all those hard names have this general signification that the Devil hath made a great stir in the World by Errour and Opinion After times might also be summoned in to speak their evidence and our own knowledg and experience might without any other help sufficiently instruct us if it were needful of the truth of this that Errour is one of Satan's great designs Secondly Let us next look into the Reasons which do so strongly engage Satan to these endeavours of raising up Errours If we set these before us it will not only confirm us in our belief that this is one of his main imployments for if Errour yield him so many advantages for the ruine of Men and the dishonour of God there can be no doubt of his readiness to promote it This also may be of use to put us in mind who it is that is at work behind the Curtain when we see such things acted upon the Stage and consequently may beget a cautious suspition in our Minds against his proceedings the Reasons are such as these First Errour is sinful so that if Satan should be hindred in his endeavours for any further mischief than the corrupting of any particular Person yet he will reckon that he hath not altogether lost his labour Some Errours that overturn fundamentals of Faith are as deadly poyson and called expressly damnable by the Apostle 2 Pet. 2. 1. These Heresies are by Paul Gal. 5. 20. recounted among the works of the Flesh of which he positively affirms that they that do such things cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Those that are of a lower nature that do not so extreamly hazard the Soul can only be capable of this Apology that they are less evil yet as they are oppositions to Truth propounded in Scripture for our belief and direction they cease not to be Sins though they may be greater or less evils according to the importance of those Truths which they deny or the consequences that attend them and if we go yet a step lower to the consideration of those rash and bold assertions about things not clearly revealed though they may possibly be true yet the positiveness of avouchments and determinations in such cases where we want sufficient reason to support what we affirm as that of the Pseudo-Dionysius for the Hierarchy of Angels and some adventurous assertions concerning God's secret Decrees and many other things of like nature are by the Apostle Col. 2. 18. most severely taxed for an unwarrantable and unjust presumption in setting our foot upon God's right as if such Men would by violence thrust themselves into that which God hath reserved for himself for so much the word intruding imports the cause of this he tells us is the arrogancy of corrupt Reason the fleshly Mind suitable to that expression Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it the bottom of it is Pride which swells Men to this height and the Fruit after all these swelling attempts is no other than as the Apples of Sodom Dust and Vanity intruding into those things which he hath not seen Vainly puft up by his fleshly Mind If then Satan do but gain this that by Errour though not diffused further than the breast of the infected Party Truth is denied or that the heart be swelled into Pride and Arrogancy or that he hath hope so to prevail 't is enough to encourage his attempts Secondly But Errour is a Sin of an encreasing nature and usually stops not at one or two Falshoods but is apt to spawn into many others as some of the most noxious Creatures have the most numerous Broods for one Errour hath this mischievous danger in it that it taints the Mind to an instability in every Truth and the bond of stedfastness being once broken a Man hath no certainty where he shall stay as a wanton Horse once turned loose may wander far This hazard is made a serious warning against Errour 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest ye being led away with the errour of the Wicked fall from your own steadfastness One Errour admitted makes the heart unsteady and besides this inconvenience Errour doth unavoidably branch it self naturally into many more as Inferences and Conclusions resulting from it as Circles in Water multiply themselves grant but one absurdity and many will follow upon it so that 't is a Miracle to find a single Errour These Locusts go forth by Bonds as the experience of all ages doth testify and besides the immediate consequences of an Errour which receive Life and Being together with it self as Twins of the same Birth We may observe a tendancy in Errours to others that are more remote and by the long stretch of multiplyed inferences those things are coupled together that are not very contiguous If the Lutherans 't is Dr. Prideaux his observation admit Vniversal Grace the Huberians introduce Vniversal Election the Puccians Natural Faith the Naturalists explode Christ and Scriptures at last as unnecessary this is then a fair mark for the Devil to aim at if he prevails for one Errour 't is an hundred to one but he prevails for more Thirdly Satan hath yet a further reach in promoting Errour he knows 't is a Plague that usually infects all round about and therefore doth he the rather labour in this work because he hopes thereby to corrupt others and infected Persons are commonly the most busie Agents even to the compassing of Sea and Land to gain Prosilytes to their false Perswasions This Harvest of Satan's labour is often noted in Scripture they shall deceive many Matth. 24. 24. Many shall follow their pernicious ways 2 Pet. 2. 2. How quickly had this Leaven spread it self in the Church of Galatia even to Paul's wonder Gal. 1. 6. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another Gospel Instances of the spreading of Errour are frequent Pelagianism rose about the Year 415 but presently spread it self in Palestine Africa Greece Italy Sicily France and Britain Arrianism like fire in Straw in a little time brought its flame over the Christian World and left her wondring at her self that she was so suddenly become Arrian Socinianism had the like prevalency Laelius privately had sowed the Seeds and after his death Faustus Socinus his Nephew did so bestir himself that within ten years after his confident appearing whole Congregations in Sarmatia submitted themselves to his Dictates as Calovius affirms and within twenty or thirty Years more several hundreds of Churches in Transilvania were infected and within a few Years more the whole Synod was brought over to subscribe to Socinianism We have also instances nearer home after the Reformation in the raign of Edward the sixth how soon did Popery return in its full strength when Queen Mary came to the Crown which occasioned Peter Martyr when he saw young Students flocking to Mass to say That the tolling of the Bell overturned all his
whereof they conclude to be such and so general that most Men are in hazard to be imposed upon by delusive Appearances But with far greater shew of likelihood do some make all such things to be nothing else but the Issues of Melancholly and corrupt Humors which makes Men believe they hear see and suffer strange things when there is nothing near them or really to undergo strange fits as in Lunacy and Epilepsy Leaving these Men as not capable of Information from Scripture evidence because disowning it Let us enquire what mistaken apprehensions there have been in this Matter among those that have pretended a reverence to and belief of Scripture The Sadducees deserve the first place because they are by name noted in Scripture to have denied the Resurrection and to have affirmed that there is neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. Matth. 22. 23. This opinion of theirs could we certainly find it out would make much for the confirmation of the Truth in question seeing what ever it was it is positively condemned in Scripture and the contrary asserted to be true Many and that upon considerable grounds do think that they do not deny absolutely that there were any Angels at all but that acknowledging that something there was which was called an Angel yet they imagining it to be far otherwise than what it is indeed were accused justly for denying such a kind of Angels as the Scripture had every where asserted and described For considering that they owned a God and at least the five Books of Moses if not all the other Books of the Old Testament as Scaliger and others judge not without great probability for neither doth the Scripture nor Josephus mention any such thing of the Prophets it is unimaginable that they would altogether deny that there was Angel or Spirit at all They read of Angels appearing to Lot to Abraham and met with it so frequently that believing Scriptures to be true they could not believe Angels to be an absolute fiction for one Fable or Falsity in Scripture which so highly asserts it self to be an unerring Oracle of the true God must of necessity have destroyed the credit of all and rendred them as justly suspected to be true in nothing when apparently false or fabulous in any thing Again If we call to mind what Apprehensions they had of God which all consent they did acknowledge we might more easily imagine what apprehensions they had of Angels for in regard that Moses made mention of Gods Face and Back-parts and that frequently Hands and other parts of Mans Body were attributed to him they concluded God to be Corporeal and seeing the best of Creatures which God created cannot be supposed to have a more noble Being than was that of their Creator and at the utmost to be made according to the Pattern of his own Image and likeness they might upon this Bottom easily fix a denial of Incorporeal Spirits and by consequence that the Soul of Man was mortal and therefore that there could be no Resurrection so that the nature of Angels being described under the notion of Spiritual Substances they are judged to deny any such thing supposing that to be Incorporeal was as much as not to be at all and yet it were unreasonable to deny that they had not some Interpretation for those passages of Scripture that mentioned Angels which in their apprehensions might be some Salvo to the truth of those Historical Writings which they acknowledged but what that was we are next to conjecture And indeed Josephus by a little hint of their Opinion seems to tell us that they did not so much deny the Being of the Soul as the permanency of it and so by consequence they might not so much deny absolutely the existence of Spirits as their Natural Being and continuance Something there was that was called by the name of Angel that they could not but own and that this must be a real and not an imaginary thing is evident from the real Effects and things done by them yet observing their appearances to have been upon some special occasion and their disappearing to have been on a sudden they might conjecture them to be created by God for the present service and then reduced to nothing when that service was done Their Opinion then of Angels seems to be one of these two Either that they were Corporeal Substances created upon a special emergency but not permanent Beings or that they were but Images and Impressions supernaturally formed in the Fancy by the special Operation of God to signify his Mind and Commands to Men upon which they might fitly be called God's Messengers and Ministers I put in this last into the conjecture because I find it mentioned by Calvin as the Opinion of the Sadducees but both are noted by Diodate on Acts 23. 8. as with equal probability belonging to them his words are They did not believe they were subsisting and immortal Creatures but transitory Apparitions or some divine Actions and Motions to produce some special and notable Effect Others also have been lately hammering out the same apprehension concerning Angels and profess themselves delivered from it with great difficulty differing only in this from some of the Heathens before mentioned that what those ascribed to the Puissance of the Stars Natural Powers or to weakness of Senses and corrupt Humors they by the advantage of the general notions of Scripture have ascribed to God putting forth his Power upon the Minds and Fancies of Men or working by the Humours of the Body upon this foundation they will easilier make bold with Devils to deny if not their Being yet their Temptations imagining that we may possibly do him wrong in fathering upon him these Sollicitations and Provocations to Sin which we by experience find to be working and acting upon our Minds thinking that our own Fancies or Imaginations may be the only Devils that vex us and this they more readily hearken to from the nature of Dreams and Visions which happen to Men in an ordinary Natural way where our Fancies play with us as if they were distinct from us as also from this consideration that the Lunatick Epileptick and Frenzical Persons are in Scripture called Demoniacks as Matth. 17. 15. with Luk. 9. where the Person is called Lunatick and yet said to be taken and vexed by a Spirit so also Joh. 10. 20. he hath a Devil and is mad But these reasonings can do little with an intelligent considering Man to make him deny what he so really feels and is so often forewarned of in Scripture for suppose these were called Demoniacks by the Vulgar it doth not compel us to believe they were so Men are apt to ascribe Natutural Diseases to Satan and Christ did not concern himself to cure their Misapprehensions while he cured their Diseases This some suggest as a Reason that may answer many Cases though indeed it cannot answer that of
in a just and even ballance toward all things propounded to its deliberation and assent though it were imperfect in its Light the danger were the less but now in regard of the bent and sway it is under 't is commonly partial and inclined to one side more than to another and yet the Matter were the less if only one or two noted things had the power of setting up a false-Light before the Mind but there are many things that are apt to do us this mischief which have the same Effect upon us that bribes have upon persons interested in Judgment which not only tempts them to do wrong but so blindes their eyes that they know not they do so or at least not in so great a measure The Mind is byassed First Naturally to Errour rather than Truths the corruption of our Nature is general and doth not only dispose the will and affections to practical iniquities but doth also incline the Vnderstanding to Errour and misapprehension And that seems to be the ground of Christs assertion against the Jews Jo. 5. 43. I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own name him ye will receive Which implies That Men are Naturally more prone to believe an Imposter than one that speaks the most certain and profitable Verities and besides this general inclination to vanities and lyes there are if some think right some Errours that are formally engraven in the nature of faln Man as that Opinion To be saved by Works For not only do all Men that have any apprehensions of a future Eternal State resolve that question of obtaining Salvation into Works as the proper Cause and indeed no other could have been imagined if the Scripture had not revealed the Redemption by the Blood of Jesus But the Jews in Jo. 6. 28. When they propound that Question What shall we do that we might work the works of God take it for granted That Works of some kind or other are the causes of Happiness Possibly some impression of that Notion while it was a Truth as in the state of Innocency it was may yet remain upon our Natures though by the Fall the Case is altered with us Secondly The Mind is byassed by bodily temper and complectional inclination the varieties of Complections introduce varieties of Humours and Dispositions and the Understanding being necessitated to look through these as so many coloured glasses is apt to judge that is to mis-judge according to the mis-representation of Objects Thirdly Sometimes habitual acquirements have the same influence upon the Understanding that Natural humours have The Arts and Sciences we study our ways of Education and Imployment are but so many prejudicate praepossessions that do secretly taint the Mind Fourthly There are also accidental inclinations which though not customary have the force of a second Nature because their working is violent and impetuous and these which are from a wounded Conscience or excesses of Melancholy have a byass more than ordinary they lay violent Hands upon the Understanding and with a mighty Torrent run it down So that if an Errour be offered that is suitable to such fears or misapprehensions it can scarce miss of success The extraordinary turbulencies of some other Passions as Anger Love c. have the like Effect Fifthly Vitious Habits do so much byass the Mind that the Understanding must needs be defiled by them Nothing can more prepare the Mind to a wicked Errour than a wicked Life An Errour of Indulgence being so grateful to Corruption may readily find favour with the understandings of those that know not to do good because they have accustomed themselves to do evil Sixthly There are External things that have no less power on the Understanding than any of the fore-going and these are Custom Education and Interest these stick so close and work so subtily that though there are few that are not in disputable cases influenced by them yet none are able or willing to take notice how and by what steps they do engage them to pass Sentence against Truth And indeed that Man must have a singular measure of suspicious Watchfulness and clear Integrity that is not deceived by them And the best way to keep clear of the mischief that these may do us is to be severe in our suspitions on that side to which Custom and Interest have their tendencies Seventhly I might Note that there is something considerable to this purpose in the nature of Spirits Some Spirits are unfixed and volatile and these are soon altered by their own unsteadiness Others are tenacious and unflexible and if such be first set wrong 't is not an easie thing that will reduce them to Truth Others are soft and ductile perswaded by good words as soon as strong arguments And again some are of such a rough sowre contradictious temper that they will sooner chuse to run wrong than comply with the perswasions of those that offer Truth even for that reason because they are perswaded to it so that the Truth which if none had minded them they of themselves would have embraced they will now refuse when 't is pressed upon them out of a cross and thwarting humour because they hate nothing more than to do as they are bidden To come a little nearer Let us consider how these things shew their Power upon the Mind to sway and incline it 'T is indeed true That in things that are clearly and strongly propounded to the Understanding it cannot but judg according to the evidence of Truth and cannot be guided by the Will to judg contrary nay the Will though in things purely speculative it may retain its averseness as also in things Practical while they are considered only as what may be done before the Understanding hath come up to its final resolve determining that such things must or ought to be done cannot but follow the light and information of the Understanding and that according to the Proportion of its Conviction so that though in some Cases a Man would have things otherwise than he believes them to be yet he cannot believe what he will neither can he refuse to will what is certainly represented to be good and necessary Notwithstanding all this the fore-mentioned Particulars may so byass the Mind that it shall not act truly and steadily as we may see in these three Particulars First In things clearly demonstrated to the Understanding though the Will cannot directly oppose nor prevail to have them judged false yet it can indirectly hinder the procedure of the Understanding and divert it from fixing its consideration upon the Truth or from working it self into positive determinations for bringing it into Practice Thus many that cannot but believe there is a God and that his Law is true being byassed by their Lusts the power of Pleasures or Interest c. do prevail upon their understandings to take up other Objects of consideration so that they are
Thirdly Where the fore-mentioned Particulars of Inclination natural or acquired Humours Custom Education c. do neither divert the Understanding nor engage it to close with Errour yet often do they discover how powerfully they can byas the Mind in that these prevail with Men to modifie and mold a Truth according to the bent or form of their inclinations As a Bowl which is skilfully aimed at a Mark goes nevertheless by a Compass which its byas forceth it unto according to the risings or fallings of the ground it meets with in the way Men may arrive at real Truth in the main and yet may shape it according to their humours For instance let us consider the different modes or forms in which the same Truth is represented under the workings of different tempers A Melancholy Person conceives of all things under such reflections as Fear and Sadness do usually give if he consider God he looks upon him in the notion of greatest severity and justice if upon the ways of Duty he colours them all in black and can scarce account any thing Piety which is not accompanied with sadness and mourning if he calls his Soul to a reckoning his conclusions concerning himself are sad doleful or at best suspicious On the contrary an hilarous cheerful temper censures all sadness for fullenness and is apt to accuse those that go mourning in their way for unthankful Murmurers and unbelieving Complainers it interprets God's favourable condesentions to the weak in the greatest latitude and is easily perswaded to those things that are upon the utmost brink of Liberty to which others of a more timerous disposition dare not approach for fear of offending This puts an higher excellency upon the duties of Praise as the other upon Fasting and Mourning Those Men that are morose and severe they are apt to think that God is such an one as themselves and though they acknowledg there is such a grace as Charity yet under a pretence of strictness they cannot believe they are bound to exercise it towards any that are under any failing of which they judge themselves to be free and therefore such Men are usually very difficult in all cases wherein Condescention is to be used they are hard to be reconciled and after the miscarriage of any person are not easily satisfied of their Repentance and in cases of Dissent from their way and practice of Religion they are commonly censorious and conclude the worst They again that are naturally mild and gentle under a pretence of Charity and Meekness are apt to become remiss in their Carriages towards any Brother and because Charity thinks not evil they model their acknowledged Duty into the form of their own disposition and so think they must see and yet not perceive and instead of covering the infirmities of a Brother they have a Mantle to cast over every transgression At the same rate also do they frame their conceptions of God as if he was so merciful that he would scarce reckon any Abomination to be above the height of an ordinary infirmity these are apt to think that the mercies of God so much praised in Scripture signifie little less than an indulgence in Transgression far above what Precisians are apt to imagine and that it is as easie to obtain forgiveness from God for any offence as it is to say The Lord be merciful to me a Sinner Those that accustom themselves to the delights of the senses are apt to bend the way of their Religion to that humour and think that nothing can be solemn in Worship that is not set out with garnishings that may please the Eye or Ear. Nay 't is observable enough That Religion borrows some taint or shape from the various Studies and Sciences of Men in some as in many of the Fathers we may see Religion dipt in Platonism or Peripateticism Some introduce the distinctions and definitions of Philosophy others compel all Scriptures to submit to the Laws of strict logical Analysis Thus according to the various Mediums that Men look through are Truths discoloured and dressed up in several shapes 't is easie from these instances to imagine that Satan must have a great advantage against us in point of Errour from the byas of the Mind Fourthly Adventurous Curiosities is another general advantage by which he works This ariseth partly from a desire of Knowledge and partly from Pride and both these make way for his Design A desire after Knowledg is Natural and withal very bewitching To know hath something in it more than ordinary This is noted in Job 11. 12. Vain Man would be wise though Man be born like a wild Asse's-colt though he be foolish yet he affects Wisdome and the very delight of Knowing doth engage Men to curious prying Searches though with much labour and hazard Of this Temper were the Athenians Act. 17. 21. They spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing not barely in telling News but in inquiries after new Notions and Discoveries and this made them willing to hear Paul as a setter forth of strange Gods and a new Doctrine When this desire after Knowledg is animated with Pride as oft it is for Knowledg puffeth up then 't is more dangerous when Men are upon a Design to seem higher than others to be singular to see more than what all Men see to be admired to out-talk their Neighbours what adventures will they not make How fair do they lye open to any conceit that may serve this end That Satan labours to improve this curiosity is without doubt he carefully affords fuel to this burning and diligently blows it up into a flame The first temptation had that ingredient in it Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil And we see it was a great enticement to Eve That which would make one wise was therefore desirable The blame of Israels first Idolatry seems to be laid at this door Deut. 32. 17. They sacrificed to Gods whom they knew not to new Gods that came newly up implying That they were drawn aside from their old established way of Worship by a curiosity to try the new ways of the Heathens And so great an hand hath this generally in Errours That Paul 2 Tim. 4. 3. makes this itch after Novelty the great ground of that defection from Truth which he foresaw was coming They shall heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears This itch of the Ear is the usual fore-runner of a Scab in the Church because it doth dispose Men to receive any kind of Teacher God indeed doth sometimes take the advantage of our natural curiosity for our good by this means many of Johns Hearers who went out into the Wilderness to him as to a strange sight as those words imply What went ye out into the Wilderness to see were Converted By this means the Gospel afterwards made a large Progress as we see commonly new Teachers affect most at
common Rhetorick One gives us an Observation to that purpose of his own Preaching and so may many others While then Men hear such language they have a reverence to it And as Physitians cover their Pills with Gold that the Patient might more willingly take them so do Men often swallow down Errour without due consideration because conveyed to them in a Language which they respect Secondly Satans second care for the advancement of Errour after he hath given it all the countenance he can from Scripture is to gild it over with specious pretences he sets it off with all the bravery he can and then urgeth that as an Argument of its Truth Men are apt to judg that what doth better their Spiritual Condition cannot be a Lye or delusion and the Argument were the more considerable if the advantages were such as he pretends them to be but the very noise and boast of advantages please the unwary without a due enquiry into their reality The Apostle in Rom. 16. 18. reduceth all this Policy of the Deceiver to two heads 1. Good words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that set out the profit and advantage of the thing 2. And fair Speeches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speeches that flatter the Condition of the party His Art as to the first of these is to tell them that the Notions offered to them are special Discoveries rare Mysteries which have been hidden from others and thence infers that it must of necessity conduce much to their happiness and Spiritual Perfection to know and embrace them Those that troubled the Church in Pauls days with false Doctrines used this slight of boasting as appears by that expression in 1 Tim. 6. 20. Oppositions of Science it seems they called their opinions though they were but prophane and vain-bablings by the name of Science or Knowledg implying that all others even the Apostles themselves were in the Dark and came short of their Illumination The like we have in Rev. 2. 24. of that abominable Prophetess Jezebel who recommended her blasphemous filthy Doctrines under the name of Depths Profundities or hidden Knowledg though the Spirit of God told that Church they were not such but if Depths they were depths of Satan as 't is added there by way of Correction and not of the Spirit of God We may trace these â—ooâ—steps of Satan in all considerably prevailing Errors for what hath been more common than to hear Men speak of the designs they have been carrying on under the specious Titles Of Christ's coming to set up a Righteous Kingdom The Churches coming out of Babylon and out of the Wilderness the dawning of the day of the Lord the day of Reformation the time of the Restitution of all things with abundance of Brags of the same kind I shall add no particular Instance of this nature but a few strains of H. Nicholas with whom such high promising vaunts were ordinary His Service of Love he compares to the most Holy whereas Johns Doctrine of Repentance was but a preparation to the Holy and the Service of Christ he allowed to be no more than as the Holy of the Temple this his Service he calls the perfection of Life the completion of Prophecies the perfect conclusion of the Works of God the Throne of Christ the true Rest of the Chosen of God the last Day the sure Word of Prophecy the New Jerusalem and what not If we make further enquiry into the nature of these fair promising Mysteries we shall find that Satan most frequently pitcheth upon these three First He befools Men into a belief that the Scriptures do under the Vail of their Words and Sentences contain some hidden Notions that are of purpose so disguised that they may be locked up from the generality of Men at least from learned and wise Men and that these Rarities cannot be discerned from the usual significations of the Words and Phrases as we understand other Books of the same Language but they fancy these Sacred Writings to be like the Writings of the Aegyptians by which they absconded their Mysteries especially like that kind of Writing whereby under words of common known sence they intended things which the Words themselves could not signify and that which occasions this imagination is this that we read frequently of Mysteries in Scriptures and hidden Wisdom and the special Revelation of them to God's Children which are very great Truths but yet not to be so understood as this Delusion supposeth for these expressions in Scripture intend no more than this that the design of God to save Man by Christ is in it self a Mystery which never would have been found out without a special Revelation and that though this Mystery is now revealed by the Gospel yet as to the application of it to the Hearts of Men in Conversion by the Operation of the Spirit it is yet a Mystery But none of these intend any such suggestion that there are private Notions of Truth or Doctrine that are lying under ground as it were in Scripture words which the words in the common Language will not acquaint us withal nay the contrary is expresly affirmed when we are told that all is plainly laid open to the very simple so that from the Scriptures they may as well understand the fundamental principles of Religion as they may understand any other thing which their language doth express to them However in this Satan takes advantage of Mens Pride and Curiosity to make them forward in the acceptation of such offers especially when such things are represented as the only saving discoveries which a Man cannot be ignorant of but with hazard of Damnation Secondly In this boast of Mystery Satan sometimes takes another course somewhat differing from the former and that is to put Men upon Allegorical reflections and allusions by which the Historical Passages of Scripture are made besides the import of the History resemblances of spiritual Truths which supposeth the Letter of Scripture to be true but still as no better than the first Rudiments to train up Beginners withal yet withal that the spiritual meaning of it raiseth the skilful to a higher Form in Christ's School At this rate all are turned into Allegories If they fall upon the first of Genesis they think they then truly understand it when they apply the Light and Darkness and God's separating of them with such other Passages to the regeneration of the Soul The like work make they with the Sufferings of Christ But then the crafty Adversary at last enticeth them on to let go the History as if it were nothing but a Parable not really acted but only fitted to represent Notions to us Allegories were a Trap which the Devil had for the Jews and wherein they wonderfully pleased themselves How much Origen abused himself and the Scriptures by this humour is known to many and how the Devil hath prevailed generally by it upon giddy people in later times I need not tell you The
when Converted in the midst of his Persecuting rage or those whose Ignorance or Melancholy makes their Hopes and Comforts inaccessible for the present These troubles God owns to be the Work of his Spirit the same Spirit which is a Spirit of Adoption to the Converted is a Spirit of Bondage to these Rom. 8. 16. And accordingly we find it was so to the Converts in Acts 2. Who being pricked in their hearts by Peter's Sermon cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do The like did the Jaylor And the Promise which God makes of calling the Jews Zach. 12. 10. doth express God's purpose of dealing with them in this very Method They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him in that day shall be a great mourning 2. God also sometimes wounds the Conscience of his Children after Conversion and this he doth to convince and humble them for some Miscarriage which they become guilty of As when they grow secure carnally confident of the continuance of their Peace when they are carelesly negligent of Duty and the exercises of their Graces when they fall into gross and scandalous sins or wilfully desert the ways of Truth and in many more cases of like kind When his Children make themselves thus obnoxious to Divine Displeasure then God hides his Face from them takes away his Spirit signifies his Anger to their Consciences threatens them with the danger of that Condition from whence follows grief and fear in the Hearts of his People In this manner God expressed his Displeasure to David as his Complaints in Psal 51. do testifie Make me to hear joy and gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce hide thy Face from my sins Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation c. 2. Notwithstanding all this there is a great difference betwixt God and Satan in this matter which mainly appears in two things 1. God doth limit himself in all the Trouble which he gives his Children to his great end of doing them Good and Healing them and consequently stints himself in the measure and manner of his Work to such a proportion as his Wisdom sees will exactly suit with his End So that his Anger is not like the brawlings of malicious Persons that know no bounds he will not always Chide his Debates are in measure and this lest the Spirit should fail before him Isa 57. 16. So that when he wounds the Conscience before Conversion 't is but to bring them to Christ and to prevent their taking such Courses as might through Delusion make them take up their stand short of him So much of Mourning and Fear as is requisite for the true effecting of this he appoints for them and no more When he wounds after Conversion 't is but to let them feel that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against him that their Godly sorrow may work Repentance suitable to the Offence and that they may be sufficiently cautioned for the time to come to sin no more lest a worse thing befal them He that afflicts not willingly will put no more Grief upon them than is necessary to bring them to this But Satan when he is admitted and God doth ofter permit him in subservience to his design to wound the Conscience he proceeds according to the boundless fury of his malice and plainly manifests that his desire is to destroy and to tread them down that they may never rise again This though he cannot effect for God will not suffer him to proceed further than the bringing about his holy and gracious Purpose yet it hinders not but that still his envious thoughts boil up in his Breast and he acts according to his own Inclination For it is with Satan as 't is with wicked Men if God imploy them for the Chastisement of his Children they consider not who sets them on work nor what Measures probably God would have them observe but they propose to themselves more work than ever God cut out for them As Assyria when imployed against Jerusalem Isa 10. 7. had designs more large and cruel than was in Gods Commission God had stinted him in his holy Purpose yet the Assyrian meant not so neither did his heart think so but it was in his heart to destroy and cut off Nations not a few So that when God is a little displeased as he speaks Zach. 1. 15. they do all that lies in them to help forward the Affliction Thus doth the Devil endeavour to make all things worse to God's Children than ever God intended Here is one difference betwixt God and Satan in the wounding of Consciences But 2. They are yet further differenced in that all that God doth in this Work is still according to Truth For if he signifie to the Unconverted that they are in a state of Nature liable to the Damnation of Hell unless they accept of Christ for Salvation upon his Terms this is no more than what is true God doth not misrepresent their Case to them at that time Again if he express his displeasure to any of his Converted Children that have grieved his Spirit by their Follies by setting before them the Threatnings of his Word or the Examples of his Wrath he doth but truly tell them that he is angry with them and that de jure according to the Rigour of the Law and the demerit of their Offence he might justly cast them off But he doth not positively say that de eventu it shall infallibly be so with them But Satan in both these cases goes a great way further He plainly affirms to those that are in the way to Conversion that God will not pardon their Iniquities that there is no hope for them that Christ will not accept them that he never intended the benefit of his Sufferings for them And when the Converted do provoke God he sticks not to say the Breach cannot be healed and that they are not yet Converted All which are most false assertions And though God can make use of Satans malice when he abuseth his Children with his falshoods to their great fear to carry on his own ends by it and to give a greater impression to what he truly witnesseth against them Yet is not God the proper Author of Satans lying for he doth it of his own wicked inclination The effect of these desperate false Conclusions which is the putting his Children into a fear in order to his end may be ascribed to God but the falshood of these Conclusions are formally Satan's work and not God's For he makes use of so much of Satan's wrath as may be to his Praise and the remainder of his wrath he doth restrain I have discovered the nature and degrees of these Spiritual Troubles and that 't is a common thing for
became an Argument against him Joh. 7. 41. while some were convinced and said This is the Christ others said shall Christ come out of Galilee Thirdly Another part of his Design in the use of Scriptures is to put a Varnish upon Hypocrisy He is ready to serve Men by putting Scripture Expressions in their Mouths and inuring them to a constant use of the phrases of those Divine Writings that they may less suspect themselves of the Pride Formality and secret wickedness of their Hearts and to help on their mistakes concerning their Spiritual Condition he can urge upon their Consciences those Scriptures that serve to engage them in external Observances of Religion It may appear by the Pharisees boast of Fasting twice a Week of paying Tythes of giving Alms that their Consciences were some way concerned in these things so that though they were left without check of Conscience to devour Widows Houses yet were they urged to make long Prayers Suitable to this is that which Solomon speaks of the Harlot who to colour over her Wickedness had her Offerings and Vows and when her Conscience is appeased with these performances she can excuse her self in her way of sinning She eats and wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no wickedness Prov. 30. 20. Satan doth but hereby help to paint a Sepulchre or guild a Potsheard and to furnish Men with Excuses and Pretexts in their way of sinning Not unlike to this was that Service which the Devil with great readiness performed as I was informed from some of good credit to a young Student who had faln upon some Books of Magick in a Colledg-Library into which having stoln privately one Night in pursuit of that Study was almost surprised by the President who seeing a Candle there at an unseasonable time suddenly opens the Door to know who was up so late in which strait the Devil to gratify his Pupil with a ready excuse snatcheth away his Book and in a moment lays Montanus his Bible before him that he might pretend that for his imployment Secondly Another point of Satan's unfaithful dealing with Scripture is his falsecitation of it 't is nothing with him to alter change or leave out such a part as may make against him If he urge Promises upon Men in order to their Security and Negligence he conceals the Condition of them and bannisheth the Threatning far from their Minds representing the Mercy of God in a false Glass as if he had promised to save and bring to Heaven every Man upon the common and easy tearms of being called a Christian If it be his purpose to disquiet the Hearts of God's Children to promote their fears or to lead them to dispair then he sets home the Commands and Threatnings but hides the Promises that might relieve them and which is remarkable he hath so puzled some by setting on their Hearts a piece of Scripture that when the next words or next verse might have eased them of their Fears and answered the sad Objections which they raised against themselves from thence as if their Eyes had been holden or as if a mist had been cast over them they have not for a long time been able to consider the relief which they might have had This hiding of Scripture from their Eyes setting aside what God may do for the just chastisement of his Childrens Folly is effected by the strong Impression which Satan sets upon their Hearts and by holding their Minds down to a fixed Meditation of the dreadful inferences which he presents to them from thence not suffering them to divert their Thoughts by his incessant Clamours against them Thirdly He unfaithfully handleth Scriptures by wresting the true Import and Sense of them We read of some 2 Pet. 3. 16. who wrest the Scripture the word in the Original signifies a racking or torturing of it as Men upon a Rack are stretched beyond their due length to a dislocation of their joints and sometimes forced to spake what they never did nor intended so are the Scriptures used Those that do so are Satan's Scholars and taught of him though in regard of the Spirits true teaching they are called unlearned which is sufficient to shew Satan's deceitful dealing he often lays his dead and corrupt Sense as the Harlot did with her dead Child in the room of the living Infant in the place of the living meaning of the Scripture this may be seen evidently First In Heresies or Errors these are Satans Brood and there are none so vile that pretend to Christian Religion but they claima kindred to Scripture and are confident on its Authority for them Now seeing Truth is but one and these Errors not only contradictory to Truth but to each other Satan could never spin out such conclusions from the Divine Oracles but by wresting them from their true intendments and he that would contemplate the great Subtilty of Satan in this his Art need but consider what different strange and monstrous shapes are put upon the Scripture by the several Heresies which march under its Colours The Quakers in their way represent it like an old Almanack out of date and withal in the use they make of it they render it as a piece of nonsensical furious roving The Socinians take down the sublime Mysteries of Christs satisfaction and Justification by Faith with External Rewards and Punishments to a strain as low as the Turkish Alcoran The Papists make it like a few leaves of an imperfect Book wanting Beginning and End and so not fit to be set up as a sufficient Rule The Ranters make it seem rather like Language from Hell than the Commands of the Pure and Holy God Some will have it to countenance most ridiculous inventions in Worship others will have it to discharge all outward observations and Ordinances as Childish Rudiments Some raise it all to the pitch of Aenigmatical unintelligible Mysteries Others can find no more in the precepts of it than in Aristotles Ethicks Thus by distorting and wresting Satan hath learn'd these unskilful Ones to make it serve their vilest Lusts and Humours Secondly The same Art of wresting Scripture is observable in his secret Suggestions If he would encourage any in Sin he can Wrest Scripture for that and tell him that God is Merciful that Christ died for Sinners that there is hope of Pardon that Saints have done the like things very true in themselves but perverted by him to another sense than ever they were intended to by God who hath spoken these things that we sin not If he would discourage a Saint he can tell him when he finds him doubting his estate that the fearful and unbelieving have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone when he finds him under a known Sin he tells that of the Apostle If we sin willfully after we have received the knowldg of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins When he observes them discomposed and wandering in
Duty then he objects They draw nigh me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me If he sees them dull and without Consolation at the Lord's Supper then to be sure they hear of him he that eats and drinks unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself If he find him bemoaning that he is not so apprehensive of Mercies or Judgments as he would be then he sets home some such Scripture as this This Peoples Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing c. These Scriptures are frequently perverted by Satan from the true and proper meaning of them I have had complaints from several dejected Christians of these very Scriptures urged upon them to their great trouble when yet it was evident that none of these were truly applyed by Satans Temptation against them These things give us warning not to take any thing of this Nature upon trust If Satan can so imitate the Spirit of God in applications of Scripture and bringing it to our remembrance we have great reason to beware lest we be imposed upon by Satan's Design clothed in Scripture Phrase not that I would have Men esteem the secret setting of Scripture upon their Minds to be in all cases a delusion and to be disregarded as such Some indeed there are that so severely remark the weaknesses of Professors of Religion that they raise up a scorn to that which is of most necessary and serious use because the Devil prevails with some Hypocrites to guild themselves with Scripture phrase and others through imprudent inadvertency are unknown to themselves beguiled by Satan to misapplications of Scripture to their own estate or to other things they therefore decry all the inward workings of the Heart as Fancy or affected singularity these do but the Devils work But that the Spirit of God whom Satan treacherously endeavours to imitate doth set home Scripture Commands Threatnings and Promises upon the Hearts of his People is not only attested by the Experience of all that are inwardly acquainted with the ways of God but is one of the great Promises which Christ hath given for the comfort of his People in his absence Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father shall send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you This then being granted as a firm unshaken Truth our care must be in discovering and avoiding Satan's counterfeit using of Scripture and in this we should be more wary First Because we are not so apt to suspect what we meet with in such a way when 't is brought to us in the Language of Scripture Secondly And those that are not exercised in the Scripture will he at a sad loss as not knowing how to extricate themselves from such difficulties as may arise to them from Satan's Sophistry Thirdly Wariness is also more necessary because we are inclinable to believe what suits our Desires and Conscience awakened is averse to the rejecting of that which answers its fears You may say What is there of direction for us in this Case The Answer is ready Two things are given us in Charge 1. That we be wisely suspicious A facile hasty credulity is treacherous Christ forbids when he foretels the rising of false Christ's Math. 24. 26. the forwardness of a sudden belief taxing thereby those that are presently taken with every new appearance 'T is childish to be carryed with every Wind we are warned also of this 1 Joh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit 2. We are commanded to bring all Pretences whatsoever to Tryal though immediate Revelation or Vision be pretended or extraordinary Commission yet must all be brought to the Touch-Stone we must prove all things 1 Thes 5. 21. and try those that say they are Apostles Rev. 2. 2. Nay the Spirits are to be tryed whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. You will say How must we try I Answer God hath given a Publick Sufficient and Certain rule which is the Scripture and all must be tryed by that so that if there be Impulses or Discoveries or Remembrances of Scripture upon any it must not be taken for granted that they are of God because they pretend so high for so we shall make Satan Judg in his own Cause but lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written Word and if it answer not that call it confidently a delusion and reject it as accursed though it might seem in other regards to have been suggested by an Angel from Heaven But it will be said Satan pretends to this Rule and it is Scripture that is urged by him I Answer though it be so yet he useth not Scripture in its own Intendment and Sense for the discovery of his unfaithful dealing First Compare the Inference of the suggestion with other Scriptures If it be from a dark Scripture compare it with those that are more plain and in every case see whether the general Current of the Scriptures speak the same thing for if it be from Satan he either plays with the Words and Phrases from doubtful and equivolent terms making his conclusion or his citation will be found Impertinent or which is most usual contrary to Truth or Holiness if any of these appear by a true examination of the Import of the Scripture which he seeks to abuse or by comparing it with the Scope and Genius of other Scriptures you may certainly pronounce that it is not of God but Satan's deceit Secondly Consider the tendency of such Suggestions Let no Man say that this will come too late or that it is an after game I do not mean that we should stay so long as to see the Effects though this is also a certain discovery of Satan's knavery in his highest pretences the Phanatick Furies of the German Enthusiasts do now appear plain to all the World to have been Delusions by their End Fruits and Issue But that while these Conclusions are obtruded upon us we should observe to what they tend which we shall the better know if all Circumstances round about be considered Sometimes Satan doth covertly hint his Mind and send it along with the suggestion sometimes our condition will enough declare it and there is no case but it will afford something of discovery if seriously pondered If he either prompt us to Pride Vain-Glory or Presumption or that our condition sway us that way it will be sufficient ground of Suspition that 't is Satan that then urgeth Promises or Priviledges upon us If we are of a wounded Spirit inclined to Distrust or if we be put on to despair it is past denyal that 't is Satan that urgeth the Threatnings and presseth the Accusations of the Law against us He that gathers Stones Timber Lime and such Materials together as are usually imployed in Building doth discover his intention before he actually Build his
Wicked and Godly in Persecutions Cruelties in Worship His cruel handling of his Slaves HE that shall consider his Malice and Power must unavoidably conclude him to be cruel Malice is always so where it hath the advantage of a proportionable strength and opportunity for the effecting of its hateful Contrivances It banisheth all pity and commiseration and follows only the dictate of its own rage with such fierceness that it is only limited by wanting power to execute We may then say of Satan That according to his Malice and Power such in his Cruelty The truth of this will be abundantly manifested by Instances As First From his desperate pursuits of Advantage upon those whose Spirits are wounded The anguish of a distressed Conscience is unspeakably great in so much that many are as Heman Psalm 88. 15. even distracted while they suffer the Terrors of the Almighty These though they look round about them for help and invite all that pass by to pity them because the hand of the Lord hath touched them yet Satan laughs at their Calamity and mocks at them under their Fears and doth all he can to augment the flame he suggests dreadful thoughts of an incensed Majesty begets terrible apprehensions of Infinite Wrath and Damnation he aggravates all their Sins to make them seem unpardonable every Action he calls a Sin and every Sin he represents as a willful forsaking of God and every deliberate Transgression he tells them is the sin against the Holy Ghost He baffles them in their Prayers and Services and then accuseth their Duties for intollerable prophanations of God's Name and if they be at last affrighted from them he then clamours that they are forsaken of God because they have forsaken him He as a right Baalzebub rakes in their Wounds as Flies are ever sucking where there is a Sore Their Outcrys and Lamentations are such Musick to him that he gives them no rest and with such triumph doth he tread upon those that thus lie in the Dust that he makes them sometimes accuse themselves for that which they never did and in derision he insults over them in their greatest perplexities with this Where is now thy God and who shall deliver thee out of my hand This were enough to evidence him altogether void of compassion But Secondly He shews no less cruelty in his usage of those that are his Slaves The Service that he exacts of those that are his most willing Servants is no less than the highest cruelty and not only 1. in regard of the misery and destruction which he makes them work out for themselves which is far greater than where Men are forced by the most brutish Tyrants to buy their own Poyson or to cut their own Throats because this is unspeakably less than the endless miseries of eternal Torments but 2. also in regard of the very slavery and drudging toyl of the Service which he exacts from them he is not pleased that they Sin but the vilest Iniquities most contrary to God and most abominable to Man as the highest violations of the Laws of Nature and Reason are the things which he will put them upon where there are no restraints in his way He drave the Heathens as Paul testifies Rom. 1. to affections so vile and loathsom that in their way of sinning they seemed to act rather like Brutes than Men their Minds becoming so injudicious that they lost all sense of what was fit and comely Neither 3. doth this satisfie his cruelty that the worst of Abominations be practised but he urgeth them to the highest desperateness in the manner of performance and so draws them out to the front of the Battel that they might contemn and out-dare God to his face he will have them sin with an high hand and in the highest bravado of madness to rush into Sin as the Horse into the Battel This cruelty of Satan were yet the less if he only brought them forth presumptuously in some one or two set Battels upon special occasions But 4. he would have this to be their constant work the task of every day upon the same score that Achitophel advised Absalom to an open and avouched defilement of his Fathers Concubines that so the breach 'twixt them and God might be fixed by a resolute determination and consequently that their hands might be strong and their hearts hardned in rebellion against God And 5. That Satan might not come short of the utmost of what Cruelty could do We may yet further observe that though Sinners offer themselves willingly enough to conflict against God in the high places of the Field yet as not satisfied with their forwardness he lasheth and whips them on to their work and sometime over-drives them in their own earnestness Haman was so hurried and overborn with violent hatred against Mordecai and the Jews that his own advancement and the marks of singular favour from the King availed him not as to any satisfaction and present contentment Ahab though King of Israel is so vehemently urged in his desires for Naboth's Vineyard that he covered his Face and grew sick upon it Thus as Gally-Slaves were they chained to their Oar and forced to their work beyond their own strength Thirdly There is also a cruelty seen in his incessant provokings and force upon the Children of God while he urgeth his loathed Temptations upon them against their will When I consider Paul's out-cry in this case Rom. 7. 15 19. That which I do I allow not the evil which I would not that do I c. my thoughts represent him to me like those Christians that were tortured in the Trough where Water was poured by a continued Stream upon their Mouths till the Cloth that lay upon their Lips was forced down their Throats or like those that had stinking Puddle-water by a Tunnel poured into their Stomacks till they were ready to burst and surely he apprehended himself to be under very cruel dealing by Satan when he cryed out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me If we seriously consider the mind and endeavours of those Children of God that are striving against Sin and have cast it off as the most loathsom abominable thing when Satan urgeth them to Evil with his incessant Importunities it is as if they were forced to eat their own Excrements or to swallow down again their own Vomit for the Devil doth but as it were cram these Temptations down their Throats against their will Fourthly If we cast our Eye upon the Persecutions of all Ages we shall have thence enough to charge Satan withall in point of Cruelty for he who is stiled a Murtherer from the beginning set them all on Foot 't is he that hath filled the World with Blood and Fury and hath in all Ages in one place or other made it a very Shambles and Slaughter-house of Men. 1. Can we reckon how often Satan hath been at this work that is impossible His most publick and general
other and besides this it hath a power of creating Objects and casting them into what forms and shapes it pleaseth all which our understanding cannot avoid the sight of Now the power of Imagination is acknowledged by all to be very great not only as working upon a Melancholy and distempered Spirit of which Authors give us large accounts but also upon Minds more remote from such peremptory Delusions as may be daily observed in the prejudices and prepossessions of Men who by reason of the impressions of Imagination are not without difficulty drawn over to the acknowledgment of the truth of things and the true understanding of Matters neither is the Vnderstanding only liable to a more than ordinary heat and rapture by it but the Will is also quickned and sharpned in its desires by this means Hence is it as one of the fore-cited Authors observes that Fancy doth often more toward a Perswasion by its insinuations than a cogent Argument or rational Demonstration This is no less a powerful Instrument in Satan's hand than commonly and frequently made use of who amongst us doth not find and feel him dealing with us at this Weapon When he propounds an Object to our Lust he doth not usually expose it naked under the hazard of dying out for want of prosecution but but presently calls in our Fancy to his aid and there raiseth a Theatre on which he acts before our Minds the Sin in all its ways and postures If he put us upon Revenge or upon Lusts of Uncleanness or Covetousness or Ambition we are sure if we prevent it not to have our Imagination presenting these things to us as in lively Pictures and Resemblances by which our desires may be enflamed and prepared for consent Fifthly Sometime he shews his Art in preparing and fitting our Bodies to his designs or in fitting Temptations to our Bodies and the Inclinations thereof The Soul though it be a noble Being yet is it limited by the Body and incommodated by the crazyness and indispositions thereof so that it can no more act strenuously or evenly to its Principles in a disordered Body than it can rightly manage any Member of it in its natural motions where the Bones are disjointed Hence Sickness or other bodily Weaknesses do alter the Scene and add another kind of byass to the Soul than that it had before This Satan takes notice of and either follows his advantage of the present Indisposition or if he hath some special design endeavours to cast our Body into such a disorder as may best sute his Intention Asa was more easily drawn to be overseen in peevishness and rash anger in his latter days when his Body grew diseased Satan had his advantage against Solomon to draw him to Idolatry when old age and uxoriousness had made him more ductile to the sollicitations of his Wives When Solomon was old his Wives turned away his Heart 1 King 11. 4. The Devil when he took upon him to foretel Job's blaspheming God to his Face yet he attempted not the main design till he thought he had throughly prepared him for it by the anguish and smart of a distempered Body and Mind and though he failed in the great business of his Boast yet he left us an experiment in Job that the likeliest way to prevail upon the Mind in hideous and desperate Temptations is to mould the Body to a sutable frame He prevailed not against Job to cause him curse God yet he prevailed far he cursed the day of his birth and spake many things by the force of that distress which he professeth himself ashamed of afterwards The Body then will be in danger when 't is disordered to give a tincture to every action as a distempered Palat communicates a bitterness to every thing it takes down Sixthly Evil Company is a general preparatory to all kinds of Temptation He enticeth strongly that way For 1. Evil Society doth insensibly dead the Heart and quench the heat of the Affections to the things of God it hath a kind of bewitching power to eat out the fear of the Lord in our hearts and to take off the weight and power of religious duty it not only stops our Tongues and retards them in speaking of good things but influenceth the very Heart and poysons it into a kind of deadness and lethargy so that our thoughts run low and we begin to think that severe watchfulness of Thoughts and the guard of our Minds to be a needless and melancholly Self-imposition 2. Example hath a strange insinuating force to instamp a Resemblance and to beget Imitation Joseph living where his Ears were frequently beaten with Oaths finds it an easie thing upon a feigned occasion to swear by the Life of Pharaoh Evil Company is Sins Nursery and Satan's Academy by which he trains up those whose knowledg and hopeful beginnings had made them shy of his Temptations and if he can prevail with Men to take such Companions he will with a little labour presently bring them to any Iniquity Seventhly But his highest project in order to the enticing of Men is to engage their Affections to an height and passionateness The Scripture doth distinguish betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Affections and Lusts clearly implying that the way to procure fixed desires and actual lustings is to procure those passionate workings of the Mind How powerful a part of his Design this is will appear from the nature of these Passions which are First Violent Motions of the Heart the very Wings and Sails of the Soul and every Passion in its own working doth express a violence Choler is an earnest Rage Voluptuousness is nothing less Fear is a desperate hurry of the Soul Love strong as Death Jealousie cruel as the Grave each of them striving which should excell in violence so that 't is a question yet undertermined which Passion may challenge the superiority Secondly Their Fury is dangerous and unbridled like so many wild Horses let loose hurrying their Rider which way they please They move not upon the command of Reason but oft prevent it in their sudden rise neither do they take Reasons advice for their course proportionable to the occasion for often their humor rather than the matter of the provocation gives them Spurs and when they have evaporated their heat they cease not as following the command of Reason but as weakned by their own violence Thirdly They are not easily conquered not only because they renew their strength and onset after a Defeat and like so many Hydra's heads spring up as fast as cut off but they are our selves we can neither run from them nor from the love of them Fourthly And consequently highly advantageous in Satan's Design and Enticement when they are driven up to a Fury and Passionateness for besides their inward rage which the Scripture calls burning by which Men are pricked and goaded on without rest or ease
to make provisions for the Flesh and to enjoy or act what their unbridled violence will elad to in the execution of their desires They carry all on before them and engage the whole Man with the highest eagerness to fulfil every Lust to go up to the highest degrees and with an unsatiable greediness to yield themselves servants of Iniquity unto Iniquity CHAP. XI 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 THat Satan doth entice us by stirring up our Lust hath been discovered it remains that I next speak to the second thing propounded which was That by this power of Lust he blinds and darkens our Mind That the Lusts of Men are the great principle upon which Satan proceeds in drawing on so great a blindness as we have spoken of I shall briefly evince from these few Observations First From the unreasonableness and absurdity of some Actions in Men otherwise sufficiently rational He that considers the acts of Alexander in murthering Calisthenes for no other crime than defending the cause of the Gods and affirming that Temples could not be built to a King without provoking a Deity and yet this so smoothed if Quintus-Curtius represent him right that he seemed to flatter Alexander with an opinion of Delfication after his death Whosoever I say shall consider this cruelty will condemn Alexander as blind and irrational in this matter and yet no other cause can be assigned hereof but that his lust after Glory and Honour darkned his Reason The like may be said of his killing Ephestion's Physician because he died The brutal fury of that Consul that made a Slave to be eaten up with Lampreys for no other fault than the breaking of a Glass can be ascribed to nothing else but the boyling over of his Passion A sadder instance of this we have in Theodosius senior who for an affront given to some of his Officers in Thessalonica commanded the destruction of the City and the slaughter of the Citizens to the number of 7000 without any distinction of nocent and innocent This blind rage the Historian notes as the fruit of violent and unbridled Lust in a Man otherwise just and gracious Thousands of Instances of this nature might be added But Secondly If we consider the known and visible hazards to Life and Estate and that which is more to that part of them which is Immortal upon all which Men do desperately adventure upon no other ground or motive than the gratifications of their Lusts We may easily conclude that there is a strange force and power in their Passions to blind and besot them and this notwithstanding is the common practice of all Men where Grace as the only Eye-salve doth not restore the sight The Heathens in all these practices of Filthiness and Folly recorded Rom. 1. 29. They had so far a discovery of the danger if they had not imprisoned that Truth and Light in Vnrighteousness vers 18. that they knew the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death vers 32. Yet notwithstanding the vanity of their Imaginations influenced by Lust darkned their heart so much that they did not only do these things of so great vileness and unspeakable hazard but had pleasure in those that did them Thirdly The blinding power of Lust is yet more remarkable When we see Men glorying in their Shame and mounting their triumphal Chariots to expose themselves a Spectacle to all in that garb of deformity which their Lusts have put them in 'T is a blindness to do any act against the rules of Reason but 't is a far great blindness for Men to pride themselves in them What have the issues of most Wars been but burnings of Cities devastations of flourishing Kingdoms spilling the blood of Millions besides all the Famine and other miseries that follow yet these actions that better beseem Tigars Lions and savage Bruits than Men of Reason are honoured with the great triumphant names of Vertue Manhood Courage Magnanimity Conquest c. If the power and humor of their Lusts of vain-glory and revenge had not quite muffled their understandings these things would have been called by their proper names of Murther Cruelty Robbery c. and the Actors of such Tragedies instead of triumphal Arches and acclamations of Praise would have been buried under heaps of Ignominy and perpetual Disgraces as Prodigies of Nature Monsters of Men and Haters of Mankind Fourthly But there is yet one Evidence more plain and convincing When our Lusts are up though Reason offer its aids to allay the Storm yet the wisest of Men otherwise composed and calm are so far from taking the advantage of its guidance that oftentimes they trample upon it and despise it and as if Lusts by some secret Incantation had made them impenetrable they are not capable of its light and conduct and can make no more use of it than a blind Man can do of a Candle To this purpose let us observe the carriage of Disputants if Men do any way publickly engage themselves in a Contest of this nature though Truth can be but on the one side yet both Parties give Arguments and answer Objections with equal confidence of victory and a contempt of the reasons and strength of each others discourses and this proves so fatal to him that maintains the mistake or untruth that not one of a thousand hath the benefit and advantage for the finding of Truth which free and unprejudiced Bystanders may have so true is that Omne perit judicium cum res transit in affectum When Affections are engaged Judgment is darkned 'T is a thing of common observation that when Men are discoursed into Anger and Heat they presently grow absurd are disabled for speaking or understanding Reason and are oft hurried to such inconveniences and miscarriages that they are ashamed of themselves when they cool and the fit is over Impedit ira animum c. To all this might be added the power of Lust in Persons voluptuous who dedicate themselves to the pleasures of the Flesh Those that serve divers Lusts and Pleasures their slavish Estate their base Drudgery do clearly evince that Lust unmans them and puts out their Eyes Mark-Antony by this means became a Slave to Cleopatra never did a poor Captive strive more to obtain the good will of his Lord than he to please this Woman insomuch that besotted with his Lust he seemed to want that common foresight of his danger which the smallest measure of Reason might have afforded to any and so dallied himself into his ruine From all these Considerations and Instances it appears our Lusts afford such Vapours and Mists that our Reason is darkned by them or rather they are like a Dose of Opium that strongly stupifies and binds
Mouths 't is he that teacheth and prompts them and therefore may they be called as Elymas was by Paul the Children of the Devil or as Cerinthus of old the first-born of Satan The Church of Corinth among other distempers laboured under dangerous Errours against which when the Apostle doth industriously set himself he doth chiefly take notice 1. Of the false-Teachers who had cunningly wrought them up to an aptitude of declining from the simplicity of the Gospel these he calls false-Apostles as having no commission from God and Satan's Ministers 2 Cor. 11. 13 15. thereby informing us who it is that sends them out and imploys them upon this errand 2. He especially accuseth Satan as the great Contriver of all this evil if any shut their Eyes against the Light he gives this for the principal cause that the God of the World blinded their Minds If any stumbled at the simplicity of the Gospel he presently blames the subtilty of the old Serpent for it 2 Cor. 11. 3. When false Doctrine was directly taught and varnished over with the glorious pretexts of Truth still he chargeth Satan with it Vers 14. No marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light where he doth not only give a reason of the corrupting or the adulterating the Word of God by false-Apostles as Vintners do their Wines by mixtures a Metaphor which he makes use of cap. 2. 17. that they learned it of Satan who abode not in the Truth but was a Lyar from the beginning But also he further points at Satan to furnish us with a true account of the ground of that cunning Craft which these deceitful Workers used while they metamorphosed themselves by an imitation of the way and manner zeal and diligence of the Apostles of Christ they were taught by one who had exactly learned the Art of Imitation and who could to all appearance act to the life the part of an Angel of Light And to take away all objection or wonder that so many with such seeming earnestness and zeal should give up themselves to deceive by false-Doctrine he tells us that this hath been the Devil's work from the first beguiling of Eve vers 3. and that as he then made use of a Serpent for his Instrument so ever since in all ages he hath made so often and so much use of Men as his Emissaries that it should now neither seem a marvel nor a great matter to see the Devil at this work by his Agents Thirdly That this is Satan's great design may be further cleared from the constant course of his endeavours The Parable of the Tares Matth. 13. 25. shews that Satan is as busie in sowing Tares as the Master of the Field is in sowing Wheat that by Tares not Errors in the abstract but Men are to be understood is evident from the Parable it self but that which makes Men to be Tares is Sin and Errour so that in a complex sense we are taught how diligent the Devil who is expressly signified by the Enemy vers 39. is in that imployment much of his time hath been taken up that way There were false Prophets saith Peter 2 Epist 2. 1. and there shall be false-Teachers that is so it was of old and so it will be to the end The shortest abstract of Satan's acts in this matter would be long and tedious judge of the rest by a few instances In the Apostles times how quickly had the Devil broached false Doctrine That it was necessary to be circumcised was early taught Acts 15. 1. In Col. 2. 8. the vain deceit of Philosophy Traditions and the Elements of the World which were the body of Mosaical Ceremonies are mentioned as dangerous Intrusions and in vers 18. the worshipping of Angels as it seems was pleaded for with no small hazard to the Church The denial of the Resurrection is expressly charged upon some of the Corinthian Church 1 Cor. 15. 12. and that the Resurrection is past already 2 Tim. 2. 18. is affirmed to have been the Doctrine of Hymeneus Philetus and others but these are comparatively little to that gross Errour of denying Christ Jud. v. 4. or that Jesus is the Christ 2 Joh. 2. 22. or Jesus Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 3. which are branded for Antichristian Errours and were boldly asserted by many false Prophets that were then gone out into the World and to such a height came they at last that they taught the lawfulness of committing Fornication and to eat things offered to Idols Rev. 2. 20. All these falsehoods took the boldness to appear before all the Apostles were laid in their Graves And if we will believe what Austin tells us from Epiphanius and Eusebius there were no less than ten sorts of Heretical Antichrists in the Apostle John's days the Simonians Menandrians Saturnilians c. This was an incredible increase of false Doctrine in so short a time and in the times and preachings of the Apostles themselves whose power and authority one would think might have made Satan fall before them as lightning What progress then in this work of delusion might be expected when they were all removed out of the World They left indeed behind them sad predictions of the power of delusion in after-times Of your selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things After my departing shall grievous Wolves enter c. Acts 20. 30. The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4. 1. and Paul 2 Thess 2. 3. prophesies of a general Apostacy upon the revealing of the Man of Sin and the Mystery of Iniquity and that these should be perilous times 2 Tim. 3. 1. To the same purpose John mentions the coming of the great Antichrist as a thing generally known and believed 1 Joh. 2. 18. But before all these Christ also had fully forewarned his Servants of false-Christs the power and danger of their delusion and of the sad revolt from the Faith which should be before his second coming Matth. 24. 24. And as we have heard so have we seen all ages since the Apostles can witness that Satan hath answered the Prophecies that were concerning him what a strange increase of Errours hath been in the World since that time Iraeneus and Tertullian made Catalogues long since after them Epiphanius and Eusebius reckoned about eighty Heresies Austin after them brings the number to eighty eight Now though there be just exceptions against the largeness of their Catalogues and that it is believed by many that there are several branded in their Rolls for Hereticks that meerly suffer upon the account of their Name and Nation for Barbarism Scythism Hellenism are mustered in the Front and others also stand there for very small matters as the quarto decimani c. and that some ought altogether to be crossed out of their Books yet still it will appear that the number of Errours is great and that
that they that are born of God indeed must not dare not cannot give themselves up to a liberty in such Abominations The same Fruits of corrupt Doctrine appeared after the Apostles dayes What was Montanus but an impure wretch What were his two companion Prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla but infamous Adulteresses The Priscillianists the Manichees and abundance more left the stink of their Prophaneness behind them by reason of whom according to Peters Prophesie 2 Pet. 2. 2. the way of Truth was evil spoken of Later times have also given in full evidence of this Truth How shameful and abominable were the Lives of John of Leyden and the rest of those German Enthusiasts Who reads the story of Hacket and Coppinger without detestation of their wicked Practices What better have the Familists and Libertines of New and Old England been some were turned off to highest Ranting in all Prophaneness of Swearing Drinking Adultery and the defying of a godly Life and this under the unreasonable boast of Spirit and Perfection The Heavens may blush and the Earth be astonished at these things But in the mean time Satan huggs himself in his success and encourageth himself to further attempts in propagating Errour seeing it brings in so great an harvest of Sin Eighthly In this Design of false-Doctrine Satan is never altogether out if he cannot thus defile their Lives yet 't is a thousand to one but he obstructs their Graces by it What greater hinderance can there be to Conversion than Errour The word of Truth is the means by which God through his Spirit doth beget us 't is part of that Image of God that is implanted in us 't is God's Voice to the Soul to awaken it It cannot then be imagined that God will give the honour of that work to any Errour neither can Truth take place or have its Effect upon a Soul fore-stalled with a contrary falshood Falshood in possession will keep Truth at the door Neither is Conversion only hindred by such Errours as directly contradict converting Truths but also by Collateral non-fundamental Errours As they fill the Minds of Men with prejudice against those that profess another Perswasion so that for their own beloved Errours-sake Men will not entertain a warning or conviction from those that dissent from their Opinions they first account them Enemies and then they despise their Message 'T is no small matter in Satans way to have such an obstruction at hand in the grand concern of Conversion Yet this is further serviceable to him to hinder or weaken the Graces of the Converted already if he can set God's Children a madding upon Errour or make them fond of Novelties he will by this means exhaust the vigour and strength of their Hearts so that the substantials of Religion will be neglected For as hurtful Plants engross all the moisture and fatness of the Earth where they stand and impoverish it into an inability for the nourishment of those that are of greater worth So doth Errour possess it self of the strength of the Spirit and in the mean time neglected Graces dwindle into emptiness and fade as a Leaf The most curious Questions and Opinions that are contribute nothing to the Establishment of the Heart 't is only Grace that doth that Heb. 13. 9. The heart is established with Grace and not with disputes about Meats nay they do Grace a prejudice in that they make it sick and languishing for to that sence is the Original in 1 Tim. 6. 4. Doting about Questions or growing diseased because of the earnest prosecution of Opinions Ninthly Errour hath yet another mischief in it which makes it not a little desirable to Satan and that is the judgment or punishment that it brings So that it every way answers the Devils hatred against both Soul and Body The blessings of Prosperity and Peace do attend the Triumphal Chariot of Truth Psal 85. 11 12. Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall look down from Heaven And then it follows That the Lord shall give that which is good and our Land shall yield her increase But on the contrary Errour doth more provoke God than Men are aware How often did God desolate the Israelites set a fire in their Cities and gave them into the hands of their Enemies because of their changing the Truth of God into a lye and worshipping and serving the Creature more than the Creator God left not the Church of Pergamos and Thyatira without severe Threatnings for the Errour of the Nicolaitans Rev. 2. 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly Vers 22. I will cast them into great tribulation except they repent of their Deeds and I will kill her children with death And accordingly God fulfilled his threatning upon them by bringing in the Saracens to desolate them and to possess their Land as he also brought the Goths upon the Empire for the Arrian Heresie How is Satan pleased to labour in a Design that will kindle the Wrath of the Almighty CHAP. II. Of the Advantages which Satan hath and useth for the Introduction of Errour As 1. From his own Power of Spiritual Fascination That there is such a Power proved from Scripture and from the Effects of it 2. From our imperfection of Knowledge the particulars thereof explained 3. From the byass of the Mind VVhat things do byas it and the power of them to sway the Understanding 4. From Curiosity 5. From Atheistical Debauchery of Conscience THat Satan may the better speed in his design he carefully takes notice of and diligently improves all advantages Indeed all his Stratagems are advantages taken against us for so the Apostle in his caution to the Corinthians calls his devices lest Satan should get an advantage of us 2 Cor. 2. 11. but here I only understand those that are more general which are the grounds and encouragements to his particular Machinations against Men and which also direct him in his procedure These are First Satan's own power of Spiritual Fascination by which he infatuates the minds of Men and deludes them as the external senses are deceived by Inchantments or Witchcraft That Satan is a cunning Sophister and can put Fallacies upon the Understanding that by subtile objections or arguments he can obtrude a falshood upon the belief of the unskilful and unwary that he can betray the judgment by the affections are things of common practice with him But that which I am now to speak of is of an higher nature and though it may probably take in much of his common method of ordinary delusion yet in this it differs at least that 't is more efficacious and prevalent for as his power over the children of disobedience is so great that he can lead them captive at his will except when he is countermanded by the Almighty so hath he by special commission a power to lead those to Errour effectually without missing his end that have prepared themselves for that spiritual
judgment by a special provocation and for ought we know as he hath an extraordinary power which he exerts at such times so may he have an extraordinary method which he is not permitted to practise daily nor upon all That such a power as this the Devil hath is believed by those whose learning and experience have made their judgments of great value with serious Men and thus some do describe it 'T is a delusion with a kind of Magical Inchantment so Calvin a Satanical operation whereby the senses of Men are deluded thus Perkins who after he had asserted that Satan can corrupt the Fantasy or Imagination he compares this Spiritual Witchcraft to such diseases of Melancholy that make Men believe that they are or do what they are not or do not as in the disease called Lycanthropia and to the inchantments of Jannes and Jambres who deluded the senses of Pharaoh Others more fully call it a more vehement operation of the great Impostor whereby he obtrudes some noxious Errour upon the mind and perswades with such efficacy that it is embraced with confidence defended strenuously and propagated zealously A particular account of the way and manner by which the Devil doth this is a task beyond sober enquiry it may suffice us to know that such power he hath and this I shall confirm from Scripture and from the effects of such delusion First There are several Scriptures which assert a Power in Satan to bewitch the minds of Men into Errour from which I shall draw such notes as may confirm and in part explain this Truth in hand And I shall begin with that of Gal. 3. 1. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth c. The word which the Apostle here useth for bewitching as Grammarians and Criticks note is borrowed from the practice of Witches and Sorcerers who use by secret powers to bind the Senses and to effect Mischiefs 'T is true he speaks of false Apostles but he intends Satan as the chief Workman and this he transfers to signify Satan's Power upon the Mind in blinding the Understanding for the entertainment of Errour Neither can any thing be objected why this place should not prove a fascinating power in Satan such as we have been speaking of but this that it may be supposed to intend no more than an ordinary powerful perswasion by Arguments Yet this may be answered not only from the authority of learned Interpreters who apprehend the Apostle and his expression to intend more but also from some concomitant particulars in the Text. He calls them foolish Galatians as we translate it but the Original goes a little higher to signify a madness and withall he seems to be surprized with wonder at the Power of Satan upon them which had not only prevailed against the Truth but against such evident manifestations of it as they had when they were so plainly fully and efficaciously instructed for before their eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth which expressions and carriage cannot rationally be thought to befit a common ordinary case Next to this let us a little consider that famous Scripture in 2 Thess 2. 9 10 11. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye I shall from this place observe a few things which if put together will clear the truth we speak of As first In this delusion here mentioned the Apostle doth not only set down extraordinary outward means as Signs and Lying Wonders but also suits these extraordinary means with a sutable concomitant inward power for by Power I do not understand as some a power of shewing Signs and doing Wonders as if the Apostle had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the power of Signs and Wonders for the words will not well bear that without some unnatural straining but I understand by it a Power distinct from the Signs and Wonders by which he moves their hearts to believe by an inward working upon their minds striking in with the outward means of Lying Miracles propounded to their senses And we may the better satisfy our selves in this interpretation if we compare it with Rom. 15. 19. where not only the power of doing Wonders is expressed by a phrase proper and different from this of the Text in hand through mighty Signs and Wonders or in the power of Signs and Wonders but it is also clearly distinguished from the Power of the Spirit of God in working upon the hearts to make those Wonders efficacious and perswasive so that as in the Spirit of God we observe a Power to do Wonders and a Power to work upon the Heart by these Wonders we may conclude that this wicked Spirit hath also in order to Sin and Delusion this twofold Power But secondly I note further that this Power is called a special energy of peculiar force and efficacy in its working the strange inexpressible strength of it seems to stand in need of many words for explanation He calls it all Power which as well notes the degree and height as the variety of its operations and then the energy the virtue operativeness and strength of Power Thirdly 'T is also to be observed that Satan's success and exercise of this Power of Delusion depends upon the commission of God and that therefore 't is extraordinary and not permitted to him but upon special occasions and provocation for this cause God shall send c. Fourthly The success of this Power when exercised is certain They are not only strong delusions in regard of the Power from whence they come but also in regard of the event those upon whom they come cannot but believe Infatuation and Pertinaciousness are the certain fruits of it Fifthly The Proof of all is manifest in the quality of the Errours entertained for they are palpable gross lyes and yet believed as the very truths of God and they are in such weighty points as do evidently determine the Soul to ruine lies to be damned which two things are sufficient proofs of Spiritual fascination It being unimaginable that rational Men and especially such as were instructed to a belief of a contrary truth should so far degenerate from the light of Reason as to be deluded by gross and apparent Lyes and of such high importance except their minds had been blinded in some extraordinary way Some further confirmation may be added to this truth from 1 King 22. 21. And there came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him I will go forth and I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets and he said thou shalt perswade him and prevail also I might here take notice of Satan's readiness in this work as wanting neither skill nor will if he were but always furnished with a Commission as also the powerful efficacy
not only grace a false Doctrine with the authority of an eminent Person whose estimation might be a snare to some well-meaning Persons but weakens the Truth by bringing a faithful Assertor of it into suspition of holding at least in some points dangerous Opinions by which many are affrighted from entertaining any thing that they write or preach For though they may be confessedly sound in the most weighty Doctrines yet if it be once buzz'd abroad that they are in any thing unsound this dead Fly spoils all the precious Ointment and the matter were yet the less if there were any just cause for such a prejudice but such is Satans Art that if a Man explains the same Truth but in different words and forms of speech than those that others have been used unto or if he casts it into a more convenient Mould that by laying aside doubtful or flexible expressions it may be more safely guarded from the exceptions of the Adversaries especially if he carefully chuse his path betwixt the extreams on either hand this is enough for Satan to catch at and presently he bestows upon him the names of the very Errours which he most strenuously opposeth nay sometimes if he mention any thing above the reach or acquaintance of those that hear him 't is well if he escapes the charge of Heresie and that he meets not with the lot of Virgilius Bishop of Saltzbury who was judged no less than heretical for venting his opinion concerning the Antipodes I know Men do such things in their zeal but while they do so they are concerned to consider how Satan doth abuse their good meaning to the disservice of Truth As Satan's design in bespattering the Actions and Doctrines of good Men is to bring the Truth they profess into a suspition of falshood and to advance the contrary Errours to the place and credit of Truth so doth he use a skill proportionable to his design And though he be so impudent that he will not blush at the contrivance of the most gross and malicious lye yet withall he is so cunning that he studiously endeavours some probable rise for his slanders and commonly he takes this course First He doth all he can to corrupt the Professors of Truth if Riches or Honours will tempt them to be Proud High-minded Contentions or Extravagant he plyes them with these Weapons if the pleasures of the Flesh and World be more likely to besot them or to make them sensual earthly or loose he incessantly lays those Baits before them if Fears and Persecutions can affright them out of duty if Injuries and Provocations may prejudice them into a forward or wayward temper he will certainly urge them by such occasions and when he hath prevailed in any measure he is sure to aggravate every circumstance to its utmost height and upon that advantage to make additions of a great many things beyond what they can be justly accused of This old device Paul in Rom. 2. 24. takes notice of concerning the Jews whose breach of the Law so dishonoured God that the Name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them The Jews lived wickedly and their wicked lives was a currant argument among the Gentiles to confirm them in Paganism for they judged the Law of God could not approve it self to be better than their own when the Professors of it were so naught To prevent this mischief we are seriously warned to be carefully strict in all our stations that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed Secondly Whatever miscarriages any Professor of Truth is guilty of Satan takes care that it be presently charged upon all the Profession If any one offend it is matter of publick blame much more if any Company or Party shall run into extravagancies or do actions strange and unjustifyable those that agree with them in the general name of their Profession though they differ as far from their wild Opinions and Practices as their enemies do shall still be upbraided with their Follies We see this practised daily by differing Parties according to what was foretold in 2 Pet. 2. 2. False Prophets seduce a great number of Christians to follow their pernicious ways and by reason of their wild ungodly behaviour the whole way of Truth was evil spoken of Thirdly The least slip or infirmity of the Children of Truth the Devil is ready to bring upon the Stage and they that will not charge themselves as offenders for very great evils will yet object to the disparagement of Truth the smallest mistakes of others a mote in the eye of the lovers of Truth shall be espyed when a beam in the eye of falshood shall pass for nothing Fourthly Slanderous Aspersions are sometimes raised from a simple mistake of Actions and their grounds or manner of performance and sometimes from a malicious Misrepresentation The Devil seldom acts from a simple mistake but he will either suborn the passionate Opposers to a wilful perverting of the true management of things or will by a false account of things take the advantage of their prejudice to make Men believe that such things have been said or done which indeed never were The Christians in the Primitive times were reported to be bloody Men and that they did kill Men in Sacrifice and did eat their Flesh and drink their Blood and this was only occasioned by their Doctrine and use of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ They were accused for promiscuous uncleanness with one another and this only because they taught that there was no distinction of Male and Female in respect of Justication and that they were all Brethren and Sisters in Christ This account Tertullian gives of the Calumnies of those times and others have noted the like occasions of other abuses of them They were reported to worship the Sun because they in times of persecution were forced to meet early in the Fields and were often seen undispersed at Sun-rising They were reported to worship Bacchus and Ceres because of the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper If they met in private places and in the night it was enough to occasion surmises of Conspiracy and Rebellion so ready is Satan to take occasion where none is given Fifthly But if none of these are at hand then a downright Lye must do the turn according to that of Jer. 18. 18. Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah and when once the lye is coyned Satan hath officious Instruments to spread it Jer. 20. 10. Report say they and we will report it These were the Lyes raised against Truth but besides this endeavour he useth the same Art of lying to inhance the credit of Errour Lying Inspirations Lying Signs and Wonders we have spoken of I shall only mention another sort of Lying which is that of Forgery an Art which Errour hath commonly made use of Sometimes Books and Writings erroneous have been made to carry the names
the Trinity he ran to a contrary Extreme and that he might give the highest proof of a Trinity of Persons he affirmed that Jesus Christ had a beginning and that there was a time when he was not c. Thus Socrates speaks of the Rise of that Heresy We might further follow the footsteps of this Device and trace it in most Opinions where we might find the humour of running to a contrary Extreme hath still either set up a contrary Error or at least leavened the Truth with harsh and unjustifiable Expressions and Explanations The Disputes betwixt Faith and Works have been thus occasioned and aggravated Some speak so of Faith as if they slighted Works others so urge a necessity of Works as if they intended to make Faith useless Some talk of Grace to an utter Contempt of Morality others on the contrary magnify Morality to the annihilating of Grace Some in their practice acquiesce in the outward Performance of Ordinances if they pray or receive the Sacraments though never so formally they are at peace supposing they have done all that is required others observing the Mistake and knowing that God looks more to the performance of the Soul and Spirit than to the Act of the Body upon a pretence of worshipping God in Spirit throw off the observation of his Ordinances altogether Neither is there any thing that doth more generally and apparently undoe us in the present Dissentions as many have complained than Mens violent Over-doing and running to contrary Extremes 6. Satan makes use of Rewards or Punishments on the one hand to bribe or on the other to force the Affections and they being strongly possessed easily prevail with the Understanding to give Sentence accordingly Men are soon perswaded to take that for Truth which they see will be advantageous to them Some Men indeed take up with a Profession of Truth which yet their Hearts approve not but the Advantages they have by their Profession do silence their dissatisfactions these are said to use the Profession of Truth as a Cloak of Covetousness 2 Thes 2. 5. But others go further and are really brought to an Approbation of that Doctrine or Way that makes most for their Profit their Minds being really corrupted by a self-seeking Principle they perswade themselves where there is any Contest about Doctrines that that Doctrine is true which is gainful and will accordingly dispute for it Hence that Expression in 1 Tim. 6. 5. supposing that Gain is Godliness To this may be added that the Affections are quickly sensible of the Ease and sensual Gratifications of any Doctrine and these are usually thrown into the same Scale to make more weight Men have naturally a good liking to that Doctrine that promiseth fair for Ease Liberty Gain and Honour and this hath made it an usual piece of Satans business in all Ages to gild an Error with outward Advantages and to corrupt the Mind by secret Promises of Advancement On the other side he labours as much to prejudice Truth by representing it as hazardous and troublesom to the Professors of it And this not only affrights some from an open Confession of the Truth they believe but also by the help of the Affections doth perswade some to believe that to be an Error which unavoidably brings Persecution with it By this Engine are the Minds of Men turned about to think well or ill of a Doctrine presented to them This is so well known that I shall forbear a further Prosecution of this Head and go to the next Course than Satan takes to corrupt the Judgment by the Affections Which he doth 7. By stirring up some particular Passions which in Opinions do usually more influence the Vnderstanding And here I shall only insist upon these two Pride and Anger with the peculiar means that Satan hath to engage them in his Service That Pride and Anger are the two usual Firebrands of Contention and Fountains of Error all Ages have acknowledged and bewailed These two Companions in Evil do so darken the Mind that the miserable Captive in whom they domineer is carryed blindfold he knows not whither nor how Pride usually begins and Anger follows with all its forces to justify what Pride hath undertaken Hence the Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 4. rakes up all the concomitant Filth of Error as Envy Strife Railings evil Surmisings and perverse Disputings of Men and lays them at the Door of Pride He is proud knowing nothing For the ingaging of these two Thieves that rob the Understanding of its Light Satan hath many Artifices in readiness Pride which is forward enough of it self is soon excited by laying before it an Opportunity of a seeming rare Discovery or of advancing the Glory of Knowledge above the common Pitch of being seen and admired as more excellent than others c. for upon such unworthy Grounds have some dared to adventure upon strange Notions yet there is nothing that doth more firmly ingage it than Contention or Dispute for though the proper end of Disputation be the sifting out of Truth yet such is Mans Pride and Satans Advantage by it that it seldom attains its true end in those that are ingaged By-standers that keep their Minds calm and unbyassed may receive more satisfaction than the Contenders themselves and there needs no other evidence of this than the common Experience which Men have of our frequent Contentions where we have Confutations Answers and Replies and yet still all Parties continue in their Opinions without Conviction So that they that would unfeignedly feels Truth in my Mind take not the best Course in their Pursuit that presently engage themselves in a publick Dispute for the usual Heats that are begot in a Contention alienate their Minds from a just Impartiality and the dust they raise blinds their Eyes that they discern not truly Let us look into this Artifice of engaging Pride by Disputation and by it the Judgment First we find that when an humor of contending is raised certain Truths are neglected as to their improvement and Practice For so much of the Strength of the Soul is laid out upon disputable Questions that little is left for more weighty matters Secondly In Disputes Mens Credit is so concerned that 't is a most difficult thing to preserve a faithful regard to Verity especially where they are managed with Affronts and Contumelies They that by calm handling might be induced to acknowledge a Mistake will scarce come near that Point of Ingenuity when they must be called Fool Knave or Ass for their labour Hence ordinarily though they profess otherwise Men seek rather Victory than Truth Thirdly in Disputes Pride and Passion are usually heightned and the stronger the Passions are the weaker is the Judgment Eager Altercations bring a Confusion both upon the matter of which they dispute and upon the Understanding that should judge Fourthly in the heart of Disputation when the Mind is inflamed Men usually behave themselves like those in a Fray
where they snatch and throw any thing that comes to hand and never mind where it hits they will affirm or deny any thing that may seem any way to bring them off Fifthly these Assertions being once affirmed must be maintained and so Errors and Contentions increase without end Disputes fix a Man in his Perswasion and do as it were tye him to the Stake so that right or wrong he will go through with it Sixthly Some dispute in jest against their present Judgment and yet at last dispute themselves into a belief of what they wantonly at first affirmed as some tell Lies so long that at length they believe them to be true Seventhly A sadder Mischief often follows a disputing Humor which is an hazard of the loss of all Truth Men dispute so long till they suspect all things and after a long Trade of Scepticism turn Atheists After the same manner doth the Devil engage Anger in all Disputes and Controversies for it keeps company with Pride wherever there is a Provocation And besides this Anger stirring up Injuries and Wrongs hath often engaged Men as it were in revenge to change their Opinion and to take up another Way or Doctrine Nay often that simple Mixture of Pride and Anger which we call Emulation hath privately tainted the Integrity of Mind and prepared it for the next fair opportunity of Error This is noted of Arrius by Theodoret that when Alexander was chosen Bishop of Alexandria he envied him the preferency and from thence sought occasions of Contention which after a little while the Devil brought to his hand as we have heard So great is the power of these two Passions over the Understanding that we have cause to wonder at their success seldom or never can if be shown that any Ring-leader in Errour was not visibly tainted with Pride or not apparently sowred with Discontents and Emulation 8. To these ways of blinding the Understanding by the Affections I shall add but one more which is this Satan endeavours mainly to adorn an Errour with Truths clothing he takes its Ornaments and Jewels to dress up a false Doctrine that it may look more lovely and dutiful I mean that he designs where Errours are capable of such an imitation to put them into the way method garb and manner which Truth doth naturally use If Truth be adorned with Zeal Order Strictness or have advantageous ways of managing it self Errour must straight-way imitate it in all these things and though he that looks near may easily discern that 't is not the natural complexion of Errour but an artificial varnish and such as doth no more become it than a Court-dress doth become a course clownish Country Person for you may at first look usually discover the Wolf under Sheeps clothing and under the garb of the Apostles of Christ you may see the Ministers of Satan yet are the credulous usually affected with these appearances if they find a professed strictness a seeming severity an imitation of the ways of Truth or of the fruits thereof they commonly seek no further but judg that to be Truth which doth the things that Truth doth and if Errour can handsomly stand in competition with Truth upon a pretence of being as effectual in good works and doing things of themselves lovely and of good report it doth much gain upon the good liking of those whose consideration leads them not much further than fair appearances I shall only exemplify this by the Art and policy which Julian used to set up Paganism and to ruine Christianity and those who have observed the ways which he took to gain his end will readily acknowledg he was as well skill'd in advancing Errour and suppressing Truth as any whosoever and knew exactly to suit his designs to Mens inclinations he observing that Christian Religion had some particular things in its practice and way which made it's face to shine as that it had Persons solemnly set apart by Ordination for teaching the Mysteries of the Gospel and for managing the publick Worship of God that these Persons were to be grave in their carriage and exemplary in a strict holy conversation that the Constitutions of Religion appointed certain necessary and effectual ways of Discipline for Punishment and restoring of Offenders and bringing them to Repentance that it took care of the comfortable maintenance of those that had given up themselves to the Ministry of the Word and Prayer that it also enjoyned a relief of the Poor and Strangers c. Taking notice I say of these Excellencies in Christianity and how lovely they were in the eyes of their enemies He appointed the like Constitutions for Paganism and ordained that the Idol Temples should be suited in conveniency and comliness to Christian Churches That there should be Seats and Desks for the chief Doctors and Readers of Gentilism who at set-times were to exhort the Peoples and pray with them and that Colledges and Monasteries should be erected for them and for the relief of the Poor and Strangers he commanded Discipline and Penances for the chastisement of Offenders he required that their Priests should seriously give up themselves to the Worship of God as also their Families that they should not frequent Shews and Taverns nor practise any infamous Trade and Art Thus Sozomen reports him and gives us a Copy of his Letter to Arsacius high Priest of Galatia to this purpose and all this he did to bring Gentilism into credit with the Vulgar whom he had observed to be affected to Christianity for its Order Strictness and Government Yet is not this the only instance that may be given in this kind for observe but any Errour that by Schism sets up for it self in a distinct party and you shall see that though it departs from the Truth of the Church and from its Communion yet still as the Israelites did with the Egyptians it carries away with it these Jewels of the Church and keeps to some considerable part of the Churches way though modified according to its own bent that it might have a lustre with it to make it taking with others These eight particulars are the most remarkable ways of Satan whereby the Affections are gained to a good liking of Errour and by them the judgment secondarily corrupted to call it Truth CHAP. V. Satan's Attempts against the Peace of God's Children evidenced 1. By his Malice 2. From the concernment of Peace to God's Children What these Concerns are explained 3. From the Advantages which he hath against them by disquieting their Minds 1. Confusion of Mind 2. Unfitness for Duty and how 3. Rejection of Duty 4. A stumbling block to others 5. Preparation of the Mind to entertain venemous Impressions and what they are 6. Bodily Weakness 7. Our Miserie 's Satan's contentment WE have viewed the ways of Satan by which he 〈◊〉 all 〈…〉 to Sin by which he withdraws Men from Duty and Service by which he corrupts the Mind through
Scripture Canst thou deny this Then he pursues But thou sinnest often that is thine own complaint against thy self thy Conscience also bearing witness to the truth of this Accusation therefore thou canst be no Child of God Sometimes he plays upon words that are used in divers senses a fit Engine for the Devil to work by for what is true in one sense will be false in another and his arguing is from that which is true to that which is false I remember one that was long racked with that of Rev. 21. 8. The fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone From whence the Party thus argued The proposion is true because 't is Scripture and I cannot deny the Assumption Fearful I am because I am doubtful of Salvation and unbelieving I am for I cannot believe that I am Regenerate or in a state of Grace and therefore I cannot avoid the Conclusion To the same purpose he disputes against some from 1 John 4. 18. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear but thou art full of fears therefore thou lovest not God Sometimes he makes use of those Scriptures that make the prevailing degree of our love and respects to God above the World and the things of this Life to be the Characters of true Grace as that of John If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And that of Christ If a Man love any thing more than Me he is not worthy of Me he that forsakes not all for Me cannot be my Disciple c. Then he urgeth upon them their love of the World and unwillingness to part with their Estates and so brings the Conclusion upon them Instances might be infinite but by these you may judg of the rest Let us now cast our Eye upon his subtilty in managing his Arguments against men 1. He grounds his Arguments on Scripture because that hath authority with it and the very troubled Conscience hath a reverence to it 2. He always suits his Scriptures which he thus cites to that wherein the Conscience is most tender if there be any thing that affords matter of suspition or fear he will be sure to chuse such an Arrow out of the Quiver of Scriptures as will directly hit the Mark 3. Though in the citation of Scripture he always urgeth a sense which the Holy Ghost never intended Yet there will be always something in those Scriptures which he makes use of which in words at least seem to favour his Conclusion as appears in the Instances now given For when he would conclude a Man not to be a Child of God because of his Ignorance something of his Argument is true it may be the Man is sensible that his knowledg is but little compared with the measures which some others have or that he is at a loss or confused in many Doctrinal points of Religion or hath but little experience in many Practical cases c. This as it is true so is it his trouble and whilst he is poring upon his defect Satan claps an Arrest upon him of a far greater Debt than God chargeth upon him and from Scriptures that speak of a total ignorance of the Fundamentals of Religion as that there is a God that Christ Jesus is God and Man the Redeemer of Mankind by a satisfaction to Divine Justice c. Or of a wilful ignorance of the worth of the proffer of the Gospel or its reality which is discovered in the refusal of the terms thereof he concludes him to be in a state of Darkness whereas the Ignorance which the Man complains of is not the Ignorance which those Scriptures intend So in the next Instance the sins which a Child of God complains of are those of daily Incursion which he labours and strives against but that committing sin mentioned in the Text hath respect to the Gnosticks who taught a liberty in sinning and fancied a Righteousness consistant with the avowed practice of Iniquity Hence doth John 1 John 3. 7. directly face their Opinion in these terms Little Children let no Man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous And He that is born of God neither doth nor can avouch a liberty of sinning it being contrary to the Principles of the New Nature So that the miscarriages of Infirmity which the Child of God laments in himself are not the same with that of the Text upon which Satan grounds the Accusation The like may be said of the third Instance from Rev. 21. 18. The threatning there is against such a fear to lose the comforts of the World that they dare not believe the Gospel to be true and accept it accordingly which is nothing to those fears and doubtings that may be in a Child of God in reference to his Happiness Thus in all the rest the Fallacy lies in misapplying the Scripture to suit them to that wherein the Conscience is tender under a sense which was never intended by them yet in another sense the thing charged upon the Conscience is true 4. Yet is Satan so subtile that when he disputes by such Fallacious Arguments he chiefly endeavours to draw off the Defendants Eye and consideration from that part of the Argument wherein its weakness lies which in this case is always in the abuse of the Scripture to a wrong sense this he doth partly from the advantage which he hath from the reverence that they carry to Scripture they believe it to be true and are not willing to suspect the sense and many are so weak that if they should Satan is so cunning that he can easily baffle them in any distinction that they can make And partly from the sense they have of that whereof they are accused they feel themselves so sore in that place and for that very end doth Satan direct his Scripture to hit it that they readily take it for granted that the hinge of the Controversie turns upon it and that the whole Dispute rests upon it Now Satan having these fair advantages by a further improvement of them hides the weakness of his Argument For 1. He takes that sense of the Scripture in which he misapplies it for granted and that with great confidence making as if there were no doubt there 2. He turns always that part of the Argument to them which they can least answer pressing them eagerly with the matter of charge which they are as ready to confess as he is to accuse them of and aggravating it very busily And because the unskilful have no other direction for the finding the Knot of the Controversie than Satan's busle though he like the Lapwing makes the greatest noise when he is furthest from his Nest on purpose to draw them into a greater mistake they look no further and then not being able to answer they are soon cast and striking in with the conclusion against themselves they multiply their Sorrows and
cry out of themselves as miserable 2. Another piece of his Sophistry is the improving certain false Notions which Christians of the weaker sort have received as proofs of their Unregeneracy or bad Condition As there are Vulgar Errors concerning Natural things so there are Popular Errors concerning Spiritual things These mistakes in a great part have their Original from the Fancies or Misapprehensions of unskilful Men. Some indeed have it may be been preached and taught as Truths others have risen without a Teacher from meer Ignorance being the conclusions and surmises which weak Heads have framed to themselves from the Sayings or Practices of Men which have not been either so cleared from the danger of mistake or not so distinctly apprehended as was necessary These false Inferences once set on foot are traditionally handed down to others and in time they gain among the simple the opinion of undoubted Truths Now where ever Satan finds any of these that are fit for his purpose for to be sure whatever mistake we entertain he will at one time or other cast it in our way he will make it the foundation of an Argument against him that hath received it and that with very great advantage For a falshood in the Premises will usually produce a falshood in the Conclusion And these falshoods being taken for granted the Devil is not put to the trouble to prove them if then he can but exactly fit them to something in the party which he cannot deny he forthwith carries the cause and condemns him by his own concessions as out of his own mouth 'T is scarce possible to number the false Notions which are already entertained among Christians relating to Grace and Conversion much less those that may afterward arise But I shall mention some that Satan frequently makes use of as grounds of Objection 1. 'T is a common apprehension among the weaker sort that Conversion is always accompanied with great fear and terrour This is true in some as hath been said and though none of the Preachers of the Gospel have asserted the universality of these greater measures of Trouble yet the People taking notice that many speak of their deep humiliations in Conversion and that several Authors have set forth the greatness of Distress that some have been cast into on that occasion though without any intention of fixing this into a general Rule have from thence supposed that all the Converted are brought to their Comforts through the flames of Hell Upon this mistake the Devil disquiets those that have not felt these extream Agonies of Sorrow in themselves and tells them that it is a sure sign that they are not yet Converted Though 't is easie for a Man that sees the falshood of the Notion to answer the Argument yet he that believes it to be true cannot tell what to say because he finds he never was under such Troubles and now he begins to be troubled because he was not troubled before or as he supposeth not troubled enough 2. Another false Notion is That a Convert can give an account of the time and manner of his Conversion This is true in some as in Paul and some others whose Change hath been sudden and remarkable though in many this is far otherwise who can better give account that they are Converted than by what Steps Degrees and Methods they were brought to it But if any of these receive the Notion they will presently find that Satan will turn the edge of it against them and will tell them that they are not Converted because they cannot nominate the time when nor the manner how such a Change was wrought 3. Some take it for granted that Conversion is accompanied with a remarkable measure of Gifts for Prayer and Exhortation and then the Devil objects it to them That they are not Converted because they cannot Pray as others or Speak of the things of God so readily fluently and affectionately as some others can Thus the poor weak Christian is baffled for want of Abilities to express himself to God and Men. 4. False Notions about the nature of Faith are a sad stumbling-Block to some Many suppose that Saving Faith is a certain belief that our Sins are Pardoned and that we shall be Saved making Faith and Assurance all one This mistake is the deeper rooted in the Minds of Men because some have directly taught so and those Men of Estimation whose words are entertained with great Reverence by well-meaning Christians For whom notwithstanding this may be pleaded in excuse that they have rather described Faith in its height than in its lowest measures How ever it be those that have no other understanding of the nature of Faith can never answer Satan's Argument if he takes them at any time at the advantage of fear or doubting For then he will dispute thus Faith is a belief that sins are Pardoned but thou dost not believe this therefore thou hast no Faith Oh what numbers of poor doubting Christians have been distressed with this Argument 5. Some take it for a truth that growth of Grace is always visible and the progress remarkable And then because they can make no such discovery of themselves the Devil concludes their Grace to be counterfeit and hypocritical 6. Of like nature are some mistaken signs of true Grace as that true Grace fears God only for his Goodness And then if there be any apprehension of Divine Displeasure impressed upon the Heart though upon the necessary occasion of miscarriage they through the Devils instigation conclude that they are under a spirit of Bondage and their supposed Grace not true or not genuine at least according to that disposition which the New-Testament will furnish a Man withal 'T is also another mistaken sign of Grace That it doth direct a Man to love God singly for himself without the least regard to his own Salvation for that they think is but Self-love Now when a Child of God doth not see his love to God so distinct but that his own salvation is twisted with it Satan gets advantage of him and forceth him to cast away his love as adulterate and selfish Like to this mistake but of an higher strain is that of some That where Grace is true 't is so carried forth to honour God that the Man that hath it can desire God may be honoured though he should be damned God doth not put us to such Questions as these but upon supposition that this is true the grace of most Men will be shaken by the Objection that Satan will make from thence he can and will presently put the mistaken to it Canst thou say thou art willing to go to Hell that God may be glorified If not where is thy Grace From such mistakes as these he disputes against the holiness of the Children of God and 't is impossible but that he should carry the Cause against those who grant these things to be true Satan can undeniably shew them that their Hearts