〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so for the filioque added to the Nicene Creed Truth must not be lost by things that come near it if any Doctrine come not up to the Scriptures it must be rejected If it go beyond them it is straw and stubble on the foundation If it fall short it is errour also Remember that corrupt opinions like Changelings are many times laid in the place of the right Child which is Truth O foolish Galatians saith the Apostle who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth a Metaphor taken from those that use Witchery and present false shapes to the eyes as the Witch of Eudor did the likeness of Samuel to Saul but remember this is a Wile of Satan who himself abode not in the truth Joh. 8. 44. Labour to have the Signature of all Divine Truths imprinted on your minds Veritas animae pabulum as Lactantius cals it Truth is the food of the soul It is Sponsa humani intellectus ex eâ generat sobolem as Parisiensis the Spouse of the Understanding by which it hath issue It is a part of that Armour the Apostle calls Armour of light Converse then much with God the Father of Lights James 1. 17. with the Word which is a Book of light with the Saints the Children of light if you would escape this Wile SECT X. THe tenth Subtilty of Satan when these things will not do then under pretence of setting up the Spirit and Revelations he labours to cry down the Word of God and all the ordinary Ministerial Officers Christ hath appointed in his Church and all Doctrines and Explications of Scripture are cashiered and rejected These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our first worthy reformers found a bitter conflict herein For they no sooner had prevailed to restore the Gospel and expel the darkness of Popery in Germany and other parts but straitway Satan sows his Tares they called those that adhered to the Scriptures Vocalistae Literalistae Vocalists Literalists and hereby they made the work of Reformation odious as Eli his Sons made the Sacrifices of the Lord to be abhorred And as in Superstitious times he kept down the truth by Superstition and pompous Ceremonies so in times of Reformation by pretended Revelations and Teachings above the Word And this the Apostle doth much aim at when he saith 2 Cor. 11. 14. That Satan transforms himself into an Angel of light This delusion I speak the rather of because that in these times wherein Reformation hath been much pretended the World by pretences of Revelations and impulses of the Spirit hath cast off the Word This Art he improves two waies First Some are meer pretences when wicked and wretched miscreants do on purpose and knowingly use this way as a pretence to colour all their wickedness Thus Mahomet to colour his wickedness in the seducing the people pretended the fits of the Falling sickness he was troubled with to be certain Ecstacies and Ravishments at the appearance of the Angel Gabriel and the Dove picking the Corn out of his Ear to be the appearance of the Holy Ghost And thus often times those who use such cursed pretences come to be admired and esteemed who else would have been accounted as nought As Augustine speaks of two Donatists Primianus and Maximianus that if they had not taken that way Primianus might have been Postremianus and Maximianus might have been Minimiamus Secondly He improves this subtilty by deluding the fancies of men with a concurrence of pride and self-admiration so as to entertain thoughts that none know so much of God nor have such secret Communion with him as they and that thereby they have sundry particulars above all the world revealed to them Thus some have magnified themselves in particulars that have been revealed to them that have come to pass Acosta the Jesuite tells us of one that was a very great Schollar that through delusions and fancies fell into such a conceit as he believed he had holiness given unto him above Angels and that he was the Saviour of the world in regard of efficacy and Christ in regard of sufficiency that he had the Hypostatical Union offered to him and that he did refuse it Thus Satan puffs men up with pride that he may make them instruments of confusion and ruine to the Church Therefore as an Antidote against this keep to the Word 2 Pet. 1. 19. You have a more sure word of Prophecy Notwithstanding all Satans Stratagems to adulterate it by Hereticks to destroy it by Tyrants to debase it by prophane scoffing at it yet hold to the Word ad Legem testimonium if they speak not according to them it is because there is no light in them SECT XI THe eleventh Wile by which Satan winneth and allureth many to the hazard and peril of their Eternal welfare is by the working many lying Signs and Wonders and Miracles That look as God for the advantage of his Gospel did at the first publishing it confirm it with many Miracles and Wonders Heb. 2. 4. So Satan for the facilitating a belief the better to his lyes and falshood doth put forth much of his power in the working of lying signs and miracles This the Scripture often expresses as a policy above all he almost useth Mat. 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shew many signs and wonders Rev. 13. 13. 2 Thes 2. 9. Where the coming of that man of sin is described to be after the working of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all power and signs and lying wonders Which words do imply as I conceive both the manner means of Antichrists working 1. The manner of Antichrists working is after the way and manner of Satans working that is it holds proportion unto that way that he useth to take 2. It is by the means of Satan he as a fast friend of Antichrist puts out his power in his behalf for the working many lying signs and wonders which are called lying signs and wonders in two respects 1. In regard of their formality they want that which should constitute a true miracle For a Miracle truly called is the doing some work extraordinary that runs into the senses exceeding the power of any Creature as to make the Sun stand still in the Heavens by a word c. Now all Satans workings are but sometimes a deceiving of the sense as Pharaohs Magicians sometimes a deluding of the fancy sometimes there is an exposing of secret things of nature to the sense of the Ignorant who not knowing the depths of nature think it a wonder sometimes by applying of Actives to Passives all which fall short of Miracles 2. They are called lying in regard of the end of them they tend to draw from the truth and therefore are not to be credited Gal. 1. 8. SECT XII THe twelfth subtilty of Satan is to assault and afflict Christians with such temptations as to their knowledge and experience are unheard
Prophet 2 Kings 19. 3. This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy wherefore lift up a Prayer for them O Pray that God would be their shield and his power might be manifested in their weakness that the Evill one might not touch them with any assimilating touch who though he do molest them may not yet defile them and though he fight against them may not yet prevaile over them but that with the temptation God would make a way to escape that they may be able to bear it SECT III. A Third Device and Policy of the Prince of darkness Tenebrifer not Lucifer as Bernard stiles him is a ceasing to tempt or after some short conflict to faigne a flight not from necessity but from designe It is said Josh 8. 15. That Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before the Men of Ai and fled by the way of the Wilderness But it was to draw them from their fenced City into the Power of an Ambush set to ensnare them And this among other stratagems which Brasidas in Thucidides calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belli the thefts of War Satan often useth dissembling a flight that thereby he may the better steal a victory and bring unlooked for mischiefes upon those from whom he seems to fly Parisiensis saith it is omnium insidiarum periculosissima of all his snares and wiles the most dangerous because that as he designes it for evill ends so it seldome misseth of success few heeding to observe whether his flight be pretended or reall whether his ceasing to tempt be out of skill in order to some hidden design or out of constraint caused by the resistance of faith I shall therefore indeavour to show First What Satan aimes at in his seeming flight Secondly How to distinguish it from that which is reall and forced by the firme opposition which Faith makes against him and the victory that it obtaines over him First By this Policy he seekes to infect and swell the heart with pride which to keep down and destroy is one great end of Gods suffering his to be tempted Pride is a sin which it is hard to kill or to starve so sutable a Soyle is the heart to nourish it above all other sins whatsoever and so apt is every occasion to make it put forth afresh but nothing doth more quicken and actuate it then greater atcheivments It is Tacitus his observation Rebus secundis etiam egregii duces insolescunt Renowned Generalls are puft up with success especially against an enemy of repute and eminency And is there any adversary that can contribute more to his glory who puts him to slight then the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan Is not he the Prince of the Aire and the God of the World are not his Territories full of Captives whom he hath miserably enthralled Hath he not more Vassalls then Christ hath Subjects Must it not then be matter of just glory and triumph to defeate and overcome him by whom such multitudes are vanquished But yet as he that striveth must strive lawfully so he that glorieth must glory lawfully which must be in the Lord in the power of whose might he is made strong else his glorying will be both his sin and snare And this Satan so fully understands as that in the heat of a Temptation he makes certain Cessations and unexpected retirements on purpose to deceive by the vain hopes of a supposed victory And are not many by this deceipt lifted up as if their Conflict were at an end and the Field wholly won by them Do they not pride and please themselves in thinking how they shook off the infernal Viper with as much ease and as little hurt to themselves as Paul did that Viper that came from the bundle of sticks and fastened on his hand Do they not slight others who complain of long and sore temptations with which they are buffeted as if they did spring rather from their weakness than the power of the Tempter Oh when men thus set imaginary Crowns on their own heads how unlike are they to those holy Elders who cast their Crowns before the Throne of God saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power And how like unto him whom they think they have foiled By being tainted with that sin of pride which cast the Angels out of heaven and condemned them to be reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the judgment of the Great Day Secondly By this Art he seeks to induce a spirit of security and to possess the heart with vain presumption of a future peace and freedom from his assaults than which nothing can prove more fatal to a Spiritual Warfare That saying of Epicharmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember to distrust is more useful Counsel to none than to a Christian when not frowned upon by the World nor molested by Satan for changes will come both from the one and the other The World will prove a false Friend the Devil a true Tempter After three sharp repulses given him by our Saviour he departed only for a season Luk. 4. 13. And can we expect that he will be beaten out of heart and made a Coward by us When resisted and put to slight again and again he will return if not to conquer yet to vex But nothing will more hasten his return than a drowsie security that is the season which he watcheth for that is the end of his ceasing to tempt and his seeming departure and when he finds us like the men of Laish living careless and at ease Judg. 18. 7. then he smites not as the good Angel did Peter to awaken him Acts 12. 7. but as the fierce Danites to kill and destroy as much as in him lies Then it is that he sows those noxious tares that come up afterwards to the prejudice and hurt of the good Seed Mat. 13. 25. Then it is he comes and brings seven worse Spirits with him making the last state of that man more miserable than the first Luk. 11. 26. Let none therefore please themselves in a sinful ease and rest from temptations as if the work were wholly done when in truth nothing is done but let them look how they come by it and examine whether it be not a practise of the Enemy rather than a reality whether it spring not rather from a ceasing of the Tempter to stir than from a victory obtained against him now how to difference the one from the other is the next particular that I am to descend unto To find out therefore the truth of the one from the imposture of the other I will set down briefly these three Rules First Look what means and wayes of resistance have been used to put Satan to flight Have instant prayers been made to God Have the goings out against him been in the power and might of Christ Hath the Sword of the Spirit which is the
Word of God been set against the motions of sin and the pressing instigations of the Tempter What is it that hath at any time been done to put a period to the Conflict For as Livy saith Stultitia est sedendo ac votis debellari credere posse It is a folly to believe that by sitting still and naked wishes Enemies can be conquered and overthrown Victory attends upon the diligent and industrious not upon the slothful If then temptations vanish and disappear we know not how and that no account can be given of the Calm and Peace that we do enjoy as the fruits of prayer and other means used for the obtaining of it we have cause to be jealous that the freedom and rest we have is but an Artifice of the Adversary to make us secure and thereby the more easily to ensnare us Nemo enim celerius opprimitur quam qui nihil timet none being sooner vanquished than he who fears nothing Secondly When ever Satan is really worsted sin is wounded He is never put to flight but Lust receives a mortifying blow for the fight is both made and maintained by Faith and other graces of the Spirit which carrie in them more immediate opposition unto sin than unto Satan it being the great work of every one that is begotten of God to keep himself that the wicked one touch him not 1 Joh. 5. 18. Not that he tempt him not but that he defile him not by any assimilating touch And this is the only way by which a Believer can be said both to resist him and also to overcome him we cannot kill the Devil nor weaken in the least his power but as we mortifie Lusts which are the matter that he works upon and the less of it he finds in us the less able he is to hurt us If therefore a Temptation go off and the heart be not set more against sin so as to loath and hate it which is an interpretative murder of sin as well as of our Brother 1 Joh. 3. 15. So as to pray and watch more against it we cannot well conclude our rest and ease to be good when it wants grace as its companion and the quiet fruits of righteousness as its evidence Heb. 12. 11. Thirdly When the wicked one is overcome and driven to a flight there will abide upon the soul a lively senseof so great a mercy which will manifest it self in a deep apprehension of those treacheries and deceits that the heart did abound with in the hour of tryal and a self abhorrency for them in an humble and thankful acknowledgment of strength and power from Christ whereby it is unable to fight a good fight and to obtain an happy victory in a careful treasuring up the experience it hath had of Gods faithfulness in its greatest straits in a timely preparation and laying in of spiritual provisions for another concounter as knowing that its warfare will not be compleated till it come to heaven These and such like effects are the issues of those Temptations in which Satan is put to flight and the ground of it is because it is done in the exercise of those means and graces of the Spirit as alwaies leaves the soul in a better temper than it found it SECT IV. A Fourth device of this spiritual Abaddon is touching the end and the means wherein he puts cheats upon thousands either by dividing between the one and the other or by busying them in the use of false and ineffectual means to attain it or by causing them to use good means in an undue and sinful manner First It is a piece of Satans Sophistry to separate between the means and the end and to make men to presume that though the one be neglected the other may be obtained to this folly he would have tempted our Saviour Mat. 4. 6. When he set him upon the Pinacle of the Temple he would have perswaded him to have cast himself down and there given a proof both of his Sonship and Gods fatherly care of protecting of him but as it is a sin to distrust God in the want of means so it is no lesser sin to presume to be saved without them when they may be had It is not an honouring of God by an absolute trust in him but a tempting of him by a wanton pride in subjecting his power to act and work according to our pleasure but yet though Christ hath armed men against this Sophism of the Tempter by his own example who would not betake himself to reliance on God for safety in an extraordinary way when not debarred of the common and usual way How great are the number of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who tempt God by unwarrantable practises throwing themselves into needless dangers and extremities that his power may appear in their deliverance and preservation Cassian I remember tells a Story of three persons who in the confidence of Gods providing for them took a tedious journey into a Desart in which two of them miserably died with hunger the third only returned as a sad spectacle of their folly And Brentius hath a Relation of an Anabaptist Woman who invited many Friends to Supper but took no care to have any thing to set before them fondly presuming that the Table should be furnished by God But what are these presumptions in which men thus divide between the end and the means any other than the scorn and laughter of those who deride their folly and yet through the seduction of the Devil become guilty of far greater When they are Confident of heaven and Careless of holiness they are secure of the end and yet tread not one step in the way that should bring them to it Are not these as vain as those who expect a Harvest without a Seeds time Can any perish with more clear self-convictions of Gods Justice in condemning them than these Do they need to look into the Decrees of God to see the roots of their miscarriage Or into their own Consciences May not they say the Serpent hath beguiled them while they have hearkened to his Counsels who was a lyar and a murderer from the beginning Secondly The subtilty of Satan touching the end and the means is seen in his putting of men upon the pursuit of those waies and mediums which do not in the least serve or conduce to that end for which they are used So that though the intended end be good yet they fall as equally short of it as those who do nothing at all to obtain it and are like misguided Patients who by their Medicines are not cured but killed And who can count the thousands or rather Myriads that are held under the power of this delusion of the Devil May we not ask the most of those who busie themselves in seeking a state of happiness why do you lay out your mony for that which is not bread Or why are you as those who build in the fire where the