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
truculent temper whose power being put forth from such an implacable malice must needs become rage and fierceness Fourthly His Diligence which together with his Cruelty are consequences of his Malice and Power he goes about and seeks he is restless in his pursuit and diligent as one that promiseth himself a satisfaction or joyful contentment in his Conquests CHAP. II. Of the Malice of Satan in particular The Grounds and Causes of that Malice The Greatness of it proved and Instances of that Greatness given I Shall first give some account of his Malice by which it shall appear we do not wrong the Devil in calling him malicious the truth of which Charge will evidence it self in the following particulars First The Devil though a Spirit yet is a proper Subject of Sin We need no other evidence for this than what doth by daily experience result from our selves we have sins which our Spirits and Hearts do act that relate not to the Body called a filthiness of the Spirit in contradistinction to the filthiness of the Flesh 'T is true it cannot be denyed but that those Iniquities which have a necessary dependance upon the Organs of the Body as Drunkenness Fornication c. cannot properly as to the formality of the Act be laid at Satan's door though as a tempter and provoker of these in Men he may be called the Father of these sins yet the forementioned Iniquities which are of a Spiritual Nature are properly and formally committed by him as Lying Pride Hatred and Malice And this distinction Christ himself doth hint Joh. 8. 44. When he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of his own where he asserts such spiritual Sins to be properly and formally acted by himself The certainty of all appears in the Epithites given him the wicked One the unclean Spirit as also those places that speak his fall They kept not their first Estate Jude 6. The Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. If sins Spiritual are in a true and proper sense attributed to the Devil then also may Malice be attributed to him Secondly The wickedness of Satan is capable of increase a magis minus though he be a wicked Spirit and as to inclination full of wickedness though so strongly inclined that he cannot but sin and therefore as God is set forth to us as the Fountain of Holiness so is Satan called the Author and Father of Sin Yet seeing we cannot ascribe an infiniteness to him we must admit that as to acts of Sin at least he may be more or less sinful and that the wickedness of his heart may be more drawn out by Occasion Motives and Provocations besides we are expresly taught thus much Rev. 12. 12. The Devil is come down having great wrath because his time is short where we note 1. that his wrath is called great implying greater than at other times 2. That External Motives and Incentives as the shortness of his time prevail with him to draw forth greater acts of fury Thirdly Whatsoever Occasions do draw out or kindle malice to a rage Satan hath met with them in an eminent degree in his own fall and Man's happiness Nothing is more proper to beget malice than hurts or punishments degradations from happiness Satan's Curse though just fills him with rage and fretting against God when he considers that from the state and dignity of a blessed Angel he is cast down to darkness and to the basest condition imaginable for the part of his Curse which concerned Satan as well as the Serpent Vpon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shall be thy Meat implies a state most base as the use of the phrase proves they shall lick the dust of thy feet Thine enemies shall lick the dust Psal 72. 9. They shall lick the dust as a Serpent Mich. 7. 17. Where the Spirit is so wicked that it cannot accept the punishment of its iniquity All punishment is as a poyson and invenoms the heart with a rage against the hand that afflicted it thus doth Satan's fall enrage him and the more when he sees Man enstated into a possibility of enjoying what he hath lost The envy and pride of his heart boils up to a madness for that is the only use that the wretchedly miserable can make of the sight of that happiness which they enjoy not especially if having once enjoyed it they are now deprived this begot the rage and wrath in Cain against Abel and afterward his Murther The eye of the wicked is evil where God is good Hence may it be concluded that Satan being a wicked Spirit and this wickedness being capable of acting higher or lower according to occasions and with a suitableness thereto cannot but shew an unconceiveable malice against us our happiness and his misery being such proper occasions for the wickedness of his heart to work upon Fourthly This Malice in Satan must be great First If we consider the greatness of his wickedness in so great and total an Apostacy He is so filled with iniquity that we can expect no small matters from him as to the workings of such cursed Principles not only is he wicked but the spirit and extract of wickedness as the phrase signifies Ephes 6. 12. Secondly The Scripture lays to his charge all Degrees Acts and Branches of Malice As 1. Anger in the impetuous hast and violence of it Rev. 12. great wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies Excandescentia the Inflammation of the Heart and whole Man which is violent in its motion as when the Blood with a violent stream rusheth through the Heart and sets all Spirits on fire and therefore this Wrath is not only called great but is also signified to be so in its threatning a wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth 2. Indignation is more than Anger as having more of a fixed fury and this is applyed to him Ephes 4. 27. in that those that have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are said to give place to the Devil which is true not only in point of temptation but also in respect of the resemblance they carry to the frame and temper of Satan's furious heart 3. Hatred is yet higher than Wrath or Indignation as having deeper roots a more confirmed and implacable resolution Anger and Indignation are but short Furies which like a Land Flood are soon down though they are apt to fill the Banks on a sudden but Hatred is lasting and this is so properly the Devil's disposition that Cain in hating his Brother is 1 John 3. 12. said to be the proper Off-spring and lively Picture of that wicked One who is there so called rather than by the name of the Devil because the Apostle would also insinuate that hatred is the Master-piece of Satan's wickedness and that which gives the fullest Character of him 4. All Effects of his cruelty arise from this Root this makes him accuse and calumniate this puts him upon breathing after those murthers and destructions which damned
the Devil's Attempts Christ and others have felt the like If they object the peculiar Strangeness and Horridness of the Temptation as most unsuitable to the state of an upright Soul Christ met with the like He was tempted to Self-destruction to Distrust to Blasphemy it self in the highest degree Secondly There is a good advantage to be made of them they are Preservations from other Sins that would otherwise grow upon us Thirdly These Temptations to the upright do but argue Satan's loss of Interest in them and their greater Sensibility of the danger The captivated Sinners complain not so much because they are so Inured to Temptation that they mind not Satan's frequent accesses He that studies Humility is more sensible of a Temptation to Pride than he that is proud Secondly This is also of use to those that are apt to be confident upon their Successes against Sin through Grace Satan they may see will be upon them again So that they must behave themselves as Mariners who when they have got the Harbour and are out of the Storm Mend their Ship and Tackling and prepare again for the Sea Lastly If we consider the unspotted Holiness of Christ and his constant Integrity under these Temptations that they left not the least of Taint or sinful Impression upon him we may observe That there may be Temptations without leaving a touch of Guilt or Impurity behind them upon the Tempted 'T is true this is rare with Men the best do seldom go down to the Battel but in their very Conquests they receive some wound And in those Temptations that arise from our own hearts we are never without fault but in such as do solely arise from Satan there is a possibility that the upright may so keep himself that the wicked one may not so touch him as to leave the print of his Fingers behind him But the great difficulty is how it may be known when Temptations are from Satan and when from our selves To Answer this I shall lay down these conclusions First The same Sins which our own natures would suggest to us may also be injected by Satan Sometime we begin by the forward working of our own thoughts upon occasions and objects presented to us from without or from the power of our own Inclination without the offer of external Objects and then Satan strikes in with it sometimes Satan begins with us and by his injected motions endeavours to excite our Inclinations So that the same thing may be sometime from our selves and sometimes from Satan Secondly There is no Sin so vile but our own heart might possibly produce it without Satan evil thoughts of the very worst kind as of Murthers Adulteries Thefts False Witness and Blasphemies may as Christ speaks be produced naturally from our own hearts for seminally all Sins the very greatest of all Impieties are there So that from the greatness and vileness of the Temptation we cannot absolutely conclude that it is from Satan no more than from the commonness of the Temptation or its suitableness to our Inclination we can conclude infallibly that its first rise is from our selves Thirdly There are many cases wherein it is very difficult if not altogether impossible to determine whether our own heart or Satan gives the first life or breathing to a Temptation Who can determine in most ordinary cases when our thoughts are working upon Objects presented to our Senses whether Satan or our own thoughts do run faster Yea when such thoughts are not the consequent of any former occasion it is a work too hard for most men to determine which of the Parents Father or Mother our own Heart or Satan is first in the fault they are both forward enough and usually joyn hand in hand with such readiness that he must have a curious Eye that can discover certainly to whom the first beginning is to be ascribed The difficulty is so great that some have judged it altogether Impossible to give any certain marks by which it may be determined when they are ours and when Satans And indeed the discoveries laid down by some are not sufficient for a certain determination and so far I assent that neither the suddenness of such thoughts for the motions of our own Lusts may be sudden nor the horridness of the matter of them are sufficient notes of distinction That our own corrupt hearts may bring forth that which is unnatural and terrible cannot be denyed Many of the Sins of the Heathens mentioned in Rom. 1. were the violent productions of Lust against natural Principles and to ascribe these to the Devil as to the first Instigator is more than any man hath warrant to do Yet though it be confessed that in some cases it is impossible to distinguish and that where a distinction may be made these notes mentioned are not fully satisfactory ther may I believe be some cases wherein there is a possibility to discover when the motions are from Satan and that by the addition of some remarkable circumstances to the forenamed marks of difference Fourthly Thought it be true which some say that in most cases it is needless altogether to spend our time in disputing whether the motions of Sin in our minds are firstly from our selves or from Satan our greatest business being rather to resist them than to difference them Yet there are special cases wherein it is very necessary to find out the true Parent of a sinful Motion and these are when tender Consciences are wounded and oppressed with violent and great Temptations as Blaspemous Thoughts Atheistical Objections c. For here Satan in his furious molestations aims mainly at this that such Afflicted and Tossed Souls should take all these Thoughts which are obtruded upon their Imaginations to be the Issue of their own Heart As Josephs Steward hid the Cup in Benjamins Sack that it might be a ground of accusation against him so doth the Devil first oppress them with such Thoughts and then accuseth them of all that Villany and Wickedness the Motions whereof he had with such Importunity forced upon them and so apt are the afflicted to comply with Accusations against themselves that they believe it is so and from thence conclude that they are given up of God hardned as Pharaoh that they have sinned against the Holy Ghost and finally that there is no hope of mercy for them All this befalls them from their Ignorance of Satans dealings and here is their great need to distinguish Satans Malice from their guilt Fifthly Setting aside ordinary Temptations wherein it is neither so possible nor so material to busy our selves to find out whether they are Satan's or ours in extraordinary Temptations such as have been now instanced we may discover if they proceed from Satan though not simply from the matter of them not from the suddenness and independency of them yet from a due consideration of their nature and manner of proceeding compared with the present