milk and butter in a lordly dish till he sleeps and then nothing but the hammer and the nail till he dyes So the Devil disclaim he what Cruelties and profess he what Kindnesses he will be we sure of this He never seeks to possess any man but to tyrannize over him to ruine him and spiritually undo him if he can Whosoever credits a Lyar is deceived but he that will credit the known Father of Lyes John 8 44 loves to be deceived and undone And next to keep him out two things are necessary Iam. 2.17 18 1. To See him by Faith 2. To bolt the Door against him by Works of Obedience 1. To See him Some Rules should be borrowed from the Opticks for the seeing things exactly with our bodily eyes That it is requisite that the Object be rightly placed that is In a direct Opposition and not too near us We cannot see a thing in its compleat proportion on the same side we are neither behind us nor if it be placed just beside us If a man would plainly and perfectly in each Dimension behold one in this side of the Room he must step over to the other side So he that would see the Devil in his Pride shall never perceive him so long as he is proud himself for so long he stands on the same side the Devil doth But if he go over unto the other side of Humility then he shall plainly see the Devil in his Pride so in his Malice and Hypocrisie c. The reason why so few discern him in his Slights and Deformities is because so many stand on the same side Then be sure we stand not too near for if the Organ be too near the Object the beams of the sight will be confounded There must be a Mediocrity of distance the Eye not too near nor too far off for if a man would perceive the Art of a prospective Picture he must go a distance from it and look on it not with Natural eyes only but with the help of Artificial eyes or Spectacles fitted for the purpose else no discerning of the Mystery in it Semblably if a man would plainly see this mysterious Prospect of the Devil with all his deep Shadows and profound Devices and Deceits he must endeavor to go from him that he may perceive him and then look not with the eyes of Nature or Reason which hardly or never discern him 1 Ioh 2 20. but with the eye of Faith cleared with Gods Word and anointed with Gods Spirit which will plainly discover him The next Means to keep the Devil out of Possession is to shut the Door against him by good Works of holy Obedience for Conscience sake Christian diligence in lawful Callings even in the lowest places of hewing wood and drawing water especially if the heart be fortified with the spirit of Grace and Prayer is no small means to keep out the working Devil who hath Idleness for his Anvil Gen. 2.15 Adam was set by God to work in Paradise Hieronimus ad Rusticum ut quando Diabolus venit inveniat occupatum but was idle when the Devil was at work with him by Temptations And therefore let me advise you as He did his Friend To be always doing of some good thing that when the Devil comes he may find you busie The Door shut against him and you not at leasure to give him entertainment And then let every Soul earnestly observe quid genus Daemonum what kind of evil Spirit it is that doth most strongly beset if not possess it For as there are Diversities of Devils and Diversities of Sins so are there Differences in Casting out of Sins Though in respect of Gods absolute Power all are alike easie yet in regard of mans capacity or incapacity some sins are cast out and some Souls cured with the less and some with the greater difficulty Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil spirit of Unbelief Heb. 3.12 Joh. 20.25 27 Incredulity Vain-glory and Hypocrisie this kind cannot come forth easily Bribery Perjury Cruelty this kind is cured hardly And of like kind are Drunkenness Uncleanness Covetousness Rebellion Witchcraft And especially beware of any customary and presumptuous sins this is a kind not to be cast out ordinarily For as there was no little ado to restore to life Jairus his daughter dead in the house Mark 5 41 Luke 7.14 More about the Widows son carryed out dead in the gate but Most of all about Lazarus buried dead in the grave so long till he stank Ioh. 11.44 for Martha wept and Mary wept and the Jews wept yea Jesus himself wept and groaned in his spirit Semblably There goes Much besides private Admonition to Raise the secret shame-fac'd Sinner Mat. 18.15 that with Jairus his daughter is but dead as in the house and within doors Mat. 18.16 17 Ezek. 2.4 And More besides publique Reprehension to Raise the open impudent Sinner that with the Widows son is as dead in the gate without doors like Absalom in the face of the Sun But Most of all besides weeping and groaning and with Mary lamenting Lord Ioh. 11 21. if thou hadst been here my Brother had not dyed to Raise the customary stinking Sinner that with Lazarus is as dead and buried in the grave of Custom for this is the worst kind pleading Custom and most hard to be cast out It were good to pray Davids prayer with Davids spirit Psal 19.12 13. Cleanse thou me from secret sins for even this is an evil kind not easily cast out But it were good to heat the furnace of our Devotions yet seven times more then it was wont to be heat if possible when we come to this Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me Then shall I be upright and innocent from the great or much Transgression For this is the worst kind very hard to be cast out Take we heed therefore of giving Dispensations of witting or willing Allowance and Indulgence to any sin for beleeve it the least sin committed presumptuously will weigh too heavy in the ballance of the Sanctuary And finally If an evil Spirit of any kind hath got possession that Christs Ordinances cannot cast out Mark 9.18 as Christs Disciples here in this kind could not Then be sure to remember the words of the Lord Jesus Vers 19. Bring him unto me If neither Word nor Sacrament will do it try what Prayer will do Present thy heart as that father did his son to Christ and say Lord here is my heart possest with an evil spirit of Infidelity or of Obduracy or of Pride or any other Impiety c. I have often carried it to the Word and to the Sacrament and to other of thine Ordinances that they should cast him out and yet They could not Now sith thou hast said Bring him unto me behold Lord in Obedience to thy Command and in Confidence of thy Promise I here present it naked and prostrate before thee Strike where thou wilt so thou cure Handle it how thou pleasest so thou cast it not out of thy hands Lord I beleeve help thou my unbelief Speak thou but the word and my heart shall be dispossessed mollified humbled and sanctified c. Pray I say and I say again Pray who can tell what Prayer may do Oh the Wonders of Salvation wrought by Prayer in all the Elements from the highest Heaven to the lowest Hell Aug. Deo sacrificium Homini subsidium Daemonibâ—â— flagellam as a Sacrifice to God Help to Man and Scourge to Satan And indeed if the Spirit of Grace and Adoption beget it if the Spirit of Grace and Regeneration conceive it and if the wings of Faith and Fervency do carry it through the Angels hand c. what can hinder it Iam. 5.16 Rev. 8.4 Not for the meer excellency that is in it self nor for the bare Faculty of it but for Gods Institution and Appointment of it to this end singling of it out to this purpose in his own Acceptance This is it that does it whereby Prayer rightly Rooted and rightly Regulated can do Miracles when nothing else can do it even cast out Devils as here in the present Case of our Text This Kind can come forth by nothing but by Prayer and Fasting Which might be easily brought up but that the Well is deep and I doubt here is no Bucket to draw Therefore so much shall serve for this time of this thing 2 Tim. 2.7 Consider what is said and God give you understanding in all things Amen FINIS
and shame The first Occasion 2. Upon the Churches just sentence of Excommunication Clave non errante rightly and duly administred for some crying sins and scandalous offences An heavy Ordinance which casts men out of the Church into ghostly torments and spiritual agonies in Conscience by Satan St Paul may well say 2 Cor. 2 6. Sufficient is this Punishment c. which cutteth men off from communion with the Saints of God Sufficient indeed which cutteth men off from communion with God himself the God and all the Good of the Saints Sufficient indeed for dismal Consequences the hiding and withdrawing of the light of his Countenance the witness of his Spirit and the comforts of his gracious Presence Sufficient to such a one c. He needs no more punishment to be sure created Nature being capable of no greater here This is the Case of the incestuous Corinthian and it admits of two heavy Aggravations in that very Text 1 Cor. 5.4 5 both from the Judg and Executioner 1. In the Name and with the Power of the Lord Iesus Christ Verse 4 That is by a Commission from Christ which issuing out in his Name when the Church proclaims it on Earth Christ signs it in Heaven And this is an heavy case to be cut off and cast out by Christ the Redeemer by Jesus the Saviour It is not a small cloud that will hide this Sun Rev. 6 16 not a light matter that will anger this Lamb. 2. Vers 5. 1 Pet. 5.8 Rev. 12.9 Psa 27.12 To deliver such an one unto Satan the grand Adversary of Mankind the Devil And this also is an heavy case David deprecates it as a fearful evil To be given over unto the will of his enemies though but corporal and temporal Of how much deeper deprecation may it be thought worthy to be delivered up unto the will of The Enemy spiritual and immortal who is big with Malice never satisfied but with blood and death 1 Sam 22.18 Fall upon him Doeg was an hard saying of Saul Fall upon him Devil a harder saying of God And yet that same Text affords as many Extenuations both from the Restraint and End 1. For the destruction of the flesh Lo Satan is restrained in destroying Ps 104 26 Iob 38.11 That Leviathan hath bounds set him as well as that Element he plays in Hitherto shalt thou come and no further Iob 1.12 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed As there in Job's case first restrained to his Goods and Children Hitherto and no further Iob. 2.6 then to his Body only Hitherto and no further So here in the Corinthians case the Destroyer is restrained to the flesh For the destraction of the Flesh Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed 2. For the destruction of the flesh That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Lo Satan is ordered and overruled to another End then he intends not to accomplish 1 Tim. 1.19 2 Tim. 3.13 2 Pet. 2.20 but to spoyl his own works however he get his own end with Hypocrites carrying them on to more sin waxing worse and worse their latter end worse then their beginning but with Gods own he is compelled to Gods end 2 Cor. 12.7 As there in Pauls case That he might be humbled to that end and no other So here in the Corinthians case That his flesh might be destroyed and his spirit saved to this end Rom. 6.6 Rev. 3 2. and no other That sin might decrease and grace increase That the old man might be crucified and the new enlarged in him Thus by the Devils Commission upon the Churches Censure for scandalous Crimes which is the second Occasion 3. Upon Gods own Excommunication by Divine Desertion the Church neglecting her office in that kind God himself sometimes doth cut off and cast out as it were excommunicate mens spirits from his gracious Presence and deliver them up to the Devil by terrors to fright them back and whip them home to himself again As in the cases of Job and David giving them occasion to say of such terrors preventing sin as David to Abigail preventing blood Blessed be thou of the Lord that thou hast met me this day 1 Sam. 25.32 and blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me c. God often sets the Devil to hedg up the way of Christians with his Terrors and evil men with Afflictions and Persecutions as it were with thorns as was threatened or promised the Church of old Hosea 2.6 I will hedg up thy way with thorns c. And blessed thorns which hide and stop every path to sin Upon all these Occasions God grants the Devil some power in commission in common as it were over Good and Bad but with great difference Over the Bad Ephe. 6.12 Ephes 2.2 2 Tim. 2.26 1 Cor 12 2 2 Cor 4.4 as their Ruler The Rulers of darkness of this world as their Head Working in the Children of Disobedience as their Conqueror Taken captive by him c. as their God The God of this world hath blinded their minds c. Over the Good only as a Jaylor over his Prisoners For a righteous Judg may commit his own son that is a Malefactor into the hands of a Jaylor not at his absolute arbitrary power to kill or rack or whip at his will and pleasure but according to warrant and commission And thus God commits some of his own into the hands of this Jaylor as by the particular warrant appears This Warrant is recorded by which the Jaylor is in greater Chains then the Prisoners Rev. 2.10 Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison that ye may be Tryed And ye shall have Tribulation Ten days The Church of Smyrna whom it concerned is bid Behold Behold their Jaylor as well as themselves his Prisoners Behold their Jaylor in Chains of Three Limitations Limitations in all the Circumstances of Persons Time and Place of Affliction 1. In the Persons and Number of the Afflicted The Devil would have All in his hands but he is there in Chains Not All but some of you 2. In the Place and Nature of the Affliction The Devil would have it Hell and Destruction but he is there also in Chains Not so but into Prison and Tribulation that ye may be Tryed 3. In the Time and Duration The Devil would have it like his own Chains Everlasting but he is here too in Chains of Limitation Not so but for Ten days And then shall be heard the saying that was prophecyed Prisoners go ye forth and ye that are in darkness shew your selves Isai 49.9 Therefore Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer but be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life And thus for the Manner and Occasions of Gods granting the Devil such Power
fears and neglects of Duty in our difficult and perplexed Times It is a Naked one without Dedication like the Author now without a Patron Now no Patron but God and therefore no Dedicatory Epistle but Prayer To be hid in the secret of his Presence from the Pride of Men Psa 22.12 Psa 68.30 and to be kept secretly in his Pavilion from that strife of Tongues To be delivered by the Grace of his Power from David's Beasts Calves and Bulls of the people 2 The 3.2 and from Paul's unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith That God would by the Power of his Grace bless and prosper even This Plain This Rough-hewn This Naked Piece unto Thee and Thee unto thy self and Me who am Thine in Him who is ours if we be His even the Lord Jesus Christ To whom be All the Honour of his Grace and Power now and ever Amen MARK 9.29 This Kind can come forth by nothing but by Prayer and Fasting ALthough Coherence make much for the understanding of Scripture-Texts yet Copiousness of Matter and Scantness of Time may forbid to insist thereon An easie Reflection on the foregoing Argument would clear the Connexion and shew the Dependance But I am loth to lead your Attention so far back as the 14th Verse where our Context begins lest I detain you too long in the Porch of a Preface having but one hour to stay with you in the House of this Discourse This Story here as it stands upon sacred Record is very obvious The sum whereof is this 1. Here is a Poor Son miserably possessed with the worst kind of Devils Wheresoever he taketh him he teereth him Verse 18 20 22. that he walloweth fometh gnasheth with his teeth and consumeth away casteth him into the fire and into the water to destroy him c. A poor Son 2. Here is a Sad Father grievously perplexed solicitous how to cure him and happily hearing of a Society of men in the world that had even evil Spirits subject unto them brings him to Christs Disciples that they might cast this evil Spirit out And they could not saith the Text. A sad Father Verse 18. 3. Here is a Sound Doctor Christ who hearing of it readily undertakes it Verse 19 26 27. Bring him to me and really effects it c. 4. Hereupon the Disciples as unsatisfied so soon as they can for shame desire to be resolved why they could not do it Verse 28 Christ tells them that this was no such petty common easie kind of Devil as to be turned out at their meer word-bidding as by slight Spells or Charms But here was need not only of Faith and Prayer Verse 29 but also of Fasting and extraordinary Humiliation as by an holy and more set and solemn Conjuration to cast such a kind of Devil as This out of his old possession Which leads your Attentions to this Text And when he was come into the house his Disclples asked him privately Why could not we cast him out And He said unto them This kind can come forth by nothing but by Prayer and Fasting I need not open the door of this Text with the key of any acurate Division The words do easily and plainly open and divide themselves into three parts viz. The Malady The Recovery The Remedy 1. The Malady and Disease pointed at in the terms of This Kind 2. The Recovery and Cure intimated in the terms of Coming forth 3. The Remedy and Medicine expressed in the two Ingredients of Prayer and Fasting This Kind can come forth by nothing but by Prayer and Fasting But before I come to speak of the particulars give me leave to deliver this Note in general from the Connexion of these words with the former wherein is propounded a Question by the Disciples Why they could not cast this evil Spirit out Why could not we c. In which I observe Though some godly people in former Ages were furnished at divers times with an extraordinary Power of working strange Miracles yet they had not this Power Absolute could not put it forth of themselves but as they were still holpen by Divine Dispensation 'T is not Absolute in Man but still Arbitrary in God And therefore Joseph's answer to Pharaoh was Gen 41.16 It is not in me God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace But why not in thee good Joseph Thou hadst that gift of God Gen. 40.12 19. Thou couldst give the Butler and the Baker an answer of their dreams was not That in thee why not the King then an answer of his dream No not in me neither That nor This absolutely Gen. 40.8 but as God was still pleased to dispense and go along with me Do not Interpretations belong to God And Moses that mighty man of God who at one time was so powerful with God when God called out unto him Exo. 32.10 Let me alone that I may consume them c. and seemed to stop the mouth of his importunity by saying I will make of thee a great Nation as if Heaven had suffered violence indeed and God could not do as he would as if tyed by the spiritual force of Moses's faithful and zealous prayers c. Yet at another time he makes question of his prevalency with God And now I will go up Verse 30. peradventure I shall make an attonement for you c. to shew us that 't is not the absolute excellency or faculty of prayer that prevails with God but Gods own condescending goodness in providing and accepting such a means as prayer in designing and singling out such a thing as prayer unto such an effect as prevailing with him through his own Condescention And thus the God of strength like Sampson the strong shews us a way how to bind his own hands but still at his own power and pleasure Joel 2.14 Who can tell if he will return c. saith the Prophet Dan. 2.16 19 And Daniel could not give answer to Nebuchadnezzar's dream till he craved some time and had the secret revealed unto him by God Verse 30. humbly acknowledging as it were with Joseph It is not in me for any wisdom that is in me c. it is still with God And in the New Testament Luk. 10.17 Acts 6.8 Act. 19.11 12 â— Cor. 12.10 the Apostles and Disciples of the Lord Jesus were wonderfully endowed with strange power of effecting great Miracles in curing Diseases and casting out of Devils as subject unto them yet not so absolute but as it was given them by divine Dispensation and Limitation Disoipulerum opprobrium as here in this case is seen they were non-plust and at a stand Why could not we cast him out And now what shall we say to this or rather what will this say to us 1. Opprobrium Romanorum For Confutation of our Enemies at Rome and would God we had fewer of them at home who would