from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog both being to the same purpose and signifying any action of reverence by which we signify the respect of our Minds to kiss the Hand or to Fawn as a Dog are Gestures which express the Honour we would give and being applyed to Divine Worship before or with respect unto an undue Object is Idolatry and as such doth Christ reject it in his Answer Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve We worship God when in Ways and Actions commanded or prescribed we testify our belief and resentment of his incommunicable Attributes It is Idolatry when either we use the same Actions of prescribed Worship to that which is not God or when we testify our respects to the true God in an undue way of our own devising Here might I take occasion to shew the Vanity of the Popish Subterfuges their distinction of Latria and Dulia is as Dr. Moore observes hereby overthrown Satan doth not here set himself up as the Omnipotent God for he acknowledgeth one Superiour to himself in that he confesseth that the Power he had of the Kingdoms of the World was given to him Luke 4. 6. and therefore not the Latria but the Dulia is required of him and yet this Christ denies him as being Idolatry in that no Religious Worship for that must needs be the sense of his Answer is due to any but God alone Their other distinction of worshipping an Idol Saint Angel Cross c. and before such a Creature is also hereby crushed as is commonly observed for what the Evangelist Matthew expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before me so that the Scripture makes no difference betwixt these two shewing it to be Idolatry to use religious Worship to that which is not God or before it but these things I shall not prosecute keeping therefore to my design I shall observe That it is one of Satan's great designs to corrupt the Worship of God That this is so will appear First If we consider what varieties of Worship hath been in the World God gave a fixed and stable Law and yet this so little prevailed that Men were upon new Inventions presently I shall not need to reckon up the almost numberless varieties of this kind among the Heathen The Instance is plain enough in those that professed the name of the true God they were still changing for new Fashions in Religon borrowing Patterns from their neighbours so that if there were but a new Altar at Damascus or a new Idol in any strange City they must presently have the like till as the Prophet tells them according to their Cities so were their Gods He that will call to mind that the Husbandman did first sow good Seed in his Field and that there is such Varieity of Tares and false Worship notwithstanding the plain and positive Command of God fixing and determining his Worship must needs conclude that an Enemy Satan hath done it Secondly If we call to mind how in all Ages there hath been a constancy in this inconstant Variety we hear of it among the Heathens We read enough of it among the Jews and when they were out of the humour of more shameful Idolatries they yet corrupted the Worship of God by their Traditions and of these they were so fond that they caused the Law of God it self to give place to them and made it void by them The times of the Gospel were not free though Christ came to seek such Worshippers as should worship him in Spirit and in Truth yet before the Apostles Deaths while yet they were perswading to the contrary there arose up some that corrupted the Worship by leading the People back again to the Jewish Ceremonies and others laboured to bring in worshipping of Angels and at last to eat things offered to Idols with greater defilements Since the Apostles days the same Design hath been carried on in the Churches Rome hath patched together a great deal of Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies and when the Man of Sin shall be revealed yet an higher Flood of such Abominations is to be expected Who hath wrought all this but Satan this is still the same design and though the work be not in all parts like it self yet the whole of it evidenceth the working of the same Spirit in all Thirdly Let us observe how early this began We cannot say but that in the days of Adam who doubtless had received particular Commands from God in which he would not fail to instruct his Children they were seeking to themselves many Inventions Gen. 4. 26. At the Birth of Enos as some conjecture there were such defilements brought into use in Worship that Seth had respect to it when he called his Son Enos Sorrowful as lamenting that Prophanation which was then begun in calling upon the Name of the Lord for so do many interpret that Passage which in our English we read thus Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both to prophane and to begin and may be as properly translated then prophaned they in calling upon the Name of the Lord. And there are several reasons that move learned Men to fix upon this Translation As 1. That it is not probable that Men began then to call upon God or publickly to do so as some would interpret and not before as the present English would imply 2. That Age was noted as corrupt and therefore it is noted as a rarity that Enoch walked with God 3. The Rabbins generally translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Prophane but if we should grant the present English Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord It would imply that the Worship practised by Adam and Abel had been corrupted and now it was restored again and reformed which will make the Corruption of Worship to be yet more early And after that we read of corruption crept into the Family of Seth as well as now in the Family of Cain so that the Worship of God stood not long in its Honour though Adam and Seth were alive to instruct them which shews that it was a rebellious departure from the way fomented and brought on by the malignant Spirit Satan Fourthly But to make all sure the Scripture lays all these kinds of corruption of Worship at Satan's Door The defilements of Worship taught in Thyatira by Jezebel are called the depths of Satan the Corruptions introduced by Antichrist are from the workings of Satan What was promoted by false Apostles to that purpose they had it from their great Teacher Satan who transforms himself for such ends into an Angel of Light so that nothing can be more plain than that this is an old and constant Design of Satan The particular ways
with the most weighty seriousness which with them pass for no better than cheats and fancies we can easily sit under their contempt and shall as we hope be so far from being jeered out of our Religion that their scorns shall have no more impression upon us than the ravings of a frenzical Person that knows not what he speaks Notwithstanding these who are no way considerable for weight there are I hope a great many who seriously imploy themselves in the Inwards as well as the Outwards of Religion and who will not suffer themselves to be perswaded that the Apostle obtruded an empty Notion upon Believers when he recommended that observable Truth to them Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly c. for their sakes have I undertaken this labour of collecting and methodizing the grand Stratagems and chief ways of delusâ—on of the great Deceiver To these I must particularly account for some few things relating to this Discourse As 1. That I have satisfied my self in the Reasons of the publication of these Papers and do not judg it requisite to trouble any so far as to tell what these Reasons are They who desire to resist such an Enemy and whose experience doth convince them that all helps are necessary will not need them and those that are Men of scorn or of avowed carelesness will not regard them though I should declare them 2. To prevent the misapprehensions which possibly some may otherwise labour withal of a monstrous product from one Text because they may observe one Text in the Front and no other mentioned throughout the First and Second Parts they may know that I made use of several in the preaching of these Discourses as suitable Foundations for the several Particulars herein mentioned but in the moulding up of the Whole into the method of a Treatise for the ease of the Reader I thought fit to lay aside those Introductions as also many other occasional Applications which were proper for Sermons and a great many things which were necessary to be spoken for Explication and Illustration of these Points to a popular Auditory and have only presented the Substance in a more close connection because if there be any little obscurity that may at first appear to any for want of variety of words the Treatise being under their eye will be at leisure to attend their review in a second or third reading Which however I would recommend earnestly to those that in these Concerns do really design to be wise for themselves 3. Neither should it seem strange that I have frequently made use of Instances from History or other later Relations Whosoever shall consider the nature of the Matter treated on will not complain of this as a needless trouble put upon them yet withal I have been so careful of doing any Persons an unkindness by making too bold with them that I mentioned no Names but such as upon such occasions have been made publick by others before The rest I have only mentioned in the general discovering their case where it was useful but concealing the Persons 4. It may perhaps seem a defect that the several Directions Remedies or Counsels which are requisite to be observed in making resistance against Satan are not added except some few hints in the latter end of the Third Part and some other things in that Part in the Applications of the several Doctrines therein which I thought fit upon good grounds to leave in the order of a Preaching Method but such may be pleased to consider that several have performed that part very fully to whose Labours I had rather refer the Reader than trouble him with a repetition It was only my design to endeavour a more full discovery though every way short of the thing it self of Satan's Craft because the knowledg of this is so necessary and withal others have done it more sparingly Such as it is accept and improve for thy spiritual advantage for that was the end of this undertaking by him who desires that thy Soul may prosper Rich. Gilpin The Contents PART I. Chap. 1. THe Introduction to the Text from a consideration of the desperate ruine of the Souls of Men. The Text opened expressing Satan's Malice Power Cruelty and Diligence Chap. 2. Of the Malice of Satan in particular The Grounds and Causes of that Malice The Greatness of it proved and Instances of that Greatness given Chap. 3. Of Satans Power His Power as an Angel considered That he lost not that Power by his Fall His Power as a Devil Of his Commission The Extent of his Authority The Efficacy of his Power The Advantages which he hath for the management of it from the Number Order Place and Knowledg of Devils Chap. 4. That Satan hath a great measure of Knowledg proved by comparing him with the knowledg of Adam in Innocency and by his Titles Of his Knowledg Natural Experimental and Accessory Of his knowledg of our Thoughts How far he doth not know them and how far he doth and by what means Of his knowledg of things future and by what ways he doth conjecture them The Advantages in point of Temptation that he hath by his Knowledg Chap. 5. Instances of Satan's Power Of Witchcraft what it is Satan's Power argued from thence Of Wonders Whether Satan can do Miracles An account of what he can do that way His Power argued from Apparitions and Possessions Chap. 6. Of Satan's Cruelty Instances thereof in his dealing with wounded Spirits in ordinary Temptations of the Wicked and Godly in Persecutions Cruelties in Worship His cruel handling of his Slaves Chap. 7. Of Satan's Diligence in several Instances The Question about the Being of Spirits and Devils handled The Sadducces Opinion discovered The Reality of Spirits proved Chap. 8. Of Satan's Cunning and Craft in the general Several Demonstrations proving Satan to be deceitful And of the Reasons why he makes use of his cunning Chap. 9. Of Satan's Deceits in particular What Temptation is Of tempting to Sin His first general Rule The Consideration of our Condition His second Rule Of providing sutable Temptations In what cases he tempts us to things unsuitable to our Inclinations His third Rule The cautious Proposal of the Temptation and the several ways thereof His fourth Rule is to entice the way thereof in the general by bringing a darkness upon the Mind through lust Chap. 10. That Satan enticeth by our Lust The several ways by which he doth it Of the power and danger of the violence of Affections Chap. 11. That Lust darkens the Mind Evidences thereof The five ways by which it doth blind Men. 1. By preventing the exercise of Reason The ways of that prevention 1. Secresy in tempting Satan's subtilty therein 2. Surprisal 3. Gradual Intanglements Chap. 12. Of Satan's perverting our Reason His second way of blinding The possibility of this and the manner of accomplishing it directly several ways and indirectly by the delights of sin and by
when the Devil was sometime forward to give his testimony to Christ as Mark 1. 25. I know thee who thou art the holy one of God Jesus rebuked him and commanded him to hold his peace he clearly saw that he confessed him not to honour him but by such a particular acknowledgment to stir up the rage and fury of the People against him To this end Satan in Acts 16. 17. many days together publickly owns Paul and Silas These Men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of Salvation though he spake truth yet had he a malicious aim in it which he accordingly brought about by this means and that was to raise up persecution against them and to give ground to that accusation which they afterward met withall vers 21. That they taught customs which were not lawful to be received But 3. His particular spite against God in seeking to undermine his Service is further manifested in this That the Devil is not content to root out the service due to God but when he hath done that he delights to abuse those places where the Name of God was most celebrated with greatest prophanations I shall not in this insist upon the conjecture of Tilenus that Sylva Dodonaea a place highly abused by the Devil and respected for an Oracle was the seat or a religious place of Dodanim mentioned in Gen. 10. 4. nor upon that supposal mentioned also by the same Author that the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon was the place where C ham practised that religious worship which he learned in his Fathers house We have at hand more certain evidences of the Devils spite Such was his abuse of the Tabernacle by the prophane sons of Eli who prophaned that place with their uncleanness and filthy adulteries Such was his carriage to the Ark while it was captivated by the Philistims Of like nature were his attempts against the Temple it self Solomon in his latter days was tempted to give an affront to it he built an high place for Chemosh the Abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem in the very sight and face of the Temple but afterward he prevailed to defile the Temple it self Gilgal and Beth-aven are places of such high prophanation that the Prophet Hos 9. 15. tells them all their wickedness was in Gilgal none of their abominations were like to those and in Hos 4. 15. they are dehorted from going to Gilgal or Bethaven and yet both these places had been famous for Religion before Gilgal was the place of the general Circumcision of the Israelites that were born in the Wilderness there was their first solemn Passover kept after their entring into the Land Bethel was a place where God as it were kept House the house of God Here Jacob had his vision But the more famous they had been for duties of Worship the Devil sought to put higher abuses upon them so that Gilgal became on Hatred and Bethel became a Beth-aven an house of Vanity Fourthly Satan is the more animated to undertake a design against the ways of religious Service because he seldom or never misseth at least something of success This attempt is like Saul and Jonathan's Bow that returned not empty In other Temptations sometimes Satan comes off basfled altogether but in this work as 't was said of some Israelites he can throw a stone at an hairs breadth and not miss he is sure in one thing or other to have the better of us his advantage in this case is from our unsutableness to our service What we do in the duties of Worship requires a choice frame of Spirit our hearts should be awed with the most serious apprehensions of divine Majesty filled with Reverence animated with Love and delight quickned by Faith clothed with Humility and self-abhorrency and in all the procedure of duties there must be a steady and firm prosecution under the strictest watchfulness Of this nature is our work which at the first view would put a Man to a stand and out of amazement force him to say who is sufficient for these things who can stand before such an holy Lord God But when we come to an impartial consideration of our manifold weaknesses and insufficiences in reference to these Services what shall we say we find such a narrowness of Spirit such ignorances sottishness carelesness of Mind Thoughts so confused tumultuous fickle slippery and unconstant and our hearts generally so deceitful and desperately wicked that 't is not possible that Satan should altogether labour in vain or catch nothing this being then a sure gain we may expect it to be under a most constant practice Fifthly If he so prevails against us that the services of Worship become grosly abused or neglected then doth he put us under the greatest hazards and disadvantages Nothing so poysonous as duties of Worship corrupted for this is to abuse God to his face by this not only are his Commands and Injunctions slighted as in other sins but we carry it so as if we thought him no better than the Idols of the Heathens that have Eyes and see not that have Ears and hear not To come without an Heart or with our Idols in our Heart is it any thing of less scorn than to say Tush doth the most High see Besides he hath given such severe Cautions and Commands in these matters as will easily signify the aggravation of the offence You see how sharply God speaks of those that came to enquire of the Lord with the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face Ezek. 14. 4 7. I will answer them according to the multitude of their Idols I will answer them by my self Saul's miscarriage in offering Sacrifice 1 Sam. 13. 13. was that great offence for which God determined to take the Kingdom from him God's severity against Nadah and Abihu his stroke upon Vzzah do all shew the hazard of such prophanations But above all that danger which both Old and New Testament speak of the hardning of the Heart blinding the Eyes dulling the Ears that Men should not hear nor see nor be converted and saved but that the Word should instead of those cordial refreshing smells which beget and promote spiritual life in the obedient breath forth such envenomed poysonous exhalations when 't is thus abused and prophaned that it becomes the savour of death unto death is most dreadful No wonder then if Satan be very busie against these holy things when if he catch us at an advantage of this nature it proves so deadly and dangerous to us for what can more please him that makes it his delight and imployment to destroy All these Reasons evince that Satan hath an aking tooth against religious Services and that to weaken prevent or overthrow them is his great endeavour Here then especially may we expect an assault according to the advice of Sirach My Son when thou entrest God's Service stand fast in
it have but Body enough they never enquire whether it have Spirit or Life within a dead Carcass in Robes that may put them to the exercise of their Postures and ceremonious Complements doth make up a more grateful Religion for a carnal Man than a living spiritual Service that necessarily will put them upon inward care and watchfulness in the constant exercise of holy Spiritual Graces without affording any considerable gratification to the Senses Hence is it truly more difficult and yet inwardly more beautiful and glorious to pray in Faith and Humility even in short breathings after God than to say a thousand Ave Maria's or to perform a task of ordinary Penance But as those that have no Children of their own delight themselves in playing with a Monkey or Baboon so those that know not how to worship God in Spirit and Truth seek to satisfie themselves in the performance of external Gesture and Ceremony Secondly On the other hand he sometimes is willing that an Errour should affect an excess of plainness and simplicity In this he takes advantage of those expressions in Scripture wherein the Gospel is commended for its simplicity and the inventions of Men under the pretences of Wisdom Humility and neglecting of the Body are condemned Upon this ground he runs Men upon such an excess of dotage that they never think the things of God are rightly managed but when they are brought down to a contemptible silliness By this means he arms conceited ignorant Men with exceptions against Learning and the necessary decencies of languague in Preaching and with them they are the only Preachers and most likely to be inspired that use least study and preparation for their work 'T is indeed very true that the affected fooleries of a bombast Stile or startcht Discourse and needless citations of Sentences for ostentation without any true advantage to the matter in hand are things very pedantick and exceedingly unsuitable to the gravity of the Work of the Ministry and renders it very ungrateful to a pious Mind but this contrary folly makes the solemn Ordinances of God so nauseous and contemptible that it often makes way by Satan's cunning improvement of the Temptation to an Atheistical rejection of all Worship In the mean time 't is wonderful to observe how some Persons please themselves with this conceit that their way of Worship is plain and that they speak what immediately comes into their Mind and though it be Non-sense or Contradictions which sufficiently evidenceth that 't is nothing of kin to the Spirits Inspiration which they utter yet 't is argument enough to them that their opinions and ways are right because they proceed in a designed neglect of all necessary order and under pretence of the simplicity of the Gospel they reduce all they do to childish silliness Neither is this all the mischief which the Devil raiseth out of this conceit for the contempt and disuse of the Sacraments may in great part be ascribed to it Those erroneous ways of Worship that are most noted for decrying those Institutions of Christ have this for their Plea that the Worship which God is best pleased with is spiritual and that all bodily services and external observations are things that God stands not upon such as profit little and were no further in use but to recommend an internal spiritual communion with God so that the more they reject these things they perswade themselves they have a more true understanding of the design of God in Religion Either of these ways Satan makes use of for the befooling of Men into an humour of pleasing themselves with Errour But Thirdly He hath of old endeavoured to cloud and enervate the Doctrine of the Bible by traditionary Fables We meet with many passages to this purpose sometimes he sets up unwritten Traditions not only of equal authority to the written Word but as completions and perfections of it This he practised among the Jews with such success that the Traditions of the Elders were of greater force with them than the Commands of God as Christ himself noted of them Matth. 15. 13. Of these unwritten Traditions which they called the Law by the word of Mouth feigned by them to be given to Moses when he was in the Mount and so delivered from hand to hand the Apostles gave many warnings and signified the hazards that Truth stood in by them through the cunning of Satan as Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through the Traditions of Men. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies Tit. 1. 14. Not giving heed to Jewish Fables and Commandments of Men. 2 Tim. 4. 4. And they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables The Papists at this day give the same entertainment to this device that the Jews did of old they boast as high of their Traditions and are every whit as fabulous and foolish in them as they were Satan in his attempts upon the Gentiles to confirm them in their false Worship though he kept up the substance of this design yet he was necessitated to alter the scene a little that he might more handsomly accommodate it to their condition and therefore he set up amongst them fabulous imitations of the Truths and Ordinances of the Scripture insomuch that there is scarce any grand Mystery or remarkable History or Ordinance mentioned in the Scripture but we may find something among the Heathens in Tradition or Practice that doth allude to it What traditionary imitations had they of the Creation recorded in the Book of Genesis That of Ovid concerning the Chaos and first beginning of things is known to every School-Boy The Phoenicians in their Theology give an odd account of it from their Taautus to this purpose That the first beginnings of all things were a dark disordered Chaos and the spirit of the dark Air hence proceeded Moth that is Mire from thence issued the Seeds and Generation of all Creatures in Earth and Heaven c. The wickedness of Men before the Flood mentioned Gen. 6. 1 2. is fabulously related in an ancient Book falsly ascribed to Enoch wherein the Watchmen or Angels are reported to take them Wives of the Daughters of Men and that from thence was the race of Giants For the description of Paradise the Heathens had the Poetical Fiction of the Elyzian Fields as they had the Story of Deucalion instead of Noahs Ark and the Deluge The Story of Lots Wife was abused by the Fiction of Orpheus his Wife suddenly snatched from him for looking back The History of Sampson was turned into their Story of Hercules and his ten labours From the Sun standing still in Joshua and Hezekiahs time came that Fiction of Jupiters doubling the night that he might enjoy Alemena In some of these disguises of sacred Story they go so near in name and circumstances that 't is past doubt they imitated the true History which they