclination custom and what not are pleaded by him in this case some particularly reckon them up and rather than some Men will acknowledg the evil they will blame Gods decree as if they were necessitated by it or his providence as Adam The Woman that thou gavest me she gave me of the Tree David's bloody resolve against the house of Nabal seems to be justified by him from Nabal's great ingratitude In vain have I kept all that this Fellow hath in the Wilderness c. and as one engaged by a necessity of repaying such wrongs and affronts doth he determine to cut them off Aaron when he was taxed by Moses about the golden Calf excuseth the matter by a pretended necessity of doing what he did upon the violent importunity of such an heady People and that when Moses was not to be found Thou knewest the People that they are set on mischief This that he urged to Moses Satan no doubt had urged to him and he had acquiesced in it as something that he thought would excuse or at least mitigate the offence Yet if the Sinner break through this Snare Fourthly He comes on with a softer plea of infirmity and endeavours to perswade Men that they may yield under pretence of being forced and that their strivings and reluctancies will lessen the evil to an apparent sin of infirmity and thus he bespeaks them Have not Gods Children infirmities they sin though with reluctancy and doest not thou resist doth not the fear that is in thy heart shew an unwillingness mayest thou not plead the evil that I would not do that do I if thou yield will not God account it a rape upon thine integrity If this Arrow stick not Fifthly Then he extenuates the offence by propounding some smaller good or convenience that may follow that evil And this though it be a way of arguing directly contrary to that rule Do not evil that good may come yet it oft proves too successful and 't is like that common stratagem of War when by the proposal of a small booty in view the Enemies are drawn out of their Hold into a fore-contrived Danger Thus Satan pleads This one act of Sin may put you into a capacity of honouring God the more Some have admitted advancements and dignities against Conscience upon no better ground but that they might keep out Knaves and that they might be in a condition to be helpful to good Men. Surely the Devil prevailed with Lot by this Weapon when he offered the prostitution of his Daughters to the lusts of the Sodomites that the Strangers as he thought them might be preserved by this evil thinks he a greater may be avoided Herod's Conscience could not at first consent to the cutting off the head of John Baptist but when Satan suggests the obligation of his Oath he concludes that in the killing of John he should escape the violation of the Oath Thus a pretended good to come becomes a pander to a present certain iniquity Now if after all these arguings the Conscience carrieth an apprehension of danger then Sixthly He plainly disputeth the possibility of the escape of danger though the sin be committed All the insinuations of pleasure and advantage by which Eve was tempted could not at first blot out her fears of the conscquence of that trangression it did stick in her mind still lest we die then Satan plainly denyeth the danger she feared Ye shall not surely die the threatning saith he it may be was but for trial or without a strict and positive purpose in God to execute it there is no certainty that God was in good earnest when he spake so The Devil usually urgeth the Mercy of God the Merits of Christ his Promises of Pardon the Infirmities of the Saints their Sins and Repentances c. From all these drawing this conclusion that we may venture upon the Temptation without any apparent hazard 'T is but repenting saith he and that is an easie work to a gracious Soul God is ready to be reconciled even to a Prodigal Son he is not so cruel as to cast away any for a small matter he that waits to be gracious will not ly at catch for opportunities and occasions to destroy us he that delights not in the
that they that are born of God indeed must not dare not cannot give themselves up to a liberty in such Abominations The same Fruits of corrupt Doctrine appeared after the Apostles dayes What was Montanus but an impure wretch What were his two companion Prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla but infamous Adulteresses The Priscillianists the Manichees and abundance more left the stink of their Prophaneness behind them by reason of whom according to Peters Prophesie 2 Pet. 2. 2. the way of Truth was evil spoken of Later times have also given in full evidence of this Truth How shameful and abominable were the Lives of John of Leyden and the rest of those German Enthusiasts Who reads the story of Hacket and Coppinger without detestation of their wicked Practices What better have the Familists and Libertines of New and Old England been some were turned off to highest Ranting in all Prophaneness of Swearing Drinking Adultery and the defying of a godly Life and this under the unreasonable boast of Spirit and Perfection The Heavens may blush and the Earth be astonished at these things But in the mean time Satan huggs himself in his success and encourageth himself to further attempts in propagating Errour seeing it brings in so great an harvest of Sin Eighthly In this Design of false-Doctrine Satan is never altogether out if he cannot thus defile their Lives yet 't is a thousand to one but he obstructs their Graces by it What greater hinderance can there be to Conversion than Errour The word of Truth is the means by which God through his Spirit doth beget us 't is part of that Image of God that is implanted in us 't is God's Voice to the Soul to awaken it It cannot then be imagined that God will give the honour of that work to any Errour neither can Truth take place or have its Effect upon a Soul fore-stalled with a contrary falshood Falshood in possession will keep Truth at the door Neither is Conversion only hindred by such Errours as directly contradict converting Truths but also by Collateral non-fundamental Errours As they fill the Minds of Men with prejudice against those that profess another Perswasion so that for their own beloved Errours-sake Men will not entertain a warning or conviction from those that dissent from their Opinions they first account them Enemies and then they despise their Message 'T is no small matter in Satans way to have such an obstruction at hand in the grand concern of Conversion Yet this is further serviceable to him to hinder or weaken the Graces of the Converted already if he can set God's Children a madding upon Errour or make them fond of Novelties he will by this means exhaust the vigour and strength of their Hearts so that the substantials of Religion will be neglected For as hurtful Plants engross all the moisture and fatness of the Earth where they stand and impoverish it into an inability for the nourishment of those that are of greater worth So doth Errour possess it self of the strength of the Spirit and in the mean time neglected Graces dwindle into emptiness and fade as a Leaf The most curious Questions and Opinions that are contribute nothing to the Establishment of the Heart 't is only Grace that doth that Heb. 13. 9. The heart is established with Grace and not with disputes about Meats nay they do Grace a prejudice in that they make it sick and languishing for to that sence is the Original in 1 Tim. 6. 4. Doting about Questions or growing diseased because of the earnest prosecution of Opinions Ninthly Errour hath yet another mischief in it which makes it not a little desirable to Satan and that is the judgment or punishment that it brings So that it every way answers the Devils hatred against both Soul and Body The blessings of Prosperity and Peace do attend the Triumphal Chariot of Truth Psal 85. 11 12. Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall look down from Heaven And then it follows That the Lord shall give that which is good and our Land shall yield her increase But on the contrary Errour doth more provoke God than Men are aware How often did God desolate the Israelites set a fire in their Cities and gave them into the hands of their Enemies because of their changing the Truth of God into a lye and worshipping and serving the Creature more than the Creator God left not the Church of Pergamos and Thyatira without severe Threatnings for the Errour of the Nicolaitans Rev. 2. 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly Vers 22. I will cast them into great tribulation except they repent of their Deeds and I will kill her children with death And accordingly God fulfilled his threatning upon them by bringing in the Saracens to desolate them and to possess their Land as he also brought the Goths upon the Empire for the Arrian Heresie How is Satan pleased to labour in a Design that will kindle the Wrath of the Almighty CHAP. II. Of the Advantages which Satan hath and useth for the Introduction of Errour As 1. From his own Power of Spiritual Fascination That there is such a Power proved from Scripture and from the Effects of it 2. From our imperfection of Knowledge the particulars thereof explained 3. From the byass of the Mind VVhat things do byas it and the power of them to sway the Understanding 4. From Curiosity 5. From Atheistical Debauchery of Conscience THat Satan may the better speed in his design he carefully takes notice of and diligently improves all advantages Indeed all his Stratagems are advantages taken against us for so the Apostle in his caution to the Corinthians calls his devices lest Satan should get an advantage of us 2 Cor. 2. 11. but here I only understand those that are more general which are the grounds and encouragements to his particular Machinations against Men and which also direct him in his procedure These are First Satan's own power of Spiritual Fascination by which he infatuates the minds of Men and deludes them as the external senses are deceived by Inchantments or Witchcraft That Satan is a cunning Sophister and can put Fallacies upon the Understanding that by subtile objections or arguments he can obtrude a falshood upon the belief of the unskilful and unwary that he can betray the judgment by the affections are things of common practice with him But that which I am now to speak of is of an higher nature and though it may probably take in much of his common method of ordinary delusion yet in this it differs at least that 't is more efficacious and prevalent for as his power over the children of disobedience is so great that he can lead them captive at his will except when he is countermanded by the Almighty so hath he by special commission a power to lead those to Errour effectually without missing his end that have prepared themselves for that spiritual
is in this manner of dealing that those who affect the name of great Politicians in the World have learned from Satan to shew greatest respects and a most friendly countenance to those whom they most hate and intend to ruine Thus our Richard the Third of England constantly dealt with those for whose Blood he lay in wait and the precepts of Machiavil are fitted to this that t is Wisdom to hug those whom we desire to destroy Ehud's Present made way for his Dagger Joab's Sword could not so well have dispatched its errand upon Abner if he had not ushered it in with a Kiss This should make us most suspect those Temptations that offer us most kindness and advantage and such as are most gratifying to our Humours and Desires For can it be imagined in good earnest that Satan intends us a real good Can the Gifts of Enemies pass for Courtesies and Favours with any but such as are bewitched into a blockish madness Satan is more to be feared when he flatters than when he regeth and though such offers may be looked upon by some as more benign and less odious Temptations as some kind of Familiar Spirits are more kindly treated by some under the notion of white Devils yet may we say of them as Corâ—elius Agrippa speaks of some unlawful Arts and ways of Thurgia eò sunt pernitiosiora qùo imperitis diviniora They have the greatest danger that pretend the highest Friendship Thus much for the Rise of the Temptation CHAP. IX A particular consideration of the matter of the first Temptation what Satan aimed at in bidding him turn Stones into Bread Of Satans moving us to things good or lawfull The end of such a Motion How to know whether such Motions are from Satan or the Spirit What to do in case they be from Satan Of his various aims in one Temptation What they are and of his Policy therein Of his Artificial contrivement of Motions to make one thing infer another NExt follows the Temptation it self Command that these Stones be made Bread There is no great difficulty in the words The Greek indeed hath a remarkable suitableness to the Supposition on which Satan insists taking Christ to be the Son of God 't is very pertinently spoken Say or Speak that these Stones be made Bread for if God speak it must be done T is not worth the while to insist upon so small a variety of expression as is betwixt this Evangelist who hath it these Stones and Luke who speaks it in the singular Number this Stone for besides that as some suppose this Expression of Luke might for any thing that appears to the contrary be Satans lowering his request to one Stone when Christ had denyed to turn many into Bread upon his first asking this one Stone in Luke taken collectively for the whole heap will signify as much as these Stones in Matthew or the phrase these Stones in Matthew by an imitation of a common Hebraism may be no more but one of these Stones or this Stone as it is in Luke as 't is said Jepthah was buried in the Cities of Gilead that is in one of the Cities The thing urged was the turning or changing the form of a Creature which is a work truely miraculous and wonderful and such as had neither bee unsuited to the power of Christ nor unlawful in it self 'T is from hence justly questioned where the sting of this suggestion lay or in what point was the temptation couched First It was not in the unlawfulness or sinfulness of the thing mentioned For Christ did as much as would amount to all this when he turned Water into Wine and when he fed Multitudes by a miraculous multiplication of a few Loaves and Fishes Secondly It was not unsuitable to his condition as hungry for so it seemed a Duty to provide for himself and which Satan took for granted Thirdly Neither seemed it any derogation to his Power and Divine Nature but rather an advantage and fit opportunity to give a full proof of it to the stopping of Satans Mouth for ever Notwithstanding these there was Poyson and Malignity enough in the suggestion and under these Green Leaves of plausible pretences lay hid many Snakes For 1. By this was he secretly tempted to admit of a doubting of the truth of the divine Testimony lately declaring him to be the Son of God 2. As also further to question his Fathers Providence and Love 3. and unnecessarily to run out of the ordinary way of supply and to betake himself to indirect means or extraordinary courses 4. And all this to the abuse and undervaluing of his power in prostituting it to Satans direction or perswasion and the Devil had gained a considerable advantage if he could have prevailed with him to do such a thing by his instigation 5. It may be he further thought this might entice to an high esteem of himself and so make way for a vain ostentation of his power and Interest in God All or most of these seem to be the design that the Devil was driving forward Several things are hence observable That where Satan doth not judge it his present Interest to suggest to us things in their own nature sinful he will move us to things good in themselves in hopes thereby to lead us into evil This way of tempting is from a more refined Policy than down-right motions to Sin and doubtless 't is less suspected and consequently more taking The Evils that Satan would introduce by this Method are such as these First Sometime when he tempts us to that which is Good it is that he might affright us from it his approbation is enough to put a discredit and disgraceful suspition upon any thing Such a design had he when he gave testimony for Christ That he was the Son of God or for the Apostles that they were the Servants of the most high God It was not his intention to honour him or them by bearing them witness but to bring them under Suspition and Trouble Secondly There are a great many ways to miscarry in a lawful Action either by propounding bad ends or by failures in the manner of performance or by a misimprovement of the whole These miscarriages and the possibility and probability of them Satan carries in his mind yet doth he not at first propound them but moving us unto the thing he hath an expectation that we will slide into them of our selves or be inclined by some sutable touchâ—â— of suggestion upon our minds together with the tendency or improveableness of the thing or Action to such evils as are properly consequent to it Satan did not here tempt Christ to these sinful ends directly but to an Action which he hoped might insensibly produce them Thirdly Another Evil hereby aimed at is the hindrance of a greater Good not only as a diversion to turn us off a better or more profitable occasion but also as an