19. I saw the Lord sitting upon his Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left which phrase though it import their Order and Observance yet undoubtedly the main of its intendment is to set forth their Power as Hosts are the strength of Kings and Nations God himself in putting on that Title The Lord of Hosts makes it an evidence of his incomprehensible Power that such Armies of strong and mighty Creatures are at his command But this only in the general That which comes nearer to a particular account of their strength is that Notion of a Spirit by which they are frequently described He maketh his Angels Spirits his Ministers flaming Fire The being of a Spirit is the highest our understanding is able to reach and that it shews a being very excellent is manifest in this that God is pleased to represent himself to us under the notion of a Spirit Not that he is truly and properly such but that this is the most excellent Being that falls under our apprehension Besides that the tearm Spirit raiseth our understanding to conceive a Being of an high and extraordinary Power it doth further tend to form our conceptions to some apprehensions of their Nature 1. From the knowledg that we have of our own Spirits that our Spirit is of a vast comprehension and activity our Thoughts Desires Reasonings and the particular Undertakings of some Men of a raised Spirit do abundantly evidence 2. In that it represents a Spiritual Being freed from the clog and hinderance of corporeity our own Spirits are limited and restrained by our Bodies as Fire an active Element is retarded and made sluggish by Matter unapt to serve its proper force as when 't is in an heap of Earth which is also sufficiently pointed at in that opposition betwixt Flesh and Blood and Principalities and Powers Ephes 6. shewing that Flesh and Blood are a disadvantage and hinderance to the activity of a Spirit A Spirit then as in corporeal may be conceived to move easily without molestation quickly imperceptibly and irresistibly 3. This is yet further illustrated by the Similitude of Wind and Fire which are to the common experience of all of very great force And 't is yet further observable that the Scripture sometime speaks of the power of Angels in the Abstract chusing rather to call them Powers than powerful clearly shewing that Angels are Beings of vast strength as indeed the Actions done by them do abundantly testifie such was the destroying Sennacheribs Host in a night the opening the Prison Doors for Peter the carrying Philip in the Air and such other Acts which tend to the protection of the Faithful or punishing of the wicked Though this may fully satisfie us that Angels excel in strength yet the Scripture suggests another consideration relating to the Office and Imployment of Angels where their Commission shews not only a liberty for the Exercise of this Power but also doth imply such a Power as is fit to be commissionated to such Acts these Invisible Beings are called Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers 1 Col. 16. 'T is indeed a task beyond a sober undertaking to distinguish these words and to set their true Bounds and Marks of difference This Augustin acknowledged yet may we hence conclude 1. that these words imply a very great Authority in Angels 2. A power and strength suitable to their Imployment and that God furnished them with power answerable to the Work which he intended for them in his moving the Heavens and governing the World c. However in some Cases God works by Instruments every way disproportionable to the Service That the excellency of the Power might be of God yet in the ordinary way of his working he puts an innate suitable force in Creatures for the Acts to be done by them as there is an innate Power in the Wind to blow in the Fire to burn in Herbs and Plants for Medicinal uses Thus may we conceive of Angels that God using them as his Host his Ministers to do his pleasure he hath indowed them with an innate natural Power for those great things which he doth by them which must not be supposed in the least derogatory to the Power of God in his ways of Mercies or Judgments seeing all the strength of Angels is originally from God hence is it that all the Names of Angels which we read of in Scripture carry this acknowledgment in their signification Michael thus unfolds it self Who is like God Gabriel thus The Glory of God and therefore may we suppose them not so much the proper Names of Angels but as Calvin noteth Nomina ad captum nostrum indita Names implying God's great Power in them Such a powerful Spirit is Satan by Creation But because it will be doubted lest his fall hath bereaved him of his excellency and cast him down from his strength I shall evidence that he still retains the same natural Power To which purpose 't is not unfit to be observed 1. that the same Terms and Names which were given to good Angels to signifie their Strength and Commission Col. 1. 16. and 1. 10. are also given to Satan Ephes 6. 12. Devils are called Principalities Powers Rulers and Col. 2. 15. they have the same Names which in vers 10. were given to good Angels he spoiled Principalities and Powers 2. The Scripture gives particular Instances of Satan's Power and Working as his raising Tempests in the Air commanding Fire from Heaven both which he did in prosecution of his Malice against Job his carrying the Bodies of Men in the Air as he did with Christ hurrying him from the Wilderness to the Mountain from thence to the Pinacle of the Temple his breaking Chains and Fetters of Iron Mark 5. 4. His bringing Diseases instances whereof were that crooked Woman whom Satan had bowed together Luke 13. 16. and the Lunatick Person Luk. 9. 31. with a great many more 3. 'T is also observable that notwithstanding Satan's fall hath made an alteration as to the Ends Vses and Office of his Power yet nevertheless God makes use of this strength in him not only as an Executioner of Wrath against his Enemies as when he vexed Saul by this Evil Spirit and through this Lying Spirit gave up Ahab to be deluded into his ruin and inflicted Plagues upon Egypt by sending Evil Angels among them but also for the tryal of his own Servants thus was Job afflicted by Satan and Paul buffeted by his Messenger Secondly This Power of his as a Devil falls next under our consideration wherein are divers Particulars to be noted As First His Commission and Authority If any put that Question to him which the Jews did to Christ By what Authority dost thou these things or Who gave thee this Authority We have the Answer in John 12. 24. and 16. 11. where he is called the Prince of this World and accordingly the
Scripture speaks of a two-fold Kingdom of Light and of Darkness and in this we hear of Satan's Seat or Throne of his Servants and Subjects Yea that which is more the Scripture speaks of a kind of Deity in Satan he is called the God of this World 2 Cor. 4. 4. Which doth not only set forth the intollerable pride and usurpation of Satan in propounding himself as such so drawing on poor blind Creatures to worship him but also discovers his Power which by Commission he hath obtained over the Children of Disobedience Hence doth he challenge it as a kind of right and due from the poor Americans and others that they should fall down and worship him and upon this Supposition was he so intollerably presumptuous in offering the Kingdoms of the World to Christ for such a Service and Worship If it be questioned What Satan's Authority is I shall answer it thus First His Authority is not absolute or unlimited he cannot do what he pleaseth and therefore we do find him begging leave of God for the exerting of his Power in particular Cases as when he was a Lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets and in every Assault he made upon Job nay he could not enter into the Swine of the Gaderens till he had Christ's Commission for it Secondly Yet hath he a Commission in general a standing Commission as petty Kings and Governours had under the Roman Emperor where they were authorised to exercise an Authority and Power according to the Rules and Directions given them this is clearly signified by those Expressions they are Captives at his Will and given up to Satan as Persons Excommunicated and when Men are converted they are said to be translated from his Power and put under another Jurisdiction in the Kingdom of Christ All which would have been highly improper if a Commission for Satan and an Authority for those Works of Darkness had not been signified by them Next let us view the Extent of this Authority both as to Persons and Things In relation to Persons the boundary of his Kingdom reacheth as far as Darkness he rules in the dark places of the Earth or the darkness of this World and therefore his Kingdom is hence denominated a Kingdom of Darkness This extends we may well imagine as far as Heathenism reacheth where he is worshipped as God as far as any darkness of Mahumetanism stretcheth it self as far as the darkness of Infidelity and blindness upon the hearts of unconverted Men which if summed up together must needs take up the greatest part of the World by far which is acknowledged not only by that large Expression World Prince of this World c. but also by that Prophetick Speech of Rev. 11. 15. The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ which acknowledgeth they had not been so before in the sense wherein we now speak Neither is his Kingdom so bounded but that he also can when allowed make Excursions and Inroads into the Kingdom of Christ so far as to molest disturb and annoy his Subjects as the Kings of any Nation besides the Power which they Exercise in their proper Jurisdiction may molest their Neighbours And Christ so far permits this as is useful to his own Designs yet still with straiter reserves and limitations to Satan and a resolved rescue and conquest for his own People If we enquire the Extent of his Power in relation to things we find the Air in a peculiar manner permitted to him so that he is named by it as by one of his chief Royalties the Prince of the Power of the Air we find also Death with the Powers of it given up to him so that this is a peraphrasis of him He that hath the Power of Death Heb. 2. 14. And if we take notice of his large proffer to Christ of the Kingdoms of the World All this will I give thee we may imagine that his Commission reacheth far this way as Rewards and Encouragements to his Service which we will the readilier entertain when we find that by God's allowance wicked Men have their Portion in this Life and that these are called their Good Things Thirdly Let us proceed a step further to the Efficacy of this Authority which also First Upon wicked Men is no less remarkable than is his Commission he is called the strong Man in reference to their Hearts which he fortifies as so many Castles and Garisons against God He also rules in them without controul his Suggestions and Temptations are as Laws to them he fills their Hearts with his Designs and raiseth their Affections to an high and greedy pursuit of them he works in them and by an inward force doth hurry them on to atchieve his Enterprises In all this ensnaring and captivating them at his pleasure Secondly The Saints which are Subjects of another Kingdom are still fearing complaining watching praying and spreading out their hands with lifting up their Eyes to Heaven for help against him they complain of violence and restless Assaults from him they are sensible that he can suggest evil thoughts and follow them with incessant Importunities that he can draw a darkness upon their Understanding by bribing their Wills and Affections against them that he can disturb their Duties and that because of him they cannot do the good they would many a fear doth he beget in their Hearts many a disquiet hour have they from him their flesh hath no rest and happy are they if they escape from him without broken Bones many excellent ones have been cast down by him and for a time have been like dead Men. 'T is sad to see so just a Person as Lot under his feet so choice a Saint as David wounded almost to the death so high an Apostle as Peter by force and fear from him to open his Mouth with Curses and Imprecations in the denial of his Saviour to say nothing of the Buffetings of others which was sufficiently wearisom to Paul and described by a Thorn in the Flesh which if a Learned Man think right is compared by a Metaphor to those sharp Stakes upon which Christians were cruelly spitted and burnt Thirdly His quick and ready accomplishment is a further proof of the Efficacy of his Power No sooner had God given him a Commission in reference to Job but he quickly raiseth the Tempest brings down the House slayes his Children brings Fire from Heaven and which would seem strange hath the Troops of the Sabeans and Chaldeans at his beck as if they had been listed under his known Command so that in a little time he puts his Malice into Act. Fourthly If any would slight all this as being the Force of Principalities and Powers against Flesh and Blood We may see he hath so much strength and confidence as to grapple with an Angel of Light as he did in the contesting for Moses his Body Jude v. 9. This was
himself I the Lord do it or I am he that searcheth and signifies that none else is able to do the like Yet Satan can do much this way for if we consider how he can come so near to our Spirits as to communicate his Injections to us and that he often entertains a Dispute with us in this secret way of access that he hath to our Thoughts if we observe his Arguings his Answers and Replys to our refusals so direct so pertinent so continued we shall be constrained to grant that he can do more this way than is commonly imagined That I may explain this with a due respect to God's Prerogative of knowing the Heart I shall First Shew that there are two things which are clearly out of Satan's reach 1. Our future Thoughts he cannot tell what shall be our Thoughts for time to come he may possibly adventure to tell what Suggestions he resolves to put into our Hearts but what shall be our Resolves and Determinations thereupon he knows not This is singled out as one part of God's Prerogative that he knoweth the determinate Purposes and Resolves of the Heart aforehand because he turneth the Heart as he pleaseth Prov. 21. 1. 2. Our present formed Thoughts the immediate and imminent Acts of the Mind he cannot directly see into He may tell what floating Thinkings he hath put into our Heart but our own proper Thoughts or formed Resolves he cannot directly view this is also particularly insisted on as proper to God alone John 2. 24 25. Christ knew all Men so directly that he needed not that any should testifie of Man this Satan stands in need of he sometimes knows Men and their Thoughts but he needs a Sign or notification of these Thoughts and cannot immediately look into them the reason why Christ needed not this is rendred thus for he knew what was in Man that is intuitively he knew his Thoughts and could immediately read them Secondly I shall endeavour to explain how much or how far he can pry into our Thoughts Several things are granted which argue Satan can go a great way toward a discovery As First That he knows the Objects in our Fancy or Phantasins and this as clearly as we do behold things with our Eyes and the proof given hereof is this That there are Diabolical Dreams in which the Devil cannot create new Species and such as our Senses were never acquainted withal as to make a Blind Man dream of Colours but that he can only call forth and set in order those Objects of which our Imagination doth retain the Shadows or Impressions and this he could not do if he did not visibly behold them in our fancy Secondly 'T is certain he knows his own Suggestions and Temptations darted into our Minds upon which he can at present know what our Thoughts are busied upon Thirdly He knows the secret workings of our Passions as Love Desire Fâ—ar c. because these depend upon or are in a concomitancy of the motions of the Blood and Spirits which he can easily discern though their motions and workings may be kept secret from the observation of all by-standers Fourthly Some go further as Scotus referente Barthol Sybilla supposing that he knows what is in our Thoughts at any time only he knows not to what these Thoughts incline but I leave this to those that can determine it certainly In the mean time I proceed Thirdly To shew what a guessing Faculty he hath of what he doth not directly know he hath such grounds and advantages for Conjecture that he seldom fails of finding our Mind As First His long experience hath taught him what usually Men do think in such cases as are commonly before them by a cunning observation of their Actions and Ways he knows this Secondly He by study and observation knows our temper and inclination and consequently what Temptations do most sute them and how we do ordinarily entertain them Thirdly He knows this the more by taking notice of our Prayers our complainings and mournings over our defects and miscarriages Fourthly He is quick and ready to take notice of any Exteriour Sign by which the Mind is signified as the Pulse the motion of the Body the change of the Countenance all which do usually shew the assent or dissent of the Mind and at least tell him what entertainment his Offers have in our Thoughts Fifthly Being so quick-sighted he can understand those particular Signs which would escape the observation of the wisest Men there are some things small in themselves and therefore unobserved which yet to wise Men are very great indicia of things the like may be said of us in reference to our inclinations our acceptance or resistance of Temptations which yet he hath curiously marked out Sixthly No doubt but he hath ways to put us upon a discovery of our Thoughts while we conceal them as by continuing and prosecuting Temptations or Suggestions till our trouble or passions do some way discover how it is with us By all which it appears that his guessings and conjectures do seldom fail him 'T is now time to speak to the other Question which is Whether and how far Satan knows things to come To this I shall return Answer in these two Conclusions First There is a way of knowing future things which is beyond the knowledg of Devils and proper only to God Esa 41. 23. there God puts the competition 'twixt Himself and Idols about the truth of a Diety upon this issue That he that can shew the things that are to come hereafter he is God which because they cannot do he doth hereby evince them to be no Gods If Satan could truly and properly have done this he had had a Plea for a Godhead In Divine Predictions two things are to be considered 1. The Matter foretold when the events of things contingent and as to second Causes casual depending upon indeterminate Causes are foretold 2. The Manner when these things are not uncertainly or conjecturally or darkly but clearly certainly infallibly and fully predicted Of this nature are Divine Predictions which Satan cannot perform nor yet the Angels in Heaven Secondly Yet Satan hath such advantages for the knowledg of future Things and such means and helps for a discovery of them that his Conjectures have often come to pass First He knows the Causes of Things which are secret to us Upon which he seems to foretel many things strange to us As a Physician may foretel the Effects Workings and Issues of a Disease as seeing them in the Causes which would pass for little less than Prophesie among the Vulgar Thus an Astrologer foretells Eclipses which would be taken for a Divine Excellency where the knowledg of the ground of these foretellings had not taken away the wonder Secondly Many things are made known to him by immediate Divine Revelation We know not the intercourse betwixt God and Satan in the
patronized and commonly such Men either fix upon such places as give warning of the necessary concomitances of the Spirit and Heart with the outward Act of service and from hence separating what God hath joyned together they set up Spiritual Sabbaths Spiritual Baptism Spiritual Worship to cry down and cashier the external Acts of such Ordinances or they pretend kindred to Scripture as prophesying or foretelling those new Administrations which they are about to set up Let H. Nicholas be an instance of this who though he decryed the Service of the Law under God the Father and the Service of the Belief under Christ and in the room of both these would set up another Administration under the Spirit yet that he might be the better believed he applyed several Scriptures to his purpose as Prophetically foretelling H. Nicholas and his services and would have Men imagine that he was that Angel flying in the midst of Heaven with the Everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6. And that Prophet enquired after by the Jews Joh. 1. 21. Art thou that Prophet and that Man ordained to Judg the World Act. 17. 31. And that the times of his Dispensation were the times of Perfection and Glory spoken of in 1 Cor. 13. 9. and Heb. 6. 1. The like pretences for new Administrations had Saltmarsh and several others Satan fixing his Foot upon this Design and taking advantage of Mens Ignorance Curiosity and Pride c. it is impossible to tell what he may do he hath introduced many Heresies already and none knows what may be behind many passages of Scripture are dark to the wisest of Men a great many more are so to the common sort of Christians A great many wits are imployed by him as Adventurers for new Discoveries and a small pretence is ground enough for a bold Undertaker to erect a new Notion upon and a new Notion in Religion is like a new Fashion in Apparel which bewitcheth the unsteady with an itch to be in it before they well understand what it is So that 't is alike impossible to stint the just number of Errours as to adjust the various pretences from Scripture upon which they may be countenanced Leaving therefore this task to those that can undertake it I shall only note a particular or two of Satans cunning in affixing an Errour upon Scripture First In any grand design of Error he endeavours to lay the Foundation of it as near to Truth as he can but yet so that in the tendency of it it may go as far from it as may be As some Rivers whose first Fountains are contiguous have notwithstanding a direct contrary course in their Streams For instance in those Errors that tend to overthrow the doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ and Ordinances and these are things which the Devil hath a great spite at he begins his work with plausible pretences of Love and Admiration of Christ and Grace he proceeds from thence to the pretence of purer Enjoyments from thence to a dislike of such Preachers and Preaching as threaten Sin and speak out the wrath of God against Iniquity and these are presently called Legal Preachers and the doctrine of Duty a Legal Covenant having them once at this point they easily come to immediate Assistances and special Gifts which they pretend to have above others being thus set up they are for free Grace and the enjoyment of God in Spirit from thence they come to Christian Liberty and by degrees Duties are unnecessary there is no Christ but within them and being freed from the Law whatever they do is no Transgression This is a Path that Satan hath trodden of old though now and then he may vary in some Circumstances and be forced to stop before he come to the utmost of his Journey You may observe this Method in the late Errors of New-England in the Familists of Germany and in those of Old-England in all which at the long-run Men are led as far from Scripture as Darkness is from Light Now this is not only to be seen in a progressive multiplication of Errors but often may we perceive the same subtilty of Satan in a simple Error as when he takes up part of a Truth which should stand in conjunction with another and sets it up alone against its own Companion where we shall have the name and pretence kept up but the thing quite destroyed God requires Services of Men and prescribes to their use Prayer Hearing Sacraments but because in these God is dishonoured when Men only draw near with their Lips he further tells us that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is of the Flesh c. This part are some Men so fixed upon that they think they are discharged of the other and in practice go quite from these duties and yet still they profess they are for Ordinances and the Worship of God just so are some Men for Christ but then 't is but the name not the thing they own Christ they say but then 't is Christ in them and Christ come in their Flesh but not that Christ that died at Jerusalem as a Sacrifice for the Sins of Men. Secondly Satan takes great care that an Errour be in all the ways of its propagation cloathed with Scripture phrases and the less the Errour can pretend to any plausible ground of Scripture the more doth he endeavour to adorn it with Scripture Language I understand this chiefly of such Errors as are designed for the Multitude so that though Scripture be not used to prove the Errour yet are Deceivers taught to express their conceptions by it and to accomodate the Words and Sentences of it to their purposes for besides pride and confidence Scriptural Eloquence is a necessary ingredient to make a powerful Deluder Observe the Ring-leaders of Errors and you shall find that ordinarily such have at first been studious of the Scriptures and though never able to digest them yet when they turned their Ears from Truth they have carried their Scripture Language which they had before brought themselves unto by long custom away with them and still retain it and express their Opinions by it Now this is a great advantage to Satan For First By this means the ignorant Multitude are often caught without any more ado if they hear Scripture Expressions they are apt to think that all is Truth which is spoken by them and they the rather believe it because they will imagine such Teachers to be well versed in Scripture and consequently either so honest or so knowing that they neither can nor will delude them Secondly There is a Majesty in Scripture which in some sence doth stick to the very expressions of it Men may perceive that generally Hearers are more affected with Scripture Eloquence than with Play-Book Language it hath as it were a charm in the words which makes the Ear attentive more than a quaint discourse starched up in the dresâ— of
Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. Now though the Prophecies of Scripture are sealed and no more is to be added to them upon any pretence whatsoever yet seeing there are Promises left us of the giving of the Spirit of being taught and led by the Spirit it is an easy matter for Satan to beguile Men into an expectation of prophetick inspirations and a belief of what is pretended so to be for all Men do not or will not understand that these promises of the Spirit have no intendment of new and extraordinary immediate Revelations but only of the efficacious applications of what is already revealed in Scripture This kind of Revelation we acknowledg and teach which is far enough from Enthusiasm that is a pretended Revelation of new Truths and we have reason to assert that internal perswasions without the external word are to be avoided as Satan's cozenages But for all this when Mens minds are set a gadding if they meet with such as magnify their own Dreams and call their Fancies Visions the suitableness of this to their humour makes them to reject our interpretations of these Promises as false and to perswade themselves that they are to be understood of such Inspirations as the Prophets of old had and then they presently conclude they are to believe them lest otherwise they should resist the Holy Ghost Thirdly But the advantage which the Devil hath to work Delusion upon by this pretence is an high motive to him to practise upon it For Inspirations Visions Voices Impulses Dreams and Revelations are things wherein wicked Impostors may by many ways and artifices play the counterfeits undiscovered 't is easy to prophesy false Dreams and to say thus saith the Lord when yet they do but lye and the Lord never sent them nor commanded them nay 't is easy by tricks and illusions to put that honour and credit upon their designs which they could not by their bare assertions backed with all their art of seeming seriousness the inventions of Men that have been formerly successful in this deceit being now laid open to our knowledg may make us more wary in our trust Among the Heathens you may find notable ways of deceits of this nature The Story of Hanno and Psappho is commonly known they tamed Birds and learned them to speak Hanno and Psappho are Gods and then set them at liberty that Men hearing such strange voices in the Woods from Birds might imagine that these Men were declared Gods by special discovery Mahomets device of making a Dove to come frequently to his Ear which he did by training her up to an use of picking Corn out of it served him for an evidence among the vulgar beholders who knew not the true cause of it of his immediate Inspiration by the Angel Gabriel who as he told them whispered in his ear in the shape of a Dove The like knavery he practised for the confirmation of the truth of his Alcoran by making a Bull taught before to come at a call or sign to come to him with a Chapiter upon his Horns Hector Boetius tells us of a like stratagem of a King of Scots who to animate his fainting Subjects against the Picts that had beaten them caused a Man clothed in the shining skin of Fishes and with rotten Wood which as a Glow-worm in the Night represents a faint Light to come among them in the dark and through a Reed or hollow Trunk that the Voice might not appear to be humane to incite them to a vigorous onset this they took to be an Angel bringing them this command from Heaven and accordingly fought and prevailed Crafty Benedict who was afterward Pope under the name of Boniface the eighth made simple Celestine the fifth give over the Popedom by conveying to him a Voice through a Reed to this purpose Celestine Celestine renounce the Papacy give it over if thou wouldst be saved the burthen is beyond thy Strength c. The silly Man taking this for a Revelation from Heaven quitted his Chair and left it for that crafty Fox Benedict Not very many years since the same trick was played in this Country to a Man of Revelations who called himself David in Spirit when he had wearied his Entertainer with a long stay he quitted himself of his Company as I was credibly informed by a Policy which he perceived would well suit with the Man's conceitedness for through a Reed in the night time he tells him that he must go into Wales or some such Country and there preach the Gospel the next Morning the Man avouches a Revelation from God to go elsewhere and so departs These instances shew you how cunningly a cheating knave may carry on a pretence of Revelation or Vision And yet this is not all the advantage which the Devil hath in this matter though it is an advantage which he sometime makes use of when he is fitted with suitable Instruments But he works most dangerously when he so acts upon Men that they themselves believe they have Visions Raptures and Revelations for some are really perswaded that it is so with them Neither is it strange that Men should be deluded into an apprehension that they hear and see what they do not in Feavers Frenzies and Madness we clearly see it to be so and who can convince such Persons of their mistakes when with as high a confidence as may be they contend that they are not deceived Shall we think it strange that Satan hath ways of conveying false apprehensions upon Mens minds no surely do we not see that the Senses may be cheated and that the Fancies of Men may be corrupted is it not easy for him to convey Voices to the Ear or shapes and representations to the Eye and in such cases what can ordinarily hinder a belief that they hear or see such things but he needs not always work upon the Fancy by the Senses If he hath the advantage of a crazy distempered Fancy as commonly he hath in Melancholly Persons he can so strongly fix his suggestions upon them and so effectually set the Fancy on work to embrace them that without any appearance of Madness they will perswade themselves that they have discoveries from God Impulses by his Spirit Scriptures set upon their Hearts and what not and because they feel the workings of these things within them it is impossible to make them so much as suspect that they are deceived Do but consider the power of any Fancy in a Melancholick Person and you may easily apprehend how Satan works in such delusions Melancholy doth strangely pervert the imagination and will beget in Men wonderful misapprehensions and that sometimes doth bewitch them into peremptory uncontroulable belief of their Fancy 't is a vehement confident humour what way soever it takes the imagination thus corrupted hath an enormous strength so that if it fix upon things never so absurd or irrational 't is not reducible by the strongest reasons If such
that 't is not only a denyal of God that is above but usually a vesting some mean and contemptible thing with those Attributes which only suit a God Infinite and Eternal As Israel did not only forsake the Almighty by their distrust but place their hopes upon Ashur upon their own Horses and Warlike Preparations and at last upon the works of their hands which they called their Gods How offensive this is to the Lord we may observe by that notable check which the Prophet gave Ahaz Esay 7. 8 13. notwithstanding his complement of refusing a Sign which God offered him for the strengthning of his hope upon a pretence that he would trust without it though indeed he absolutely distrusted him as appears by 2 Chron. 28. 20. that it was a weaning and tyring out the Patience of a long-suffering God Is it a small thing for you to weary Men but will you weary my God also God is so active and jealous of all incroachments of this kind that they may expect he will give up such Offenders to be punished by the terrors of an higher distrust He that is not owned as a God in his Providences will not be owned as a Father for Spiritual Mercies they that will not own him for the Body shall not be able to lay hold upon him or his strength to be at peace with him for their Souls and by this piece of just discipline he often cures the distrust of Providence in his Children who when they see themselves plunged into terrors and fears about their everlasting Welfare do not only call God Just and accept of the punishment of their Iniquity in distrusting him for smaller matters but now wish with all their hearts that they might have no greater thing to trouble them than what relates to the Body or this Life To Sum up all these reasons in one word Satan hath from the forementioned considerations a certain expectation of prevalency For not only in this case doth God as it were fight for him by giving them up to distrust their Filial Interest that have provoked him by a distrust of Providence and our Faith is also so weakned by the former overthrow that 't is not able to maintain its ground in an higher matter but also this distrust carries that in the nature and grounds of it that will of it self work up to a disbelief of spiritual Mercies He knows then that this piece of the Victory is an easy Consequence of the former and we may say of it as the Prophet Nahum chap. 3. 12. of the Strong-holds of Nineveh 't is like a Fig-tree with the first ripe Figs if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater This Temptation of distrusting our Son-ship falls into Satans Mouth with a little Labour when once he hath prevailed so far as to make us distrust the Providence of God in outward matters This must warn and caution us against any unbeseeming unbelieving entertainment of jealousy against the Lords Providence we are but too apt in our straits to take a greater liberty to question his Mercy and Power not foreseeing how closely this borders upon a greater evil we may say of it as the Apostle speaks of babling in Controversies that they lead to more ungodliness and that such words eat as a Canker so doth this distrust usually carry us further and when we fall out with God for small matters he will be angry in earnest and withdraw from us our Consolations in greater In the depth of your distresses when your fears are round about you and God seems to compass you about with his Net when Lover and Friend forsakes and when there is no appearance of help endeavour for the keeping hold of your Interest in God to behave your selves according to the following directions First Look upon the Providences of God to be as a great deep the bottom of whose ways and designs you cannot reach think of them as of a Mystery which indeed you must study but not throw away because you cannot at first understand it Providences are not to be dealt with as Alexander did by Gordius his knot who when he could not loose it he cut it If you see not the end of the Lord or cannot meet with a door of hope in it yet lay your Hand upon your Mouth speak not think not evil of things you know not but wait till the time of their bringing forth Secondly You must keep up in your hearts high and honourable thoughts of God yea of his Mercy and Goodness and where you cannot see your way or God's way before you yet as it were by a kind of implicit Faith must you believe that he is Holy and Good in all his ways Thirdly Though you may read your Sins or God's displeasure in them and accordingly endeavour to humble your selves and call your selves vile yet must it be always remembred that Eternal Love or Hatred is not to be measured by them Fourthly Restrain complainings 'T is indeed an ease to complain I will speak saith Job that I may be refreshed notwithstanding a vent being given 't is difficult to keep within bounds Our complainings entice us to distrust as may appear in Job who took a boldness this way more than was fit as Chap. 10. 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress and that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands All this hath been said in the opening of the Temptation it self now must I consider the motive that Satan used to bring on the Temptation by If thou be the Son of God c. The Question that is here moved by some is whether Satan really knew or truly doubted Christ to be the Son of God Several Learned Men think that he was in doubt and the reasons are variously conjectured Cyprian conceives that the unity of the two Natures in one Person did blind him he knew it to be impossible that the Divine Nature should hunger and might think it strange that the Humane Nature should fast so long Cornelius a Lapide thinks that Satan knew that there should be two Natures united in one Person and that this occasioned Satans Fall while he proudly stomacked the exaltation of the Humane Nature but he imagins Satan's doubt arose from a doubtful Sence of that phrase This is my beloved Son as not knowing whether Christ were the Natural or an Adopted Son of God But notwithstanding these apprehensions others conceive that Satan knew very well who Christ was and that being privy to so many things relating to him as the Promises which went before and directly pointed out the time the Angels Salutation of Mary at his Conception the Star that conducted the Wise Men to him the Testimony from Heaven concerning him with a great many things more he could not possibly be ignorant that he was the Messias and the Son of God by Nature Neither doth that expression If thou be the Son of God
Duty then he objects They draw nigh me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me If he sees them dull and without Consolation at the Lord's Supper then to be sure they hear of him he that eats and drinks unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself If he find him bemoaning that he is not so apprehensive of Mercies or Judgments as he would be then he sets home some such Scripture as this This Peoples Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing c. These Scriptures are frequently perverted by Satan from the true and proper meaning of them I have had complaints from several dejected Christians of these very Scriptures urged upon them to their great trouble when yet it was evident that none of these were truly applyed by Satans Temptation against them These things give us warning not to take any thing of this Nature upon trust If Satan can so imitate the Spirit of God in applications of Scripture and bringing it to our remembrance we have great reason to beware lest we be imposed upon by Satan's Design clothed in Scripture Phrase not that I would have Men esteem the secret setting of Scripture upon their Minds to be in all cases a delusion and to be disregarded as such Some indeed there are that so severely remark the weaknesses of Professors of Religion that they raise up a scorn to that which is of most necessary and serious use because the Devil prevails with some Hypocrites to guild themselves with Scripture phrase and others through imprudent inadvertency are unknown to themselves beguiled by Satan to misapplications of Scripture to their own estate or to other things they therefore decry all the inward workings of the Heart as Fancy or affected singularity these do but the Devils work But that the Spirit of God whom Satan treacherously endeavours to imitate doth set home Scripture Commands Threatnings and Promises upon the Hearts of his People is not only attested by the Experience of all that are inwardly acquainted with the ways of God but is one of the great Promises which Christ hath given for the comfort of his People in his absence Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father shall send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you This then being granted as a firm unshaken Truth our care must be in discovering and avoiding Satan's counterfeit using of Scripture and in this we should be more wary First Because we are not so apt to suspect what we meet with in such a way when 't is brought to us in the Language of Scripture Secondly And those that are not exercised in the Scripture will he at a sad loss as not knowing how to extricate themselves from such difficulties as may arise to them from Satan's Sophistry Thirdly Wariness is also more necessary because we are inclinable to believe what suits our Desires and Conscience awakened is averse to the rejecting of that which answers its fears You may say What is there of direction for us in this Case The Answer is ready Two things are given us in Charge 1. That we be wisely suspicious A facile hasty credulity is treacherous Christ forbids when he foretels the rising of false Christ's Math. 24. 26. the forwardness of a sudden belief taxing thereby those that are presently taken with every new appearance 'T is childish to be carryed with every Wind we are warned also of this 1 Joh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit 2. We are commanded to bring all Pretences whatsoever to Tryal though immediate Revelation or Vision be pretended or extraordinary Commission yet must all be brought to the Touch-Stone we must prove all things 1 Thes 5. 21. and try those that say they are Apostles Rev. 2. 2. Nay the Spirits are to be tryed whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. You will say How must we try I Answer God hath given a Publick Sufficient and Certain rule which is the Scripture and all must be tryed by that so that if there be Impulses or Discoveries or Remembrances of Scripture upon any it must not be taken for granted that they are of God because they pretend so high for so we shall make Satan Judg in his own Cause but lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written Word and if it answer not that call it confidently a delusion and reject it as accursed though it might seem in other regards to have been suggested by an Angel from Heaven But it will be said Satan pretends to this Rule and it is Scripture that is urged by him I Answer though it be so yet he useth not Scripture in its own Intendment and Sense for the discovery of his unfaithful dealing First Compare the Inference of the suggestion with other Scriptures If it be from a dark Scripture compare it with those that are more plain and in every case see whether the general Current of the Scriptures speak the same thing for if it be from Satan he either plays with the Words and Phrases from doubtful and equivolent terms making his conclusion or his citation will be found Impertinent or which is most usual contrary to Truth or Holiness if any of these appear by a true examination of the Import of the Scripture which he seeks to abuse or by comparing it with the Scope and Genius of other Scriptures you may certainly pronounce that it is not of God but Satan's deceit Secondly Consider the tendency of such Suggestions Let no Man say that this will come too late or that it is an after game I do not mean that we should stay so long as to see the Effects though this is also a certain discovery of Satan's knavery in his highest pretences the Phanatick Furies of the German Enthusiasts do now appear plain to all the World to have been Delusions by their End Fruits and Issue But that while these Conclusions are obtruded upon us we should observe to what they tend which we shall the better know if all Circumstances round about be considered Sometimes Satan doth covertly hint his Mind and send it along with the suggestion sometimes our condition will enough declare it and there is no case but it will afford something of discovery if seriously pondered If he either prompt us to Pride Vain-Glory or Presumption or that our condition sway us that way it will be sufficient ground of Suspition that 't is Satan that then urgeth Promises or Priviledges upon us If we are of a wounded Spirit inclined to Distrust or if we be put on to despair it is past denyal that 't is Satan that urgeth the Threatnings and presseth the Accusations of the Law against us He that gathers Stones Timber Lime and such Materials together as are usually imployed in Building doth discover his intention before he actually Build his
Spirits are now groaning under Thirdly This Malice is the result of that Curse laid upon Satan Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity betwixt thee and the Woman between her Seed and thy Seed Which implies 1. a great enmity and some render it inimicitias implacabiles implacable enmities 2. A lasting enmity such as should continue as long as the Curse should last 3. That this should be his work and exercise to prosecute and be prosecuted with this enmity so that it shews the Devil 's whole mind and desire is in this Work and that he is whetted on by the opposing enmity which he meets withal it is the Work of his Curse of his Place of his Revenge and that wherein all the delight he is capable of is placed In that part of the Curse Dust shall be thy Meat 't is implyed if some interpret right that if Satan can be said to have any delight or ease in his Condition 't is in the eating of this Dust the exercise of this Enmity No wonder then if Christ speak of his desires and sollicitations with God to have a liberty and Commission for this Work Satan hath desired to have thee that he may winnow thee That this Curse relates not only to the Serpent who was the Instrument but also to Satan who was the Agent is agreed by all almost that it was not the Serpent alone but the Devil speaking by it is evinced from its speaking and reasoning and that the Curse reached further than a natural Enmity 'twixt a Serpent and a Man is as evident in that Christ is expresly held forth as giving the full accomplishment of this Curse against Satan 1 John 3. 8. The Devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil which is a clear Exposition and Paraphrasis of the Womans Seed bruising the Serpents head Fourthly I shall add to this some few Instances of Satan's Malice by which it will appear to be great First That Malice must needs be great which shews it self where there is such a load of anguish and horror that lies upon him he is now reserved in Chains of Darkness in Hell he is in Hell a place of Torment or which is all one Hell is in him he carries it about him in his Conscience which by God's decree binds him to his horror like a Chain 'T is scarce imaginable that he should have a thought free from the contemplation of his own misery to spend in a malicious pursuit of Man What can we think less of it than a desperate madness and revenge against God wherein he shews his rage against Heaven and hunts after our Blood as for a little Water to cool his Tongue and when he finds his hand too short to pull the Almighty out of his Throne he endeavours Panther-like to tear his Image in Man and to put Man created after his Image upon blaspheming and dishonouring his Maker Secondly That Malice must needs be great that seeks its own Fewel and provides or begs its own Occasions and those such as give no proper provocation to his anger Of this temper is his Malice he did thus with Job he begs the Commission calumniates Job upon unjust surmises presseth still for a further power to hurt him in so much that God expresly stints and bounds him which shews how boundless he would have been if left to his own will and gives him at last an open check Job 2. 3. wherein he lays open the malice of his heart in three things 1. His own pressing urgency Thou movedst me 2. His destructive Fury no less would serve than Job's utter destruction 3. Job's Innocency All this without cause thou movedst me to destroy him without cause Thirdly That Malice must needs be great that will pursue a small matter what small game will the Devil play rather than altogether sit out If he can but trouble or puzzle or affright yet that he will do rather than nothing if he can like an Addar in the Path but bite the Heel though his Head be bruised for it he will notwithstanding busie himself in it Fourthly That Malice must be great which will put it self forth where it knows it can prevail nothing but is certain of a disappointment Thus did Satan tempt Christ those Speeches if thou be the Son of God do not imply any doubt in Satan he knew what was prophesied of Christ and what had been declared from Heaven in testification of him so that he could not but be certain he was God and Man and yet what base unworthy temptations doth he lay before him as to fall down and worship him Was it that Satan thought to prevail against him No surely but such was his Malice that he would put an affront upon him though he knew he could not prevail against him Fifthly The Malice of wicked Men is an Argument of Satan's great Malice they have an antipathy against the Righteous as the Wolf against the Sheep and upon that very ground that they are called out of the World how great this fury is all Ages have testified This hath brought forth Discord Revilings Slanders Imprisonments spoiling of Goods Banishments Persecutions Tortures cruel Deaths as Burning Racking Tearing sawing asunder and what-ever the wit of Man could devise for a satisfaction to those implacable furious murtherous minds and yet all this is done to Men of the same Image and Lineage with themselves of the same Religion with themselves as to the main nay some time to Men of their own Kindred their own Flesh and Blood and all to those that would live peaceably in the Land What shall we say to these things How come Men to put on a savage Nature to act the part of Lions Leopards Tigars if not much worse The reason of all we have John 8. 54. Ye are of your Father the Devil he was a Murtherer from the beginning as also Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between her Seed and thy Seed So that all this shews what malice is in Satan's Heart who urgeth and provokes his Instruments to such bloody hatreds Hence who-ever were the Agents Rev. 2. 10. in imprisoning the Saints the Malice of Satan in stirring them up to it makes him become the Author of it Satan shall cast some of you into Prison CHAP. III. Of Satan's Power His Power as an Angel considered That he lost not that Power by his Fall His Power as a Devil Of his Commission The Extent of his Authority The Efficacy of his Power The Advantages which he hath for the management of it from the Number Order Place and Knowledge of Devils THat Satan's Power is Great is our next Enquiry Where First we will consider his Power as an Angel In Psalm 103. 20. Angels are said to excel in strength and in vers 21. as also Psal 148. 2. they are called God's Host which is more fully expressed 1 Kings 22.