on pretence of its being an insufficient Rule and Direction for Mans Salvation without the Addition of such Things as should in Truth subvert and contradict it and by giving it such a gloss as should be sure to corrupt the Text which he hoped to make uncontroulable if he could so bring it about as that all Corruptions both in Doctrine and Worship might be made incurable by a persuasion in the Minds of Men that the Proposer and Director of them was assisted by an infallible Spirit and could not Err and had received a Power of Dispensing with the Law of God it self and that there were still on Foot a Power of working Divine Miracles employed for the Confirmation of his Doctrines And then for his Kingly Office the Devil would raise up such an one which should pretend to a Donatio Christi as well as Constantini which should invest him with a Power both in Spirituals and Temporals equal to that of Christ himself and therefore make him his Deputy and Plenipotentiary even unto Adoration 2 Thes 2.4 or if that should fail the Devil had one ready sealed which he had made tenders of to Jesus Christ Luke 4.6 7. upon a certain Condition and though he rejected it with Scorn and Abhorrence yet he doubted not to find one who would thankfully accept of it the Draught whereof was already entred among the Divine Records and his bold Claim to it then made should be a sufficient Evidence of his Right But because the Men of the World were like to be something stiff and refractory to part with their Temporal Rights and Possessions therefore he should content himself with what he could get for the present for fear of Knocks yet giving away Kingdoms to those who would adventure for them which giving should prove his Right to retain or dispose of them and deposing whom he durst of those who would not allow him Power to dispose of their Temporals in order to his Spirituals which himself should claim to be the sole Judg of One that should in pursuance of this Claim pretend to pardon Mens Sins against the Law of God and erect a Purgatory or Prison for Offenders whereof himself should keep the Key on the same Bunch with those of Heaven and Hell which he should pretend to wear always at his Girdle One who should exercise Dominion over Mens Faith and Consciences minting new Articles of Faith at his Pleasure to be believed by them under no less pain then eternal Damnation Thus Satan thought it a thing not altogether unpossible for him to supplant and defeat Christ in all his Offices and thereby degrade him from that Honour wherein his Father had invested him who had given him a Name above every Name that the Angels of God should worship him and that to his Power and Authority every Knee should bow that his Humane Nature as existing in his Person and his Person as God-Man and consisting partly of his humane Nature should become the Object of Divine Adoration his humane Nature being assumed into that high Priviledg and Prerogative of partaking of that Worship which God will not suffer to be given to any that is not God and also that all Acts of Grace should be dispensed unto the Church as the alone purchase of his Merit and at his sole Instance and Intercession And if Satan could but gain this Point and Design upon the Person and Offices of Christ he hoped to lay his Faith and Religion low enough and in a great measure to defeat the great Design of the Gospel the Salvation of Mens Souls Which he should the more easily hereby retain under his Command and keep them still in their Sins and natural Corruptions Which that he might cherish and inflame to the utmost under the mysterious Covert of the Christian Profession he cast about how he might make Provision for the Flesh to improve the Corruptions of Humane Nature unto their utmost Pitch and Aâ—mâ— And therefore he contrived it so as that the Profession of Religion should not hinder but rather promote the injoyment of all worldly Honours Riches and sensual Pleasures the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life That Men might pursue their Pride and Ambition their Covetousness of Riches and Possessions and their earthly and carnal Pleasures and Delights and yet all the while go for good Christians abusing others and perhaps themselves also into a foolish Persuasion that they were in the first rank of those who should be saved The first of these Corruptions is Pride which being the Devil 's first-born and the principal Master-Lineament of his Image wherewith he had poisoned Humane Nature at the first and being the main Root of all Rebellion and Apostacy from God he took a special Care for its Accommodation in this new Model of his Kingdom And therefore when Men had taken upon them the Profession of the Christian Faith and brought along with them high thoughts of themselves of the acuteness of their Reason and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or uncontroulable Freedom of their Will both which the way of believing and taking things upon God's sole Authority and the necessity of the Grace of God for the Sanctification of the Heart and saving of the Soul seemed to cross and mortify the Devil gratified them in this by setting up Opinions of Religion to the same effect Which have proved a Seminary of most of the Heresies which afterward infected the Church of God for many Ages as proceeding from a corrupt Self-Love or love of corrupted Self and setting up Mans Understanding and Will against those of God whereby Men became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no longer subject to him Mens Reason was entertained with Notions contrary to the mysterious Truths of the Gospel called by the Apostle the Mystery of Godliness The blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence and the Union of the two Natures in the Person of Jesus Christ God manifested in the Flesh Our Redemption by his Death and Justification by Faith in him Sanctification by his Word and Spirit the Resurrection of the Body and such like And their proud Wills were stroaked and soothed with an opinion of Merit and the self-sufficiency of Natures Stock without being beholden to God for Gospel-Grace But the main and top-branch of Pride did shew it self in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the asserting of a Superiority and appearing on the top of other Men. Therefore to gratify this Ambition he resolved first to make use of those Eminencies which he found in the Constitution of the Church Christ himself gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 So that there wanted not Gifts and Offices which Men of Demetrius his Complexion who loved the Preeminency might pretend and aspire unto And if this were not enough to satisfie their Ambition they might build themselves higher Stories by
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY Anatomized BY WILLIAM DILLINGHAM D. D. For we are not ignorant of his Devices 2. Cor. 2.11 For the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work 2 Thessal 2.7 LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX THE Mystery of INIQUITY ANATOMIZED WHEN in the Fulness of time the Son of God the second Person in the blessed Trinity did assume humane Nature uniting it in the same Person with his Divine Nature that being God-man he might redeem Mankind and save his People from their Sins and instate them in a blessed condition to all Eternity he was born of a Virgin and with such other wonderful Circumstances as might well give Satan a just Apprehension that this was He whom all the Prophets had foretold and God had from the beginning of the World promised under the notion of the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents Head disappoint all his malicious Designs against the Glory of God and Mans Salvation and undo the Work of the Devil utterly destroying his infernal Kingdom which he had long exercised over fallen Mankind Which he being sensible of thought it concerned him to bestir himself to the utmost and to stir up all his Malice Power and Subtlety if it were possible to prevent it And therefore in the first place he sought to take away the Life of our Saviour and that betimes that so his being incarnate might signify nothing This he attempted by Herod's means putting a Jealousy into his Head that his Kingdom would be indangered by one who was at his very Birth bespoken and proclaimed the King of the Jews that so by Herod's Jealousy for his Kingdom he might ease himself of the Fears which tormented him of losing his own But that Trust being put by through the Providence of God his real and the care of Joseph his reputed Father Satan found himself so manacled by the Divine Power that he could make no more Assaults upon his Person than God was pleased to permit him Wherefore for above thirty Years we find not that he made any Attempt upon him But God did then give way to his boiling Malice to set upon him by Temptations And though perhaps he had but small hopes of prevailing yet in a desperate Case he resolved to put it to the push in hopes of a Possibility and therefore he thought if he could by any means draw him to Sin then he would be his own in Fetters and in no Capacity to deliver others out of those Chains of Darkness wherein himself should be held his Prisoner But when he saw that no Temptation could enter but that the blow did ever recoil upon his own head which was still wounded by that Sword of the Spirit the same Word of God which had fatally denounced his Destruction he then did more sensibly perceive that Christ was more than his Match and more than Man and consequently the Person designed for the ruine of his Kingdom and therefore he departed from him for a season hoping still for a more favourable Conjuncture in time to come but he found himself in the mean while going down the Wind apace being daily dispossessed and cast out of one Garison after another and that a whole Legion were unable to man one single Man to hold out against his Almighty Word and Command He found that Sins were forgiven Diseases cured and some Dead were raised and many believed on him returning to the Obedience of their Maker being convinced by his Heavenly Doctrine and perfectly Holy Conversation and the unresistible Power of his miraculous Works against which he found himself unable to bear up Yet between Rage and Despair he filled the Hearts of the Jews with all Mischief making them to blaspheme and revile him charging him in particular to be a Blasphemer against God i. e. himself and which was a notable fetch that he was confederate with the Devil by whom yet themselves spake and acted all This our Saviour did refute to the confusion of all his Accusers But the Devils and their Malice ceased not until after many bafflled Attempts they did at last according to the determinate Counsel of God permitting and ordering it bring him to a cruel and ignominious Death For He was numbred with the Transgressors Now was it that Satan began to triumph as if he had wholly broken all God's Measures and secured his own Kingdom from so dangerous an Attack But the Death of Christ in such a manner was the very way and means whereby God had fore-appointed to bring about his great Work for his own Glory and Mans Salvation through the ruin of Satan's Kingdom to which himself did cooperate by his own utmost Power Malice and Subtilty and by all the Instruments that he could make Thus the Wisdom of the Father did turn the Subtilty of the Serpent into the greatest piece of Folly that ever was in the World. And this the Devil soon became apprehensive of and therefore applied all his Arts to hinder the after-game and recruit of a Resurrection which would prove the greatest Miracle of all and would at once revive and confirm all the Doctrine which Christ had taught and so become more dangerous than all the rest if he should have his Prison the Grave broken open for he had the Power of Death and the Keys thereof ravished from him by a stronger hand And when he could not hinder the thing he indeavoured to stifle it in silence that it might not be known unto the World and for this purpose he retained the Jews to be his Brokers who suborned the Souldiers with large Mony but all in vain For the Sun would rise in despight of Clouds which seemed to obstruct him and being up did soon dispel those Mists which the Devil had raised and by the powerful Beams of his Doctrine and the miraculous Works taught and wrought by the Mouths and Hands of his Apostles did proclaim to all the World that he was risen and so had led Captivity captive and both received and dispensed such Gifts unto Men and Graces also as were like to lead the whole World in Triumph after him While Satan's Oracles were non-pluss'd his Altars cast down his Worshippers converted his Schoolmens Books burnt and all his Cheats laid open to the view of all Men. Thus Christ went on conquering and to conquer rescuing his People from their Sins loosing the Bands and Fetters of Sin and putting on them other Chains the Golden Chains of Grace and Gratitude the most potent Obligations to love God and to yield him new Obedience In the mean while neither the Devil's Malice nor Subtlety were idle for in pursuance of the first he resolved never to give over persecuting the Church of Christ both Teachers and others making use at first of the Jewish Nation and by them fermenting the Heathen World into the utmost Rage against the Christian Faith and the Professors of it And though he has been
much restrained from doing what he desired yet hath he never wholly ceased Day nor Night from opposing vexing tempting persecuting and accusing them to God and Man. But in the mean while he summoned up all the Methods and Devices which his Subtlity and long Experience whetted with Malice and Rage could suggest unto him And at length he thought it a matter feasible that seeing there was no stemming the Tide of the Gospel nor preventing the whole World from becoming Christian he might at least seem to resign his Kingdom and to be dead of his Wound by suffering Mankind to comply with the Gospel in an outward Profession while they reserved their Lusts and spel in an outward Profession while they reserved their Lusts and Corruptions immortified whereby he should still retain them under his Power and as certainly destroy them as in the times of Paganism he had done Which he thought he might accomplish the more securely because under a Cloak and Pretext of Compliance with Christ and his Kingdom he should establish his own in the Hearts and Lives of the far greater part even of such as should make Profession of the Christian Faith holding them still fast in Sin and Error which they should retain in Mystery and Disguise And which was still more he hoped so far to prevail himself of the Gospel and to debauch the Christian Religion and Worship as to pervert the most Holy Principles and Practices of it and make them become the most refined and effectual means to carry on a Mystery of Iniquity which is no other than his own Kingdom new modelled and of the last Edition For he conceived it not altogether impossible to make some Men out of a blind Devotion unto Christ instead of worshipping his Person to adore and give Divine Honour to every thing that had any relation to him from the Manger to the Cross and all this out of the meer Honour which they should pretend to bear unto him So should they through a blind mistake instead of his Person fasten their Devotion on his Garments thereby losing both their Saviour and their Souls together And the subtile Spirit did well understand that the earthly Mind of corrupted Nature would be very prone to terminate its Acts even the most Religious upon some sensible or present Object which it finds it self best able to master and comprehend and therefore he craftily put Men upon devising other than the true Objects of Worship Which being their own Creatures they would easily become so fond of as to fancy them into God's and give them Divine Worship or semi-Divine and so ill distinguished as that it should easily slide and melt into it He understood well that the way to establish his own Kingdom was to lesson that of Christ's which might be effected by dividing his Worship and parcelling it out among many other Participants whereby his due Honour and Worship which is his Tribute and Revenue would be lessoned and imbezil'd as is a great River by being sliced into many petty Channels And therefore he would not only put Men upon worshipping Christ's Appurtenances instead of his Person but also make them give their Worship unto Saints because of their Holiness and their Sufferings for Jesus Christ wherein they should make account they paid no small Honour unto Christ himself while they gave it to others for his Sake And unto Angels likewise those menial Servants of his who minister daily for the good of his Saints Both these they should make their Mediatours unto Christ or unto God next way and that not only of Prayer and Intercession but also of Merit and Satisfaction however they should strive to mince the Matter For the Honour and Worship they should give should be no other than that which is due to Christ alone and to God himself Jesus Christ is the only high Priest of his Church who by the Sacrifice of himself once offered upon the Cross hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified Heb. 10.14 Yet Satan will have him Crucified again and again even as often as the Sacrament is celebrated which Christ had instituted only as a Memorial of his Death and Passion And while they did this they should give Divine Worship to that which by Nature is not God but Bread though it be by being blessed according to Christ's holy Institution invested with Sacramental and Mystical Priviledges becoming the Sign to represent a Seal to confirm and an Instrument to convey Christ and all his Benefits unto believing Souls But as if it were the very natural Body of Jesus Christ united together with his Soul unto his Divine Nature in the Hypostaical Union they should give unto it the Divine Worship properly due unto that Person for the Sake only of the Godhead dwelling in him and compounding him Now the Devil knew that they being mistaken in their Judgment of the Thing they should Worship would become guilty of real Idolatry And thus should be pervert that Ordinance which Christ instituted for his own Honour and the Union Comfort and Salvation of his faithful Servants and turn it unto Christ's Dishonour by Idolatry into Schism and Contention and the Persecution of the Faithful and Damnation of many Thousands who should thereby be made Idolaters And while God's Worship is thus given to the Creatures Rev. 9.20 and their Images and unto God by his Images Satan knew that however Men might direct and superscribe it God would never accept of it having declared his Mind to the contrary and so of Course all must fall to his Share as waved and escheated 1. Cor. 10.20 21. For God will be worshipped alone and he will not give his Honour to another And Jesus Christ is jealous of his own Prerogative being the only Mediator between God and Man and takes himself to be slighted by such as go about to piece out his Satisfaction as if it were defective and insufficient by humane Penances and Merits He is the only High Priest of his Church and he is our alone Intercessor who can by his own Merits of infinite Value prevail with his Heavenly Father and obtain at his Hand all Blessings and eternal Life for all his elect Members and recommend their Petitions put up in his Name and perfumed by the incense of his own Merits so that they shall not fail of Acceptance and a gracious Audience And his love to his Church is so great that he is very jealous and takes it ill that she should wave his Intercession or not come immediately to him through a kind of diffidence of his Love to Her though pretending unworthiness Humility and to exalt his Honour thereby but direct her Petitions to her Fellow-Creatures though to be handed to him who can neither know nor help her And for his Prophetical Office the Devil contrived to invade that by stifling the Evangelical Law locking it up in an unknown Tongue suppressing part of it and adding to it by Writing and Oral Tradition