he adds to this purpose that if these honours had been given to the Favorites of God and Champions of true Religion it had been well enough and for this shews the example and custom of Christians then to go to the Tombs of Martyrs there to pray in honour of their blessed Spirits And although at first they might be more modest in honouring the Martyrs than now they are according to that of Austin These Observances at the Tombs of Martyrs saith he are only Ornaments of their Memories not Sacrifices to them as to Gods Yet this soon slid into greater Abuse insomuch that Lud. Vives in his Notes on that Chapter blames those of his own time for worshipping Saints as Gods and tells us he cannot see the Difference betwixt the Opinion concerning Saints as generally practised and that of the Heathens concerning their Gods I might add the positive acknowledgment of Beatus Rhenanus Jacobus de Voragine concerning the burning of Candles to the Virgin Mary which Custom they confest was borrowed from the Heathens with a respect to the frowardness of Paganism and a design not to exasperate them that they might gain them I might also shew that the Mischeif of this Design of accomodating Truth to a compliance with different Parties hath not only shewn it self in introducing strange Actions and Ceremonies but hath also discovered it self in leavening Mens Judgments in reference to Opinion Calvin conjectures that those confident Assertions of the Powers of Nature were first occasioned by an over officious willingness to reconcile the Doctrine of the Scripture with the Opinions of Philosophy and that Men being unwilling to run the hazard of the Scorn which they might meet with in contradicting the general received Principles of Philosophers were willing to form the Doctrine of Truth relating to Human Ability accordingly Abundance of Instances of this kind may be given Whence came the Doctrine of Purgatory but from hence 'T is but Plato's Philosophy Christianized by the Roman Synagouge He divided all Men into three Ranks the Virtuous who are placed by him in the Elysian Feilds the desperate Vngodly these he adjudgeth to everlasting Fire and a third sort betwixt the perfectly Virtuous and he desperately Wicked he sendeth to Acheron to be purged by Punishment All this Eusebius makes mention of at large That the Papists derived their Purgatory from hence is generally affirmed by Protestants nay not only in these Cases but in very many more Corruptions have entred into Christianity by an over eager endeavour to make the Doctrine of the Scriptures to run even with the Sayings and Assertions of the Schools of Philosophers a thing complained of old by Tertullian who plainly affirmed the Philosophers to be the Patriarchs of the Hereticks To which agrees that Observation of Dr. Owen That those who either apologized for Christians or refuted the Objections of the Heathens against Christianity frequently cited the Opinions or Sentences of the Philosophers and accommodated them to their purpose that so they might beget in their Adversaries more friendly Perswasions towards the Christian Religion by evidencing that the Mysteries thereof were not absurd nor dissonant from Reason seeing they might be justified by the Sayings of their own Philosophers And here was laid in this Design and its Prosecution and surely it pleased its Vndertakers not a little the Foundation of that Evil which Religion hath since groaned under that Men made bold with the tremendous Mysteries of Christianity to accommodate them unwarily to the Notions of the Gentiles And this the Apostle Paul foresaw in that Caution he gave Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any Man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Certainly the Snare is neither unusual nor weak where the Caution is so serious 'T is a thing naturally pleasing to be the Inventer of any new thing or to make new Discoveries in Religion to raise new Hypotheses or to adventure in unbeaten Paths for a Reconcilement of Religion to any Notion or Practice famous for its Antiquity or pretence to Beauty and Decency Men hug themselves when they can make several things to hit right and an exact suiting of Parallels is instead of Demonstration By this foolish delight the Devil makes Men bold to make Essays and what doth answer their humour passeth currant for undoubted Truth 5. He doth sometime blind the Understanding by working up the Affections to such an earnest Opposition to some Error that in a forward haste they cast the Mind upon a contrary Extreme so that through an hasty violent avoidance of one Error they are cast upon a contrary and it may be as dangerous as that they fly from And this the Devil doth with great ease having the plausible pretence of Zeal and Care to Truth wherein the Affections being highly ingaged the Mind in a careless Confidence doth easily overshoot the Truth which commonly lies in the middle and thinks it doth well enough if it gives the greatest Contradiction to the Error now to be abominated Men in this Case having their eyes only fixed upon what they would avoid consider not so much whither they are going as from what they go So that seeking as Men in a fright to avoid the Pit that is before them they run backward into another behind them This is such a noted Stratagem of Satan that all Men take notice of it the general though all Men do not improve the Discovery for their own particular Caution The wisest of Men are often so befooled by their violent resistance of an Vntruth that they readily overshoot themselves and miss the Mark. The Fathers in the heat of dispute said many things so inconveniently that those who come after do see and lament these hasty Oversights and have no other way to salve their Credit but by giving this Observation in excuse for them And it may be observed that some Errors which have risen from this Root at first have so strongly fixed themselves that they have grown up to the great annoyance of the Truth while the contrary Errors that did occasion them are forgotten and their memories are perished I shall but instance in one instead of many and that shall be Arrianism how sadly prevalent that hath been in its time all Men know that know any thing of Church History the Christian World once groaned under it But that which gave the first occasion to Arrius to fix himself in that Error was the Doctrine of Alexander who discoursing of the Vnity in the Trinity too nicely seemed to justify the Error of Sabellius who had taught as also Noetus before that there was but one Person in the Trinity called by divers Names of Father Son and Spirit according to different occasions the Trinity according to his Doctrine being not of Persons but of Names and Functions While Arrius was dissatisfied with this account of
patronized and commonly such Men either fix upon such places as give warning of the necessary concomitances of the Spirit and Heart with the outward Act of service and from hence separating what God hath joyned together they set up Spiritual Sabbaths Spiritual Baptism Spiritual Worship to cry down and cashier the external Acts of such Ordinances or they pretend kindred to Scripture as prophesying or foretelling those new Administrations which they are about to set up Let H. Nicholas be an instance of this who though he decryed the Service of the Law under God the Father and the Service of the Belief under Christ and in the room of both these would set up another Administration under the Spirit yet that he might be the better believed he applyed several Scriptures to his purpose as Prophetically foretelling H. Nicholas and his services and would have Men imagine that he was that Angel flying in the midst of Heaven with the Everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6. And that Prophet enquired after by the Jews Joh. 1. 21. Art thou that Prophet and that Man ordained to Judg the World Act. 17. 31. And that the times of his Dispensation were the times of Perfection and Glory spoken of in 1 Cor. 13. 9. and Heb. 6. 1. The like pretences for new Administrations had Saltmarsh and several others Satan fixing his Foot upon this Design and taking advantage of Mens Ignorance Curiosity and Pride c. it is impossible to tell what he may do he hath introduced many Heresies already and none knows what may be behind many passages of Scripture are dark to the wisest of Men a great many more are so to the common sort of Christians A great many wits are imployed by him as Adventurers for new Discoveries and a small pretence is ground enough for a bold Undertaker to erect a new Notion upon and a new Notion in Religion is like a new Fashion in Apparel which bewitcheth the unsteady with an itch to be in it before they well understand what it is So that 't is alike impossible to stint the just number of Errours as to adjust the various pretences from Scripture upon which they may be countenanced Leaving therefore this task to those that can undertake it I shall only note a particular or two of Satans cunning in affixing an Errour upon Scripture First In any grand design of Error he endeavours to lay the Foundation of it as near to Truth as he can but yet so that in the tendency of it it may go as far from it as may be As some Rivers whose first Fountains are contiguous have notwithstanding a direct contrary course in their Streams For instance in those Errors that tend to overthrow the doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ and Ordinances and these are things which the Devil hath a great spite at he begins his work with plausible pretences of Love and Admiration of Christ and Grace he proceeds from thence to the pretence of purer Enjoyments from thence to a dislike of such Preachers and Preaching as threaten Sin and speak out the wrath of God against Iniquity and these are presently called Legal Preachers and the doctrine of Duty a Legal Covenant having them once at this point they easily come to immediate Assistances and special Gifts which they pretend to have above others being thus set up they are for free Grace and the enjoyment of God in Spirit from thence they come to Christian Liberty and by degrees Duties are unnecessary there is no Christ but within them and being freed from the Law whatever they do is no Transgression This is a Path that Satan hath trodden of old though now and then he may vary in some Circumstances and be forced to stop before he come to the utmost of his Journey You may observe this Method in the late Errors of New-England in the Familists of Germany and in those of Old-England in all which at the long-run Men are led as far from Scripture as Darkness is from Light Now this is not only to be seen in a progressive multiplication of Errors but often may we perceive the same subtilty of Satan in a simple Error as when he takes up part of a Truth which should stand in conjunction with another and sets it up alone against its own Companion where we shall have the name and pretence kept up but the thing quite destroyed God requires Services of Men and prescribes to their use Prayer Hearing Sacraments but because in these God is dishonoured when Men only draw near with their Lips he further tells us that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is of the Flesh c. This part are some Men so fixed upon that they think they are discharged of the other and in practice go quite from these duties and yet still they profess they are for Ordinances and the Worship of God just so are some Men for Christ but then 't is but the name not the thing they own Christ they say but then 't is Christ in them and Christ come in their Flesh but not that Christ that died at Jerusalem as a Sacrifice for the Sins of Men. Secondly Satan takes great care that an Errour be in all the ways of its propagation cloathed with Scripture phrases and the less the Errour can pretend to any plausible ground of Scripture the more doth he endeavour to adorn it with Scripture Language I understand this chiefly of such Errors as are designed for the Multitude so that though Scripture be not used to prove the Errour yet are Deceivers taught to express their conceptions by it and to accomodate the Words and Sentences of it to their purposes for besides pride and confidence Scriptural Eloquence is a necessary ingredient to make a powerful Deluder Observe the Ring-leaders of Errors and you shall find that ordinarily such have at first been studious of the Scriptures and though never able to digest them yet when they turned their Ears from Truth they have carried their Scripture Language which they had before brought themselves unto by long custom away with them and still retain it and express their Opinions by it Now this is a great advantage to Satan For First By this means the ignorant Multitude are often caught without any more ado if they hear Scripture Expressions they are apt to think that all is Truth which is spoken by them and they the rather believe it because they will imagine such Teachers to be well versed in Scripture and consequently either so honest or so knowing that they neither can nor will delude them Secondly There is a Majesty in Scripture which in some sence doth stick to the very expressions of it Men may perceive that generally Hearers are more affected with Scripture Eloquence than with Play-Book Language it hath as it were a charm in the words which makes the Ear attentive more than a quaint discourse starched up in the dresâ— of
ruine and whatsoever is said against this can be no prejudice to Spiritual holy Joy in God his Favour and Ways 4. Spiritual Comfort is also a badg of our Heavenly Father's kindness As Joseph the Son of his Fathers affections had a special testimony thereof in his party-coloured Coat so have Gods Favourites a peculiar token of his good Will to them when he gives them the Garments of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness if Spiritual Comfort be so advantagious to us it will be no wonder to see Satan so much rage against it it would be a satisfaction to him to tear these Robes off us to impede so needful a Duty to rob us of so much Strength and to bereave us of the sweet fruits of our Labours Thirdly It further appears that Satan's design is against the Comforts of God's Children by the many advantages he hath against them from the trouble and disquiet of their Hearts I shall reckon up the chief of them As 1. From the Trouble of the Spirit he raiseth confusions and distractions of Mind For 1. 'T is as natural to Trouble to raise up a swarm of muddy Thoughts as to a troubled Sea to cast up Mire and Dirt and hence is that comparison Isa 57. 20. a thousand fearful Surmises evil Cogitations Resolves and Counsels immediatly offer themselves This disorder of Thoughts Christ took notice of in his Disciples when they were in danger Why do thoughts arise in your hearts Luk. 24. 38. And David considered it as matter of great anxiety which called for speedy help Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Sometimes one fear is suggested then presently another now this doubt perplexeth then another question is begot by the former they think to take this course then by and by they are off that and resolve upon another and as quickly change again to a third and so onward one Thought succeeding another as Vapours from a boyling Pot. 2. Such Thoughts are vexatious and distracting the very Thoughts themselves being the poysonous steams of their running Sores are sadly afflictive and not unfitly called Cogitationes onerosae burdensom Thoughts But as they wrap up a Man in Clouds and Darkness as they puzzle him in his Resolves non-plus him in his Undertakings distract him in his Counsels disturb and hinder him in his Endeavours c. so do they bring the Mind into a labyrinth of confusion What advantage the Devil hath against a Child of God when his heart is thus divided and broken into Shivers 't is easie to imagine And David seems to be very sensible of it when he put up that request Psal 86. 11. Vnite my heart to fear thy Name 2. By disquiet of Heart the Devil unfits Men for Duty or Service Fitness for Duty lies in the orderly temper of Body and Mind making a Man willing to undertake and able to finish his work with comfortable satisfaction if either the Body or Mind be distempered a Man is unfit for such an undertaking both must be in a suitable frame like a well-tun'd Instrument else there will be no melody Hence when David prepared himself for Praises and Worship he tells us his Heart was ready and fixed and then his Tongue was ready also so was his Hand with Psaltery and Harp all these were awakened into a suitable posture That a Man is or hath been in a fit order for Service may be concluded from 1. His Alacrity to undertake a Duty 2. His Activity in the prosecution 3. His Satisfaction afterward right Grounds and Principles in these things being still presupposed This being laid as a foundation we shall easily perceive how the troubles of the Spirit do unfit us for Duty For 1. These do take away all Alacrity and forwardness of the Mind partly by diverting it from Duty Sorrows when they prevail do so fix the Mind upon the present Trouble that it can think of nothing but its Burthen they confine the Thoughts to the pain and smart and make a Man forget all other things as David in his trouble forget to eat his Bread and sick Persons willingly discourse only of their Diseases partly by indisposing for action Joy and Hope are active Principles but Sorrow is sullen and sluggish As the Mind in trouble is wholly imployed in a contemplation of its Misery rather than in finding out a way to avoid it so if it be at leisure at any time to entertain thoughts of using means for recovery yet 't is so tired out with its Burden so disheartned by its own Fears so discouraged with Opposition and Disappointment that it hath no list to undertake any thing by this means the Devil brings the soul into a spiritual Catoche so congealing the Spirits that it is made stiff and deprived of motion 2. Disquiets of Heart unfit us for Duty by hindering our activity in prosecution of Duty The whole Heart Soul and Strength should be engaged in all religious Services but these Troubles are as Clogs and Weights to hinder motion Joy is the dilatation of the Soul and widens it for any thing which it undertakes but Grief contracts the Heart and narrows all the faculties hence doth David beg an enlarged heart as the principle of Activity Psal 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my Heart for what can else be expected when the Mind is so distracted with Fear and Sorrow but that it should be uneven tottering weak and confused so that if it do set it self to any thing it acts troublesomly drives on heavily and doth very little with a great deal ado and yet were the unfitness the less if that little which it can do were well done but the Mind is so interrupted in its endeavours that sometimes in Prayer the Man begins and then is presently at a stand and dare not proceed his words are swallowed up he is so troubled that he cannot speak Psal 77. 4. Sometimes the Mind is kept so imployed and fixed on Trouble that it cannot attend in Hearing or Praying but presently the Thoughts are called off and become wandring 3. Troubles hinder our satisfaction in Duty and by that means unfit us to present Duties and indispose us to future Services of of that kind Our satisfaction in Duty ariseth 1. Sometimes from its own lustre and sweetness the conviction we have of its pleasantness and the spiritual advantages to be had thereby these render it alluring and attractive and by such considerations are we invited to their performance as Isa 2. 3. Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths Hos 6. 1. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up but trouble of Spirit draws a black Curtain over the excellencies of Duty and presents us with