their infernal Father in the world this shews sin is mighty in them indeed Many a man though so cruel to his own soul as to be drunk or sweare yet will not like this in a childe or servant what are they then but devils incarnate who teach their children the devils Catechisme to sweare and lie drink and drab If you meet such be not afraid to call them as Paul did Elymas when he would have perverted the Deputy children of the devil full of all subtilty and mischief and enemies of all righteousnesse O do you not know what you do when you tempt I 'le tell you you do that which you cannot undo by your own repentance thou poisonest one with errour initiatest another in the devils School Alehouse I mean but afterwards may be thou seest thy mistake and recantest thy errour thy folly and givest over thy drunken trade art thou sure now to rectifie and convert them with thy selfe alas poor creatures this is out of thy power they may be will say as he though he did it upon a better account that was solicited to turne back to popery by him who had before perswaded him to renounce the same You have given me one turn but shall not give me another And what a grief to thy spirit will it be to see these going to hell on thy errand and thou not able to call them back thou mayest cry out as Lamâ—ch I have slaine a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt Nay when thou art asleep in thy grave he whom thou seducedst may have drawn in others and thy name may be quoted to commend the opinion and practice to others by which as it is said though in another sense Abel being dead yet speaks thou mayest though dead sinne in those that are alive generation after generation A little spark kindled by the errour of one hath cost the pains of many ages to quench it and when thought to be out hath broke forth again Thirdly They are not barely wicked but maliciously wicked The Devill hath his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote his spightfull nature his desire to vex and mischief others When he drawes souls to sinne it is not because he tastes any sweetnesse or findes any profit therein he hath too much light to have any joy or peace in sin he knows his doome and trembles at the thought of it and yet his spightful nature makes him vehemently desire and uncessantly endeavour the damnation of souls As you shall see a mad dogge run after a flock of sheep kill one then another and when dead not able to eate of their flesh but kills to kill so Satan is carried out with a boundlesse rage against man especially the Saints he would not if he could leave one of Christs flock alive such is the height of his malice against God whom he hates with a perfect hatred and because he cannot reach him with a direct blow therefore he strikes him at second hand through his Saints that wicked arme which reacheth not to God is extended against these excellent on the earth well knowing the life of God is in a manner bound up in theirs God cannot outlive his honour and his honour speeds as his mercy is exalted or depressed this being the attribute God meanes to honour in their salvation so highly and therefore maligned above the rest by Satan And this is the worst that can be said of these wicked spirits that they maliciously spite God and in God the glory of his mercy Vse 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickednesse of mans nature is which is so hard to be known because it can never be seen at once it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the streame of actual sinne that is visible and may seem little but in the spring that uncessantly feeds this but here is a glasse that will give us the shape of our hearts truly like themselves Seest thou the monstrous pitch and height of wickednesse that is in the devil all this there is in the heart of every man there is no lesse wickednesse potentially in the tamest sinner on earth then in the devils themselves and that one day thou whoever thou art wilt shew to purpose if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace thou art not yet fledg'd thy wings are not grown to make thee a flying Dragon but thou art of the same brood the seed of this serpent is in thee and the devil begets a child like himselfe thou yet standest in a soile not so proper for the ripening of sinne which will not come to its fulnesse till transplanted unto hell Thou who art here so maidenly and modest as to blush at some sinnes out of shame and forbear the acting of others out of fear when there thou shalt see thy case as desperate as the devil doth his then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stuft with the same malice that he doth The Indians have a conceit that when they die they shall be transform'd into the deformed likenesse of the devil therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and the devil sinne makes the wicked like him before they come there but indeed they will come to their countenance more fully there when those flames shall wash off that paint which here hides their complexion The Saints in heaven shall be like the Angels in their alacrity love and constancy to serve God and the damned like the devils in sinne as well as punishment This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottome a sinner and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself It is easie to runne down a person whose life is wicked and convince him of the evil of his actions and make him confesse what he doth is evil but here is the thicket we lose him in he will say 't is true I am overseen I do what I should not God forgive me but my heart is good Thy heart good sinner and so is the devils his nature is wicked and thine as bad as his These pimples in thy face shew the heat of thy corrupt nature within and without Gospel-physick the blood of Christ applied to thee thou wilt die a Leper none but Christ can give thee a new heart till which thou wilt every day grow worse and worse Sin is an hereditary disease that encreaseth with age A young sinner will be an old devil Vse 2 Again it would be of use to the Saints especially those in whom God by his timely call forestall'd the devils market as sometimes the Spirit of God takes sin in its quarters before it comes into the field in the sinnes of youth now such a one finding not those daring sinnes committed by him that others have been left unto may possibly not be so affected with his own sinne or Gods mercy O let such a one behold here
the light 214 Love Saints the object of Gods love in a threefold respect 30 31 The best way to quench our love to the creature is to set it on Christ 79 Satan ambitious to tempt after manifestations of Gods love and why 96 Why God communicates his love to Saints after their falls 149 Saints love to Christ advanced by their temptations 150 How this comes to passe 151 Gods love to the soul sometimes an occasion of pride 302 Saints should watch against this 303 How to prevent it ib. M. Man Man is flesh 174 Why seeing his better part is a spirit is he called flesh 175 Man not to be trusted in 176 Memory How to remember what we hear 248 Ministers Ministers duty towards the ignorant 235 Four wayes they may be guilty of their peoples ignorance 236 Ministery Ministery of the Word the means to get knowledge 246 Motions Satan annoyes Saints with sinful motions 260 Saints should resist thsee motions for three reasons 262 Helps against them 26â— O. Obedience Obedience strong or weak as our faith is on the power of God 34 Weak endeavours with sincerity accepted by God as full obedience 373 Old-age The misery of old-age yoked with ignorance 241 P. Parents Parents duty to instruct their children and why 229 230 Parts What fooles men of the greatest parts are without grace 55 Perfection Perfection of grace to be prest after and why 77 78 How God confutes those that dream of perfection here c. 80 Persecute When wicked men persecute us we should pity them and save our wrath for the devil 181 Perseverance See falling away Perseverance necessary 9 How to persevere in our Christian course against all opposition 12 Without true grace no perseverance 377 Where true grace is that soul shall persevere 381 The doctrine of perseverance not to be abused 388 Pity God's pity to the fraile nature of his children in three particulars 178 Pleasure The sinners pleasures but short 209 Policy Sinful policy thrives not with Saints 105 It makes men like the devil 110 Poverty Not poverty but ignorance makes miserable 241 Power Satans power discovered in five particulars 196 Saints not to be dismayed at his power and that for three reasons 204 205 Prayer Prayer sometimes answered when it is not perceiv'd and in what cases this is 43 44 Preach What truthes are to be preached often 331 Against lazy Preachers 333 Preferment To stand before God in Heaven the highest preferment 394 Prevent God to be admired for preventing mercy 258 Pride Pride makes use of good and evil to draw her chariot 273 Pride double carnal and spiritual The Saint commonly in most danger of the latter and why 274 Pride of gifts See Gifts Pride of grace See Grace A mannerly pride how it hinders from Christ 290 291 It hinders from peace 292 A self-applauding pride what it is and the evil of it 294 Pride of priviledges what 299 Prince Satan a great Prince 183 How he obtained it 185 Trialls whether Christ or Satan be our Prince 187 188 The blessednesse of those that have Christ to be their Prince 193 See Christ Prison How Paul spent his time in prison Profession Heaven not won by good words and a faire Profession 371 Profit How to profit by the Word 247 248 Promise The end of the Promises to give security to the Saints faith 34 Not to endeavour an establish't faith on them is to undervalue them ib. In claiming the benefit of the Promise we must keep close to the condition 41 When absolute Promises stand the soul in great stead 136 Protection An unregenerate soule cannot claim Gods protection 55 Providence Dark Providences used by Satan to trouble Saints 133 Q. Question Satan pusles the Christian with nice questions 130 R. Reserve Satan hath his reserves to fall on when former temptations are beaten back 101 Retreat Satans politick retreats 102 Rich. Rich men poore with knowledge 242 Rule The time when Satan rules 209 The place where 211 The subjects whom he rules 212 Now to get from under Satans rule 221 His policy to keep sinners under his rule 222 S. Satan The reason why Satans conquests are so great 97 Of Satans rule 209 Of Satans wiles See Wiles Scripture Obscure Scriptures most mused on by tempted soules 102 Satans policie therein and what is to be done 133 Security The danger of security 363 Sense Affliction grievous to sense 353 Sincerity Sincerity a comfort in the evil day 370 Sinne. In troubles of conscience for the greatnesse of sinne what to do 39 Satan hath a strange Art in aggravating the Saints sins 116 How he fathers his own sin upon the Christian 115 Satans method to tempt to sin before he troubles for sinne 128 Why sin is call'd flesh 129 The state of sin a state of misery 217 The devils design in tempting to sin an argument to hate it 258 Sin hardens the heart 305 Sins against rebukes of conscience very grievous 365 We must not take liberty to sin because if true Christians we shall not fall away 389 Sinner The sinner and Satan friends when they seem to fight 57 Every sinner under Satans rule 213 The sinner an unserviceable creature 215 Singularity How it is necessary in the Saints 7 Sloth The difficulty of recovering a soule out of spiritual sloth 83 Solicitour Christ in heaven the Saints Solicitour and his faithfulnesse therein 32 33 Spiritual Of spiritual sins and how Satan annoyes the Saints with them 259 How to know our spiritual state 251 Stability The stability of the Saints not from their grace but from God reinforcing their grace 20 Strength A Christians strength in God not in himself 13 God takes it kindly we will make use of his strength 42 Lesse assisting strength given to advance accepting grace 46 The sweetnesse of being at Gods finding for assisting and comforting strength 19 A Christian when foiled stronger then another when a seeming Conquerour over the same temptation in two respects 71 72 Subtilty Satans subtilty in drawing to sin 98 Suffering No reason to be proud of our suffering for God 300 T. Tempt Temptation Satan chooseth the best season to tempt 93 How the presence of the object gives force to the temptation 96 Satans subtilty in tempting 98 His approaches in tempting are gradual 100 The same sin Satan tempts to purged by the temptation 143 Satan in tempting one Saint hath a designe against others 144 How God disappoints him 144 145 Why God suffers his Saints to be tempted 152 Temptation to one sin God orders to prevent another 143 Thoughts How thoughts good for the matter may be sinful 266 Trouble Satan the troubler of the Saints for sin 114 Troublers of the Saints thereby prove themselves Satans children 125 Foure wayes wicked men may trouble the Saints spirits 126 The mercy of being kept out of Satans hands as a troubler 127 It s dangerous in temptation to keep our troubles secret 137 The Saints troubles but short 211 The Christians life in this world full of trouble 349 Trust To trust God when he withdraws yea frowns very hard 8 The evil of trusting to the strength of grace 286 287 U. Unregenerate Unregeneracy a state of ignorance 50 Unthankfulnesse Unthankfulnesse for what we have hinders our receiving what we would have 48 Uprightnesse See Sincerity W. Waiting Waiting on God under discoucouragements a signe of strong grace 50 Such are assured to speed well at last 50 51 War How hard to war with bosome-sins 5. Weak Encouragements to the weake in grace to presse for more 80 Weak endeavours with sincerity accepted by God through Christ as full obedience 373 A cordial to weake believers 387 Wicked Wickednesse The attempts of the wicked against the Saints are folly and why 16 Wicked men trouble the Saints 180 The devils wickednesse 253 The wickednesse of mans nature 256 Wicked men the worse for affliction 356 Wiles Christians should labour to know Satans wiles 112 How we may know them ib. Wisdome The Wisdome of God in baffling Satan 140 Great wisdome to provide for the evil day 360 Word How to profit by the Word 247 248 Wrath. The devil is in the wrath of wicked men Wrestling The Saints life is a wrestling 159 It s dangerous wrestling with God 161 How sinners wrestle against the Spirit 162 163 How against Providence in two particulars 164 165 Several sorts that wrestle against sin but not lawfully 166 167 How we are to wrestle against sin 168 Y. Youth Youth the best time to get knowledge 240 FINIS 2 Tim. 2.4 Doct. Gen. 22 1â— Judg. 17. v. 2 37. Joh. 7.13 2 Sam. 2.22 Job 13.15 Heb. 2. Doct. John 17. Rom. 8. Ps 138.2 Act 16.14 Isa 48.17 Rom. 9.16 Doct. Mat. 8.2 Doct. Zech. 3. Psal 91.1 Observ Observ Jer. 23.32 Gen. 3.21 Jude 20. 1 Pet. 1.3 Tit. 1.1 Eph. 4.24 Vse Heb. 12.1 Acts 1.4 Ioh. 15.2 Rom. 5.3 Vse Doct. 1 Thes 5.16 17. 1 Pet. 1.13 Luke 4.13 Ps 119.99 2 Pet. 1.11 Doct. Ezek. 1.2 6 8. 1 Sam 24 1. 1 Sam. 13.3 Mat. 4 4 5 Pro. 30.19 Deut. 18.17 Numb 16 2 19. Numb 16 3 19 2. Cor. 10.10 Answ 1. Pro. 19.22 2 Cor. 2.11 2 Chro. 33 12. Acts 5.31 Zech. 12.10 Acts 2.37 2 Co. 5.11 1 Joh. 3.21 1 Sam. 16.7 Deut. 25.19 Psal 77. Answ 1. Joh. 14.30 Ps 19.13 1 Kings 22.35 Rom. 3.24 Rom. 4.5 Rom. 14.1 Heb. 13.5 Judg. 5.25 Doct. 2 Cor. 12.9 Jam. 5.11 Peâ—s 1. Isa 10.5 Ps 17.13 Isa 10.15 Joh. 21.15 2 Sam. 21. Doct. Acts 7.51 Ezek. 2.5 Isa 44.25 * Mic. 6.9 Heb 12 1â— Vse Doct. Mal. 3.1 2 Sam. 3.26 Isa 10.7 Tit. 2.12 1 Cor. 15.24.25 Doct. 1. Vse Mat. 11.28 Iâ—… 11.10 Heb. 2.14 15. Heb. 4.15 Phil. 1.29 Heb. 11.3 Luke 15. Doct. 2. Job 36. Prov. 1.21 22 23. Doct. 2. Heb. 3.10 Vse Job 33.17.19 1 Sam. 17.28 Vse Job 9.21 Luke 10.12 * See Dr. Gouge oâ— the place Doct. Gen. 33.9 11. Doct. Ezek. 18. Doct. Heb. 12.11 Jud. 2.15 Dan. 4.31 33. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. Rom. 13.10 Vse Doct. 2. Vse Doct. 3. Heb. 13.5 2 Cor. 2.17 Jer. 37.10 Lev. 26. Dan. 11.25 Cant. 1.12
those who finde any spiritual advantage from my weak labours you to whom they are chiefly devoted may not receive the least Lavenham Jan. 1 1655. So prayeth your affectionate though unworthy Minister WILLIAM GURNALL The CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS VERSE 10. Be strong in the Lord c. Chap. 1. OF Christian Courage and Resolution wherfore necessary and how obtained page 4 Chap. 2. Of the Saints strength where it lies and wherefore laid up in God p. 13. Chap. 3. Of acting our faith on the Almighty Power of God p. 23 Chap. 4. Of acting our faith on the Almighty Power of God as engaged for our help p. 28 Chap. 5. An answer to a grand objection that some disconsolate souls may raise against the former discourse p. 43 VERSE 11. Take to you the whole Armour of God Chap. 1. SHeweth that the Christless and graceless soul is a soule without Armour and therein his misery p. 54 Chap. 2. The Armour we use against Satan must be divine in the Institution such only as God appoints p. 61 Chap. 3. This Armour must not only be divine by Institution but Constitution also p. 67 Chap. 4. Of the entirenesse of our furniture it must be the whole Armour of God p. 72 Chap. 5. Of the use of our spiritual Armour or the exercise of grace p. 81 That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil Chap. 1. OF Satans subtilty to chuse the most advantagious seasons for tempting p. 93 Chap. 2. Of Satans subtilty in managing his temptations where several stratagems used by him to deceive the Christian are laid down p. 98 Chap. 3. Of Satans subtilty in making choice instruments fit for his turne to carry on his tempting designe p. 103 Chap. 4. This Point of Satans subtilty as a tempter to sin is briefly applied p. 110 Chap. 5. Of the subtilty of Satan as a troubler and an accuser for sin where many of his wiles and policies to disquiet the Saints spirits are discovered p. 114. Chap 6. A brief Application of Satans subtilty as a troubler and accuser for sinne p. 125 Chap. 7. Directions to fortifie the Christian against the assaults and wiles of Satan as a troubler p. 128 Chap. 8. Of the Saints victory over their subtil enemy and whence it is that creatures so overmatch's should be able to stand against Satans wiles p. 138 Chap. 9. An account is given how the All wise God doth out-wit the devil in his tempting Saints to sin wherein are laid down the ends Satan propounds and how he is prevented in them all with the gracious issue that God puts to these his temptations p. 142 Chap. 10. The Application of the Point in two branches p 152 VERSE 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood c. Chap. 1. SHewing the Christians life here to be a continual wrestling with sin and Satan and how few are true wrestlers as also how they should manage their combate 157 Chap. 2. What is meant by flesh and blood and how the Christian doth not and how he doth wrestle against the same 171 Chap. 3. Satans Principality how he came to be such a Prince and how we may know whether we be under him as our Prince or not 182. Chap. 4. The great power Satan hath not only over the elementary and sensitive part of the world but intellectval also the soules of men 196 Chap. 5. Of the time when the place where and the subjects whom Satan rules 208 Chap. 6. Of the spirituality of the devils nature and their extreme wickednesse 250 Chap. 7. Of Satans plot to defile the Christians spirit with heart-sins 259 Chap. 8. How Satan labours to corrupt the Christians minde with errour 267 Chap. 9. Of pride of gifts and how Satan tempts the Christian thereto 273 Chap. 10. Of pride of Grace 285 Chap. 11. Of pride of Priviledges 299 Chap. 12. What the prize is which believers wrestle against these Principalities Powers and spiritual wickednesses for 306 Chap. 13. An Exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things 321 VERSE 13. Wherefore take to you the whole Armour of God c. Chap. 1. THe reason why the Apostle renews the same Exhortation as also what truthes Ministers are often to preach to their people 330 Chap. 2. The best of Saints subject to decline in grace and why we are to endeavour a recovery of decays in grace 334 Chap. 3. A cautionary direction from what we may not as also from what we may judge our graces to be in a declination 337 Chap. 4. A word of counsel for the recovery of declining grace 343 Chap. 5. What is meant by the evil day 349 Chap. 6. The day of affliction is evil and in what respects as also unavoidable and why to be prepared for 352 ERRATA Reader Though all the mistakes in printing be not here presented to thee yet these thou wilt finde to be the most unhappy in perverting the sense therefore thou art desired for thy better progresse to correct them PAge 9. line 17. the lightsome blot out the p. 10. l. 15. blot out are p. 12. l. 27. for barely r. basely p. 13. l. 17. for information r. reformation p. 42. l 25. for encourage r. discourage p. 163. l. 5. for rock r. rot p. 168. l. 3. for best r. worst ib. l. 8. r called not them c. p. 192. l. 2. blot out it is p. 193. l. 17. for we r. were p. 201. l. 11. for prisoner r. prison p. 214. l. 25. for judiciously r. judicially p. 215. l. 15. r. florescentem p. 220. l. 25. r. burrow p. 264. l. 4. for company r. camp p 268 l. 2. for double 1. threefold p. 306 l last r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 308 l 24 r miles p 319 l 22 for imported r interpreted p 333 l 23 for by r his p. 356. l. 17. for the last wedge r. the greatest wedge p. 365. l. 35. for a shell r. ashes Mistakes in the pointing Page 80. line 4. after then blot out and after thus write p. 149. l. 33. after worth make a full stop p. 315. l. 13. after of write ibid. after God blot out A TREATISE Of the whole Armour Of God THE INTRODUCTION EPHESIANS 6.10 Finally my Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might PAul was now in bonds yet not so close kept as to be denied pen and paper God it seemes gave him some favour in the sight of his enemies Paul was Nero's prisoner Nero was much more Gods And while God had work for Paul he found him friends both in Court and prison Let persecutors send the Saints to prison God can provide a Keeper for their turn But how doth this great Apostle spend his time in prison not in publishing invectives against those though the worst of men who had laid him in a piece of zeal which the holy sufferers of those times were little acquainted with Nor in politick counsels how he might
winde himself out of his trouble by sordid flattery of or sinful compliance with the great ones of the times Some would have used any pick-lock to have opened a passage to their liberty and not scrupled so escape they might whether they got out at the door or window But this holy man was not so fond of liberty or life as to purchase them with the least hazard to the Gospel He knew too much of another world to bid so high for the enjoying of this and therefore he is at a point what his enemies can do with him well knowing he could go to heaven whether they would or no No the great care which lay upon him was for the Churches of Christ as a faithful Steward he labours to set this House of God in order before his departure We reade of no dispatches sent to Court to procure his liberty but many to the Churches to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free There is no such way to be even with the devil and his instruments for all their spite against us as by doing what good we can wherever we become The devil had as good have let Paul alone for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching at which the gates of Satans prison flie open and poor sinners come forth Happy for Onesimus that Paul was sent to Jaile God had an errand for Paul to do to him and others which the devil never dream't of Nay he doth not only preach in prison but that he may do the devil all the mischief he can he sends his Epistles to the Churches that tasting his Spirit in his afflictions and reading his faith now ready to be offered up they might much more be confirmed amongst which Ephesus was not least in his thoughts as you may perceive by his abode with them two yeares together Acts 19.10 as also by his sending for the Elders of this Church as far as Miletus in his last journey to Jerusalem Acts 20.17 to take his farewel of them as never to see their face in this world more And surely the sad impression which that heart-breaking departure left upon the spirits of these Elders yea the whole Church by them acquainted with this mournful newes might stir up Paul now in prison to write unto this Church that having so much of his Spirit yea of the Spirit of the Gospel left in their hands to converse with they might more patiently take the newes of his death In the former part of this Epistle he soares high in the mysteries of faith In the latter according to his usual method he descends to Application where we finde him contracting all those truths as beams together in a powerful exhortation the more to enkindle their hearts and powerfully perswade them to walk worthy of their vocation chap. 4.1 which then is done when the Christians life is transparent that the grace of the Gospel shines forth in the power of holinesse on every side and from all his relations as a candle in a Crystal glasse not in a dark Lanthorn lightsome one way and dark another and therefore he runs over the several relations of Husband Wife Parents Children Master and Servants and presseth the same in all these Now having set every one in his proper place about his particular duty as a wise General after he hath ranged his Army and drawn them forth into rank and file he makes this following speech at the head of this Ephesian Camp all in martial phrase as best suiting the Christians calling which is a continued warfare with the world and the Prince of the world The speech it self contains two parts First a short but sweet and powerful encouragement ver 10. Secondly the other part is spent in several directions for their managing this war the more succesfully with some motives here and there sprinkled among them To begin with the first 1. The word of encouragement to battel With this he begins his speech Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord the best way indeed to prepare them for the following directions A soul deeply possest with fear and disspirited with strong impressions of danger is in no posture for counsel As we see in an Army when put to the run with some sudden alarm and apprehensions of danger 't is hard rallying them into order while the scare and feare is over therefore the Apostle first raiseth up their spirits Be strong in the Lord as if he should say perhaps some drooping soules finde their hearts faile them while they see their enemies so strong and they so weak so numerous and they so few so well appointed and they so naked and unarmed so skilful and expert at armes but they green and raw souldiers Let not these or any other thoughts dismay you but with undaunted courage march on and be strong in the Lord on whose performance lies the stresse of the battel and not on your skill or strength It is not the least of a Ministers care and skill in dividing the Word so to presse the Christians duty as not to oppresse his Spirit with the weight of it by laying it on the creatures own shoulders and not on the Lords strength as here our Apostle teacheth us In this verse First here is a familiar Compellation My brethren Secondly here is the exhortation Be strong Thirdly here is a cautionary direction annexed to the exhortation In the Lord. Fourthly here is an encouraging amplification of the direction And in the power of his might or in his mighty power CHAP. I. Of Christian Courage and Resolution wherefore necessary and how obtained WE shall wave the Compellation and begin with the Exhortation Be strong that is be of good courage so commonly used in Scripture-phrase 2 Chron. 32.7 Be strong and couragious So Isa 35.4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong or unite all the powers of your souls and muster up your whole force you will have use of all you can make or get From whence the Point is this The Christian of all men needs courage and resolution Indeed there is nothing he doth as a Christian or can do but is an act of valour A cowardly spirit is beneath the lowest duty of a Christian Josh 1.7 Be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest what stand in battel against those warlike Nations No But that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee It requires more prowesse and greatnesse of spirit to obey God faithfully then to command an Army of men to be a Christian then to be a Captain What seems lesse then for a Christian to pray yet this cannot be performed aright without a Princely Spirit As Jacob is said to behave himself like a Prince when he did but pray for which he came out of the field Gods Bannarite Indeed if you call that prayer which a carnal person performes
us flee for the Lord fighteth for them Whereas there be many now a dayes will rather give the honour of their discomfitures to Satan himself then acknowledge God in the businesse more ready to say the devil fought against them then God O you that have not yet worne off the impressions which the Almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits beware of having any thing to do with that generation of men whoever they are Come not near their Tabernacle cast not thy lot in amongst them who are enemies to the Saints of the most High for they are men devoted to destruction God so loves his Saints that he makes nothing to give whole Nations for their ransome He rip 't open the very wombe of Egypt to save the life of Israel his childe Isa 43.3 Vse 2 Secondly this shews the dismal deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christ lesse state you have seen a rich mine open'd but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share a truth laden with incomparable comfort but it is bound for another coast it belongs to the Saints into whose bosome this truth unlades all her comfort see God shutting the door upon you when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties Esay 65.13 My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty God hath his set number which he provides for He knows how many he hath in his family these and no more shall sit down One chief dish at the Saints board is the Almighty power of God This was set before Abraham and stands before all his Saints that they may eate to fulnesse of comfort on it But thou shalt be hungry He is Almighty to pardon but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner thou hast not a friend on the bench not an attribute in all Gods Name will speak for thee Mercy it self will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation God is able to save and help in a time of need but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God as to expect his saving arme to be stretcht forth for thee Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a childe that cryes and knocks at his doore yet he will not take so much paines for a dog that lies howling there This presents thy condition sinner sad enough yet this is to tell thy story fairest for that Almighty power of God which is engaged for the beleevers salvation is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation What greater tie then an oath God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbeleeving Israelites that they should not enter into his rest concernes every unbeleever to the end of the world In the Name of God consider were it but the oath of a man or a company of men that like those in the Acts should sweare to be the death of such a one and thou wert the man would it not fill thee with feare and trembling night and day and take away the quiet of thy life till they were made friends What then are their pillows stuft with who can sleep so soundly without any horrour or amazement though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul without timely repentance O bethink your selves sinners is it wisdome or valour to refuse termes of mercy from Gods hands whose Almighty power if rejected will soone bring you into the hands of justice and how fearful a thing that is to fall into the hands of Almighty God no tongue can expresse no not they who feel the weight of it Vse 3 Thirdly this speaks to you that are Saints indeed Be strong in the faith of this truth make it an Article of your Creed with the same faith that you beleeve there is a God beleeve also this Gods Almighty power is thy sure friend and then improve it to thy best advantage As First in agonies of conscience that arise from the greatnesse of thy sinnes flie for refuge into the Almighty power of God Truly Sirs when a mans sinnes are displayed in all their bloody colours and spread forth in their kâ—lling aggravations and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glasse of a temptation they must needs surprize the creature with horror and amazement till the soul can say with the Prophet for all this huge hoast There is yet more with me then against me One Almighty is more then many Mighties All these mighty sinnes and devils make not one Almighty sinne or an Almighty devil Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this onely attribute As the French Ambassadour once silenced the Spaniards pride in repeating his Masters many titles with one that drowned them all God himself Hosea 11.9 when he had aggravated his peoples sinnes to the height then to shew what a God can do breaks out into a sweet promise I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger and why not I am God and not man I will shew the Almightinesse of my mercy Something like our usual phrase when a childe or a woman strikes us I am a man and not a childe or woman therefore I will not strike again The very considering God to be God supposeth him Almighty to pardon as well as to avenge and this is some relief But then to consider it is Almighty power in bond and Covenant to pardon this is more As none can binde God but himself so none can break the bond himself makes and are they not his own words that he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. he will multiply to pardon as if he had said I 'le drop mercy with your sinne and spend all I have rather then let it be said my good is overcome of your evil It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a Captaine that yields his Castle upon gracious termes of having his life spared and he safely convey'd to his house there to be setled peaceably in his estate and possessions for all which he hath the Generals hand and Seal on which he marcheth forth but the rude souldiers assault him and put him in feare of his life he appeals to the General whose honour now is engaged for him and is presently releeved and his enemies punisht Thou mayest poore soule when accused by Satan mollested by his terrours say It is God that justifies I have his hand to it that I should have my life given me assoon as I laid down my armes and submitted to him which I desire to do behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in and is not the Almighty able to performe his promise I commit my selfe to him as unto a
blesse God thou hast life Doest thou through feeblenesse often faile in duty and fall into temptation Mourne in the sense of these yet blesse God that thou doest not live in a total neglect of duty out of a prophane contempt thereof and that in stead of falling through weakness thou doest not lie in the mire of sin through the wickednesse of thy heart The unthankful soul may thank it self it thrives not better Thirdly art thou humble under the assistance and strength God hath given thee pride stops the conduit if the heart begin to swell it is time for God to hold his hand and turne the cock for all that is poured on such a soule runs over into self-applauding and so is as water spilt in regard of any good it doth the creature or any glory it brings to God A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful Now beside the common wayes that pride discovers it self as by under-valuing others and over-valuing it selfe and such like you shall observe two other symptomes of it First it appears in bold adventures when a person runs into the mouth of temptation bearing himself up on the confidence of his grace receiv'd This was Peters sin by which he was drawn to engage further then became an humble faith running into the devils-quarters and so became his prisoner for a while The good man when in his right temper had thoughts low enough of himself as when he ask't his Master Is it I but he that feared at one time lest he might be the traitour at another cannot think so ill of himself as to suspect he should be the denyer of his Master What he No though all the rest should forsake him yet he would stand to his colours Is this thy case Christian Possibly God hath given thee much of his minde thou art skilful in the Word of life and therefore thou darest venture to breath in corrupt aire as if only the weak spirits of lesse knowing Christians exposed them to be infected with the contagion of errour and heresie Thou hast a large portion of grace or at least thou thinkest so and venturest to go where an humble-minded Christian would fear his heels should slip under him Truly now thou temptest God to suffer thy lock to be cut when thou art so bold to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation Secondly pride appears in the neglect of those means whereby the Saints graces and comforts are to be fed when strongest May be Christian when thou art under feares and doubts then God hath thy company thou art oft with thy pitcher at his door but when thou hast got any measure of peace there growes presently some strangenesse between God and thee thy pitcher walks not as it was wont to these Wells of salvation No wonder if thou though rich in grace and comfort goest behinde-hand seeing thou spendest on the old stock and drivest no trade at present to bring in more Or if thou doest not thus neglect duty yet may be thou doest not perform it with that humility which formerly beautified the same then thou prayedst in the sense of thy weaknesse to get strength now thou prayest to shew thy strength that others may admire thee And if once like Hezekiah we call in Spectators to see our treasure and applaud us for our gifts and comfort then it is high time for God if he indeed love us to send some messengers to carry these away from us which carry our hearts from him Fourthly if thy heart doth not smite thee from what hath been said but thou hast sincerely waited on God and yet hast not received the strength thou desirest yet let it be thy resolution to live and die waiting on him God doth not tell us his time of coming and it were boldnesse to set on of our own heads Go saith Christ to his disciples Luke 24.49 Stay ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with Power from on High Thus he saith to thee stay at Jerusalem wait on him in the means he hath appointed till thou beest endued with further power to mortifie thy corruptions c. And for thy comfort know First thy thus persevering to wait on God will be an evidence of strong grace in thee the lesse encouragement thou hast to duty the more thy faith and obedience to bear thee up in duty He that can trade when times are so dead that all his ware lies upon his hand and yet drawes not in his hand but rather trades more and more sure his stock is great What no comfort in hearing no ease to thy spirit in praying and yet more greedy to heare and more-frequent in prayer O soul great is thy faith and patience Secondly assure thy self when thou art at the greatest pinch strength shall come They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength when the last handful of meale was dressing then is the Prophet sent to keep the Widows house When temptation is strong thy little strength even spent and thou ready to yield into the hands of thine enemies then expect succours from heaven to enable thee to hold out under the temptation Thus to Paul My grace is sufficient or power from heaven to raise the siege and drive away the tempter thus to Job when Satan had him at an advantage then God takes him off Like a wise Moderatour when the Respondent is hard put to it by a subtile Opponent takes him off when he would else run him down James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy EPHESIANS 6.11 Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil THis verse is a Key to the former wherein the Apostle had exhorted believers to encourage and bear up their fainting spirits on the Lord and the power of his might Now in these words he explains himself and shewes how he would have them do this not presumptuously come into the field without that armour which God hath appointed to be worne by all his souldiers and yet with a bravado to trust in the power of God to save them That soule is sure to fall short of home heaven I mean who hath nothing but a carnal confidence on the Name of God blowen up by the ignorance of God and himself No he that would have his confidence duly placed on the Power of God must conscienciously use the means appointed for his defence and not rush naked into the battel like that fanatick spirit at Munster who would needs go forth and chase away the whole army then besieging that city with no other cannon then a few words charged with the Name of The Lord of hostes which he blasphemously made bold to use saying In the Name of the Lord of hostes depart But himself soon perished to learne others wisdom by what he paid for his folly What foolish
God yes they hope they are not infidels but what it is how they come by it or whether it will hold in an evil-day this never was put to the question in their hearts Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit they are arm'd against Satan death and judgment when they are miserable and naked yea worse on it then those who are more naked those I mean who have not a rag of civility to hide their shame from the worlds eye and that in a double respect First it is harder to work on such a soul savingly because he hath a forme though not the power and this affords him a plea. A soule purely naked nothing like the wedding garment on he is speechlesse the drunkard hath nothing to say for himself when you ask him why he lives so swinishly you may come up to him and get within him and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him which will shoot conviction into him But come to deal with one that prayes and heares one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God here is a man in glistering armour he hath his weapon in his hand with which he will keep the Preacher and the Word he chargeth him with at armes length Who can say I am not a Saint what duty do I neglect here 's a breast-work he lies under which makes him not so faire a mark either to the observation or reproof of another his chief defect being within where mans eye comes not Again 't is harder to work on him because he hath been tamper'd with already and miscarried in the essay How comes such a one to he acquainted with such duties to make such a Profession was it ever thus No the Word hath been at work upon him his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickednesse into a forme of Profession but taking in short of Christ for want of a through change it is harder to remove him then the other he is like a lock whose wards have been troubled which makes it harder to turn the Key then if never potter'd with 'T is better dealing with a wilde ragged cole never back't then one that in breaking hath took a wrong stroak A bone quite out of joynt then false set In a word such a one hath more to deny then a profane person the one hath but his lusts his whores his swill and draffe but the other hath his duties his seeming graces O how hard is it to perswade such a one to light and hold Christs stirrup while he and his duties are made Christs foot-stool Secondly such a one is deepest in condemnation None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven because they fall from the greatest height As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them which devils had not so by how much God by his Spirit waits on pleads with and by both gains on a soul more then others by so much such a one if he perish will finde hell the hotter these adde to his sin and the rememberance of his sin in hell thus accented will adde to his torment None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him Therefore I beseech you look to your armour David would not fight in armour he had not tried though it was a Kings perhaps some thought him too nice What is not the Kings armour good enough for David Thus many will say Art thou so curious and precise such a great man doth thus and thus and hopes to come to heaven at last and darest not thou venture thy soule in his armour No Christian follow not the example of the greatest on earth 't is thy own soul thou venturest in battel therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour Bring thy heart to the Word as the only touch-stone of thy grace and furniture the Word I told you is the Tower of David from whence thy armour must be fetch 't if thou canst finde this Tower-stamp on it then 't is of God else not Try it therefore by this one Scripture-stamp Those weapons are mighty which God gives his Saints to fight his battels withal 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge whereby it makes its way into the heart and conscience through the impenitency of the one and stupidity of the other wherewith Satan as with buffe and coat of male armes the sinner against God and there cuts and slashes kills and mortifies lust in its own Castle where Satan thinks himself impregnable The Breast-plate which is of God doth not bend and break at every pat of temptation but is of such a divine temperament that it repels Satans motions with scorne on Satans teeth Should such a one as I sin as Nehemiah in another case and such are all the rest Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak what can you do or suffer more for God then an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly armour I 'le tell you what the world faith and if you be Christians clear your selves and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistering armour they say These Professors indeed have God more in their talk then we they are oftner in the mount of duty then we but when they come down into their shops relations and worldly employments then the best of them all is but like one of us they can throw the Tables of Gods Commandments out of their hands as well as we come from a Sermon and be as covetous and griping as peevish and passionate as the worst they shew as little love to Christ as others when it is matter of cost as to relieve a poor Saint or maintain the Gospel you may get more from a stranger an enemie then from a professing brother O Christians either vindicate the Name of Christ whose Ensign you seem to march after or throw away your seeming armour by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you If you will not Christ himself will cashiere you and that with shame enough ere long Never call that Armour of God which defends thee not against the power of Satan Take therefore the several pieces of your armour and try them as the souldier before he fights will set his helmet or head-piece as a mark at which he lets flie a brace of bullets and as he findes them so will weare them or leave them but be sure thou shootest Scripture-bullets Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousnesse ask thy soul Didst thou ever in thy life perform a duty to please God and not to accommodate thy self Thou hast prayed often against thy sin a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption but canst thou
presently indeed as the loud windes do blow away the raine so these terrours do keep off the soule from this Gospel-sorrow While the creature is making an out-cry 't is damn'd 't is damn'd it is taken up so much with the feare of hell that sin as sin which is the proper object of godly sorrow is little look't on or mourned for A Murderer condemned to die is so possest with the feare of death and thought of the gallowes that there lies the slaine body it may be before him unlamented by him but when his pardon is brought then he can bestow his teares freely on his murdered friend They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourne Faith is the eye this eye beholding its sin piercing Christ and Christ pardoning its sin affects the heart the heart affected sighes these inward clouds melt and run from the eye of faith in tears and all this is done when there is no tempest of terrour upon the spirit but a sweet serenity of love and peace and therefore Christian see how Satan abuseth thee when he would perswade thee thou art not humbled enough because thy sorrow is not attended with these legal sorrowes CHAP. VI. A brief Application of the second Branch of the Point viz. Of Satans subtilty as a Troubler and Accuser for sin Vse 1 IS Satan so subtile to trouble the Saints peace this proves them to be the children of Satan who shew the same Art and subtilty in vexing the spirits of the Saints as doth their infernal father not to speak of bloody Persecutors who are the devils slaughter-slaves to butcher the Saints but of those who more slily trouble and molest the Saints peace First such as rake up the Saints old sins which God hath forgiven and forgotten meerly to grieve their spirits and bespatter their names these shew their divellish malice indeed who can take such pains to travel many yeares back that they may finde a handful of dirt to throw on the Saints face Thus Shimei twitted David Come out thou bloody man When you that feare God meet with such reproaches answer them as Beza did the Papists who for want of other matter charged him for some wanton Poems penn'd by him in his youth Hi homunciones invident mihi gratiam Dei These men said he grudge me the pardoning mercy of God Secondly such as watch for the Saints halting and catch at every infirmity to make them odious and themselves merry 'T is a dreadful curse such bring upon themselves though they little think of it no lesse then Amaleks the remembrance of whose name God threatened to blot from under heaven why what had Amalek done to deserve this they smote the hindermost those that were feeble and could not march with the rest And was it so great a cruelty to do this much more to smite with the edge of a mocking tongue the feeble in grace Thirdly such who father their sins upon the Saints thus Ahab calls the Prophet the Troubler of Israel when it was himself and his fathers house What a grief was it think you to Moses his spirit for the Israelites to lay the blood of those that died in the wildernesse at his door whereas God knows he was their constant Baile when at any time Gods hand was up to destroy them and this is the charge which the best of Gods servants in this crooked generation of ours lie under We may thank them say the profane for all our late miseries in the Nation we were well enough till they would reforme us O for shame blame not the good Physick that was administred but the corrupt body of the Nation that could not bear it Fourthly such as will themselves sin meerly to trouble the Saints spirit Thus Rabshakeh blasphemed and when desired to speak in another language he goes on the more to grieve them Sometimes you shall have a profane wretch knowing one to be consciencious and cannot brook to hear the Name of God taken in vain or the ways of God flouted will on purpose fall upon such discourse as shall grate his chaste eares and trouble his gracious spirit such a one strikes father and childe at one blow think it not enough to dishonour God except the Saint stands by to see and heare the wrong done to his heavenly Father Vse 2 Secondly This may afford matter of admiration and thankfulnesse to any of you O ye Saints who are not at this day under Satans hatches Is he so subtile to disquiet and hast thou any peace in thy conscience To whom art thou beholden for that serenity that is on thy spirit to none but thy God under whose wing thou sittest to warme and safe Is there not combustible matter enough in thy conscience for his sparks to kindle Perhaps thou hast not committed such bloody sins as others that 's not the reason of thy peace for the least is big enough to damne much more to trouble thee Thou hast not grossely fallen may be since Conversion that 's rare if thou beest of long standing yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might walk in thy conscience thou hast had many testimonies of Gods favour hast thou not who more then David yet he at a losse sometimes learning to spell his evidences as if he could never have read them The sense of Gods love comes and goes with the present tast He that is in the dark while there sees not the more for former light O bless God for that light which shines in at thy window Satan is plotting to undermine thy comfort every day This Thief sees thy pleasant fruits as they hang and his teeth water at them but the wall is too high for him to climbe thy God keeps this Serpent out of thy Paradise 'T is not the grace of God in thee but the favour of God as a shield about thee defends thee from the wicked one Vse 3 Thirdly let Satans subtilty to molest your peace make thee O Christian more wise and wary thou hast not a fool to deale with but one that hath wit enough to spill thy comfort and spoil thy joy if not narrowly watch't this is the dainty bit he gapes for 't is not harder to keep the flies out of your Cup-boards in Summer from tainting your provision then Satan out of your consciences many a sweet meal hath he robbed the Saints of and sent them supperlesse to bed take heed therefore that he roams not thine away also CHAP. VII Containing some Directions tending to entrench and fortifie the Christian against the assaults and wiles of the devil as a Troubler of the soules Peace Quest HOw shall I stand in a defensive posture may the Christian say against these wiles of Satan as a Troubler SECT I. First if thou wouldest be guarded from him as a Troubler take heed of him as a seducer The hast of Satans hatchet with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christians comfort is
Satan knowes this too well and therefore as some thieves when they come to rob an house either gagge them in it or hold a pistol to their breast frighting them with death if they cry or speak Thus Satan that he may more freely rifle the soule of its peace and comfort over-awes it so that it dares not disclose his temptation O saith Satan if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee they 'l cast thee off others will hoote at thee Thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in thou losest Christian a double help by keeping the devils secret the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren and what an invaluable losse is this CHAP. VIII Of the Saints victory over their subtile enemy and whence it is that creatures so over-match't should be able to stand against Satans wiles THe second Branch of the Apostles Argument followes to excite them the more vigourously to their armes and that is from the possibility yea certainty of standing against this subtile enemie if thus arm'd That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil So that this gives the Apostles argument its due temperament for he meant not to scare them into a cowardly flight or sullen despaire of victory when he tells them their enemy is so subtile and politick but to excite them to a vigourous resistance from the assured hope of strength to stand in battel and victoriously after it which two I conceive are comprehended in that phrase standing against the wiles of Satan Sometimes to stand implies a fighting posture so verse 14. Sometimes a conquering posture Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth That earth which was the field where all the bloody battels were fought betwixt him and Satan on it shall he stand when not an enemy shall dare to shew his head So that taking both these in the Observation is Satan with all his wits and wiles shall never vanquish a soule arm'd with true grace nay he that hath this armour of God on shall vanquish him Look into the Word you shall not finde a Saint but hath been in the list with him sifted and winnowed more or lesse by this enemy yet at last we finde them all coming off with an honourable victory as in David Job Peter Paul who were the hardest put to it of any upon record and lest some should attribute their victory to the strength of their inherent grace above other of their weaker brethren you have the glory of their victories appropriated to God in whom the weak are as strong as the strongest We shall give a double Reason of this truth why the Christian who seemes to be so over-match't is yet so unconquerable First the curse that lies upon Satan and his cause Gods curse blasts whereever it comes The Canaanites with their neighbour-Nations were bread for Israel though people famous for warre and why They were cursed Nations The Egyptians a politick people Let us deal wisely say they yet being cursed of God this lay like a thorne at their heart and was at last their ruine yea let the Israelites themselves who carry the badge of Gods Covenant on their flesh by their sins once become the people of Gods curse and they are trampled like dirt under the Assyrians feet This made Balak beg so hard for a curse upon Israel Now there is an irrevokeable curse cleaves to Satan from Gen. 3.14 15. And the Lord said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed c. which place though partly meant of the literal serpent yet chiefly of the devil and the wicked his spiritual serpentine brood as appeares by the enmity pronounced against the Serpents seed and the womans which clearly holds forth the feud between Christ with his seed against the devil and his Now there are two things in that curse which may comfort the Saints First the curse prostrates Satan under their feet Vpon thy belly shalt thou go which is no more then is elsewhere promised that God will subdue Satan under our feet Now this prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil shall never lift his head that is his wily policy higher then the Saints heele He may make thee limp but not bereave thee of thy life and this bruise which he gives thee shall be rewarded with the breaking of his own head that is the utter ruine of him and his cause Secondly his food is here limited and appointed Satan shall not devoure whom he will The dust is his food which seems to restrain his power to the wicked who are of the earth earthy meere dust but for those who are of a heavenly extraction their graces are reserved for Christs food Cant. 7.13 and their souls surely are not a morsel for the devils tooth The second reason is taken from the wisdom of God who as he undertakes the ordering of the Christians way to heaven Ps 37.24 so especially this businesse of Satans temptations We finde Christ was not led of the evil spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted but of the Holy Spirit Mat. 4.1 Satan tempts not when he will but when God pleaseth and the same Holy Spirit which led Christ into the field brought him off with victory And therefore we finde him marching in the Power of the Spirit after he had repulsed Satan into Galilee Luke 4.14 When Satan tempts a Saint he is but Gods messenger 2 Cor. 12.7 There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me So our Translation But rather as Beza who will have it in casu recto the Messenger Satan implying that he was sent of God to Paul And indeed the errand he came a was too good and gracious to be his own Lest I should be exalted above measure The devil never meant to do Paul such a good office but God sends him to Paul as David sent Vriah with letters to Joab neither knew the contents of their message The devil and his instruments both are Gods instruments therefore the wicked are called his sword his axe now let God alone to wield the one and handle the other He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own legs with his own axe which God should do if his children should be the worse for Satans temptations Let the devil choose his way God is for him at every weapon If he 'll try it by force of armes and assault the Saints by persecution as the Lord of Hostes he will oppose him If by policy and subtilty he is ready there also The devil and his whole counsel are but fooles to God Nay their wisdome foolishnesse Cunning and Art commend every thing but sinne The more artificial the watch the picture c. the better but the more wit and Art in sin the worse because it is employed against
an All-wise God that cannot be out-witted and therefore will in the end but pay the workmen in greater damnation The foolishnesse of God is wiser then men yea then the wisdome of men and devils that is the meanes and instruments which God opposeth Satan withal What weaker then a Sermon who sillier then the Saints in the account of the wise world yet God is wiser in a weak Sermon then Satan is in his deep plots wherein the State-heads of a whole Conclave of profound Cardinals are knock't together wiser in his simple ones then Satan in his Achitophels and Sanballats and truly God chooseth on purpose to defeat the policies of hell and earth by these that he may put such to greater shame 1 Cor. 1.21 How is the great Scholar ashamed to be baffled by a plain Countrey-mans argument thus God calls forth Job to wrestle with Satan and his Seconds for such his three friends shewed themselves in taking the devils part and sure he is not able to hold up the cudgels against the fencing-Master who is beaten by one of the scholars God sits laughing while hell and earth sit plotting Psal 2.4 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty he breaketh their studied thoughts and plots as the words import Job 5.12 in one moment pulling down the labours of many yeares policy Indeed as great men keep wilde beasts for game and sport as the fox the boare c. so doth God Satan and his instruments to manifest his wisdom in the taking of them It is observed that the very hunting of some beasts affords not only pleasure to the Hunter but also more sweetnesse to the eater Indeed God by displaying of his wisdome in the pursuit of the Saints enemies doth superadde a sweet relish to their deliverances at last He brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him to be meat to his people After he had hunted Pharaoh out of all his formes and burrowes now he breaks the very braines of all his plots and serves him up to his people with the garnishment of his wisdom and power about CHAP. IX An Account is given how the All-wise God doth out-wit the devil in his tempting of Saints to sin wherein are laid down the ends Satan propounds and how he is prevented in them all with the gracious issue that God puts to these his temptations Quest But how doth God defeat Satan and out-wit his wiles in tempting his Saints Answ This God doth by accomplishing his own gracious ends for the good and comfort of his people out of those temptations from which Satan designes their ruine this is the noblest kinde of Conquest to beat back the devils weapon to the wounding of his own head yea to cut it off with the devils own sword thus God sets the devil to catch the devil and layes as it were his own counsels under Satans wings and makes him hatch them Thus the Patriarchs help't to fulfil Josephs dream while they are thinking to rid their hands of him To instance in a few particulars SECT I. First Satan by his temptations aimes at the defiling of the Christians conscience and disfiguring that beautiful face of Gods image which is engraven with holinesse in the Christians bosome he is an unclean spirit himself and would have them such that he might glory in their shame but God out-wits him for he turneth the temptations of Satan to sin to the purging them from sinne they are the black soap with which God washeth his Saints white First God useth the temptations of Satan to one sin as a preventive against another to Pauls thorn in the flesh to prevent his pride God sends Satan to assault Paul on that side where he is strong that in the mean time he may fortifie him where he is weak Thus Satan is befool'd as sometimes we see an army sitting down before a town where it wasts its strength to no purpose and in the mean time gives the enemy an advantage to recruit and all this by the counsel of some Hushai that is a secret friend to the contrary side God who is the Saints true friend sits in the devils Councel and over-rules proceedings there to the Saints advantage He suffers the devil to annoy the Christian with temptations to blasphemy atheisme and by these together with the troubles of spirit they produce the soule is driven to duty is humbled in the sense of these horrid apparitions in its imagination and secured from abundance of formality and pride which otherwise God saw invading him As in a family some businesse falls out which keeps the Master up later then ordinary and by this the thief who that night intended to rob him is disappointed had not such a soule had his spirit of prayer and diligence kept awake by those afflicting temptations 't is likely Satan might have come as a seducer and taken him napping in security Secondly God purgeth out the very sin Satan tempts to even by his tempting Peter never had such a conquest over his self-confidence never such an establishment of his faith as after his foule fall in the High Priests hall He that was so well perswaded of himself before as to say Though all were offended with Christ yet would not he how modest and humble was he in a few dayes become when he durst not say he loved Christ more then his fellow-brethren to whom before he had preferr'd himself what an undaunted Confessour of Christ and his Gospel doth he prove before Councels and Rulers who even now was dash't out of countenance by a filly maid and all this the product of Satans temptation sanctified unto him Indeed a Saint hath a discovery by his fall what is the prevailing corruption in him so that the temptation doth but stir the humour which the soul having found out hath the greater advantage to evacuate by applying those means and using those ingredients which do purge that malady cum delectu Now the soule sure will call all out against this destroyer Paul had not took such pains to buffet his body had he not found Satan knocking at that door Thirdly God useth these temptations for the advancing of the whole work of grace in the heart One spot occasions the whole garment to be washed David overcome with one sinne renewes his repentance for all Psal 51. A good husband when he seeth it rain in at one place sends for the Workman to look over all the house This indeed differenceth a sincere heart from an hypocrite whose repentance is partial soft in one plot and hard in another Judas cries out of his treason but not a word of his thievery and hypocrisie The hole was no wider in his conscience then where the bullet went in whereas true sorrow for one breaks the heart into shivers for others also SECT II. Secondly Satan by tempting one Saint hath a mischievous design against others either by encouraging them to sin by the example of such a one or discouraging them
in their holy course by the scandal he hath given but God here befooles him First making the miscarriages of such a seasonable caveat to others to look to their standing Doest thou see a meek Moses provok't to anger what watch and ward hast thou need keep over thy unruly heart though loud winds do some hurt by blowing down here a loose tyle and there a turret which was falling before yet the common good surmounts the private damage of some few these being as a broom in Gods hand to sweep and cleanse the aire so though some that are wicked are by Gods righteous judgement for the same hardened into further abominations by the Saints falls yet the good which sincere soules receive by having their formality and security in a further degree purged doth abundantly countervaile the other who are but sent a little faster whither they were going before Secondly God makes his Saints falls an argument for comfort to distressed consciences This hath been and is as a feather when the passage seems so stop't that no comfort can be got down otherwise to drop a little hope into the soule to keep the creature alive from falling into utter despair some have been revived with this when next door to hell in their own feares Davids sin was great yet found mercy Peter fell foully yet now in heaven Why sittest thou here O my soul under the hatches of despair up and call upon thy God for mercy who hath pardoned the same to others Thirdly God hath a design in suffering Satan to trounce some of his Saints by temptation to train them up into a fitnesse to succour their fellow-brethren in the like condition he sends them hither to school where they are under Satans ferular and lash that his cruel hand over them may make them study the Word and their own hearts by which they get experience of Satans policies till at last they commence Masters in this Art of comforting tempted soules It is an Art by it self to speak a word in season to the weary soule 't is not serving out an Apprenticeship to humane Arts will furnish a man for this great Doctors have proved very dunces here knowing no more how to handle a wounded conscience then a Rustick the Chirurgions instrument in dissecting the body when an Anatomy-Lecture is to be read 'T is not the knowledge of the Scripture though a man were as well acquainted with it as the Apothecary with his pots and glasses in his shop able to go directly to any promise on a sudden will suffice No not grace it selfe except exercised with these buffetings and soul-conflicts Christ himself we finde trained up in this school Isa 50.4 He wakeneth mine eare to heare as the learned Even as the Tutor calls up his Pupil to reade to him and what is the Lecture which is read to Christ that he may have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to the weary soule see vers 5. The Lord hath opened mine eare and I was not rebellious neither turned I away my back I gave my back to the smiters c. His sufferings which were all along mingled with temptations were the Lecture from which Christ came out so learned to resolve and comfort distressed soules So that the devil had better have let Christ alone yea and his Saints also who do him but the greater disservice in comforting others none will handle poor soules so gently as those who remember the smart of their owne heart-sorrowes none so skilful in applying the comforts of the Word to wounded consciences as those who have layen bleeding themselves such know the symptomes of soul-troubles and feel others pains in their own bosomes which some that know the Scriptures for sack of experience do not and therefore are like a novice Physician who perhaps can tell you every plant in the Herbal yet wanting the practick part when a Patient comes knowes not well how to make use of his skill The Saints experiences help them to a soveraign treacle made of the Scorpions own flesh which they through Christ have slain and that hath a vertue above all other to expel the venome of Satans temptations from the heart SECT III. Thirdly Satan in tempting the Saint to sin labours to make a breach between God and the soule He hates both and therefore labours to divide these dear friends If I can thinks he get such a one to sin God will be angry and when angry he 'll whip his childe foundly this will be some sport and when God is correcting the Saint he 'll be questioning the love of God to him and cooles in his love to God so though I should not keep him from heaven at last yet he shall have little joy thither in the way In this case God and the soul will be like man and wife fallen out who neither of them look kindly one upon another Now see how God befooles Satan in both these First God useth his Saints temptations as his method by which he advanceth the communications of his love unto them The devil thought he had got the goale when he got Adam to eate the forbidden fruit he thought now he had man in the same predicament with himself as unlikely ever to see the face of God as those Apostate spirits but alas this was by God intended to usher in that great Gospel-plot of saving man by Christ who assoon as this Prologue of mans fall is done is brought upon the stage in that grand Promise of the Gospel made to Adam and at Gods command undertakes the charge of recovering lost man out of Satans clutches and re-instating him in his primitive glory with an accesse of more then ever man had at first so that the meanest lilly in Christs field exceeds Adam in all his native Royalty And as Satan sped in his first temptation so he is still on the losing hand what got he by all his paines upon Job but to let that holy man know at last how dearly God loved him When he foiled Peter so shamefully do we not finde Christ owning Peter with as much love as ever Peter must be the only disciple to whom by name the joyful newes of his resurrection is sent Go tell my disciples and Peter As if Christ had said Be sure let his sad heart be comforted with this newes that he may know I am friends with him for all his late cowardise Quest But doth not this seem to countenance sin and make Christians heedlesse whether they fall into temptation or no If God do thus shew his love to his Saints after their falls and foiles why should we be so shy of sin which ends so well at last Answ Two things will prevent the danger of such an inference First we must distinguish between a soules being foiled through his own infirmity and his enemies subtilty and power over-matching him and another who through a false heart doth voluntarily prostrate himself to the lust of
undertaken to beare thy losse yea to pay thee a hundred fold and thou shalt not stay for it till another world Again thou ought'st not to feare flesh Our Saviour Mat. 10. thrice in the compasse of sixe verses commands us not to feare man if thy heart quailes at him how wilt thou behave thy self in the list against Satan whose little finger is heavier then mans loines The Romanes had arma praelusoria weapons rebated or cudgels which they were tried at before they came to the sharp If thou canst not beare a bruise in thy flesh from mans cudgel and blunt weapon what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satans sword in thy side God counts himself reproached when his children feare a sorry man therefore we are bid Sanctifie the Lord and not to feare their feare Now if thou wouldest not feare man who is but flesh Labour First to mortifie thy own flesh Flesh only feares flesh when the soule degenerates into carnal desires and delights no wonder he falls into carnal feares Have a care Christian thou bring'st not thy self into bondage perhaps thy heart feeds on the applause of men this will make thee afraid to be evil spoken of as those who shuffled with Christ John 12.42 owning him in private when they durst not confesse him openly for they loved the praise of men David saith the mouth of the wicked is an open Sepulchre and in this grave hath many a Saints name been buried but if this fleshly desire were mortified thou would'st not passe to be judg'd by man and so of all carnal affections Some meat you observe is aguish if thou settest thy heart on any thing that is carnal wife childe estate c. these will incline thee to a base feare of man who may be Gods messenger to afflict thee in these Secondly set faith against flesh Faith fixeth the heart and a fixed heart is not readily afraid Physicians tell us we are never so subject to receive infection as when the spirits are low and therefore the antidotes they give are all cordials When the spirit is low through unbelief every threatening from man makes sad impression Let thy faith take but a deep draught of the Promises and thy courage will rise Fourthly comfort thy self Christian with this that as thou art flâ—sh so thy heavenly Father knows it and considers thee for it First in point of affliction Psal 103.14 He knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust Not like some unskilful Emperick who hath but one receipt for all strong or weak young or old but as a wise Physician considers his Patient and then writes his bill men and devils are but Gods Apothecaries they make not our physick but give what God prescribes Balaam loved Balâ—ks see well enough but could not go an hairs breadth beyond Gods Commission Indeed God is not so choice with the wicked Isa 27.7 Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote hâ—m In a Saints cup the poison of the affliction is corrected not so in the wickeds and therefore what is medicine to the one is ruine to the other Secondly in duty he knows you are but flesh and therefore pities and accepts thy weak service yea he makes apologies for thee The Spirit is willing saith Christ but the flesh is weak Thirdly in temptations he considers thou art flesh and proportions the temptation to so weak a nature 't is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a temptation as is common to man a moderate temptation as in the margin fitted for so fraile a creature Whenever the Christian begins to faint under the weight of it God makes as much haste to his succour as a tender mother would to her swooning childe therefore he is said to be nigh to revive such lest their spirits should faile SECT III. The second thing follows The conjuncture of the Saints enemies We have not to do with naked man but with man led on by Satan not with flesh and blood but Principalities and Powers acting in them There are two sorts of men the Christian wrestles with good men and bad Satan strikes in with both First the Christian wrestles with good men Many a sharp conflict there hath been betwixt Saint and Saint scuffling in the dark through mis-understanding of the truth and each other Abraham and Lot at strife Aaron and Miriam justled with Moses for the wall till God interposed and ended the quarrel by his immediate stroak on Miriam The Apostles even in the presence of their Master were at high words contesting who should be greatest Now in these Civil wars among Saints Satan is the great kindle-coale though little seen because like Ahab he fights in a disguise playing first on one side and then on the other aggravating every petty injury and thereupon provoking to wrath and revenge therefore the Apostle dehorting from anger useth this argument Give no place to the devil as if he had said Fall not out among your selves except you long for the devils company who is the true souldier of fortune as the common phrase is living by his sword and therefore hastes thither where there is any hope of war Gregory compares the Saints in their sad differences to two cocks which Satan the Master of the pit sets on fighting in hope when kill'd to sup with them at night Solomon saith Prov. 18.6 The mouth of the contentious man calls for stroakes Indeed we by our mutual strifes give the devil a staffe to beat us with he cannot well work without fire and therefore blows up these coales of contention which he useth as his forge to heat our spirits into wrath and then we are malleable easily hammer'd as he pleaseth Contention puts the soul into disorder and inter arma silent leges The Law of grace acts not freely when the Spirit is in a commotion Meek Moses provok't speaks unadvisedly Me thinks this if nothing else will should sound a retreat to our unhappy differences that this Joab hath a hand in them he sets this evil spirit betwixt brethren and what folly is it for us to bite and devoure one another to make hell sport we are prone to mistake our heat for zeal whereas commonly in strifes between Saints it is a fire-ship sent in by Satan to break their unity and order wherein while they stand they are an Armado invincible and Satan knows he hath no other way but this to shatter them when the Christians language which should be one begins to be confounded they are then neare a scattering 't is time for God to part his children when they cannot live in peace together Secondly the Christian wrestles with wicked men Because you are not of the world saith Christ the world hates you The Saints nature and life are Antipodes to the world fire and water heaven and hell may assoon be reconciled as they with it The Heretick is his enemy for truths sake the prophane for holinesse to both the Christian is an abomination
as the Israelite to the Egyptian hence come wars the fire of persecution never goes out in the hearts of the wicked who say in their hearts as they once with their lips Christiani ad leones Now in all the Saints wars with the wicked Satan is Commander in chief 't is their fathers work they do his lusts they fulfil The Sabeans plunder'd Job but went on Satans errand The Heretick broacheth corrupt doctrine perverts the faith of many but in that the Minister of Satan 2 Cor. 11.15 they have their call their wiles and wages from him Persecutors their work ascribed to hell is it a persecution of the tongue 't is hell sets it on fire is it of the hand still they are but the devils instruments Rev. 2.10 The devil shall cast some of you into prison Vse 1 First do you see any driving furiously against the truths or servants of Christ O pity them as the most miserable wretches in the world feare not their power admire not their parts they are men possessed of and acted by the devil they are his drudges and slaughter-slaves as a Martyr call'd them Augustine in his Epistle to Lycinius one of excellent parts but wicked who once was his Scholar speaks thus pathetically to him O how I could weep and mourne over thee to see such a sparkling wit prostituted to the devils service If thou hadst found a golden chalice thou wouldest have given it to the Church but God hath given thee a golden head parts and wit and in this propinas teipsum Diabolo thou drinkest thy self to the devil When you see men of power or parts using them against God that gave them weep over them better they had lived and died the one slaves the other fools then do the devil such service with them Vse 2 Secondly O ye Saints when reproached and persecuted look further then man spend not your wrath upon him alas they are but instruments in the devils hand save your displeasure for Satan who is thy chief enemy these may be won to Christs side and so become thy friends at last Now and then we see some running away from the devils colours and washing the wounds with their teares which they have made by their cruelty 'T is a notable passage in Anselme who compares the heretick and persecutour to the horse and the devil to the Rider Now saith he in battel when the enemy comes riding up the valiant souldier Non irascitur equo sed equiti quantum potest agit ut equitem percutiat equum possideat sic contra malos homines agendum non contra illos sed illum qui illos instigat ut dum Diabolus vincitur infoelices quos ille possidet liberentur He is angry not with the horse but horseman he labours to kill the man that he may possesse the horse for his use Thus must we do with the wicked we are not to bend our wrath against them but Satan that rides them and spurs them on labouring by prayer for them as Christ did on the Crosse to dismount the devil that so these miserable soules hackneyed by him may be delivered from him 'T is more honour to take one soule alive out of the devils clutches then to leave many slain upon the field Erasmus saith of Augustine that he begg'd the lives of those hereticks at the hands of the Emperours Officers who had been bloody persecutours of the Orthodox Cupiebat saith he amicus medicus superesse quos arte suâ sanaret Like a kinde Physician he desired their life that if possible he might work a cure on them and make them sound in the faith CHAP II. Wherein is shewen what a Principality Satan hath how he came to be such a Prince and how we may know whether we be under him as our Prince or not VERSE 12. But against Principalities and Powers c. SECT I. THe Apostle having shewen what the Saints enemies are not flesh and blood fraile men who cannot come but they are seen who may be resisted with mans power or escape by flight now he describes them Positively against Principalities against Powers c. Some think the Apostle by these divers names and titles intends to set forth the distinct orders whereby the devils are one subordinate to another so they make the Devil verse 11. to be the Head or Monarch and these verse 12. so many inferiour orders as among men there are Princes Dukes Earles c. under an Emperour That there is an order among the devils cannot be denied The Scripture speaks of a Prince of devils Matth. 9. and of the Devil and his Angels who with him fell from their first station called his Angels as it 's probably conceived because one above the rest as the head of the faction drew with him multitudes of other into his party who with him sinned and fell But that there should be so many distinct orders among them as there are several branches in this description is not probable too weak a notion to be the foundation of a Pulpit-discourse therefore we shall take them as meant of the devil collectively We wrestle not with flesh and blood but devils who are Principalities Powers c. and not distributively to make Principalities one rank Powers another for some of these branches cannot be meant of distinct orders but promiscuously of all as spiritual wickednesses it being not proper to one to be spirits or wicked but common to all First then the devil or whole pack of them are here described by their Government in this world Principalities Secondly by their strength and puissance called Powers Thirdly by their nature in its substance and degeneracy Spiritual wickednesses Fourthly in their Kingdome or proper Territories Rulers of the darknesse of this world Fifthly by the ground of the war In heavenly places or about heavenly things First of the first Principalities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the abstract for the concrete that is such as have a Principality So Titus 3.1 we are bid to be subject to Principalities and Powers that is Princes and Rulers so the vulgar reades it We wrestle against Princes which some will have to expresse the eminency of their nature above mans that as the state and spirit of Princes is more raised then others great men have great spirits as Zeba and Zalmunna to Gideon asking who they were they slew at Tabor As thou art say they so were they each one resembled the children of a King that is for Majesty and Presence beseeming a Princely race so they think the eminent nature of Angels here to be intended who are as far above the highest Prince as he above the basest peasant but because they are described by their nature in the fourth branch I shall subscribe to their judgement who take this for their Principality of Government which the devil exerciseth in this lower world and the Note shall be That Satan is a great Prince Christ himself stiles him the Prince
had he not been call'd to reside as our Ambassadour and Advocate in heaven with the Father and therefore in his bodily absence he hath intrusted thee and a few more to carry on the Treaty with sinners which when on earth himself began And what can you do more acceptable to him then to be faithful in it as a businesse on which he hath set his heart so much As ever you would see his sweet face with joy you that are his Ambassadours attend to your work and labour to bring this Treaty of Peace to a blessed issue between God and those you are sent to And then if sinners will not come off and seal the Articles of the Gospel you shall as Abraham said to his servant be cleare of your oath Though Israel he not gathered yet you shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. And let not the private Christian say he is a dry tree and can do nothing for Christ his Prince because he may not bear the Magistrates fruit or Ministers Though thou hast not a commission to punish the sins of others with the sword of justice yet thou mayest shew thy zeal in mortifying thy own with the sword of the Spirit and mourne for theirs also though thou mayest not condemn them on the bench yet thou mayest yea oughtest by the power of a holy life to convince and judge them Such a Judge Lot was to the Sodomites Though thou art not sent to preach and baptize yet thou mayest be wonderful helpful to them who are The Christians prayers whet Magistrates and Ministers sword also O pray Christian and pray again that Christs Territories may be enlarged never go to heare the Word but pray Thy Kingdom come Loving Princes take great content in the acclamations and good wishes of their subjects as they passe by A vivat rex Long live the King coming from a loyal breath though poor is more worth then a subsidy from those who deny their hearts while they part with their money Thou servest a Prince Christian who knowes what all his subjects think of him and he counts it his honour not to have a multitude feinedly submit to him but to have a people that love him and cordially like his government who if they were to chuse their King and make their own lawes they should live under every day would desire no other then himself nor any other lawes then what they have already from his mouth It was no doubt great content to David that he had the hearts of his people so as Whatever the King did pleased them all And surely God took it as well that what he did pleased David for indeed David was as content under the rule and disposure of God as the people were under his witnesse the calmnesse of his Spirit in the greatest affliction that ever befell him 2 Sam. 15.26 Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Loyal soule he had rather live in exile with the good Will of God then have his throne if God will not say 't is good for him CHAP. IV. Of the great power Satan hath not only over the elementary and sensitive part of the world but intellectual also the soules of men SECT I. THis is the Second Branch of the Description wherein Satan is set forth by his might and Power This gives weight to the former were he a Prince and not able to raise a force that might dread the Saints the swelling name of Prince were contemptible but he hath power answerable to his dignity which in five particulars will appear First in his names Secondly his nature Thirdly his number Fourthly his order and unity Lastly the mighty works that are attributed to him First for the first he hath names of great power called the strong man Luke 11.21 so strong that he keeps his house in peace in defiance of all the sons of Adam none on earth being able to cope with this giant Christ must come from Heaven to destroy him and his works or the field is lost He is call'd the roaring lion which beast commands the whole forrest If he roares all tremble yea in such a manner as Pliny relates that he goes amongst them and they stand exanimated while he chooseth his prey without resistance such a lion is Satan who leads sinners captive at his will 2 Tim. 3.26 He takes them alive as the word is as the Fowler the bird which with a little scrap is enticed into the net or as the Conquerour his cowardly enemy who has no heart to fight but yields without contest Such cowards the devil finds sinners he no sooner appears in a motion but they yield They are but a very few noble spirits and those are the children of the most High God who dare valiantly oppose him and in striving against sin resist to blood He is call'd the great red dragon who with his taile wicked men his instruments sweeps down the third part of the stars of Heaven The Prince of the power of the aire because as a Prince can muster his subjects and draw them into the field for his service so the devil can raise the posse coeli aërii In a word he is call'd the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 because sinners give him a God-like worship feare him as the Saints do God himselfe Secondly the devils nature shewes his power 'T is Angelical Blesse the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength Psal 103.20 Strength is put for Angels Psal 78.25 They did eat Angels food Heb. the food of the mighty In two things the power of Angelical nature will appear In its Superiority and in its Spirituality First its Superiority Angels are the top of the Creation man himself made a little lower then the Angels Now in the works of Creation the Superiour hath a power over the Inferiour the beasts over the grasse and herb man over the beasts and Angels over man Secondly the Spirituality of their nature The weaknesse of man is from his flesh his soule made for great enterprizes but weighed down with a lump of flesh is forced to rowe with a strength suitable to its weak Partner but now the devils being Angels have no such incumbrance no sumes from a fleshly part to cloud their understanding which is clear and piercing no clog at their heele to retard their motion which for swiftnesse is set out by the winde and flame of fire Yea being spiritual they cannot be resisted with carnal force fire and sword hurt not them The Angel which appear'd to Manoah went up in the fire that consumed the sacrifice though such hath been the dotage and is at this day of superstitious ones that they think to charme the devil with their carnal exorcismes hence the Romish Reliques Crosse holy water yea and among the Jewes themselves in corrupter times who thought by their phylacteries and Circumcision to scare away the devil which made some of them expound that Cant.
3.8 of Circumcision Every man hath his sword on his thigh because of feare in the night By sword on the thigh they expound Circumcision which they will vainly have given as a charme against evil spirits that affright them in the night But alas the devil cares for none of these no not for an Ordinance of God when by fleshly confidence we make it a spell he hath been often bound with these fetters and chaines as is said of him in the Gospel and the chaines have been plucked asunder by him neither could any man thus tame him He esteems as Job saith of the Leviathan iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood It must be a stronger then the strong man must binde him and none stronger but God the Father of spirits The devil lost indeed by his fall much of his power in relation to that holy and happy estate in which he was created but not his natural abilities he is an Angel still and hath an Angels power Thirdly the number of devils addes to their power What lighter then the sand yet number makes it weighty what creature lesse then lice yet what plague greater to the Egyptians How formidable then must devils be who are both for nature so mighty and for number such a multitude there are devils enough to beleaguer the whole earth not a place under heaven where Satan hath not his troops not a person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him where-ever he goes yea for some special service he can send a legion to keep garrison in one single person as Mark 5. and if so many can be spared to attend one to what a number would the muster-rolle of Satans whole army amount if known And now tell me if we are not like to finde our march difficult to heaven if ever we mean to go thither that are to passe through the very quarters of this multitude who are scattered over the face of all the earth When armies are disbanded and the roads full of debautch't souldiers wandering up and down it 's dangerous travelling we heare then of murders and robberies from all quarters These powers of hell are that party of Angels who for their mutiny and disobedience were cashier'd heaven and thrust out of that glorious host and ever since they have stragled here below endeavouring to do mischief to the children of men especially travelling in heavens road Fourthly their unity and order makes their number formidable We cannot say there is love among them that heavenly fire cannot live in a devils bosome yet there is unity and order as to this they are all agreed in their designe against God and man so their unity and consent is knit together by the ligaments not of love but of hatred and policy Hatred against God and his children which they are filled with and policy which tells them that if they agree not in their designe their Kingdome cannot stand And how true they are to this wicked brotherhood our Saviour gives a faire testimony when he saith Satan fights not against Satan Did you ever heare of any mutiny in the devils army or that any of those Apostate Angels did freely yield up one soule to Christ They are many and yet but one spirit of wickednesse in them all My name said the devils not our name is legion The devil is call'd the Leviathan Isa 27.1 The Lord with his strong sword shall punish Leviathan from their cleaving together of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compact or joyned together used for the Whale Jeb 4. whose strength lies in his scales which are so knit that he is as it were covered with armour Thus these cursed spirits do accord in their machinations and labour to bring their instruments into the same league with them not contented with their bare obedience but where they can obtain it do require an expresse oath of their servants to be true to them as in witches Fifthly the mighty works that are attributed to these evil spirits in Scripture declare their power and these either respect the elementary sensible or intellectual part of the world The Elementary what dreadful effects this Prince of the power of the aire is able to produce on that see in the Word he cannot indeed make the least breath of aire drop of water or spark of fire but he can if let loose as Reverend Master Caryl saith on Job 1. go to Gods store-house and make use of these in such a sort as no man can stand before him he can hurle the sea into such a commotion that the depths shall boile like a pot and disturb the aire into stormes and tempests as if heaven and earth would meet Jobs children were buried in the ruines of their house by a puffe of his mouth yea he can go to Gods magazine as the former Author saith and let off the great ordnance of heaven causing such dreadful thunder and lightning as shall not only affright but do real execution and that in a more dreadful way then in the ordinary course of nature If mans Art can so sublimate nature as we see in the invention of powder that hath such a strange force much more able is he to draw forth its power Again over the sensitive world his power is great not only the beasts as in the herd of swine hurried by him into the deep but over the bodies of men also as in Iob whose sore boiles were not the breakings out of a distempered nature but the print of Satans sangs on his flesh doing that suddenly which in nature would have required more time to gather and ripen and the demoniacks in the Gospel grievously vexed and tormented by him But this the devil counts small game his great spite is at the soules of men which I call the Intellectual world his cruelty to the body is for the soules sake As Christs pity to the bodies of men when on earth healing their diseases was in a subserviency to the good of their soules bribing them with those mercies suitable to their carnal desires that they might more willingly receiv mercies for their souls from that hand which was so kind to their bodies as we give children somthing that pleaseth them to perswade them to do something that pleaseth them not go to school learn their book so the devil who is cruel as Christ is meek and wisheth good neither to body nor soule yet shewes his cruelty to the body but on a design against the soule knowing well that the soule is soon discomposed by the perturbation of the other the soule cannot but lightly heare and so have its peace and rest broken by the groanes and complaints of the body under whose very roof it dwells and then it is not strange if as for want of sleep the tongue talk idly so the soule should break out into some sinful carriage which is the bottom of the devils plot on a Saint And as for other poor silly soules he gaines little
agere make the soule go faster that is on its way as the winde carries the tide with more swiftnesse but he cannot turn the stream of the heart contrary to its own course and tendency Secondly Satans power is so limited that he shall not do what he can God lets out so much of his wrath as shall praise him and be as a stream to set his purpose of love to his Saints on work and then lets down the flood-gate by restraining the residue thereof God ever takes him off before he can finish his work on a Saint He can if God suffers him rob the Christian of much of his joy and disturb his peace by his cunning insinuations but he is under command he stands like a dog by the Table while the Saints siâ— at this sweet feâ—st of comfort but dares not stir to roam off their cheer his Masters eye is on him The want of this consideration loseth God his praise and us our comfort God having lock't up our comfort in the performance of our duty Did the Christian consider what Satans power is and who damms it up This would alwayes be a Song of praise in his mouth Hath Satan power to rob and burn kill and slay torment the body distresse the minde whom may I thank that I am in any of these out of his hands doth Satan love one better then Job or am I out of fight or beside his walk is his courage cool'd or his wrath appeas'd that I scape so well no none of these his wrath is not against one but all the Saints his eye is on thee and his arme can reach thee his spirit is not cow'd nor his stomack stay'd with those millions he hath devoured but keen as ever yea sharper because now he sees God ready to take away and the end of the world drawing on so fast 'T is thy God alone whom thou art beholden to for all this his eye keepeth thee when Satan finds the good man asleep then he finds our good God awake therefore thou art not consumed because he changeth not Did his eye slumber or wander one moment there would need no other flood to drown thee yea the whole world then what would come out of this dragons mouth Thirdly Satans power is ministerial appointed by God for the service and benefit of the Saints 'T is true as it s said of the proud Assyrian be weaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy those he tempts but no matter what he thinks as Luther comforted himself when told what had passed at the diet at Noremburg against the Protestants that it was decreed one way there but otherwise in heaven so for the Saints comfort the thoughts which God thinks to them are peace while Satans are ruine to their graces and destruction to their soules and his counsel shall stand in spite of the devil The very mittimus which God makes when he commits any of his Saints to the devils prison runs thus Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 so that tempted Saints may say we had perished if we had not perished to our own thinking This Leviathan while he thinks to swallow them up is but sent of God as the whale to Jonah to waft them safe to land Some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge them and to make them white Dan. 11.35 This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation as we do with our linnen the spots they get at our feasts are taken out by washing rubbing and laying them out to bleech The Saints spots are most got in peace plenty and prosperity and they never recover their whitenesse to such a degree as when they come from under Satans scouring We do too little not to feare Satan we should comfort our selves with the usefulnesse and subserviency of his temptations to our good All things are yours who are Christs He that hath given life to be yours hath given death also He that hath given heaven for your inheritance Paul and Cephas his Ministers and Ordinances to help you thither hath given the world with all the afflictions of it yea the Prince of it too with all his wrath and power in order to the same end This indeed is love and wisdom in a riddle but you who have the Spirit of Christ can unfold it CHAP V. Of the time when the place where and the subjects whom Satan rules Against the Rulers of the darknesse of this world THese words contain the third Branch in the Description of our great enemy the devil and they hold forth the proper seat of his Empire with a threefold boundary he is not Lord over all that is the incommunicable title of God but a Ruler of the darknesse of this world where the time place and subjects of his Empire are stinted 1. The time when this Prince hath his rule In this world that is now not hereafter 2. The place where he rules In this world that is here below not in heaven 3. The subjects or persons whom he rules not all in this lower world neither and they are wrap't up in these words The darknesse of this world First of the first boundary SECT The time when he rules so this word world may be taken in the text for that little spot of time which like an inconsiderable parenthesis is clasp't in on either side with vast eternity call'd sometimes the present world On this stage of time this mock-King acts the part of a Prince but when Christ comes to take down this scaffold at the end of this world then he shall be degraded his crown taken off his sword broke over his head and he hist off with scorne and shame yea of a Prince become a close prisoner in hell no more then shall he infest the Saints no nor rule the wicked but he with them and they with him shall lie under the immediate execution of Gods wrath for this very end Christ hath his Pattent and Commission which he will not give up till he shall have put down all rule then and not till then will he deliver up his Oeconomical Kingdom to his Father when he shall have put down all rule for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet Satan is cast already his doom is past upon him as Adams was upon his first sin but full execution is stayed till the end of the world The devil knows it it is an Article in his Creed which made him trembling ask Christ why he came to torment him before his time Vse 1 First this brings ill newes to the wicked Your Prince cannot long sit in his throne sinners at present have a merry time of it if it would hold they rejoyce while Christs disciples weep and mourne they ruffle in their silkes
flowing from the same enlargement in duty and the like which Satan may for a time disturb yea deprive thee of but he cannot come to the rolls to blot thy name out of the book of life he cannot null thy faith make void thy relation dry up thy comfort in the Spring though dam up the stream nor hinder thee a happy issue of thy whole war with sinne though worst thee in a private skirmish these all are kept in Heaven among Gods own Crown-Jewels who is said to keep us by his power through faith unto salvation SECT III. The third boundary of the devils Principality is in regard of his subjects and they are described here to be the darknesse of this world that is such who are in darknesse This word is used sometimes to expresse the desolate condition of a creature in some great distresse Isa 150. He that walks in darknesse and sees no light sometimes to expresse the nature of all sin so Eph. 5.1 sin is called the work of darknesse sometimes the particular sin of ignorance often set out by the darknesse of the night blindnesse of the eye all these I conceive may be mean't but chiefly the latter for though Satan makes a foule stir in the soule that is in the dark of sorrow whether it be from outward crosses or inward desertions yet if the creature be not in the darknesse of sinne at the same time though he may disturb his peace as an enemy yet cannot be said to rule as a Prince Sin only sets Satan in the Throne so that I shall take the words in the two latter Interpretations First for the darknesse of sin in general Secondly for the darknesse of ignorance in special and the sense will be that the devils rule is over those that are in a state of sin and ignorance not over those who are sinful or ignorant so he would take hold of Saints as well as others but over those who are in a state of sin which is set out by the abstract Ruler of the darknesse the more to expresse the fulnesse of the sin and ignorance that possesseth Satans slaves and the Notes will be two First Every soul in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan Secondly Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soul to Satan and therefore all sins are set out by that which chiefly expresseth this viz. darknesse Every soule in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan under which point these two things must be enquired First the reason why sin is set out by darknesse Secondly how every one in such a state appears to be under the devils rule For the first First sin may be called darknesse because the spring and common cause of sin in man is darknesse The external cause Satan who is the great promoter of it he is a cursed spirit held in chaines of darknesse The internal is the blindnesse and darknesse of the soule we may say when any one sins he doth he knowes not what as Christ said of his murtherers Did the creature know the true worth of the soul which he now sells for a song the glorious amiable nature of God and his holy wayes the matchlesse love of God in Christ the poisonfull nature of sin and all these not by a sudden beam darted into the window at a Sermon and gone again like a flash of lightning but by an abiding light this would spoile the devils market and poor creatures would not readily take this toad into their bosomes sin goes in a disguise and so is welcome Secondly it is darknesse because it brings darknesse into the soul and that naturally and judicially First Naturally There is a noxious quality in sin offensive to the understanding which is to the soule what the eye and palate are to the body It discernes of things and distinguisheth true from false as the eye white from black It tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meats Now as there are some things bad for the sight and others bad for the palate vitiating it so that it shall not know sweet from bitter so here sin besots the creature and makes it injudicious that he who could see such a practice absurd and base in others before when once he hath drunk of this inchanting cup himself as one that hath for done his understanding is mad of it himself not able now to see the evil of it or use his reason against it Thus Saul before he had debauch't his conscience thinks the Witch worthy of death but after he had trodden his conscience hard with other foule sins goes to ask counsel of one himself Again sin brings darknesse judiciously such have been threatened whose eare God hath been trying to open and instruct and have run out of Gods school into the devils by rebelling against light that they shall die without knowledge Iob 36.10 12. What should the candle burn wast when the creature hath more minde to play then work Thirdly Sinne runs into darknesse Impostors bring in their damnable Heresies privily like those who sell bad ware loath to come to the Market where the Standard tries all but put it off in secret so in moral wickednesse sinners like beasts go out in the night for their prey loath to be seen afraid to come where they should be found out Nothing more terrible to sinners then light of truth John 3.19 because their deeds are evil Felix was so netled with what Paul spake that he could not sit out the Sermon but flings away in haste and adjourns the hearing of Paul till a convenient season but he never could finde one The Sun is not more troublesome in hot Countreys then truth is to those who sit under the powerful preaching of it and therefore as those seldome come abroad in the heat of the day and when they must have their devices over their heads to skreene them from the Sun so sinners shun as much as may be the preaching of the Word but if they must go to keep in with their relations or for other carnal advantages they if possible will keep off the power of truth either by sleeping the Sermon away or prating it away with any foolish imagination which Satan sends to beare them company and chat with them at such a time or by choosing such a coole Preacher to sit under whose toothlesse discourse shall rather flatter then trouble rather tickle their fancy then prick their consciences and then their sore eyes can look upon the light Froreseentem amant veritatem qui non redarguentem they dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard who would run away to see it drawn Fourthly Sinne is darknesse for its uncomfortab'enesse and that in a threefold respect First Darknesse is uncomfortable as it shuts out of all imployment What could the Egyptians do under the plague of darknesse but sit still and this to an active spirit is trouble enough Thus in a state of sinne
is strange sinners should no more tremble at this who should they see but their swine or a beast bewitch't and possest of the devil run headlong into the sea would cry out as half undone and is not one foul more worth then all these what a plague is it to have Satan possesse thy heart and spirit hurrying thee in the fury of thy lusts to perdition O poor man what a sad change hast thou made Thou who wouldest not sit under the meek and peaceful Government of God thy rightful Lord art paid for thy rebellion against him in the cruelty of this Tyrant who writes all his Lawes in the blood of his subjects and why will you sit any longer O sinners under the shadow of this Bramble from whom you can expect nothing but eternal fire to come at last and devoure you Behold Christ is in the field sent of God to recover his right and your liberty His royal Standard is pitch't in the Gospel and Proclamation made that if any poor sinners weary of the devils Government and heavy laden with the miserable chaines of his spiritual bondage so as these irons of his sins enter into his very soule to afflict it with the senfe of them shall thus come and repair to Christ he shall have protection from Gods justice the devils wrath and sins dominion In a word he shall have rest and that glorious Usually when a people have been ground with the oppression of some bloody Tyrant they are apt enough to long for a change and to listen to any overture that gives them hope of liberty though reached by the hand of a stranger who may prove as bad as the other yet bondage is so grievous that people desire to change as sick men their beds though they finde little ease thereby Why then should deliverance be unwelcome to you sinners Deliverance brought not by a stranger whom you need feare what his designe is upon you but your near Kinsman in blood who cannot mean you ill but he must first hate his own flesh and whoever did that To be sure not he who though he took part of our flesh that he might have the right of being our Redeemer yet would have no kindred with us in the sinfulnesse of our nature And 't is sin that makes us cruel yea to our own flesh What can you expect from him but pure mercy who is himself pure They are the mercies of the wicked which are cruel Believe it Sirs Christ counts it his honour that he is a King of a willing people and not of slaves He comes to make you free not to bring you into bondage to make you Kings not vassals None give Christ an evil word but those who never were his subjects Enquire but of those who have tried both Satans service and Christs they are best able to resolve you what they are You see when a soul comes over from Satans quarters unto Christ and has but once the experience of that sweetnesse which is in his service there is no getting him back to his old drudgery as they say of those who come out of the North which is cold and poor they like the warme South so well they seldome or never go back more What more dreadful to a gracious soul then to be delivered into the hands of Satan or fall under the power of his lusts It would choose rather to leap into a burning furnace then be commanded by them This is the great request a childe of God makes that he would rather whip him in his house then turne him out of it to become a prey to Satan O sinners did you know which you cannot till you come over to Christ and embrace him as your Lord Saviour what the priviledges of Christs servants are what gentle usage Saints have at Christs hands you would say those were the only happy men in the world which stand continually before him His lawes are writ not with his subjects blood as Satans are but with his own All his commands are acts of grace 't is a favour to be employed about them To you 't is given to believe yea to suffer Such an honour the Saints esteem it to do any thing he commands that they count God rewards them for one piece of service if he enables them for another This I had saith David because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.56 what was the great reward he got see v. 55. I have remembred thy Name O Lord in the night and kept thy Law then followes This I had He got more strength and skill to keep the Law for the future by his obedience past and was he not well paid think you for his pains There 's fruit even in holinesse the Christian hath in hand which he eats while he is at work that may stay his stomack until the full reward comes which is eternal life Rom. 6.22 Jesus Christ is a Prince that loves to see his people thrive and grow rich under his Government This is he whom sinners are so afraid of that when he sets open their prison and bids them come forth they choose rather to bore their eares to the devils post then enjoy this blessed liberty It is no wonder that some of the Saints have indeed when tortured not accepted deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection But what a riddle is this that forlorne soules bound with the chaines of their lusts and the irresistible decree of God for their damnation if they believe not on the Lord Jesus should as they are driving to execution refuse deliverance This may set heaven and earth on wondring Surely dying in their sins they cannot hope for a better resurrection then they have a death I am afraid rather that they do not firmly believe they shall have any resurrection and then no wonder they make so light of Christs offer who think themselves safe when once earth't in this burrough of the grave But let sinners know 't is not the grave can hold them when the day of Assize comes and the Judge calls for the prisoners to the bar The grave was never intended to be a Sanctuary to desend sinners from the hand of justice but a close Prison to secure them against the day of trial that they may be forth-coming Then sinners shall be digg'd out of their burroughs and dragg'd out of their holes to answer their contempt of Christ and his grace O how will you be astonish't to see him become your Judge whom you now refuse to be your King to heare that Gospel witnesse against you for your damnation which at the same time shall acquit others for their salvation what think you to do sinners in that day wilt thou cry and shream for mercy at Christs hands Alas when the sentence is past thy face will immediately be covered condemned prisoners are not allowed to speak teares then are unprofitable when no place left for repentance either in Christs
when meat is eaten and digested it is not to be found as it was received but the man is cheered and strengthened by it more able to walke and work then before by which you may know it is not lost so you may taste the truths the Christian heard in his spirit see them in his life Perhaps if you aske him what the particulars were the Minister had about faith mortification repentance and the like he cannot tell you yet this you may finde his heart is more broken for sin more enabled to rely on the promises and now weaned from the world As that good woman answered one that coming from Sermon ask't her what she remembred of the Sermon said she could not at present recal much but she heard that which should make her reforme some things as soon as she came home Secondly meditate on what thou hearest by this David got more wisdome then his teachers Observe what truth what Scripture is cleared to thee in the Sermon more then before take some time in secret to converse with it and make it thereby familiar to thy understanding Meditation to the Sermon is what the harrow is to the seed it covers those truths which else might have been pickt or washt away I am afraid there are many proofs turned down at a Sermon that are hardly turned up and lookt on any more when the Sermon is done and if so you make others believe you are greater traders for your souls then you are indeed as if one should come to a shop and lay by a great deal of rich ware and when he hath done goes away and never calls for it O take heed of such doings The hypocrite cheats himself worst at last Thirdly discharge thy memory of what is sinful We wipe our table-book and deface what is there scribled before we can write new There is such a contrariety betwixt the truths of God and all that is frothy and sinful that one puts out the other if you would retain the one you must let the other go CHAP. VI. Of the Spirituality of the devils nature and their extreme wickednesse Against spiritual wickednesse THese words are the fourth branch in the deseription Spiritual wickednesses and our contest or combate with them as such exprest by the adversative particle Against in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word Against the Spirituals of wickednesse which is say some against wicked spirits that is true but not all I conceive with many Interpreters not only the spiritual nature of the devil and the wickednesse thereof to be intended but also yea chiefly the nature and kinde of those sins which these wicked spirits do most usually and vigourously provoke the Saints unto and they are the spirituals of wickednesse not those grosse fleshly sinnes which the herd of beastly sinners like swine wallow in but sin spirituallized and this because it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spirits but spirituals The words present us with these three doctrinal Conclusions First the devils are spirits Secondly the devils are spirits extremely wicked Thirdly these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual wickednesses First of the first SECT I. First they are spirits Spirit is a word of various acception in Scripture Amongst other used often to set forth the essence and nature of Angels good and evil both which are called spirits The holy Angels Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits The evil There came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him 1 Kings 22.21 that spirit was a devil How oft is the devil call'd the unclean spirit foule spirit lying spirit c. Sin did not alter their substance for then as one saith well that nature and substance which transgrest could not be punish't First the devil is a spirit that is his essence is immaterial and simple not compounded as corporal beings are of matter and forme Handle and see me saith Christ to his disciples that thought they had seen a Spirit a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luke 24.39 If they were not thus immaterial how could they enter into bodies and possesse them as the Scripture tells us they have even a legion into one man Luke 8.30 one body cannot thus enter into another Secondly the devils are spiritual substances not qualities or evil motions arising from us as some have absurdly conceived So the Sadduces and others following them deny any such being as Angel good or evil but this is so fond a conceit that we must both forfeit our reason and deny the Scriptures to maintain it where we finde their Creation related Col. 1.18 the fall of some from their first estate Jude 6. and the standing of others called the Elect Angels The happinesse of the one who behold Gods face and their employment are sent out to attend on the Saints as servants on their Masters heirs Heb. 1. The misery of the other reserved in chaines of darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and their present work which is to do mischief to the souls and bodies of men as far as they are permitted all which shew their subsistence plain enough But so immerst is sorry man in flesh that he will not easily beleeve what he sees not with his fleshly eyes upon the same account we may deny the being of God himself because invisible Thirdly they are entire spiritual substances which have every very one proper existence and thus they are distinguish't from the souls of men which are made to subsist in a humane body and together with it to make one perfect man so that the soule though when separated from the body it doth exist yet hath a tendency to union with its body again Fourthly they are though entire spiritual substances yet finite being but creatures God only is the uncreated infinite and absolutely simple Spirit yea Father of all other spirits Now from this spiritual nature of the devil we may further see what a dreadful enemy we have to grapple with First as spirits they are of vast intellectual abilities Sorry man while in this dark prison of the body hath not light enough to know what Angelical perfections are that they excel in knowledge all other creatures we know because as Spirits they come nearest by Creation to the Nature of God that made them the heavens are not lift higher from the earth then Angels by knowledge from man while on earth Man by Art hath leatn't to take the height of the stars of heaven but where is he that can tell how far in knowledge Angels exceed man 'T is true they have lost much of that knowledge they had even all their knowledge as holy Angels what now they know of God hath lost its savour and they have no power to use it for their own good What Jude saith of wicked men may be said of them What they
know naturally in these things they corrupt themselves They know the holinesse of God but love him not for it as the Elect Angels do and themselves by Creation did They know the evil of sin and love it not the lesse but though they are such fooles for themselves yet have subtilty too much for all the Saints on Earth if we had not a God to play our game for us Secondly as spirits they are invisible and their approaches also They come and you see not your enemy Indeed this makes him so little feared by the ignorant world whereas it is his greatest advantage if rightly weighed O if men have an apparition of the devil or heare a noise in the night they cry The devil the devil and are ready to runne out of their wits for feare but they carry him in their hearts and walk all the day long in his company and feare him not When thy proud heart is clambering up to the pinacle of honour in thy ambitious thoughts who sets thee there but the devil When thy adulterous heart is big with all manner of uncleannesse and filthinesse who but Satan hath been there begetting these brats on thy whorish spirit When thou art raging in thy passion throwing burning coales of wrath and fury about with thy inflamed tongue where was it set on fire but of hell When thou art hurried like the swine into the precipice and even choakt with thy own drunken vomit who but the devil rides thee Thirdly as spirits they are immortal Of other enemies you may hear news at last that they are dead which sought thy life as the Angel told Joseph of Herod Persecuting men walk a turne or two upon the stage and are call'd off by death and there is an end of all their plots but devils die not they will hunt thee to thy grave and when thou diest they will meet thee in another world to accuse and torment thee there also Fourthly they are unwearied in their motions When the fight is over among men the Conquerour must sit down and breathe and so loseth the chase because not able to pursue it in time Yea some have given over their Empires as glutted with the blood of men and weary of the work when they cannot have their will as they desired Thus Dioclesian because he saw he did but mowe a medow that grew the thicker for the cutting down as Tertullian speaks of the Christians martyred he throws away his Scepter in a pet Charles the fifth did the like some say upon the same reason because he could not root out the Lutherans But the devils spirit is never cowed nor he weary of doing mischief though he hath never stood still since first he began his walk to and fro the world O what would become of us if a God were not at our back who is infinitely more the devils odds then he ours SECT II. Secondly they are wicked spirits wicked in the abstract as in the Text and call'd by way of eminency in sin The wicked one Mat. 13.19 As God is called the holy one because none holy as the Lord. So the devil the wicked one because he is a none such in sinne In a few particulars let us endeavour to take the height of the devils sinne and the rather that we may judge of the degrees of sins and sinners among the sons of men the neerer God in holinesse the more holy the liker the devil the more wicked First these Apostate Angels are the inventers of sinne the first that sounded the Trumpet of rebellion against their Maker and led the dance to all that sinne which since hath filled the world Now what tongue can accent this sinne to its full for such a noble creature whom God had set on the top as it were of all the creation neerest to himself from whom God had kept nothing but his own royal diadem for this Peere and Favorite of the Court without any cause or solicitation from any other to make this bold and blasphemous attempt to snatch at Gods own Crown this paints the devil blacker then the thoughts of men and Angels can conceive He is called the father of lies as those who found out any Art are called the father of it Jubal the father of all such as handle the harp and organ he invented Musick and this is a dreadful aggravation because they sinned without a Tempter And though man is not in such a degree capable of this aggravation yet some men sinne after the very similitude of the devils transgression in this respect who as Saint Paul Rom. 1.30 stiles them are inventers of evil things Indeed sinne is an old trade found out to our hand but as in other trades and arts some famous men arise who adde to the inventions of others and make trades and arts as it wtre new so there ever are some infamous in their generation that make old sinnes new by superadding to the wickednesse of others Uncleannesse is an old sinne from the beginning but the Sodomites will be filthy in a new way and therefore it carries their name to this day Some invent new errrors others new oathes such as are of their own coyning hot out of the mint they scorne to sweare after the old fashion Others new devices of perseuting as Julian had a way by himself different from all before him and to the end of the world every age will exceed other in the degrees of sinning Ishmael and the mockers of the old world were but children and bunglers to the scoffers and cruel mockers of the last time Well take heed of shewing thy wit in inventing new sinnes lest thou stirre up God to invent new punishments Is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Job 31.3 Sodom sinned after a new mode and God destroys them after a new way sends hell from above upon them Some have invented new opinions Monstrous errors and God hath suited their monstrous errors with births as monstrous of their own body Secondly they were not onely the inventers of sinne but are still the chief tempters to and promoters of sinne in the world therefore call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter and sinne called the work of the devil whoever commits it as the house goes by the name of the Master-workman though he useth his servants hands to build it O take heed of soliciting others to sinne thou takest the Devils office as I may say out of his hand let him do it himself if he will make not thy self so like him To tempt another is worse then to sinne thy self It speaks sinne to be of great growth in that man that doth it knowingly and willingly Herbs and flowers shed not their seed till ripe creatures propagate not till of stature and age What do those that tempt others but diffuse their wicked opinions and practices and as it were raise up seed to the devil thereby-to keep up the name of
the wickednesse of his heart in this glasse of the devils nature and he will see himself as a great debtor to the mercy of God as Manasses or the worst of sinners as in pardoning so in preventing the same cursed nature with theirs before it gave fire on God with those bloody sinnes which they committed That thou didst not act such outragious sinnes thou art beholden to Gods gracious surprize and not the goodnesse of thy nature which hath the devils stamp on it for which God might have crusht thee as we do the brood of Serpents before they sting knowing what they will do in time Who will say that Faux suffered unjustly because the Parliament was not blown up it was enough that the materials for that Massacre were provided and he taken there with match and fire about him ready to lay the traine and canst thou say when God first took hold on thee that thou had'st not those weapons of rebellion about thee a nature fully charged with enmity against God which in time would have made its own report of what for present lay like unfired ponder silent in thy bosome O Christian think of this and be humbled for thy villainous nature and say Blessed be God that sent his Spirit and grace so timely to stay thy hand as Abigail to David while thy nature meditated nothing but warre against God and his laws Vse 3 Again Thirdly are the devils so wickedly malicious against God himself O Sirs take the right notion of sinne and you will hate it The reason why we are so easily perswaded to sinne is because we understand not the bottome of his designe in drawing a creature to sinne It is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their drummes for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the Warre is against whom or for what Satan enticeth to sinne and give golden promises what they shall have in his service with which silly souls are won but how few ask their souls Whom do I sinne against what is the devils designe in drawing me to sinne Shall I tell thee dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostasie proclaim'd warre against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his designe in a siege And darest thou venture to go into the field upon his quarrel against God O Earth tremble thou at the presence of the Lord. This bloody Joab sets thee where never any came off alive O stand not where Gods bullets fly throw down thy armes or thou art a dead man Whatever others do O ye Saints abhorre the thoughts of sinning willingly which when you do you help the devil against God and what more unnatural then for a childe to be seen in armes against his father CHAP. VII Of Satans plot to defile the Christians spirit with heart-sinnes The second Point followes THat these wicked Spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual sinnes Sinnes may be called spiritual upon a double account either from the subject wherein they are acted or from the object about which they are conversant First in regard of the subject when the spirit or heart is the stage whereon sinne is acted this is a spiritual sinne such are all impure thoughts vile affections and desires though the object be fleshly lust yet are spiritual sinnes because they are purely acts of the soul and spirit and break not forth unto the outward man Secondly in regard of the object when that is spiritual and not carnal such as are idolatry errour spiritual pride unbelief c. both which Paul calls the filthinesse of the spirit and distinguisheth them from filthinesse of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 SECT I. First of the first Satan labours what he can to provoke the Christian to heart-sinnes to stirre up and foment these inward motions of sinne in the Christians bosome hence it is he can go about no duty but these his Impes I may call them haunt him one motion or other darts in to interrupt him as Paul tells us of himselfe When he would do good evil was present with him if a Christian should turne back when ever these crosse the way of him he should never go on his journey to heaven It is the chief game the devil hath left to play against the children of God now his field-army is broken and his commanding power taken away which he had over them to come out of these his holds where he lies sculking and fall upon their rear with these suggestions He knows his credit now is not so great with the soul as when it was his slave then no drudgery work was so base that it would not do at his command but now the soul is out of his bondage and he must not think to command anothers servant as his own No all he can do is to watch the fittest season when the Christian least suspects and then to present some sinful motion handsomely drest up to the eye of the soul that the Christian may before he is aware take this brat up and dandle it in his thoughts till at last he makes it his own by embracing it and this he knowes will defile the soul and may be this boy sent in at the window may open the door to let in a greater thief or if he should not so prevaile yet the guilt of these heart-sinnes yea their very neighbour-hood will be a sad vexation to a gracious heart whose nature is so pure that it abhorres all filthinesse so that to be haunted with such motions is as if a living man should be chain'd to a stinking carcase that where ever he goes he must draw that after him and whose love is so dear to Christ that it cannot bear the company of those thoughts without amazement and horrour which are so contrary and abusive to his beloved This makes Satan so desirous to be ever raking in the unregenerate part that as a dunghil stirr'd it may offend them both with the noisome streames which arise from it SECT II. Vse 1 First let this be for trial of thy spiritual state What entertainment findes Satan when he comes with these spirituals of wickednesse and solicites thee to dwell on them canst thou dispense with the filthinesse of thy spirit so thy hands be clean or dost thou wrestle against these heart-sinnes as well as others I do not ask whether such guests come within thy door for the worst of sinnes may be found in the
own example that he hardly made a Sermon for several yeares but this was part of it to warn every one night and day with teares We need not prophesie what Impostors may come upon the stage when we go off There are too many at present above board of this gang drawing disciples after them And if it be our duty to warn you of them surely 't is yours to watch lest you by any of them be led into temptation in this houre thereof wherein Satan is let loose in so great a measure to deceive the Nation May you not as easily be sowered with this leaven as the disciples whom Christ bids beware Are you priviledged above those famous Churches of Galatia and Corinth many of which were bewitched with false teachers and in a manner turned to another Gospel Is Satan grown Orthodox or have his instruments lost their cunning who hunt for souls In a word is there not a sympathy between thy corrupt heart and errour Hast thou not a disposition which like the fomes of the earth makes it natural for these weeds to grow in thy soile Seest thou not many prostrated by this enemy who sate upon the mountain of their faith and thought it should never have been removed surely they would have tooke it ill to have been told you are the men and women that will decry Sabbaths which now ye count holy you will turn Pelagians who now defie the name you will despise Prophecie it self who now seem so much to honour the Prophets you will throw family-duties out of doors who dare not now go out of doors till you have prayed there Yet these and more then these are come to passe and doth it hot behove thee Christian to take heed lest thou fallest also and that thou mayest not First make it thy chief care to get a through change of thy heart If once the root of the matter be in thee and thou beest bottom'd by a lively faith on Christ thou art then safe I do not say wholly free from all errour but this I am sure free from ingulphing thy soule in damning errour They went out from us saith Saint John but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 John 2.19 As if he had said they had some outward Profession and common work of the Spirit with us which they have either lost or carried over to the devils quarters but they never had the unction of the sanctifying Spirit By this verse 20. he distinguisheth them and comforts the sincere ones who possibly might feare their own fall by their departure But ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things 'T is one thing to know a truth and another thing to know it by unction An hypocrite may do the former the Saint only the latrer It is this unction which gives the soule the savour of the knowledge of Christ those are the fit prey for Impostors who are enlightened but not enlivened O it 's good to have the heart establish't with grace this as an anchor will keep us from being set a drift and carried about with divers and strange doctrines as the Apostle teacheth us Heb. 13.9 Secondly ply the work of mortification Crucifie the flesh daily Heresie though a spiritual sinne yet by the Apostle reckon'd among the deeds of the flesh Gal. 5.20 because it is occasioned by fleshly motives and nourisht by carnal food and fuel Never any turn'd Heretick but flesh was at the bottome either they serv'd their belly or a lust of pride 't was the way to Court or secur'd their estates and saved their lives as sometimes the reward of truth is fire and fagot some pad or other is in the straw when least seen and therefore it 's no wonder that heresies should end in the flesh which in a manner sprang from it The rheume in the head ascends in fumes from the stomack and returnes thither or unto the lungs which at last fret and ulcerate Carnal affections first send up their fumes to the understanding clouding that yea bribing it to receive such and such principles for truths which imbraced fall down into the life corrupting that with the ulcer of profanenesse So that Christian if once thou canst take off thy engagements to the flesh and become a free-man so as not to give thy vote to gratifie thy carnal fears or hopes thou wilt then be a sure friend to truth Thirdly waite conscionably on the Ministery of the Word Satan commonly stops the eare from hearing sound Doctrine before he opens it to embrace corrupt This is the method of soules apostatizing from truth 2 Tim. 4.3 4. They shall turn their eares from the truth and shall be turned unto fables Satan like a cunning thief drawes the soul out of the road into some lane or corner and there robs him of the truth By rejecting of one Ordinance we deprive our selves of the blessing of all other say not that thou prayest to be led into truth he will not hear thy prayer if thou turnest thine eare from hearing the law He that loves his child when he sees him play the truant will whip him to school If God loves a soul he will bring him back to the Word with shame and sorrow Fourthly When thou hearest any unusual Doctrine though never so pleasing make not up the match hastily with it have some better testimony of it before you open your heart to it The Apostle indeed bids us entertain strangers for some have entertain'd Angels unawares Heb. 13.3 but he would not have us carried about with strange Doctrine vers 9. by this I am sure some have entertained devils I confesse 't is not enough to reject a doctrine because strange to us but ground we have to wait and enquire Paul marvelled that the Galatians were so soon removed from him who had called them unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel they might sure have stayed till they had acquainted Paul with it and asked his judgement what no sooner an Impostour come into the countrey and open his pack but buy all his ware at first sight O friends were it not more wisdom to pray such new notions over and over again to search the Word and our hearts by it yea not to trust our own hearts but call in counsel from others If your Minister have not such credit with you yet the most holy humble and establish't Christians you can finde Errour is like fish which must be eaten new or it will stink When those dangerous errours sprung up first in New England O how unsettled were many of the Churches what an outis was made as if some mine of gold had been discovered but in a while when those errours came to their complexion and it was perceived whither they were bound to destroy Churches Ordinances and Power of Godlinesse then such as feared God who had stept aside returned back with shame and
up 't is a sad signe he means not to sowe the seed of grace there O sinners pray as he did request Peter for him that none of these things may come upon you which that they may not take heed thou rejectest not the offers he makes to soften thee Gods hardening is a consequent of and a punishment for our hardening our own hearts 'T is most true what Prosper saith Potest homo invitus amittere temporalia non nisi volens amittere spiritualia A man may lose temporals against hia will but not spirituals God will harden none damn none against their will CHAP. XII Sheweth what the Prize is which believers wrestle against these Principalities Powers and Spiritual wickednesses for In High Places SECT I. THese words contain the last Branch in the description of our grand enemy which have in them some ambiguity the Adjective being only exprest in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in heavenlies the phrase being defective our Translatours read it in high or heavenly places as if the Apostle intended to set out the advantage of place which this our enemy by being above us hath of us Indeed this way most Interpreters go yet some both ancient and modern reade the words not in heavenly places but in heavenly things interpreting the Apostles mind to set out the matter about which or prize for which we wrestle with Principalities and Powers to be heavenly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Oecumenius is as much as if the Apostle had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We wrestle not for small and trivial things but for yea for heaven it self and our Adoption as he goes on The same way Chrysostome carries it in coelestibus id est pro coelestibus Dei And after him Musculus and other modern Writers The Reasons which are given for this Interpretation are weighty First the word elsewhere indefinitely set down is taken for things not places Heb. 8.5 nay one observes this word to be used almost twenty times in the New Testament and never for any aërial place but alwayes for things truly heavenly and spiritual the word indeed properly signifies supercelestial and if applied to places would signifie that where the devil never came since his fall Lastly there seems no great argument to render Satan formidable by his being above us in place 't is some advantage indeed to men togain the hill or be above their enemies in some place of strength but none at all to spirits but now take it of things and then it addes weight to all the other branches of the description We wrestle with Principalities and Powers and Spiritual wickednesse and against all these not for such toyes and trifles as the earth affords which are inconsiderable whether to keep or lose but for such as heaven holds forth such an enemy and such a prize makes it a matter of our greatest care how to manage the combate The word thus opened the note will be this SECT II. The chief prize for which we wrestle against Satan is heavenly Or thus Satans main designe is to spoil and plunder the Christian of all that is heavenly Indeed all the Christian hath or desires as a Christian is heavenly the world is extrinsecal both to his being and happinesse it is a stranger to the Christian and intermeddles not with his joy nor grief Heap all the riches and honours of the world upon a man they will not make him a Christian heap them on a Christian they will not make him a better Christian Again take them all away let every bird have his feather when stript and naked he will still be a Christian and may be a better Christian It was a notable speech of Erasmus if spoken in earnest and his wit were not too quick for his conscience Nihilo magìs ambio opes dignitates quà m elumbis equus graves sarcinas He said he desired wealth and honour no more then a feeble horse doth a heavy cloak-bag And I think every Christian in his right temper would be of his minde Satan should do the Saint little hurt if he did bend his forces only or chiefly against his outward enjoyments alas the Christian doth not value them or himself by them this were as if one should think to hurt a man by beating of his clothes when he hath put them off So far as the Spirit of grace prevails in the heart of a Saint he hath put off the world in the desire of it and joy in it so that these blowes are not much felt and therefore they are his heavenly treasures which are the booty Satan waits for SECT III. First the Christians nature is heavenly borne from above As Christ is the Lord from heaven so all his off-spring are heavenly and holy now Satans design is to debase and deflower this 't is the precious life of this new creature that he hunts for he hath lost that beauty of holinesse which once shone so gloriously on his Angelical nature and now like a true Apostate he endeavours to ruine that in the Christian which he hath lost himself The seeds of this warre are sowen in the Christians nature you are holy that he cannot endure Milet feri faciem was Caesars speech when to fight with the Romane Citizens he bade his souldiers strike at their face these Citizens said he love their beauty marre that and marre all The soul is the face whereon Gods image is stamp't holinesse is the beauty of this face which makes us indeed like God this Satan knowes God loves and the Saint is chary of and therefore he labours to wound and disfigure this that he may at once glory in the Christians shame and poure contempt upon God in breaking his image and is it not worth engaging limbe and life in battel against this enemy who would rob us of that which makes us like God himself Have you forgot the bloody Articles of peace that Nahash offered to the men of Jabesh-Gilead no peace to be had except they would let him thrust out their right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel which how it was entertained reade 1 Sam 11.6 The face is not so deformed that hath lost its eye as the soule is that loseth its holinesse and no peace to be expected at Satans hands except he may deprive us of this Me thinks at the thought of this the Spirit of the Lord should come upon the Christian and his anger should be kindled much more against this cursed spirit then Sauls and the men of Israels was against Nahash Secondly the Christians trade is heavenly the merchandize he deals for is of the growth of that heavenly Countrey Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven Every mans conversation is suitable to his calling he whose trade lies in the earth minds earthly things and he whose trade is heavenly followes that close Every man mindes his own businesse the Apostle tells us You may possibly finde