with the most weighty seriousness which with them pass for no better than cheats and fancies we can easily sit under their contempt and shall as we hope be so far from being jeered out of our Religion that their scorns shall have no more impression upon us than the ravings of a frenzical Person that knows not what he speaks Notwithstanding these who are no way considerable for weight there are I hope a great many who seriously imploy themselves in the Inwards as well as the Outwards of Religion and who will not suffer themselves to be perswaded that the Apostle obtruded an empty Notion upon Believers when he recommended that observable Truth to them Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly c. for their sakes have I undertaken this labour of collecting and methodizing the grand Stratagems and chief ways of delusâ—on of the great Deceiver To these I must particularly account for some few things relating to this Discourse As 1. That I have satisfied my self in the Reasons of the publication of these Papers and do not judg it requisite to trouble any so far as to tell what these Reasons are They who desire to resist such an Enemy and whose experience doth convince them that all helps are necessary will not need them and those that are Men of scorn or of avowed carelesness will not regard them though I should declare them 2. To prevent the misapprehensions which possibly some may otherwise labour withal of a monstrous product from one Text because they may observe one Text in the Front and no other mentioned throughout the First and Second Parts they may know that I made use of several in the preaching of these Discourses as suitable Foundations for the several Particulars herein mentioned but in the moulding up of the Whole into the method of a Treatise for the ease of the Reader I thought fit to lay aside those Introductions as also many other occasional Applications which were proper for Sermons and a great many things which were necessary to be spoken for Explication and Illustration of these Points to a popular Auditory and have only presented the Substance in a more close connection because if there be any little obscurity that may at first appear to any for want of variety of words the Treatise being under their eye will be at leisure to attend their review in a second or third reading Which however I would recommend earnestly to those that in these Concerns do really design to be wise for themselves 3. Neither should it seem strange that I have frequently made use of Instances from History or other later Relations Whosoever shall consider the nature of the Matter treated on will not complain of this as a needless trouble put upon them yet withal I have been so careful of doing any Persons an unkindness by making too bold with them that I mentioned no Names but such as upon such occasions have been made publick by others before The rest I have only mentioned in the general discovering their case where it was useful but concealing the Persons 4. It may perhaps seem a defect that the several Directions Remedies or Counsels which are requisite to be observed in making resistance against Satan are not added except some few hints in the latter end of the Third Part and some other things in that Part in the Applications of the several Doctrines therein which I thought fit upon good grounds to leave in the order of a Preaching Method but such may be pleased to consider that several have performed that part very fully to whose Labours I had rather refer the Reader than trouble him with a repetition It was only my design to endeavour a more full discovery though every way short of the thing it self of Satan's Craft because the knowledg of this is so necessary and withal others have done it more sparingly Such as it is accept and improve for thy spiritual advantage for that was the end of this undertaking by him who desires that thy Soul may prosper Rich. Gilpin The Contents PART I. Chap. 1. THe Introduction to the Text from a consideration of the desperate ruine of the Souls of Men. The Text opened expressing Satan's Malice Power Cruelty and Diligence Chap. 2. Of the Malice of Satan in particular The Grounds and Causes of that Malice The Greatness of it proved and Instances of that Greatness given Chap. 3. Of Satans Power His Power as an Angel considered That he lost not that Power by his Fall His Power as a Devil Of his Commission The Extent of his Authority The Efficacy of his Power The Advantages which he hath for the management of it from the Number Order Place and Knowledg of Devils Chap. 4. That Satan hath a great measure of Knowledg proved by comparing him with the knowledg of Adam in Innocency and by his Titles Of his Knowledg Natural Experimental and Accessory Of his knowledg of our Thoughts How far he doth not know them and how far he doth and by what means Of his knowledg of things future and by what ways he doth conjecture them The Advantages in point of Temptation that he hath by his Knowledg Chap. 5. Instances of Satan's Power Of Witchcraft what it is Satan's Power argued from thence Of Wonders Whether Satan can do Miracles An account of what he can do that way His Power argued from Apparitions and Possessions Chap. 6. Of Satan's Cruelty Instances thereof in his dealing with wounded Spirits in ordinary Temptations of the Wicked and Godly in Persecutions Cruelties in Worship His cruel handling of his Slaves Chap. 7. Of Satan's Diligence in several Instances The Question about the Being of Spirits and Devils handled The Sadducces Opinion discovered The Reality of Spirits proved Chap. 8. Of Satan's Cunning and Craft in the general Several Demonstrations proving Satan to be deceitful And of the Reasons why he makes use of his cunning Chap. 9. Of Satan's Deceits in particular What Temptation is Of tempting to Sin His first general Rule The Consideration of our Condition His second Rule Of providing sutable Temptations In what cases he tempts us to things unsuitable to our Inclinations His third Rule The cautious Proposal of the Temptation and the several ways thereof His fourth Rule is to entice the way thereof in the general by bringing a darkness upon the Mind through lust Chap. 10. That Satan enticeth by our Lust The several ways by which he doth it Of the power and danger of the violence of Affections Chap. 11. That Lust darkens the Mind Evidences thereof The five ways by which it doth blind Men. 1. By preventing the exercise of Reason The ways of that prevention 1. Secresy in tempting Satan's subtilty therein 2. Surprisal 3. Gradual Intanglements Chap. 12. Of Satan's perverting our Reason His second way of blinding The possibility of this and the manner of accomplishing it directly several ways and indirectly by the delights of sin and by
first for when Men grow acquainted with their Gifts their admiration decays and the success of their Labours is not so great many times The Devil also observing the prevalency of Curiosity and that Men are more pleased with new Notions than with old Truths he endeavours also to Plow with this Heifer and oft makes a great Harvest by it There is yet another advantage more that he sometimes useth and that is Fifthly Atheistical Debauchery when Men by long custome in Sinning have arrived to habitual Carelesness and Presumption then they become Practical Atheists their Vitious Habits work upon their Understandings to obliterate all Principles when Men are gone so far they are fit Engineers for Satan for while they dis-believe all things they can to serve a Design or to head a Party take up any Opinion and pretend the greatest seriousness in the propagating it though in the mean time they secretly laugh at the credulity of the Vulgar These Men let out themselves and all their parts to the Devil and he knows how to make use of them to bring on the delusion and deception of others Many Ages have given Examples of such those Seducers mentioned in the new Testament were some of them of this rank and therefore called deceitful Workers Such as were not really under those Perswasions which they thought to six upon others but upon design transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ such as served not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies and yet by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. Who through Covetousness with feigned words made Merchandize of Men 2 Pet. 2. 3. Balaam was such and the Woman Jezabel that called her self a Prophetess Rev. 2. 20. Such was the Arch-bishop of Spalato who for advantage could at pleasure take up and lay down his Religion Such an one was the false Jew not so long since discovered in this place who being a Romish Emissary pretended to be a Jew Converted and seeking a pure Church under that vizor designing to overthrow by private insinuations the Faith of the simple uncautious Admirers by such Instruments Satan works where he hath opportunity CHAP. III. Of Satan's improving these Advantages for Errour 1. By deluding the Understanding directly which he doth 1. by countenancing Errour from Scripture Of his cunning therein 2 By specious pretences of Mysteries and what these are Of personal flatteries 3. By affected Expressions Reason of their prevalency 4 By bold Assertions The Reasons of that Policy 5 By the excellency of the Persons appearing for it either for Gifts or Holiness His method if managing that design 6. By pretended Inspiration 7 By pretended Miracles His cunning herein 8 By peace and prosperity in ways of Errour 9 By lyes against Truth and the Professors of it WHat are the general Advantages which Satan hath to forward his design of Errour we have seen It now remains that we take an account of the various ways by which he improves those Advantages and those may be referred to two Heads 1 They are such Stratagems as more directy work upon the Understanding to delude and blind it Or 2 they are such as indirectly by the power of the Will and Affections do influence it First Those Stratagems that more immediatly concern the Understanding are the use of such Arguments which carry in them a probability to confirm an Errour though indeed they are but Fallacies Sophisms or Paralogisms of which the Apostle speaks Col. 2. 4. Lest any beguile you that is lest they impose upon you by false Reasonings His usual way of proceeding in this case is First when he hath to do with Men that are brought up with profession and belief of Scripture he is then careful to give an Errour some countenance or pretence from Scripture it is not his course to decry the Scriptures with such Men but to suppose their Truth and Authority as the most plausible way to his Design for by this means he doth not only prevent a great many startling objections which would otherwise rise up against him seeing Men brought up with Scripture cannot easily be brought to call them false but with considerable advantage he doth thereby authorize and justifie his Errour for nothing can give more boldness or confidence to a mistake then a belief that it is backed with Scripture That this is one of his grand Stratagems may be sufficiently evinced from the infinite number of Errours that pretend to Scripture warrant Those that are above or beyond Scripture which acknowledg no dependance upon it are but few and rare and indeed among Christians Errour cannot well thrives without a pretence of Scripture Men would have enough to do to perswade themselves to such Errours but it would be impossible to make a Party or perswade others such Errours would presently be hissed out of the World Upon this account is it that Atheism sculks and conceals it self except where generally tolerated Prophaneness gives it more than ordinary encouragement which is not to be ascribed to any shame-faced modesty that Atheisms can be supposed to nourish but to the generall dislike of others who so stick to the Authority of the Bible that they reject all direct contradictions to it with great abhorrency Hence also it is that some Erroneous persons are forced to contradictions in their practice against their professed Principles because they find it impossible to propagate their Errours without some pretence or other to Scripture They that would undermine those Sacred Records are forced to make use of their Authority for proof of what they would say The Papists have a quarrel at them and envy them the title of Perfection and Perspicuity upon design to intoduce Traditions and to set up the Popes Judicial Authority in matters of Faith and when they have said all they can to subject the Scriptures to the Popes Determination they are forced at last to be beholden to the Scriptures to prove the Popes Determination they would prove the Scriptures by the Church and then the Church by the Scriptures which is a Circle they have been often told of and of which some of the wiser sort among themselves are ashamed Others also that will not allow the Scriptures to be a general standing Rule are yet forced to make it in some cases a Rule to themselves and eagerly plead it to be so to others They that pretend to be above Ordinances and decry outward-Teachings as unnecessary or hurtful yet they Teach outwardly because they see they are not able to enlarge the Empire of Errour without such teaching Those very Errours that make it their chief business to render the Scriptures no better than an old Almanack they yet seek to Scripture to countenance their Blasphemous Assertions and if they get any scrap or shred of it that may by their unjust Torture be wrested to speak any such thing or any thing toward it they think all their follies are thereby
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
in the neglect of the ordinary means If our Hearts be wooed by Worldly Delights to cast off our care of God and Religion we may then call to mind that this is abominable Idolatry and so may we turn off our Hearts from sinful compliance by charging our Souls with the opposite Duties upon a true discovery of the vileness and inconvenience of the transgressions urged upon us But Secondly They may be considered as they give Instruction for the management of our Spiritual Armour against all Satan's Wiles in the general and in this Sense I shall endeavour to open them laying down first these two Conclusions First That the whole business of these Temptations as permitted to Satan and submitted unto by Christ was certainly upon design The same Wisdom that contrived the wonderful method of the Salvation of Men by a Redeemer did also order these Temptations for else Christ could have prevented them or by a Divine Authority commanded Silence to the Tempter and by his Power might have chased him away As Christ told Pilate Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above thereby manifesting that his Suffering was from an higher design than he was aware of so might he have said to the Devil Except this had been designed by an Eternal Counsel thou couldst not have made this attempt So that we must look further for the spring and rise of this than to any supposed occasional outbreaking of Satanical malice upon him Secondly That this design however it touched upon the Person and Offices of Christ as Mediator and second Adam for thus it became him to overcome the Enemy at the same Weapon by which he overcame our first Parents and by this Personal Experience to be fitted with feeling compassions to the tempted yet was it wholly for our sakes as may appear by two things First In that Christ if his answers had only concerned himself might have given other fit replies to the first Temptation of turning Stones to Bread he could have retorted the Argument upon Satan as Hierom and others observe If I am not the Son of God 't is in vain to require a Miracle of me If I am 't is in vain to tempt me Or he might have answered That as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself and that by this Divine Power he could sustain himself without Bread To the second it might have been a sufficient answer to have excepted against his unfaithfulness in citing that Testimony out of Psal 91. where by discovering his wilful omission of the Clause in all thy ways He shall keep thee in all thy ways his Temptation might have fallen to the Ground as no way encouraged from that Promise To the third might have been returned such answers as these that Satan's offer was a Lye that it was not in his Power to dispose of the Kingdoms of the World That these were Christ's already that these were vain Arguments to draw him from the Glory of an Heavenly Kingdom and finally that of all Creatures Satan being God's sworn Enemy had least reason to expect Divine Honour Secondly In that all Christ's Answers were from Scripture which is properly a Light to the steps of Men and all these Scriptures cited shew Mans Duty he saith not the Son of God shall not live by Bread alone but Man lives not by Bread alone he saith not Christ must not tempt but thou Man shalt not tempt the Lord thy God c. By all which we may discern that Christ answered not by Arguments peculiarly agreeable to his Person and Nature but by such as suit the general state of God's Children And this certainly was for our advantage he conquered with such Weapons not for any necessity that he had to take that course but for the need that we had of such instruction for hereby we see that Satan is conquerable and also how we must use our Weapons In this also he left us an Example that we should follow his steps as Gideon said to his Souldiers as you see me do so do you likewise Thus as it were doth our Lord speak to us for your sakes suffered I these Temptations that I might teach your Hands to war and your Fingers to fight for your sakes I used these Weapons of yours rather than my own that I might shew you the use of your Sword and Shield and how your Adversary may be overcome by them dealing herein with us as a Master at Arms 't is Masculus's Comparison who for the better instructing and animating of his Tyro takes rather his Disciples Sword than his own to beat his Adversary withal minding not only the Conquest of an Enemy but also the encouragement of a young Souldier If any carry a suspition in their Mind that Christ had not our instruction so much in his Eye as hath been said because he gives not such particular Instructions for our spiritual Welfare as the Apostle in Ephes 6. expecting that our Saviour should have been more punctual in making particular Applications from every part of his carriage to our use and drawing out from thence some positive conclusions or draughts of the way and manner of resistance they may know that there is no other difference betwixt Ephes 6. and Matth. 4. than there is betwixt Precept and Example What the Apostle there prescribed in the Theory here Christ teacheth in the Practice here we have in their use the Girdle of Truth the Shield of Faith the Sword of the Spirit the Helmet of Salvation and all the other parts of that Armour and withal we may know that this is a far more advantagious way of teaching young Beginners to let them see things in a plain Example than only to give general Precepts But besides we are to consider that Christ did many things the meaning whereof the Disciples then present with him did not know as yet neither was it expected from them that they should like to what he said to Peter Joh. 13. 7. What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter but were intended to be laid up in store to be more fully made use of as after-directions should come in to give them information He therefore that had purposed to give further light in this matter by his Apostle and Servant was now doing that which his design led him to in his Personal Actings with a secret respect also to those Instructions which he intended after to communicate We have then no reason to be jealous that these Temptations were not intended for our use but the more to assure our selves that it was even so because we find that those very Weapons which here Christ in his own Person weilded against Satan are afterwards recommended to us Having thus laid the Foundation we must then if we will Imitate our Captain carefully observe his deportment from point to point that
the wasting of his strength which the Apostle takes notice of and adviseth against it Drink no longer water c. The Corinthians were so when out of a high detestation of the miscarriage of the Incestuous Person they were backward to forgive him and to receive him into the Church again Peter is another instance to us of excess Jo. 13. 8. First in a modest humility he refuseth to let Christ wash his feet but after understanding the meaning of it then he runs to the other extream and offers not only his feet but his hands and his head When the Servants of God are conscious of defects in their Services as if they would make amends for these by the length and continuance of their Services they are easily drawn into an excess every way disadvantagious to themselves and the Service Thirdly When Satans Designs do not take to spoil the Duties either by the manner of the attempt or in the Act he then seeks to play an after game and endeavours to spoil them by some after-miscarriage of ours in reference to these Services As First When he makes us proud of them we can scarce perform any Service with a tollerable suitableness but Satan is at hand to instill thoughts of Applause vain Glory and Boasting and we readily begin to think highly of our selves and performances as if we were better than others whom we are apt to censure as low and weak in comparison of our selves Though this be an apparent deceit yet 't is a wonder how much the minds even of the best are apt to be tainted with it even where there are considerable endeavours for humility and self-denial these thoughts are apt to get too much entertainment Now though we run well and attain some comfortable strength and watchfulness in the Services of God yet if they be afterward fly-blown with Pride or if we think to embalm them with Praises or reserve them as matter of Ostentation though they be Angels food yet like the Manna of the Israelites when kept too long they will putrifie and breed Worms and so be good for nothing after that we have been at the pains of gathering it Secondly When well-performed Services are perverted to security then are they also spoiled we are ready to say of them as the rich Man of his abundance Soul take thine ease thou hast much laid up for many years Satan is willing for a further advantage that we think our selves secure from him and as after a full Meal we are apt to grow drowsie so after Services we are apt to think our selves out of harms way The Church after an High Feast with Christ presently falls asleep and highly miscarries in Security and Neglect by this means do the best of Saints sometimes lose the things they have wrought and throw down what they formerly built up DAEMONOLOGIA SACRA OR A TREATISE OF Satans Temptations The Second Part. CONTAINING The manifold Subtilties and Stratagems of Satan for the corrupting of the minds of Men with Errour and for the destruction of the Peace and Comfort of the Children of God By R. G. London Printed by J. D. for Richard Randel and Peter Maplisden Booksellers in New-Castle upon Tine 1677. PART II. CHAP. I. That it is Satan's grand Design to corrupt the Minds of Men with Errour The Evidences that it is so And the Reasons of his Endeavours that way NExt to Satan's Deceits in tempting to Sin and against Duty his design of corrupting the Minds of Men by Errour calls for our search and indeed this is one of his principal endeavours which takes up a considerable part of his time and diligence He is not only called in Scripture an Vnclean Spirit but also a Lying Spirit and there are none of these cursed qualifications that lie idle in him as by his Uncleanness we may easily conjecture his attempts upon the Will and Affections to defile them by Lust so by his Lying we may conclude that he will certainly strive to blind the Understanding by Errour But a clear discovery of this we may have from these Considerations First From God's interest in Truth in reference to his great designs of Holiness and Mercy in the World Truth is a Ray and Beam of him who is the Father of Lights All revealed Truths are but Copies and Transcripts of that Essential Archetypal Truth Truth is the Rod of his Strength Psal 110. 2. the Scepter of his Kingdom by which he doth subdue the hearts of Men to his obedience and service in conversion Truth is that Rock upon which he hath built his Church the foundations are the Prophets and Apostles Eph. 2. 20. that is the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Truth is that great depositum committed to the care of his Church which is therefore called the pillar of Truth because as Princes or Rulers put their Proclamations on Pillars for the better information of their Subjects so doth his Church hold out Truth to the World Holiness is maintained by Truth our ways are directed by it and by it are we forewarned of Satan's Devices Now the Prince of Darkness carrying himself in as full an opposition to the God of Truth as he can in all his ways God's interest in Truth will sufficiently discover the Devil's design to promote Errour for such is his hatred of God that though he cannot destroy Truth no more than he can tear the Sun out of the Firmament yet he will endeavour by corrupting the Copy to disgrace the Original though he cannot break Christ's Scepter yet by raising Errour he would hinder the encrease of his Subjects though he cannot remove the Rock upon which the Church is built he will endeavour to shake it or to interrupt the Building and to tear down God's Proclamation from the Pillar on which he hath set it to be read of all and if we can conceive what an hatred the Thief hath to the Light as it contradicts and hinders his Designs we may imagine there is nothing against which the Devil will use greater contrivances than against the light of Truth He neither can nor will make a league with any but upon the terms that Nahash propounded to the Men of Jabesh-Gilead that is that he may put out their right eye and so lay it for a reproach upon the Israel of God 'T is the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us into Truth and by the rule of contraries 't is the Devil's work to lead into Errour Secondly Though the Scripture doth charge the Sin and danger of Delusion and Errour upon those Men that promote it to the deception of themselves and others yet doth it chiefly blame Satan for the great Contriver of it and expressly affirms him to be the grand Deceiver Instruments and Engeniers he must make use of to do him service in that work but still it is the Devil that is a Lying Spirit in their
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-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
Doctrine at Oxford And of late we have had the sad experience of the power of Errour to infect no Errour so absurd ridiculous or blasphemous but once broached it presently gained considerable numbers to entertain it Fourthly Errour is also eminently serviceable to Satan for the bringing in Divisions Schisms Rents Hatreds Heart-burnings Animofities Revilings Contentions Tumults Wars and whatsoever bitter Fruits breach of Love and the malignity of Hatred can possibly produce Enough of this might be seen in the Church of Corinth the divisions that were amongst themselves were occasioned by it and a great number of evils the Apostle suspected to have been already produc'd from thence as Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Back-bitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults 2 Cor. 12. 20. He himself escaped not from being evilly intreated by those among them that were turned from the simplicity of the Gospel The quarrelsome exceptions that they had raised against him he takes notice of They charged him with levity in neglecting his promise to come to them 2 Cor. 1. 17. They called him carnal one that walked according to the flesh chap. 10. 2. they taunted him as a contemptible Fellow ver 10. They undervalued his Ministry which occasioned not without great Apology a commendation of himself nay they seemed to call him a false Apostle and were so bold as to challenge him for a proof of Christ speaking in him 2 Cor. 13. 3. If the Devil had so much advantage from Errour that was but in the bud and that in one Church only what may we imagine hath he done by it when it broke out to an open flame in several Churches What work do we see in Families when an Errour creeps in among them the Father riseth up against the Son the Son against the Father the Mother against the Daughter the Daughter against the Mother what sad divided Congregations have we seen what Fierceness Prejudices Slanders Evil-surmises Censurings and Divisions hath this brought forth what bandying of Parties against Parties Church against Church hath been produced by this Engine How sadly hath this poor Island felt the smart of it the bitter contests that have been betwixt Presbyterian and Independent betwixt them and the Episcopal makes them look more like factious Combinations than Churches of Christ The present differences betwixt Conformists and Nonconformists if we take them where they are lowest they do daily produce such effects as must needs be very pleasing and grateful to the Devil both Parties mutually objecting Schism and charging each other with Crime and Folly what invectives and railings may be heard in all Companies as if they had been at the greatest distances in point of Doctrine But whosoever loseth to be sure the Devil gains by it Hatreds Strife Variance Emulations Lyings Railings Scorn and Contempt are all against the known duty of brotherly kindness and are undoubted provocations against the God of Love and Peace What can we then think of that can be so useful to Satan as Errour when these abovementioned evils are the inseparable products of it The modestest Errours that ever were among good Men are still accompanied with something of these bitter Fruits The differences about Meats and Days when managed with the greatest moderation made the Strong to despise the Weak as silly wilful factious Humorists and on the contrary the Weak judged the Strong as prophane careless and bold Despisers of divine Institutions for so much the Apostle implyes Rom. 14. 3. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth But should we trace Errour thorow the ruines of Churches and view the slaughters and bloodshed that it hath occasioned or consider the Wars and Desolations that it hath brought forth we might heap up matter fit for Tears and Lamentations and make you cease to wonder that Satan should so much concern himself to promote it Fifthly The greatest and most successful Stratagem for the hindering a Reformation is that of raising up an Army of Errours Reformation of Abuses and corruptions in Worship or Doctrine we may well suppose the Devil will withstand with his utmost might and Policy because it endeavours to pull that down which cost him so much labour and time to set up and so crosseth his end They who are called out by God to jeopard their lives in the high places of the Field undertake an hard task in endeavouring to check the power of the Mighty whose interest it is to maintain those defilements which their Policy hath introduced to fix them in the possession of that grandeur and command which so highly gratifies their Humours and self-seeking aspiring Minds But Satan knowing the strength of that Power which hath raised them up to oppose with spiritual resolution the current of Prevailing Iniquity usually provides himself with this reserve and comes upon their backs with a Party of deluded erronious Men raised up from among themselves and by this means he hopes either to discourage the Undertakers for Reformation by the difficulty of their work which must needs drive on heavily when they that should assist prove hinderers or at least to straiten and limit the success For by this means 1. He divides the Party and so weakens their hands 2. He strengthens their Enemies who not only gather heart from these divisions seeing them so fair a prognostick of their ruine but also improve them by retorting them as an argument that they are all out of the way of Truth 3. The erroneous Party in the Rear of the Reformers do more gall them with their Arrows even bitter words of cursed reviling and more hazard them with their Swords and Spears of opposition than their Adversaries in the Front against whom they went forth In the mean while they that stand up for Truth are as Corn betwixt two Milstones oppressed with a double conflict beset before and behind This hath been Satan's method in all ages And indeed Policy it self could not contrive any thing that would more certainly obstruct Reformation than this When the Apostles who in these last days were first sent forth were imployed to reform the World to throw down the Ceremonies of the Old Testament and Heathen Worship Satan had presently raised up Men of corrupt Minds to hinder their Progress what work these made for Paul at Corinth and with the Galatians the Epistles to those Churches do testify The business of these Men was to draw Disciples after them from the simplicity of the Gospel nay to another Gospel and this they could not do but by setting up themselves boasting of the Spirit carrying themselves as the Apostles of Christ and contemning those that were really so insinuating thereby into the affections of the seduced as if they zealously affected them and that Paul was but weak and contemptible nay their very Enemy for telling them the truth What unspeakable hindrance must this be to Paul What grief of heart What fear and jealousie must this
their own just consequences yet there are some choice principles of his which if he can but fasten upon the Mind they presently open the gap to all kind of Errours imaginable they are like the firing a Train of Gunpowder which in a Moment blows up the whole Fabrick of Truth such are the delusions of Enthusiasm Inspirations and Prophetick Raptures let these be once fixed and then there is nothing so Inhumane Irreligious Mad or Ridiculous but Satan can with ease perswade Men to it and also under the highest pretences of Religion and Certainty the experience of all Ages hath made any further proof of this altogether needless This is his way when he acts alone But if he use Instruments though he is also gradual in his procedure yet 't is in a different method for there he sometimes proceeds from the abuse of something innocent and lawful by the help of a long tract of time to introduce the grossest Falshood Thus may we conceive he brought Idolatry to its height first Men admired the wisdom or famous acts of their Progenitors or Benefactors next they erected Pillars or Images of such Persons to perpetuate the Names Honour and Memory of them and their Actions Another Age being at a greater distance from the things done and consequently greater Strangers to the true ends and reasons of such practices which being as it usually falls out in such cases abused by false reports or misrepresentations of things for Time covers things of this nature with so thick a Mist that 't is difficult to discover the true Metal of an original Constitution they in a devout ignorance gave the Images a greater respect than was at first intended then did they slide into a conceit they were not of the ordinary rank of Mortals or at least they were exalted to a condition which ordinary Mortals were not capable of thus they supposed them Deities and gave them worship of Prayers and Sacrifices hence they went further and multiplied Gods and that of several sorts according to the natures of things that were good or hurtful to them and then at last consulting how mean their offerings were and how unlikely to please their Godships they concluded Humane sacrifices most sutable especially to expiate greater provocations and in times of great calamity The burthensom heap of ceremonious Superstitions in Popery was the work of several Ages they were not brought in all at once One in a devotional heat fancied such a Ceremony as a fit testimony of Zeal or a proper incitement of his Affections Another deviseth a second and so all along as the minds of Men were best pleased with their own inventions and had so much credit or authority to recommend them to others they encreased the sum by new additions till at last they are become a burthen not to be born and still as they receeded from the primitive purity and became more careless and corrupt in their lives for from good Bishops they declined to but tollerable Arch-Bishops till at last they are become incurable Babylonians so they departed gradually from the simplicity of the Gospel and abounded in contrivances of Ceremonies Thirdly In corrupting established Truths Satan's proceedings are not by sudden and observable leaps but by lingring and slow motions as Flowers and Plants grow insensibly and as Men gradually wax old and feeble Violent and hasty alterations he knows would beget Observation Dislike and Opposition neither will he make such attempts but where he is sure of a strong prevalent Party which by force and power is able to carry all before it In this case he is willing to enforce Errour by Fire and Sword Thus he propagated Mahumetism at first and still continueth to do so by the conquering Arms of the Turks but where he hath not this advantage he betakes himself to another course and studieth to do his work so that he may not be observed The possibility of such a change with the manner of effecting it we may observe in many Churches that have declined from the Doctrine which they at first received but most of all in the Church at Rome which at first was a pure Church as the Apostle testifieth but now so changed from the Truths upon which they were bottomed in their first Constitution as if she had not been the same Church They boast indeed that as they were at first so they are now but nothing is more evident than the contrary and the possibility of their insensible corruption is as demonstrable as the alteration of Doctrine in any other Church The manifold ways that Satan takes in this matter in the abuse of Scripture by raising perverse Interpretations and unnatural Inferences and the advantages of a long succession in Authority of the negligence and ignorance of the common People of the crafty subtilty of the Teachers especially when Religion began to be abused to secular Interest is described by Acontius and others If we should single out any of their noted Errours and follow up the History of it to its first original we shall find that whatever strong current it hath now gotten it was very small and inconsiderable in the Fountain The Invocation of Saints though it be now an established Article among them yet its first rise was from the unwary Prosopopoea's of of the Ancients and the liberty of their Oratorical declamatory stile these gave occasion to some private Opinions these Opinions to some private devotional liberty in Practice and from private Opinions and Practices at last it obtained so strong a Party that it procured a publick Injunction The like method was used for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation whose beginning was from the abuse of such Sentences as this in ancient Writers That after Consecration it was no more Bread and Wine but the Body and Blood of Christ by which expression the Authors intended no more than this that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were relatively altered and were more than ordinary Bread and Wine because they were representatives of the Body and Blood of Christ however this gave them courage to interprect literally and strictly these words of Christ This is my Body and thus by degrees from the Opinion of a few it became the judgment of many and from the toleration of a private Opinion of some Doctors and unimposed it obtained at last a Canon to make it Authentick Publick Doctrine Fourthly This insensible proceeding is in nothing more evident than in the power of Custom and Education Custom doth by degrees take off the startling of Conscience and those Opinions or Practices which at first look affright it are by a little familiarity made more smooth and tollerable The dissents of Men by frequent seeing and hearing become tame and gentle but the force of Education is incomparably great for this makes an Errour to become as it were natural they suck it in with their Milk and draw it in with their Air. This general advantage the Devil hath
it have but Body enough they never enquire whether it have Spirit or Life within a dead Carcass in Robes that may put them to the exercise of their Postures and ceremonious Complements doth make up a more grateful Religion for a carnal Man than a living spiritual Service that necessarily will put them upon inward care and watchfulness in the constant exercise of holy Spiritual Graces without affording any considerable gratification to the Senses Hence is it truly more difficult and yet inwardly more beautiful and glorious to pray in Faith and Humility even in short breathings after God than to say a thousand Ave Maria's or to perform a task of ordinary Penance But as those that have no Children of their own delight themselves in playing with a Monkey or Baboon so those that know not how to worship God in Spirit and Truth seek to satisfie themselves in the performance of external Gesture and Ceremony Secondly On the other hand he sometimes is willing that an Errour should affect an excess of plainness and simplicity In this he takes advantage of those expressions in Scripture wherein the Gospel is commended for its simplicity and the inventions of Men under the pretences of Wisdom Humility and neglecting of the Body are condemned Upon this ground he runs Men upon such an excess of dotage that they never think the things of God are rightly managed but when they are brought down to a contemptible silliness By this means he arms conceited ignorant Men with exceptions against Learning and the necessary decencies of languague in Preaching and with them they are the only Preachers and most likely to be inspired that use least study and preparation for their work 'T is indeed very true that the affected fooleries of a bombast Stile or startcht Discourse and needless citations of Sentences for ostentation without any true advantage to the matter in hand are things very pedantick and exceedingly unsuitable to the gravity of the Work of the Ministry and renders it very ungrateful to a pious Mind but this contrary folly makes the solemn Ordinances of God so nauseous and contemptible that it often makes way by Satan's cunning improvement of the Temptation to an Atheistical rejection of all Worship In the mean time 't is wonderful to observe how some Persons please themselves with this conceit that their way of Worship is plain and that they speak what immediately comes into their Mind and though it be Non-sense or Contradictions which sufficiently evidenceth that 't is nothing of kin to the Spirits Inspiration which they utter yet 't is argument enough to them that their opinions and ways are right because they proceed in a designed neglect of all necessary order and under pretence of the simplicity of the Gospel they reduce all they do to childish silliness Neither is this all the mischief which the Devil raiseth out of this conceit for the contempt and disuse of the Sacraments may in great part be ascribed to it Those erroneous ways of Worship that are most noted for decrying those Institutions of Christ have this for their Plea that the Worship which God is best pleased with is spiritual and that all bodily services and external observations are things that God stands not upon such as profit little and were no further in use but to recommend an internal spiritual communion with God so that the more they reject these things they perswade themselves they have a more true understanding of the design of God in Religion Either of these ways Satan makes use of for the befooling of Men into an humour of pleasing themselves with Errour But Thirdly He hath of old endeavoured to cloud and enervate the Doctrine of the Bible by traditionary Fables We meet with many passages to this purpose sometimes he sets up unwritten Traditions not only of equal authority to the written Word but as completions and perfections of it This he practised among the Jews with such success that the Traditions of the Elders were of greater force with them than the Commands of God as Christ himself noted of them Matth. 15. 13. Of these unwritten Traditions which they called the Law by the word of Mouth feigned by them to be given to Moses when he was in the Mount and so delivered from hand to hand the Apostles gave many warnings and signified the hazards that Truth stood in by them through the cunning of Satan as Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through the Traditions of Men. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies Tit. 1. 14. Not giving heed to Jewish Fables and Commandments of Men. 2 Tim. 4. 4. And they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables The Papists at this day give the same entertainment to this device that the Jews did of old they boast as high of their Traditions and are every whit as fabulous and foolish in them as they were Satan in his attempts upon the Gentiles to confirm them in their false Worship though he kept up the substance of this design yet he was necessitated to alter the scene a little that he might more handsomly accommodate it to their condition and therefore he set up amongst them fabulous imitations of the Truths and Ordinances of the Scripture insomuch that there is scarce any grand Mystery or remarkable History or Ordinance mentioned in the Scripture but we may find something among the Heathens in Tradition or Practice that doth allude to it What traditionary imitations had they of the Creation recorded in the Book of Genesis That of Ovid concerning the Chaos and first beginning of things is known to every School-Boy The Phoenicians in their Theology give an odd account of it from their Taautus to this purpose That the first beginnings of all things were a dark disordered Chaos and the spirit of the dark Air hence proceeded Moth that is Mire from thence issued the Seeds and Generation of all Creatures in Earth and Heaven c. The wickedness of Men before the Flood mentioned Gen. 6. 1 2. is fabulously related in an ancient Book falsly ascribed to Enoch wherein the Watchmen or Angels are reported to take them Wives of the Daughters of Men and that from thence was the race of Giants For the description of Paradise the Heathens had the Poetical Fiction of the Elyzian Fields as they had the Story of Deucalion instead of Noahs Ark and the Deluge The Story of Lots Wife was abused by the Fiction of Orpheus his Wife suddenly snatched from him for looking back The History of Sampson was turned into their Story of Hercules and his ten labours From the Sun standing still in Joshua and Hezekiahs time came that Fiction of Jupiters doubling the night that he might enjoy Alemena In some of these disguises of sacred Story they go so near in name and circumstances that 't is past doubt they imitated the true History which they
of preservation Thomas by his neglect slid into a greater unbelief than the rest of the Apostles David's unwatchful heart was easily smitten by the Intelligence which his Eyes brought him They that would plead their Innocency against Temptation had need to carry their arms and preservatives still with them This truth is a sufficient caution against the rash adventurousness of those who forwardly engage themselves in matters of Temptation As the former observation told us Temptations are not to be feared So this also tells they are not to be slighted The carriage of the Philistines when the Ark came among them is matter of Imitation to us We may tremble justly when we hear of their approach but our Hazard should be the Whet-Stone of our Courage and our danger should bring us to resolves of a more stout resistance that we may quit our selves like men The Apostle Gal. 6. 1. seems to imply when he tell those that were more severe and careless of others that they may also be tempted that the best of men do little know what a change a Temptation may make upon them a small Temptation may be too strong for them and may carry them to what they never thought of nay may break down the strongest of their resolves and snap their purposes as a Thread in a flame It did so with Peter who was quickly overcome by that which he had with so much confidence undervalued CHAP. III. The Third Circumstance the place of the Combat The advantage given to Temptations by Solitude THe Third Circumstance next to be considered is the place of this Combat the Wilderness To enquire what or where this Wilderness was is not only impertinent and useless as to any thing we can observe from it in reference to Temptation but also a matter of meer uncertain conjecture Only they that would understand it of a place more thinly peopled are expresly contradicted by Mark 1. 13. where 't is said he was with the Wild Beasts noting thereby a desolate and dangerous Solitude far remote from humane Society and comfort 'T is much more our concern to seek after the reasons of his choice of that place or rather among these many that are given to satisfy our selves with what may have the greatest appearance of Truth They that think Christ hereby designed to shew the uncertain changes and vicissitudes of outward things in this Life or to point at the future low Estate of his Church in the World that it should sojourn in a Wilderness or to direct those that have dedicated themselves to God to withdraw from the blandishments and allurements of the Earth with a great many more hints of Instruction and document of that kind they I say that offer no other seem not to attend to the true design of the choice of this place which notwithstanding is evidently discovered to have been done in order to the Temptation He was led into the Wilderness to be tempted The place then was subservient to the conflict as the proper Theater on which so great a Contest was to be acted And if we shall but mind what special consideration was to be had of such a place aâ— howling desolate Wilderness which may with ease pitch upon these following reasons First It pleased God to have an Eye to the glory of Christ's Conquest when in a single Combat he should so remarkably foil the Devil without any the least advantage on his part there being none that might be the least Support or Encouragement to him Secondly The condition of the place gave rise to the first Temptation For in that he hungred in a barren Wilderness it gave occasion to Satan to tempt him more strongly to turn Stones into Bread Thirdly In the choice of such a place God seems to offer Satan a special advantage in tempting which was the Solitude and danger of his present condition To omit the two former Considerations as not altogether so useful further than what I shall be engaged to speak to afterwards this last affords this Observation That Solitude affords a great advantage to Satan in the matter of Temptation This advantage ariseth from Solitude two ways First As it doth deprive us of help So great and many are the blessed helps arising from the Society and Communion of such as fear the Lord as Counsel Comfort Encouragement from their Graces Experiences and Prayers c. that the Woe pronounced to him that is alone is not groundless Christians in an holy Combination can do more work and so have a good reward for their Labour They can mutually help one another when they fall they can mutually heat and warm one another they can also strengthen one another's hands to prevail against an Adversary He then that is alone being deprived of these advantages lyeth more open to the stroke of Temptation Secondly Solitude increaseth Melancholy fills the Soul with dismal apprehensions and withal doth so spoil and alter the temper of it that it is not only ready to take any disadvantageous Impression but it doth also dispose it to leaven and sowre those very considerations that should support and to put a bad construction on things that never were intended for its hurt This may warn us to take heed of giving Satan so great an advantage against us as an unnecessary Solitude may do I know there are times and occasions that do justly require it to seek a solitary place for the privacy of Duty or for secret Lamentations as Jeremiah desired or to avoid the trouble and snare arising from our mixing with an Assembly of treacherous and wicked men This is no more than care and watchfulness But when these reasons urge not or some of like nature but either out of pettish discontent or a mopish reservedness we withdraw from those aids and comforts which are necessary for our support we do strengthen Satan's hands against us and weaken our own CHAP. IV. The Fourth Circumstance The end wherefore Christ was led to the Wilderness Holiness Imployment Priviledges Exempt not from Temptation Of Temptations that leave not Impressions of Sin behind them How Satan's Temptations are distinguished from the Lusts of our own Heart THe Fourth Circumstance was the End There was no other design in the main of Christs being led up and into the Wilderness but that he might be tempted In this two things seem to be matter of equal wonder First Why Christ would submit to be tempted For this many great and weighty reasons may be given As First Thus was Christ evidenced to be the second Adam and the Seed of the Woman His being tempted and in such a manner doth clearly satisfy us that he was true man and that in that nature he it was that was promised to break the Serpents head Secondly This was a fair preludium and earnest of that final conquest over Satan and the breaking down of his power Thirdly There was a more peculiar aim in God by these
Distrust we must be particularly careful not to touch too much upon the harshness of our Troubles because this is that that sets fretting and distracting thoughts on work Afflictions like the Pillar of the Cloud and Fire in the Wilderness have a Light and Darkness and accordingly these that converse with the dark side of Troubles Invenome their Imaginations and Poyson their Thoughts with dark and hideous conclusions and in a word draw forth nothing but the Wormwood and the Gall whereas those that Study and view the light side of them are full of praise and admiration for the gracious mixtures comfortable mitigations encouraging Supports c. which they observe 'T is Wisdom then to keep upon the right side of them Though it be the design of God to turn the dark side of the Cloud to us Yet may we have a competent Light to guide us if we would improve it when the Sun is set the Moon may be up Nay 't is our duty to strive to recover the right side of the Cloud He hides that we may seek If this Fast of Christs be consider'd as a remedy against Temptations then may we observe That Solemn Temptations are to be resisted with Fastings and Prayer Of this I shall forbear to speak till I come to speak of Christs answer and the repulse of Satan MATTH 4. 3. And when the Tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God command that these Stones be made Bread CHAP. VI. That Christs Temptations were real and not in Vision that Temptation is Satans imployment with the Evidences and Instances thereof Of Satans tempting Visibly with the Reasons thereof NExt follows a particular Account of those more Eminent Temptations wherewith Christ was Assaulted by Satan before I speak of these I must necessarily remove this Stumbling-Block out of the way viz. whether Christ was really tempted or only in a Vision That this was but visionary hath been supposed not only by some whose conceits in other things might justly render their Supposals in this matter less worthy of a serious consideration But also by very grave and serious men whose reasons notwithstanding are not of that weight as to sway us against the Letter and History of these Temptations which give us a full account of these things as really transacted without the least hint of understanding them as done only in a Vision For First 'T is a dangerous thing to depart from the literal Sense of what is historically related If we take such a Liberty we may as well understand other Historical Passages after the same rate and so bring the History not only of Christs Suffering to a visionary and Phantastical Cross but also of all the new Testament to a very nothing Secondly The Circumstances of the Temptation are so particularly set down as the Devils coming to him leaving him taking him to the Temple c. That if we may expect in any thing to secure our selves from a visionary Supposition we may do it in this History Thirdly This Imagination doth wholly enervate and make void the very end and design of Christs being tempted for where were the Glory of this Victory over Satan if it were only a visionary Temptation and a visionary Conquest or where were the comfort and encouragement which Believers from the Apostles Authority Heb. 2. 18. 4. 16. might reap from this that Christ imagined himself to be tempted when really he was not so Nay how impossible is it to make that expression of the Apostle he was tempted in all points like as we are to agree to an imaginary Temptation except we also say that we are only tempted visionarily and not really Fourthly Neither is it a plea of any value against this Truth that it seems to derogate too much from the Honour and Authority of our Saviour that Satan should so impudently assault him with Temptations to worship him and should carry him at pleasure from place to place when we find that he voluntarily submitted to higher Indignities from Satans Instruments and turned not away his Cheek from those that smote him spit upon him and contumeliously mocked him and at last submitted to Death even the death of the Cross As for those Objections from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pinacle of the Temple upon which Scultetus thinks it was impossible for Christ to stand As also the Objection of the impossibility to shew the Kingdoms of the World from any Mountain I shall answer them in their proper place in the mean time I shall return to the Verse in hand in which I shall first pitch upon the general proaemium or Introduction to these special Temptations which is this The Tempter came to him In this we are to take notice of the Name given to Satan and also the Way and Manner of the Assault in that Expression he came to him There are three distinct Names given to him in these Temptations 1. His Name Satan shews his Malice and Fury which is the Ground and Fountain whence all that Trouble proceeds which we meet with from him 2. He is stiled the Temper and that signifies to us how he puts forth this Malice his Way and Exercise in the exerting of it 3. He is called the Devil or Accuser expressing thereby the End and Issue of all From this Name then here given we may observe First That it is Satans Work and Imployment to tempt Men. We need not here Dispute whether it be proper to Satan to tempt that is an soli semper competat whether it agree to him only and always which some indeed affirm in such a Sense as this that Men do tempt Men as Satans Instruments the World tempts as it is the Object and Matter of Temptations but Satan tempts as the proper Author and Engineer of Temptations Others there are that think that Men can and do properly tempt themselves according to Jam. 1. Every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust But the Question is altogether needless as to us though we and others may be true and proper Tempters yet this hindereth not but that it is most true that Satan makes Temptation his very Work and Business And therefore not only here but in 1 Thes 3. 5. The Devil is described by his Imployment Lest by any means the Tempter or he that tempteth hath tempted you which the ordinary Gloss doth thus explain Diabolus cuius est Officium tentare This Name then is put upon Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Eminency Implying 1. That though there be never so many Tempters yet Satan is the chief 2. That he makes Temptation his proper Imployment That Satan doth so I shall evidence by these few Notes First Temptation is in it self a Business and Work For if we consider either the Work of any one Temptation where Satan is oft put to it after Suggestion to perswade and after perswasion
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
Desire he will be sure to speak of it Secondly He carries on this Design by Lying he promiseth more than ever Sin can give and he sends his Proselytes out after Sin under the highest Expectations and when they come to enjoy it they often find the Pleasure falls short of his Boast he whispers Honours Preferments and Riches in the Ear of their Hearts and often pays them with Poverty and Disgraces and gives them pro thesauro carbones Stones for Bread a Serpent for a Fish Witches give frequent Accounts of Satan's lying Promises he tells them of Feasts of Gold of Riches but they find themselves deluded he sends them oft hungry away from those Banquets so that they have no more than when a Man Dreams he Eats He gives that which seems Gold in Appearance but at last they find it to be Slaits or Shells We find in this Temptation he is liberal and large in his Offers to Christ and what he requires he will have in present Payment but the reward for the Service is future 'T is his business to engage Men in Sin by his Promise of Advantage but being once engaged he takes not himself concerned in Honour or Ingenuity for Performance Hence doth the Scripture fitly call the Pleasures of Sin lying Vanities a vain Shew a Dream thereby warning Men from a forward Belief of Satan's Promises in that they find by Experience they shall be at last but Lyes and Disappointments Thirdly To make his Bait more taking he conceals all the inconveniencies that may attend these Worldly Delights He Offers here the Kingdoms of the World to Christ as if all were made up of Pleasure these Cares Troubles and Vexations that attend Greatness and Rule he mentions not their Burthen Hazard and Disquiet he passeth over Thus in common Temptations he is careful to hide from Men the Miseries that follow these empty Pleasures So that often Men do not consider the Mischief till a Dart strike through their Liver Prov. 7. 23. and till a dear-bought Experience doth inform them of their Mistakes Fourthly His Power and work upon the Fancies of Men is none of the least of his ways whereby he advanceth the Pleasures of Sin That he hath such a Power hath been discoursed before and that a Fancy raised to a great Expectation makes things appear otherwise than what they are is evident from common Experience the value of most things depends rather upon Fancy than the Internal worth of them and Men are more engaged to a pursuit of things by the Estimation which Fancy hath begat in their Minds than by certain Principles of Knowledg Children by Fancy have a value of their Toys and are so powerfully swayed by it that things of far greater price cannot stay their Designs nor divert their Course Satan knows that the best of Men are sometimes childish apt to be led about by their conceits and apt in their conceits to apprehend things far otherwise than what they are in Truth Hence is it as one observes that of thousands of Men that return from Jerusalem or from Mount Sion or from the River Jordan scarce can we find one which brings back the Admiration which he had conceived before he had seen them Fancy doth preoccupate the Mind with an high opinion of things and these exorbitant Imaginations pass to such an excess that Men think to find a satisfaction beyond the Nature of these Pleasures they aim at which hath these two inconveniencies the one that this Effects and draws as powerfully as if they were all as real and high as they are conceited to be the other that Sight and Fruition takes away the Estimation and by a disappointment doth deaden and dull the Affections to what may be really found there Thus Satan by one deceit makes Men believe that Sin hath Pleasure which indeed it hath not and by that belief leads them on powerfully to endeavour an embracement of them and at last urgeth them with a delusion In opposition to this deceit of the Devil we must learn to esteem Worldly Delights as low as he would value them high And to this purpose the Scripture speaks of them in undervaluing Language calling Worldly Pomp an Opinion a Phantasy a Fashion or Figure an Imagination rather then a reallity and further injoyns us not to admire these things in others not to envy them that enjoyment of them nor to fret at our want of them much less to be transported with any angry Passion about them nor to concern our selves in any earnest pursuit of them Fourthly Satan in this Temptation did not bravely speak of these things nor only make an offer in Discourse but he thought it most conduceable to his Design to present them to his Sight he knew full well that the Heart is more affected by sensible Discoveries than by rational Discourses Note here That Satan in Temptations of Worldly Pleasure endeavours to engage the Affections by the Sences That 't is Satan's great business to work upon the Affections I have shewed at large Here he endeavoured to prepare the Affections of Christ that so the motion when it came might not die as a Spark falling upon wet Tinder but that the Affections being stirred up might cherish the Offer and that the Offer by a mutual warmth might more enflame the Affections that were heated before To this End he works by the Senses and would have Christ's Eye to raise his Affections of Love Desire Hope and whatever else might wing his Soul to Activity There is a great connection betwixt the Senses and the Affection the Senses bring Intelligence unavoidably and are apt to stir up our Powers to Action as the Jaccall is said to hunt the Prey for the Lyon so do the Senses for the Affections and both for Satan It is also remarkable that Satan endeavouring to make the Eyes of Christ Traytors to his Affections and that he thinking it necessary to give him a view of what he proffered him should not give him time to take a full Survey of these Kingdoms but should huddle it up in such an hast that all as Luke tell us was done in a moment of time was Satan in haste or was he unwilling to part with what he so liberally proffered Surely no but this transient view was his Subtilty to entice him the more and to enflame his Heart with greater desires Observe then That where Satan is most liberal in his Proffers he there manageth his Overtures of Advantage with a seeming shyness And this he doth First To heighten the worth of them in our Estimation as if they were Jewels not to be gazed at or curious Peices not fit to be exposed to common view Secondly By this Art he makes Men more eager in the pursuit Our natural Curiosity presseth us with great earnestness after things of difficult access and we have also strange desires kindled in us from a prohibition so that what we list