At the first view this may seem easy yet he that shall consider how much exercise of Grace goes necessarily to the right use of Scripture opposition shall not see cause to slight it as common nor yet to think that any vertue is attributed to the words For First The Scripture here is only recommended as a fit Instrument and no further or higher praise is given though therefore we may not attribute the whole of the Conquest to the Instrument alone yet this hinders not but that as an Instrument peculiarly fitted for these ends we may commend it above all other Instruments as we may justly commend Bread for nourishing above a Stone and expect more from it than from a chip so have we reason to expect more by the use of Scripture against Satan than from other means of defence which God hath not set up for that Service Secondly It is a concomitancy of Divine Power and Aid that conquers for us the Instrument is Scripture but the Power by which it works is from God Thirdly Neither is it any careless formal use of Scripture expressions that will give encouragement for expectation of a Divine concurrence but the use of Scripture in this business implyes an exercise of all Graces for it is an urging of Scripture under a fourfold Consideration First As being certainly perswaded of their Truth and fully keeping to that belief Secondly As being thankfully apprehensive of the holiness goodness and profitableness of the Commands and chearfully adhering to them as the only way and means to bring us to Union with Christ and to preserve us in it Thirdly As being highly and indispensibly obliged by them to perform the Duty commanded therein and to avoid the Sins forbidden Fourthly All this in an humble expectation of a divine help according to the Promise of God Now he that can plead the Command or Promise against a Temptation in this manner doth not do an ordinary work neither will he ascribe the success to the words and phrase of Scripture Some may peradventure wonder why Christ by his example had not recommended Prayer seeing it is of such unquestionable use in our undertakings against Satan But that enquiry may be fully satisfied if it be considered that Christ did peculiarly prepare himself to this encounter by solemn Fasting ver 2. which doth include Praying for such complicated duties are often denominated by that part which is extraordinary and usually in Scripture a Fast is only mentioned where Prayer is chiefly intended That this Fast of Christ related to the Temptation and that also as a means of preservation hath been spoken of in its place it remains only that from hence I add a fifth Direction CHAP. XXVI The fifth Direction of Prayer and of the seriousness required of those that expect the advantage of Prayer Of God's hearing Prayer while the Temptation is continued Of some that are troubled more while they pray more THat in all our endeavours of resistance frequent and earnest Prayers are not to be neglected This is so frequently recommended and so fully handled by most Authors that I shall refer you to such Authors as particularly treat of it noting only That the Apostle in Eph. 6. 18. when he recommends it to us in these words praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and Supplication for all Saints he doth mind us that he that expects the advantage of that Duty must be peculiarly fitted and seriously diligent in that work For First He must have a Praying frame of Heart he must Pray always or as the Apostle elsewhere he must Pray continually Not as if this Duty must swallow up all the rest and that a Christian had no other Services to attend than Prayer but that he must be on a design to wrestle with God by Prayer and this must be constantly carried on though the acts of Prayer be intermitted and besides that in such cases he may keep his usual stated times for that duty he must have his Heart so much upon his design that every occasion or offer of Temptation will presently put him upon the Duty nay he must in respect of the frequent intercourse of his Heart with God in frequent ejaculations and breathings of Soul be as a Man wholly resolved into that Duty as Paul was at his first Conversion who as that expression behold he Prays doth intimate seems to have been all Prayer and wholly taken up with that duty Secondly He must pray in the Spirit his Soul must be truly in the Duty A more than ordinary earnestness is necessary at solemn times he must put out all his Strength he must cry mightily and with his whole Heart Thirdly When his Spirit grows dull he must reinforce it watch his Heart he must and if it be needful to quicken it up he must add Fasting or Meditation or whatever other means may be helpful Fourthly In this course he must continue without giving off the Duty though God behave himself as if he minded not his cry or took no notice of his hazard yet without weariness must our Supplications follow him It must be continued with all Perseverance Fifthly The Heart that undertakes this must not be so narrow as to be centred upon his own concern only when he is melted into a Spirit of Meekness and Compassion for others and is not so sollicitous for Peace or Ease that he could hug himself in his private enjoyment without concerning himself to tender and help those that are in the same dangers when his Supplications are for all Saints as well as for himself then may he expect to receive an Olive branch of Peace from Heaven in the return of his Prayer 'T is often objected by such that they pray but are not heard and that Temptations continue notwithstanding many crys and wrestlings First It is a great mistake to think that Prayers are not heard or do not prevail because the Temptation is not quite removed Prayers may be acceptable to God and recorded among his remembrances where the Temptation for Exercise and other holy Ends may be continued Secondly What God hath promised to such Prayer he fails not to make good he hath not promised to exempt us from Temptation but from the Power and prevalency of it If his grace be sufficient for us in the mean time 't is an answer as good as Paul got when he was importunate if together with the Temptation he gives an issue that we may be able to bear it there is his faithfulness in keeping promise he no where promised that Satan should not tempt but that he should not prevail while we can hold up our hands in the Mount to God and our praying frame will ascertain us of this For a Man is never overcome by a Temptation so long as he can Pray against it for so long he delights not in it so long he consents not and till he
death of a Sinner will not delight to take strict exceptions against every failing If Satan can prevail with us to extenuate the Sin to slight the hazard or any way to lessen it upon any of the forementioned accounts then having possessed us before with high apprehensions of delights and satisfactions in the Sin he quickly perswades to accept the motion as having a conveniency and advantage in it not to be despised and thus doth he indirectly pervert our Reason which is the second way by which he blinds us through the working of our Lust CHAP. XIII Of Satan's diverting our Reason being the third way of blinding Men. His policies for diverting our Thoughts His attempts to that purpose in a more direct manner with the degrees of that procedure Of disturbing or distracting our Reason which is Satan's fourth way of blinding Men. His deceits therein Of precipitancy Satan's fifth way of blinding Men. Several deceits to bring Men to that THirdly Satan blinds the Sons of Men by diverting and withdrawing their Reason and taking it off from the pursuit of its discovery or apprehensions For sometime it cannot be induced to go so contrary to its Light as to call evil good either directly or indirectly Then is Satan put to a new piece of Policy and if the frame of the Heart and the matter of the Temptation suit his design he endeavours to turn the stream of our thoughts either wholly another way or to still them by turning them into a dead Sea or by some trick to beguile the Understanding with some new dress of the Temptation So that we may observe in Satan a threefold policy in a subserviency to this design for First Satan sometime ceaseth his pursuit and lets the matter fall and thinks it better to change the Temptation than to continue a sollicitation at so great a disadvantage When he tempted Christ and could not prevail he departed for a season with a purpose to return at some fitter time which Christ himself was in expectation of knowing it to be his manner to ly in wait for advantages and accordingly when his suffering drew nigh which as he speaks to the Jews was their hour and power of darkness he foretold his return upon him Now the Prince of this World cometh however this attempt of his against the Lord Jesus prevailed not yet he shewed his Art and Skill in the suspending of his Temptation to a more sutable time And the success of this against us is sadly remarkable for however we resist and at present stand out yet his solicitations are often like leaven which while 't is hid in our thoughts doth not a little ferment and change them so that at his return he often finds our Lusts prepared to raise greater clouds upon our Mind Many there are that resist strongly at present that which they easily slide into when Satan hath given them time to breath that say I will not and yet do it afterwards Secondly He sometimes withdraws their considerations by huffing them up with a confidence that they are above the Temptation As a conquest in a small skirmish begetting an opinion of victory makes way for a total overthrow over a careless and secure Army We are too apt to triumph over Temptations because we give the first on-set with courage and resolution Christ forewarned Peter of his denyal he stoutly deâ—ies it and not improving this Advertisement to Fear and Watchfulness Satan who then was upon a design to sift him took him at that advantage of security and by a contemptible instrument overthrew him Thus while we grow strong in our apprehensions by a denyal of a Sin and undervalue it as below us our Confidence makes us careless and this lets in our ruine Thirdly If these ways of Policy fail him he seemingly complies with us and is content we judge the matter sinful but then he proffers his service to bring us off by distinctions and here the Sophister useth his skill to further our Understanding in framing excuses coyning evasions and so doth out-shoot us in our own Bow The Corinthians had learned to distinguish betwixt eating of Meat in an Idols Temple in honour to the Idol and as a common Feast in civility and respect to their Friends that invited them this presently withdrew their consideration and so quieted them in that course that the Apostle was forced to discover the fallacy of it The Israelites cursed him that gave a Wife to any of the Tribe of Benjamin but when they turned to them in compassion they satisfied themselves with this poor distinction that they would not give them Wives but were willing to suffer them to take them 'T is a common snare in matters of Promise or Oath where Conscience is startled at a direct violation thereof by some pitiful salvo or silly evasion to blind the Eyes and when they dare not break the Hedge to leap over it by the help of a broken Reed But I must here further observe that Satan doth sometimes set aside these Deceits aforementioned and trys his strength for the withdrawing of our consideration from the danger of Sin in a more plain and direct manner that is by continuing the prospect of the sweets and pleasures of Sin under our Eye and withal urging us by repeated sollicitations to cast the thoughts of the danger behind our back In which he so far prevails sometimes that Men are charged with a deep forgetfulness of God his Law and of themselves yet usually it ariseth to this by degrees As First When a Temptation is before us and our conscience relucts it if there be any inclination to recede from a conviction the motion is resisted with a secret regret and sorrow As the young Man was said to go away sorrowful when Christ propounded such terms for Eternal Life as he was not willing to hear of So do we our Heart is divided betwixt Judgment and Affection and we begin to wish that it might be lawful to commit such a Sin or that there were no danger in it nay often our wishes contradict our prayers and while we desire to be delivered from the Temptation our private wishes beg a denyal to those supplications Secondly If we come thus far we usually proceed to the next step which is to give a dismission to those thoughts that oppose the Sin We say to them as Felix to Paul Go thy way for this time and when I have a convenient opportunity I will send for thee Thirdly If a plain dismission serve not to repel these thoughts we begin to imprison the Truth in Vnrighteousness and by a more peremptory refusal to stifle it and to keep it under and become at last willingly ignorant Fourthly By this means at last the Heart grows sottish and forgetful The heart is taken away as the Prophet speaks and then do these thoughts of conviction and warning at present perish together This withdrawing of our consideration is Satan's third
the least relaxing of the Spring that must bend our thoughts Heaven-ward they incline to their natural bend and current As a Stone rolled up a Hill hath a renitentia a striving against the hand that forceth it and when that force slackens it goes down-ward How easily then is it for Satan to set our thoughts off our Work If we slacken our Care never so little they recoyle and tend to their old Byas and how easie is it for him to take off our hand when 't is so much in his power to inject thoughts and motions into our Hearts or to present Objects to our Eyes or Sounds to our Ears which by a natural force raiseth up our apprehension to act for in such cases non possumus non cogitare we cannot restrain the act of thinking and not without great heedfulness can we restrain the pursuit of those thinkings and imaginations 2 Satan can also do it insensibly our distractions or roveings of thoughts creep and steal upon us silently we no more know oft when they begin than when we begin to sleep or when we begin to wander in a journey where oft we do not take our selves to be out of the way till we come to some remarkable turning 3 And when he prevailes to divide our thoughts from our Duty he always makes great advantage for thus he hinders at least the comfort and profit of Ordinances While we are busied to look to our hearts much of the Duty goeth by and we are but as those that in Publick Assemblies are imployed to see to the order and silence of others who can be scarce at leasure to attend for their own advantage Besides much of the sweetness of Ordinances are abated by the very trouble of our Attendance When we are put to it as Abraham was to be still driving away those Fowls that come down upon our Sacrifice the very toil will eat out and eclipse much of the comfort Thus also he at least provides matter to object against the sincerity of the Servants of God and will assurly find a time to set it home upon them to the purpose that their hearts were wandring in their Services Thus he further gets advantage for a temptation to leave off their Duty and will not cease to improve such distractions as we have heard to an utter overthrow of their Services Nay if he prevail to give us such distractions as wholly takes away our minds and serious attentions from the Service then is the service become nothing worth though the outward circumstances of attendance be never so exact and Saint-like Who could appear in a more religious dress than those in Ezek. 33. 31. who came and sate and were pleased with Divine Services as to all outward discovery as Gods People yet was all spoiled with this that their hearts were after their Covetousness Now this Distraction Satan can work two wayes First By outward Disturbances He can present Objects to the Eyes on purpose to entice our thoughts after them The closing of the Eyes in Prayer is used by some of the Servants of God to prevent Satan's Temptations this way And we find in the Story of Mr. Rothwel that the Devil took notice of this in him That he shut his eyes to avoid distraction in prayer Which implies a Concession in the Devil that by outward Objects he useth to endeavour our distraction in Services The like he doth by noises and sounds Neither can we discover how much of these Disturbances by Coughings Hemmings Tramplings c. which we hear in greater Assemblies are from Satan by stirring up others to such noises We are sure the Damsel that had an unclean Spirit Act. 16. that grieved and troubled Paul going about these Duties with her Clamours was set on by that Spirit within her to distract and call off their thoughts from the Services which they were about to undertake Besides the common ways of giving trouble to the Servants of God in outward Disturbances he sometimes though rarely doth it in an extraordinary manner thus he endeavoured to hinder Mr. Rothwel from praying for a Possessed Person by rage and blaspheming The like hinderance we read he gave Luther and others and truly so strict an attendance in the exercise of our Minds spiritual Sences and Graces is required in matters of Worship and so weak are our hearts in making a resistance or beating off these assaults that a very smal matter will discompose us and a smaller discomposure will prejudice and blemish the Duty Secondly He distracts or disturbs us also by inward Workings and injections of Motions and representations of things to our Minds and as this is his most general and usual way so doth he make use of greater variety of contrivance and art in it As First By the troublesome impetuousness and violence of his Injections they come upon us as thick as Hail No sooner do we put by one Motion but another is in upon us he hath his Quiver full of these Arrows and our hearts under any Service swarm with them we are incessantly infested by them and have no rest At other times when we are upon worldly business we may observe a great ease and freedom in our thoughts neither doth he so much press upon us but in these Satan is continually knocking at our door and calling to us so that it is a great hazard that some or other of these Injections may stick upon our thoughts and lead us out of the way or if they do not yet 't is a great molestation or toil to us Secondly He can so order his dealings with us that he provokes us sometimes to follow him out of the Camp and seeks to ensnare us by improving our own spiritual resolution and hatred against him even as courage whetted on and enraged makes a Man ventersome beyond the due bounds of prudence or safety To this end he sometimes casts into our thoughts hideous Blasphemous and Atheistical suggestions which do not only amaze us but oftentimes engage us to dispute against them which at such time is all he seeks for for whereas in such cases we should send away such thoughts with a short Answer Get thee behind me Satan We by taking up the Buckler and Sword against them are drawn off from minding our present Duty Thirdly He doth sometimes seek to allure and draw our thoughts to the Object by representing what is pleasant and taking 1 He will adventure to suggest good things impertinently and unseasonably as when he puts us upon Praying while we should be Hearing or while we are Praying he puts into our hearts things that we have heard in Preaching these things because good in themselves we are not so apt to startle at but give them a more quick welcome 2 He also can allure our thoughts by the strangeness of the things suggested sometimes we shall have hints of things which we knew not before or some fine and excellent notions so that
frightful thoughts about it so that we judg of it according to our fears and make it frightful to our selves as if it would be to no purpose rather a mischief than an advantage 2. Sometime our satisfaction ariseth from some special token of Favour which our indulgent Father le ts fall upon us while we are in his work As when he gives us more than ordinary assistance or puts Joy and Comfort into our Hearts And this he often doth to make us come again and to engage afresh in the same or other services as having tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious and that there is a blessedness in waiting for him As in our Bodies he so orders it that the concocted juices become a successive Ferment to those that succeed from our daily Meat and Drink So from Duties performed doth he beget and continue Spiritual Appetite to new undertakings But O how sadly is all this hindered by the disquiet of the Heart The Graces of Faith and Love are usually obstructed if not in their Exercise yet in their delightful Fruits and if God offer a kindness inward sorrow hinders the perception As when Moses told the Israelites of their deliverance they hearkned not for hard bondage If a message of Peace present it self in a Promise or some consideration of Gods merciful disposition yet usually this is not credited Job confesseth so much of himself Job 19. 16. If I had called and he had answered me yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my Voice David also doth the like Psal 77. 2 3. My Soul refuseth to be comforted I remember God and was troubled Matter of greatest comfort is often so far from giving ease that it augments the trouble However the Heart is so hurried with its fears and discomposed with grief that it cannot hearken to nor consider nor believe any kind offer made to it By all these ways doth the Devil through the disquiet of Mind unfit the Lord's People for Duty and what a sad advantage this is against us cannot easily be told By this means he may widen the distance betwixt God and us keep our Wounds open make us a reproach to Religion And what not But 3. By these disquiets he pusheth us on to reject all duties for when he hath tyred us out by wearisom endeavours under so great indispositions and unfitness he hath a fair advantage to tempt us to lay all aside Our present posture doth furnish him with arguments he forgeth his Javelings upon our Anvil and they are commonly these three 1. That duties are difficult And this is easily proved from our own experience while we are broken or bowed down with sorrows we make many attempts for duty and are oft beat off with loss our greatest toil helps us but to very inconsiderable performances hence he infers 'T is foolishness to attempt that which is above our strength better sit still then toil for nothing 2. That they are unfruitful and this is our own complaint for troubled Spirits have commonly great expectations from duties at first and they run to them as the impotent and sick people to the Pool of Bethesda with thoughts of immediate ease as soon as they shall step into them but when they have tryed and waited a while siretching themselves upon duty as Elisha's Servant laid the Staff upon the Face of the Shunamites Son and yet there is no voice nor hearing no answer from God no peace then are they presently disatisfied reflecting on the Promises of God and the Counsels of good Men with this Where is all the pleasantness you speak of what advantage is it that we have thus run and laboured when we have got nothing and then 't is easy for the Devil to add And why do you wait on the Lord any longer 3. His last and most dangerous argument is that they are sinful Unfitness for Duty produceth many distractions much deadness wandering thoughts great interruptions and pittiful performances Hence the troubled Soul comes off from duty wounded and halting more distressed when he hath done than when he began upon these considerations that all his service was sin a mocking of God a taking his name in vain nay a very blasphemous affront to a divine Majesty Upon this the Devil starts the question to his Heart whether it be not better to forbear all Duty and to do nothing Thus doth Satan improve the trouble of the mind and often with the designed success For a dejected Spirit doth not only afford the materials of these Weapons which the Devil frames against it but is much prepared to receive them into its own Bowels The grounds of these Arguments it grants and the inferences are commonly consented to so that ordinarily duty is neglected either 1. Through sottishness of Heart or 2. Through frightful fears Or 3. Through desperateness bringing a Man to the very precipice of that Atheistical determination I have cleansed my hands in vain 4. Satan makes use of the troubles of Gods Children as a stumbling-block to others 'T is no small advantage to him that he hath hereby an occasion to render the ways of God unlovely to those that are beginning to look Heaven-ward he sets before them the Sighs Groans Complaints and restless Out-cries of the wounded in Spirit to scare them off from all seriousness in Religion and whispers this to them Will you chuse a Life of Bitterness and Sorrow can you eat Ashes for Bread and mingle your Drink with Tears will you exchange the comforts and contents of Life for a melancholly Heart and a dejected countenance how like you to go Mourning all the day and at night to be scared with Dreams and terrified with Visions will you chuse a Life that is worse than Death and a condition which will make you a terrour to your selves and a burthen to others can you be in love with an heart loaden with grief and perpetual fears almost to distraction while you see others in the mean time enjoy themselves in a contented peace Thus he follows young beginners with his suggestions making them believe that they cannot be serious in Religion but at last they will be brought to this and that 't is a very dangerous thing to be religious overmuch and the high way to dispair So that if they must have a Religion he readily directs them to use no more of it than may consist with the pleasures of Sin and the World and to make an easy business of it not to let Sin lye over-near their Heart lest it disquiet them nor over-much to concern themselves with Study Reading Prayer or hearing of threatning awakening Sermons lest it make them Mad nor to affect the sublimities of Communion with God exercises of Faith and Divine Love lest it discompose them and dash their worldly Jollities out of Countenance A Counsel that is readily enough embraced by those that are almost perswaded to be Christians and the more to confirm them in it he
in time bring on spiritual troubles for if our Comforts be once lost Trouble of Conscience easily follows Where there is nothing to fortify the Heart the poyson of malicious suggestions will unavoidably prevail 2. Discomposures of Soul afford the Devil fit matter to work upon They furnish him with strong objections against sincerity of Holiness by which the peace of Conscience being strongly assaulted is at last overthrown The usual Weapons by which Satan fights against the assurance of Gods Children are the guilt of sins committed and the neglect of Duty and the disturbed Soul affords enough of both these to make a Charge against it self For 1. Where there is much Discomposure there is much Sin If in the multitude of words there wants not Iniquity then much more in the multitude of unruly thoughts A disturbed Spirit is like troubled Water all the Mud that lay at the bottom is raised up and mixeth it self with the Thoughts If any injury or loss do trouble the Mind all the Thoughts are tinctured with Anger Pride Impatience or whatsoever root of bitterness was in the Heart before we view them not singly as the issue of wise Providence but ordinarily we consider them as done by such Instruments and against our selves as malicious spiteful causless ingrateful wrongs and then we give too great a liberty to our selves to rage to meditate revenge to threaten to reproach and what not and if our Disposition have not so strong a natural inclination to these Distempers yet the Thoughts by discomposure are quickly leavened it is the comparison used by the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 8. to express the power of Malice which is an usual attendant in this service to infect all the Imaginations with a sharpness which makes them swell into exorbitancy and excess hence proceed Revilings Quarrelings c. When the Tongue is thus fermented it is a Fire a World of Iniquity producing more sins than can be reckoned it defileth the whole Body engaging all the faculties in heady pursuit Jam. 3. 6. 2. Discomposures obstruct Duties This is the inconvenience which the Apostle 1 Pet. 3. 7. tells us doth arise from disturbances among Relations if the Wife or Husband do not carry well so that discontents or differences arise their Prayers are hindered Duties then are obstructed 1. In the Act. When the Heart is out of frame Prayer is out of season and there is an aversness to it partly because all good things are in such confusions burthensome to the Humor that then prevails which eats out all desire and delight to spiritual things and partly because they dare not come into Gods presence conscience of their own guilt and awe of God hindring such approaches 2. They obstruct the right manner of Performance straitning the Heart and contracting the Spirit that if any thing be attempted 't is poorly and weakly performed 3. And also the success of Duty is obstructed by discomposure God will not accept such Services and therefore Christ adviseth to leave the Gift before the Altar though ready for offering where the Spirit is overcharged with Offences or angry Thoughts and first to go and be reconciled to our Brother and then to come and offer the Gift it being lost labour to do it before From these sins of Omission and Commission Satan can and often doth frame a dreadful charge against those that are thus concern'd endeavouring to prove by these evidences that they are yet notwithstanding pretence of Conversion in the gall of Bitterness and bond of Iniquity whereby the peace of Conscience is much shaken and the more because also 3. These discomposures of Soul give Satan a fit season for the management of his Accusation Strong Accusations do often effect nothing when the season is unsutable Many a time he hath as much to say against the Comforts of Men when yet they shake all off as Paul did the Viper off his hand and fell no harm But that which prepares the Conscience to receive the Indictment is a particular disposition which it is wrought into by suspicious credulity and fearfulness These make the Heart as Wax to the Seal ready to take any impression that Satan will stamp upon it Now by long disturbances he works the Heart into this Mould very often and upon a double account he gains himself a fit opportunity to charge home his exceptions 1. In that he sets upon the Conscience with his Accusations after the Heart hath been long molested and confused with its other Troubles for then the Heart is weakned and unable to make resistance as at other times An Assault with a fresh Party after a long conflict disorders its Forces and puts all to flight 2. In that long and great discomposures of Mind bring on a distemper of Melancholy for 't is notoriously known by common experience that those acid Humors producing this distemper which have their rise from the Blood may be occasioned by their violent Passions of Mind the Animal Spirits becoming inordinate by long discomposures of Sadness Envy Terrour and fretful Cares and the motion of the Blood being retarded it by degrees departs from its temperament and is infected with an acidity so that Persons no way inclined naturally to Melancholy may yet become so by the disquiets of their troubled Mind Both these ways but chiefly Melancholy the Devil hath his advantage for disturbing the Conscience Melancholy most naturally inclines Men to be solicitous for their Souls welfare but withall disposeth them so strongly to suspect the worst for 't is a credulous suspitious humour in things hurtful and afflicts so heavily with sadness for what it doth respect that when Satan lays before Men of that humour their Miscarriages under their discontents their Impatience Unthankfulness Anger rash Thoughts and Speeches against God or Men c. withall suggesting that such an Heart cannot be right with God after serious thoughts upon Satan's frequently repeated Charge they cry out Guilty guilty and then begins a new trouble for their Unregenerate Estate and their supposed lost Souls 4. In this case usually Satan hath greater liberty to accuse and by his Accusations to molest the Conscience in that Men of discomposed Spirits by the manifold evils arising thence provoke God to desert them and to leave them in Satans hand to be brought into an hour of Temptation Satan's Commission is occasioned by our Provocations and the Temptations arising from such a Commission are usually dreadful they are solemn Temptations and called so after a singular manner for of these I take those Scriptures to be meant Watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation Mat. 26. 41. And lead us not into Temptation Mat. 6. 13. Such Temptations are not common Temptations and are of unknown force and hazard to the Soul which way soever they are designed either for Sin or Terror For several things do concur in a solemn Temptation As 1. Satan doth in a special manner challenge a Man to the Combate or rather
will not answer such a description of a Convert or gracious Heart as these false Notions will make So long then as they hold these Notions they have no relief against Satan's Conclusions no comfort can be administred till they be convinced that they have embraced Mistakes for Truths And how difficult that will be in this case where the confidence of the Notion is great and the suspition strong that the defect is only in the Heart hath been determined by frequent experience already 3. The third piece of Satan's Sophistry from whence he raiseth false Conclusions is his misrepresentation of God In this he directly crosseth the design of the Scriptures where God in his Nature and Dealings is so set forth that the Weakest the most Afflicted and Tossed may receive incouragement of Acceptance and of his Fatherly Care over them in their saddest Tryals Yet withal lest Men should turn his Grace into Wantonness and embolden themselves in sin because of his Clemency the Scriptures sometimes give us lively descriptions of his Anger against those that wickedly presume upon his Goodness and continue so to do Both these Descriptions of God should be taken together as affording the only true Representation of him He is so gentle to the humbled sensible Sinner that He will not break their bruised Reed nor quench their smoking Flax. And so careful of Health that for their recovery he will not leave them altogether unpunished nor suffer them to ruine themselves by a Surfeit upon worldly Comforts yet with the froward he will shew himself froward Psal 18. 26. And As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of Iniquity Psal 125. 5. He will put out the Candle of the wicked for he sets them in slippery places So that they are cast down into Destruction and brought into Desolation as in a moment they are consumed with Terrours Now Satan will sometimes argue against the Children of God and endeavour to break their hopes by turning that part of the Description of God against them which is intended for the dismounting of the confidence of the Wicked and the bringing down of high looks By this means he wrests the Description of God to a contrary end and misrepresents God to a trembling afflicted Soul This he doth 1. By misrepresenting his Nature Here he reads a solemn Lecture of the Holiness and Justice of God but always with reflection upon the vileness and unworthiness of the Person against whom he intends his Dart. And thus he Argues Lift up thine eyes to the Heavens behold the brightness of God's Glory Consider his unspotted Holiness his infinite Justice The Heavens are not clean in his sight how much more abominable and filthy then art thou His Eyes are pure he cannot wink at nor approve of the least sin How canst thou then imagine except thou be intolerably impudent that he hath taken such an unclean wretch into his favour He is a jealous God and will by no means acquit the guilty Canst thou then with any shew of reason conclude thy self to be his Child He beholds the wicked afar off he shuts out their Prayer he laughs at their Calamity he mocks when their Fear comes and therefore thou hast no cause to think that he will hearthy cry though thou shouldest make many Prayers It cannot be supposed that he will incline his Ear. 'T is his express Determination that if any Man regard iniquity in his Heart the Lord will not hear his Prayer This and a great deal more will he say And while Satan speaks but at this rate we may call him modest because his Allegations are in themselves true if they were aplied rightly Sometimes he will go further and plainly belye God speaking incredible falshoods of him but because these properly appertain to an higher sort of Troubles of which I am next to speak I shall not hear mention them However if he stops here he saith enough against any Servant of God that carries an high sense of his unworthiness For being thus brought to the view of these astonishing Attributes he is dashed out of Countenance and can think no other but that 't is very unlikely that so unworthy a Sinner should have any interest in so Holy a God Thus the Devil affrights him off turning the wrong side of the Description of God to him and in the mean time hiding that part of it that speaks God's wonderful Condescensions infifinite Compassions unspeakable readiness to accept the humble broken-hearted Weary heavy-laden Sinner that is prostrate at his Foot-stool for Pardon All which are on purpose declared in the Description of God's Nature to obviate this Temptation and to encourage the Weak 2. He misrepresents God in his Providence If God chastise his Children by any Affliction Satan perversly wrests it to a bad Construction especially if the Affliction be sharp or seem to be above their strength or frequent and most of all if it seem to cross their Hopes and Prayers for then he argues These are not the chastisements of Sons God indeed will visit their Transgressions with Rods but his dealing with thee is plainly of another nature for he breaketh thee with his Tempests And whereas he corrects his Sons that serve him in measure thou art bowed down with thy trouble to distress and dispair but he will lay no more upon his Sons than they are able to bear he will not always chide his Servants but thou art afflicted every Morning And besides if thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy Righteousness prosperous for to his Sons he saith Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifyme Psal 50. 15. Hence comes the complaint of many that they are not regenerated because they think God deals not with them as with others Oh! say they we know God chastiseth every Son whom he receiveth but our case is every way different from theirs our troubles are Plagues not Rods our cry is not heard our Prayers disregarded our strength faileth us our Hearts fret against the Lord so that not only the nature and quality of our Affections but the frame of our heart under them in not enduring the burthen which is the great Character of the chastisement of Sons Heb. 12. 7. plainly evinceth that we are under Gods hatred and are not his Children This Objection though it might seem easy to be answered by those that are not at present concerned yet it will prove a difficult business to those that are under the smart of Afflictions How much a holy and wise Man may be gravellâ—d by it you may see in Psal 73. where the Prophet is put to a grievous plunge upon this very objection ver 14. all the day long have I been plagued and chastised every Morning And yet in all this Satan doth but play the Sophister working upon the advantages which
and from thence he draweth out Arguments against them In the former case of Spiritual Troubles he misrepresents God in that he represents only some Attributes of his not only distinct from but in opposition to others by which he labours to conceal the sweet and beautiful Harmony that is among them and also to make one Attribute an Argument against the comfortable supporting Considerations which another would afford He insists upon God's Justice without respect of Mercy upon his Holiness without any regard of his Gracious Condescentions to the Infirmities of the Weak But when it is his business to bring any under Spiritual Distresses he then misrepresents God at an higher rate and sticks not to asperse him with abominable Falshoods There are two Lies which he commonly urgeth at this time 1. He represents God as a Cruel Tyrant of a rigorous unmerciful Disposition that delights himself in the Ruine and Misery of Men. To this purpose he rakes together the harshest passages of the Scripture that speak of God's just Severity against the wilful obstinate Sinners that stubbornly contemn his offers of Grace God indeed hath cleared himself of this Aspersion by Solemn Oath Ezek. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Yet the Tempted will sooner believe Satan's Suggestion than God's Oath partly because the sense of their Vileness doth secretly sway them to think there is Reason that he should be so partly because their Fears incline them to suspect the worst and partly the uneasie â—ossings of their Mind long continued reviveth the natural frowardness of the spirit against God Which how apt it is when fretted with Vexation to entertain harsh thoughts of God May be seen in the answer of the slothful Servant to his Lord who returned his Talent back again unimproved with a Reflection Importing that his Master was such as none could please so Severe that he was discouraged from making any attempt of serving him acceptably Mat. 25. 24. He said Lord I know thee that thou art an hard Manâ— reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed 2. He belies God further by representing him as designing the Ruine and Misery of the Tempted Person in particular He would make him believe that God had a particular spleen as it were against him above other Men and that in all his dealings with or concerning him he is but as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lyon in secret places ready to take any advantage to cut him off And accordingly he gives no other Interpretation of all the Ways of God but such as make them look like Tokens of finall Rejection of those that are concerned in them If there be upon them outward Afflictions he tells them these are but the Forerunners of Hell If they lie under inward sense of Wrath he calls that the First-fruits of everlasting Vengeance If any particular Threatning be impressed upon their Consciences by the Spirit of God in order to their Humiliation and Repentance he represents it as God's final Sentence and absolute Determination against them If for Caution God see it fit to set before them the Examples of his Wrath as it is very frequent for him to do lest we should fall after the same example of Vnbelief 1 Pet. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 6. Satan perverts this to that which God never intended for he boldly asserts that these Examples prognosticate their Misery and that God signifies by them a Prediction of certain unavoidable Unhappiness This must be observed here That these misrepresentations of God are none of Satan's primary Arguments he useth them only as fresh Reserves to second others For where he finds any Wing of his Batalions ready to be beaten he comes up with these Supplies to relieve them For indeed these Considerations of God's Severity in the General or of his special Resolve against any in Particular are not of force sufficient to Attaque a Soul that is within the Trenches of present Peace they are not of themselves proper Mediums to produce such a Conclusion Though we suppose God severe except we should imagine him to be an hater of Mankind universally we cannot thence infer the final Ruine of this or that individual Person And besides that these are unjustifiable Falshoods they cannot make the final Damnation of any one so much as probable till the Heart be first weakned in its hopes by Fears or Doubtings raised up in it upon other Grounds Then indeed Men are staggered either by the deep sense of their Unworthiness or some sad continuing Calamity and the seeming neglect of their Prayers If Satan then tell them of God's Severity or that all his Providences considered he hath set them up as a Mark for the Arrows of his Indignation they are ready to believe his Report it being so suitable to their present sence and feeling 3. Satan also fetcheth Arguments from the Sins of God's Children but his great Art in this is by unjust aggravations to make them look like those Offences which by special exception in Scripture are excluded from Pardon The Apostle 1 John 5. 16. tells us of a Sin that is unto Death that is a sin which if a Man commits he cannot escape Eternal Death and therefore he would not have such a Sinner prayed for That the Popish distinction of Venial and Mortal Sins is not here intended some of the Papists themselves do confess What he means by that sin he doth not tell us it being a thing known sufficiently from other Scriptures The note of unpardonableness is indeed affixed to sins under several Denominations the sin against the Holy Ghost Christ pronounceth unpardonable Mat. 12 31. Total Apostacy from the Truth of the Gospel hath no less said of it by the Apostle when he calls it a drawing back to Perdition Heb. 10. 39. Whether these be all one or whether there is any other Species of sin irremissible besides that against the Holy Ghost 't is not to our purpose to make enquiry What-ever they are in themselves Satan in this matter makes use of the Texts that speak of them distinctly as we shall presently see But besides these the Scriptures speak of some that were given up to vile Affections and to a reprobate Mind Rom. 1. 26 28. And of others that were given up to hardness of Heart Mat. 13. 14. Acts 28. 26. Now whosoever they are of whom these things may be justly affirmed they are certainly miserable hopeless Wretches Here then is Satans cunning if he can make any Child of God believe that he hath done any such Act or Acts of Sin as may bring him within the compass of these Scriptures then he insults over them and tells them over and over again that they are cut off for ever To this purpose he aggravates all their sins And 1. If he find them guilty of any great Iniquity
well pleased Immediately after this was he carried to the place of Combate Hence we may infer That our entring upon a special Service for God or receiving a special Favour from God are two Solemn Seasons which Satan makes use of for Temptation Often these two Seasons meet together in the same Person at the same time Paul after his rapture into the third Heaven which as some conceive was also upon his entrance upon the Ministry was buffeted by the Messenger of Satan Sometime these two Seasons are severed yet still it may be observed that the Devil watcheth them When any Servant of God is to engage in any particular employment he will be upon him He Assaulted Moses by persecution when he was first called to deliver Israel As soon as David was Anointed immediately doth he enrage the Minds of Saul and his Courtiers against him It was so ordinary with Luther that he at last came to this that before any Eminent Service he constantly expected either a fit of Sickness or the buffetings of Satan He is no less sedulous in giving his Assaults when any Child of God hath been under peculiar Favours or Enjoyments The Church after an high entertainment with Christ is presently overcome by a careless sleepy indisposition Though this may seem strange yet the harshness of such a Providence on God's part and the boldness of the attempt on Satan's part may be much taken off by the consideration of the reasons hereof First On Satan's part It is no great wonder to see such an undertaking when we consider his Fury and Malice The more we receive from God and the more we are to do for him the more doth he malign us So much the more as God is Good by so much is his Eye Evil. Secondly There are in such cases as these several advantages which through our weakness and imperfection we are too apt to give him and for these he lieth at the catch As first Security We are apt to grow proud careless and confident after or upon such Employments and Favours even as men are apt to sleep or surfeit upon a full Meal or to forget themselves when they are advanced to Honour Job's great Peace and Plenty made him as he confesseth so confident that he concluded he should die in his Nest David enjoying the Favour of God in a more than ordinary measure though he was more acquainted with vicissitudes and changes than most of men grows secure in this apprehension that he should never be moved but he acknowledgeth his mistake and leaves it upon Record as an Experience necessary for others to take warning by that when he became warm under the Beams of God's Countenance then he was apt to fall into Security And this it seems was usual with him in all such cases when he was most secure he was nearest some trouble or disquiet Thou didst hide thy Face and then to be sure the Devil will shew his and I was troubled Enjoyments beget Confidence Confidence brings forth Carelesness Carelesness makes God withdraw and gives opportunity to Satan to work unseen And thus as Armies after Victory growing secure are oft surprized So are we oft after our Spiritual Advancements thrown down Secondly Discouragement and tergiversation is another thing the Devil watcheth for By his Assaults he represents the Duty difficult tedious dangerous or impossible on purpose to discourage us and to make us fall back No sooner doth Paul engage in the Gospel than the Devil is upon him suggesting such hazards as he knew were most prevalent with our frail natures if he had not been aware of him and refused to hearken to what Flesh and Blood would have said in the Case When God honoured Moses with the high Employment of delivering Israel the hazard and danger of the work was so strongly fixed upon his thoughts that he makes many excuses one while pleading his Inability and Insufficiency Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh Another while he urgeth Israels unbelief and a seeming Impossibility to satisfy them of his Commission After that he deviseth another shift I am not Eloquent in the 10th verse And when all these subterfuges were removed Satan had so affrighted him with the trouble and difficulty of this undertaking that he attempts to break away from his duty ver 13. Send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send That is spare me and send another and till the anger and displeasure of God was manifested against him he submitted not In Jonah the Temptation went higher He upon the apprehensions mentioned ran away from his Service and puts God to convince him by an extraordinary punishment And when Satan prevails not so far as wholly to deter men by such onsets yet at least he doth dishearten and discourage them So that the work loseth much of that Glory Excellency and Exactness which a ready and chearful undertaking would put upon it Thirdly The Fall or miscarriage of the Saints at such times is of more than ordinary disadvantage not only to others for if they can be prevailed with to lay aside their work or to neglect the Improvement of their Favours others are deprived of the benefit and help that might be expected from them but also to themselves A prevailing Temptation doth more than ordinarily prejudice them at such times The greatness of the disappointment under special Service the unworthy neglect and unanswerableness to special Favours are Extraordinary Provocations and produce more than ordinary Chastisments as we see in Jonah's Affliction and the Spouses desertion Secondly As we have seen the reason of Satan's Keenness in taking those Opportunities So may we consider the reasons of God's Permission which are these First Temptations at such Seasons are permitted for more eminent tryal of the upright On this account was Job tempted Secondly For an increase of diligence humility and watchfulness If these Priviledges and Mercies will not discourage Satan what will And if Satan so openly malign such Enjoyments we may be awakened to hold them faster and set a double Guard upon them Thirdly For a plentiful Furniture of Experience Temptation is the Shop of Experience Luther was so great a gainer by this that he became able so to speak to the Consciences and Conditions of his hearers that the thoughts of their hearts were manifested by his speaking as if he had had an Intilligencer in their own Bosoms Hence did he commend Prayer Meditation and Temptation as necessary requisites for the accomplishment of a Minister This may administer matter of Counsel to us in both cases aforementioned If we be put upon eminent Employments or receive eminent Favours First We must not be so secure as to think Satan will be asleep that while or that we are beyond danger While we are receiving Kindnesses he is devising Plots and laying Snares With Priviledges and Mercies expect Exercises and Hazards Secondly in particular We may receive something
means of Temptation to qualify him with pity and power to help For in that he suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2. 18. And having Experience of Temptation himself be became a merciful High-Priest apt to be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities Fourthly The Consequence of this experimental compassion in Christ was a further reason why he submitted to be tempted to wit that we might have the greater comfort and encouragement in the expectancy of tender dealing from him Hence the Apostle Heb. 4. 16. invites to come boldly to the Throne of Grace at any time of need Fifthly A further end God seemed to have in this viz. To give a signal and remarkable Instance to us of the nature of Temptations of Satan's Subtilty his Impudency of the usual Temptations which we may expect as also to teach us what Weapons are necessary for resistance and in what manner we must manage them Secondly It seems as strange that Satan would undertake a thing so unfeasible and hopeless as the tempting of Christ What expectation could he have to prevail against him who was Anointed with the Oyl of Gladness above his Fellows Some Answer First That Satan might possibly doubt whether Christ were the Son of God or no. But the Improbability of this I shall speak of afterwards Secondly Others attribute it to his Malice which indeed is great and might possibly blind him to a desperate undertaking But Thirdly We may justly apprehend the power of Sin over Satan to be so great that it might enforce him to the bold attempt of such a wickedness We see daily that wicked men by the force of their own wicked Principles are restlesly hurried upon Acts of Sin though they know the Prohibition and are not ignorant of the threatned Danger Satan is as great a Slave to his own internal corrupt Principles as any And whatsoever blind fury is stirred up in Man by the power of his lust we may very well suppose the like in Satan Fourthly There is a Superior hand upon the Devil that Sways Limits and Orders him in his Temptations He cannot tempt when he would neither always what he would but in his own cursed inclinations and the acting of them he is forced to be subservient to God's Designs And in this particular whatever might be Satan's proper End or Principle it is evident that God carried on a Gracious Design for the Instruction and Comfort of his Children The End of Christ's going to the Wilderness being that he might be tempted if together with this the Holiness and Dignity of Christ in respect of his Person and Office be considered we may note from it That neither height of Priviledg nor Eminency of Employment nor Holiness of Person will discourage Satan from Tempting or secure any from his Assaults The best of men in the highest attainments may expect Temptations Grace it self doth not exempt them For first None of these Priviledges in us nor Eminencies of Grace want matter to fix a Temptation upon The weaknesses of the best of Men are such that a Temptation is not rendred improbable as to the Success by their Graces Nay there are specil Occasions and Inclinations in them to encourage Temptations of Pride and Neglect He found indeed nothing in Christ that might offer the least probability of prevalency but in the Best of Men in their best Estate he can find some encouragement for his attempts Secondly None of us are beyond the necessity of such Exercises It cannot be said that we need them not or that there may not be holy ends wherefore God should not permit and order them for our Good Temptations as they are in God's disposal are a necessary spiritual Physick the design of them is to humble us to prove us and to do us good in the latter End Nothing will work more of Care Watchfulness Diligence and Fear in a Gracious Heart than a sence of Satan's designment against it Nothing puts a man more to Prayer breathing after God desiring to be dissolved and running to Christ than the troublesome and afflictive pursuits of Satan Nothing brings men more from the love of the World and to a delight in the Ordinances of God than the trouble which here abides them unavoidably from Satan This discipline the best have need of There are such remainders of Pride and other Evils in them that if God should not permit these Pricks and Thornes to humble them and thereby also awaken them to laborious watchfulness they would be careless secure and sadly declining This made Augustine conclude that it was no way expedient that we should want Temptations and that Christ taught us as much when he directed us not to pray that we should not be tempted but that we might not be led into the Power and Prevalency of Temptation Thirdly The Priviledges and Graces of the Children of God do stir up Satan's Pride Revenge and Rage against them And though he hath no encouragement to expect so easy a Conquest over these as he hath over others who are captivated by him at pleasure Yet hath he encouragements to attempt them for the singular Vse and Advantage he makes of any success against them the difficulty of the work being recompenced by the greatness of the booty For the fall of a Child of God especially of such as are noted above others is as when a Standard-bearer fainteth or as the fall of an Oak that bears down with it the lower Shrubs that stand near it How the hearts of others fail for fear lest they should also be overcome How the Hearts of some grow thereby bold and venturesome How a general disgrace and discredit thereby doth accrue to Religion and the sincere Profession of it are things of usual Observation If such Men had not in them something of special Prey in case of Conquest his Pride would not so readily carry him against the heads and chief of the People while he seems to overlook the meaner and weaker Out-Houses though more accessible are not the Objects of the Thief 's Design but the Dwelling-House though stronger Built and better Guarded because it affords hopes of richer Spoil is usually assaulted Neither do Pirates so much set themselves to take Empty Vessels though weakly Manned but richly loaden Ships though better able to make resistance are the Ships of their desire First This may be applyed for the Encouraging of those that think it strange that Temptations do so haunt them Especially that they should in their apprehension be more troubled by him when they fly furthest from him The consideration of this will much allay these thoughts by these Inferences which it affords First There is nothing unusual befalls these Complainants Satan frequently doth so to others they cannot justly say their case is Singular or that they are alone in such disturbances It is but what is Common to Man If they urge the uncessantness of
the Old Testament stiled Sons of Belial a name very significant shewing either their devoting of themselves to the Devils Service in that they reject the Yoke of God's Law in that they break his Bonds and cast his Cords from them or their Pride that they will have none above them not considering that there is a God or that the most High rules or their aversness to what is good being wholly unprofitable and to every good work reprobate Secondly Some are secretly his Servants they come to the Devil as Nicodemus did to Christ by Night they will not openly profess him but yet their hearts are wholly his such are called by the name of Hypocrites The Pharisees and Scribes seemed to declare for God called themselves Abrahams Seed Fasted gave Alms made long Prayers and yet were a Generation of Vipers and of their Father the Devil The secresy of this underhand engagement to Hell is such that many who are in a league with the Devil and at an agreement with Death do neither know nor believe it concerning themselves For First This private Covenant may be where there are the greatest seeming desilements of Satan and high Professions of Service to God The Pharisees as have been said were the Devils Servants under all the fair shew they made of Religion and zeal for the Law and yet when Christ plainly told them that they were not Abrahams Seed but the Devils Seed they with high indignation and scorn throw back the accusation to Christ Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil we are Abraham's Children so little believed they the truth when it was told them Secondly This may consist with some designement and intention to give God Glory The Jews though they submitted not to the Righteousness of God yet by the Testimony of Paul they had a Zeal to God The very Heathens that sacrifice to Devils had not formal intentions so to do as appears by their inscription on the Altar at Athens Acts 17. 23. To the unknown God The true God though unknown they propounded as the Object of their Worship yet falling into those ways of devotion which the Devil had prescribed these intentions could not hinder but that they became his Servants Thirdly Men may be Servants to Satan under great assurances and confidences of their Interest in God many go to Hell that have lived with Lord Lord in their Mouths those mentioned in Esa 48. 2. that had no interest in Truth and Righteousness when they solemnly sware by the name of the Lord yet they called themselves of the Holy City and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel If it seem strange to any that these Professions Intentions and Confidences are not enough to secure Men from this charge but that they may be secretly Slaves to Hell I Answer First That those do not necessarily conclude that the Heart of such Men is right with God Formality natural Conscience and the power of Education may do much of this for though we grant that such are not conscious to themselves of any real design of serving Satan yet they may either so far miss it in the way of their Service offering that as well pleasing to God which indeed he hates and that through wilful and affected Ignorance as those of whom Christ speaks Joh. 16. 2. that should think the killing of God's Children a peice of acceptable Service Or they may be so mistaken as to the Sincerity of their Hearts that they may think they have a design to please God in doing of what he requires in order thereunto when indeed it may not be singly for God but for themselves that they work in a self-gratification of their natural Zeal for their way or their Esteem Credit and Advantage may privately influence them rather than a Spirit of Life and Power Secondly The work which they do and the Ends they serve will be evidence against professions and intentions 'T is a sure rule that the work shews to whom Men are related as Servants and it is laid down as a certain Standard to measure the Hearts of Men by when pretences and perswasions seem to carry all before them Rom. 6. 16. His Servants ye are to whom you obey 1 Joh. 3. 8 10. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil that is when it becomes a question to whom a Man belongs whose Child and Servant he is it must be determined by the works he doth if he engage in the ways of Sin he is of the Devil let him profess what he will to the contrary This same Ballance Christ useth to try the truth of the Jews pretences to God Joh. 8. 34. Whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin they boasted high but he shews them that seeing their designs and works were Hatred Envy Murther c. which are apparently from Satan it was evident they had learned these of him and he concludes by this proof ver 44. that they were of their Father the Devil Thus may we say of those that pretend they honour God they defie the Devil they intend well if yet they give themselves up to the pleasing of the Flesh if worldly minded if they live in Pride Strife Envy Maliciousness c. which are works of the Devil it is not all their pretences that will intitle them to God but they are for all this the Devils Servants as doing his works This may put Men upon enquiries who are ye for whose Servants are ye There are but two that can lay claim to you and these two divide the whole World betwixt them there is no state of Neutrality you are either God's Servants or the Devils ye cannot serve them both now if the Lord be God serve him Satan's Service is Base Dishonourable Slavish the Service of God Freedom Honour Life and Peace there is indeed no comparison betwixt them Happy then is that Man that can say the Lord is his Lot and Portion that can come into God's Presence and there in his Integrity avouch the Lord for his God that can stand upon it My Soul hath said unto the Lord thou art my God and I have none besides thee other Lords have had dominion over us but we will make mention of thy Name only This Temptation though it were in it self horrid and as a Brood of Vipers knotted together which at once could send out several stings and make many wounds as hath been noted yet in the way of propounding Satan seems to insinuate the largeness of his proffer and the smalness and inconsiderableness of the Service required as if he should say See how free I am in my Kindness I will not stick to give thee the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them and all this for so small a matter as bowing before me or doing me a little Reverence This gives us to Observe That when Satan doth design no less