saw no evil but since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out our drink-offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the Sword and by the Famine Ninthly Instead of better arguments Satan usually makes Lyes his refuge and these respect either the Truth which he would cry down or the Errour which he would set up Those Lyes that are managed against Truth are of two sorts mistakes and misrepresentations of its Doctrines or Calumnies against the Persons and Actions of those that take part with it Those Lyes that are proper to bespatter a Truth withal are such as tend to render it unlovely inconvenient or dangerous Satan hath never been awanting to raise up mists and fogs to eclipse the shining beauty of Truth Sometime he perswades Men that it is a novelty and contrary to the tradition of the Fathers and then if an Errour had been once upon the stage before and had again been hissed out of the World when it peeps out again into the World its former impudency is made an argument for its antiquity and Truth is decryed as novel Or if it be but an Errour of yesterday and hath only obtained an Age or two then the Ghosts of our forefathers are conjured up as witnesses and the plea runs currant What is become of your Fathers or are you wiser than your Fathers are they all Damned These were insisted on by the Heathens the Gods of the Country and the Worship of their Fathers they thought should not be forsaken for Christianity which they judged was but a novelty in comparison of Paganisme Of the same extract is that old song of the Papists Where was your Religion before Luther And to this purpose they talk of the succession of their Bishops and Popes And other Errours grow a little pert and confident if they can but find a pattern or sample for themselves among the old Heresies Sometimes he endeavours to bring Truth into suspition by rendering it a dangerous encroachment upon the rights and priviledges of Men as if it would turn all upside down and introduce Factions and Confusions This clamour was raised against the Gospel that it would subvert the Doctrine of Moses and the Law Sometimes he cloaths the opinions of Truth with an ugly dress and misrepresents it to the World as guilty of strange inferences and absurdities which only arise from a wrong stating of the questions and where it doth really differ from Errour he endeavours to widen the differences to an inconvenient distance so that if it go a Mile from Errour Satan will have it to go two if Truth teach Justification by Faith Errour represents it as denying all care of Holiness and good Works if Truth say bare moral Vertues are not sufficient without Grace Errour presently accuseth it as denying any necessary use of Morality or affirming that moral Vertues are obstructions and hinderances to Salvation It were easie to note abundance of such Instances As for calumnies against the Persons and Actions of those that are Assertors of Truth 't is well known for an old thread-bare design by which Satan hath gained not a little Machiavil borrowed the policy from him and formed it into a Maxime for he found by experience that where strong Slanders had set in their Teeth though never so unjustly the Wounds were never throughly healed for some that heard the report of the Slander never heard the Vindication and those that did were not always so unprejudiced as to free themselves from all suspition but still something remained usually upon their Spirits for ever after and that like a secret venome poysons all that could be said or done by the Persons that wrongfully fell under their prejudice and did not a little derogate from the authority and power of the Truths which they delivered The Friends of Truth have always to their cost found it so Christ himself escaped not the lyes and censures of Men when he did the greatest Miracles they raised this calumny against him That he cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils when he shewed the most compassionate condescentions they called him a Man gluttonous a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners and at last upon a misinterpretation of his speeches I will destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up Mat. 26. 61. they arraigned and condemned him for Blasphemy and his Servants have according to what he foretold drunk of the same Cup the more eminent in service the greater draught Paul a chosen vessel met with much of this unjust dealing he was accused Act. 21. 28. as speaking against the People the Law and the Temple and Chap. 24. 5. called a pestilent Fellow a mover of Sedition a prophaner of the Temple Neither can we wonder at this that the greatest Innocency or highest degree of Holiness is no Armour of proof against the sharp Arrows of a lying Tongue When we read this as one of Satan's great Characters that he is the Accuser of the Brethren and that his Agents are so perfectly instructed in this Art that they are also branded with the same mark of false Accusers Jude 10. 'T is well known how the Primitive Christians were used they were accounted the filth and off-scouring of all things there could be nothing that could render them odious or ridiculous but they were aspersed with it as that they sacrificed Infants worshipped the Sun and used promiscuous Vncleanness nay what ever Plague or disaster befel their Neighbours they were sure to carry the blame And we might trace this Stragem down to our own days Luther in his time was the common Butt for all the poysoned Arrows of the Papists calumny which so exceeded all bounds of Sobriety and Prudence that they devised a Romance of his Death how he was choaked of the Devil that before he died he desired his Corps might be carried into the Church and adored with divine Worship and that after his Death the excessive stench of his Carcase forced all his Friends to forsake him All this and more to this purpose they published while he was alive whose Slanders worthy only of laughter he refuted by his own Pen. The like fury they expressed against Calvin by their Bolsecus whom they set on work to fill a Book with impudent lyes against him Neither did Beza Junius or any other of note escape without some slander or other How unjustly the Arrians of old accused Athanasius of Uncleanness and of bereaving Arsenius of his Arm is sufficiently known in History But the Devils malice doth not always run in the dirty channel of odious Calumnies he hath sometimes a more cleanly conveyance for his Lyes against holy Men. In prosecution of the same design 't is a fair colour for Errour if he can abuse the name and credit of renowned Champions of Truth by fathering an Errour upon them which they never owned By this means he doth
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
corrupted for instance Herodotus relates that Sethon King of Egypt and Priest of Vulcan was helped by his God from Heaven against Senacherib which plainly relates to Hezekiah King of Juda and the wonders that God did for him So in imitation of Vriahs Letters to Joab for his own destruction we have in Homer and others the Story of Praetus sending Letters to Jobatas by Bellerophon wherein his death was commanded the near affinity of the names Joab and Jobatas shews with what Heifer the Devil plowed The History of Abraham's offering up Isaac is by Porphiry applied to Saturn who saith he was by the Phaenicians called Israel he had by Anobreth one only Son called Jeud an evident allusion saith Godwin Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 3. to Gen. 22. 2. where Isaac is in the Hebrew called Jechid that is an only begotten him he offered up on an Altar purposely prepared here not only the matter but the names do clearly shew that Abraham's Story is imitated in this The like imitation I might shew to have been among the Heathen of doctrinal Truths as of the sacred Mystery of the Trinity In Peru they worship the Father Son and Brother as also their Tangatauga which they say was one in three and three in one But their imitation of Ordinances is every where remarkable so that I need say nothing of their Temples Priests Sacrifices and other Religious Rites only the Devil's imitation of the Sacraments of the New Testament deserves particular observation Instances of an Apish imitation of Baptism are every where obvious and that of the Lords Supper or Christian Communion was frequently resembled in the chief Peruvian Feasts where they carried small Loaves of Bread in great Platters of Gold of which all present received and eat little pieces and this as a sign of honour and profession of obedience to their Gods and the Ingua Not unlike to this were those morsels of Paste which the Mexicans used in their Religious Feasts which they laid at their Idols Feet consecrating them by Singing and other Ceremonies and then they called there the Flesh and Bones of their God Vitziliputzli alluding directly to that of our Saviour This is my Body c. insomuch that Acosta thought the Devil mocked their Transubstantiation by it this was distributed among all and was eaten with a great deal of reverence fear and devotion We may see by those instances that in these fabulous imaginations of Truth the Devil hath industriously traded and that which he aimed at in this design may easily be conjectured to be 1. The despiting and discrediting of Truth he renders it by this means suspitious of some Forgery as if the Scripture were no better than an uncertain Tradition as if at the best it were doubtful whether Scripture or these traditionary Fables had better authority 2. He further intends the intanglement of the Affections to Errour by this Device for he doth as it were take the spoils of the Tabernacle to adorn his Dagon withal and without doubt the Heathens were very much hardned in Gentilism by these traditionary Stories hence one observes the Devil imitated the History of the Miracle done in favour of Hezekiah that the Scriptures might lose their credit and authority and that the glory of such a wonder might be transferred to their Idols and the consequence of both these is 3. To deprive the Truth of its convincing power upon the consciences of Men. The principles of Scripture convince by the evidence of their Truth If that Truth be questioned by the substitution of another Competitor it presently loseth its force and the commands thereof are disregarded upon a supposition of its uncertainty 4. Another of his ways to betray the understanding by the Affections is by putting Men upon an accommodation of Truth to a complyance with Parties differing from it And this hath been so much the more successful because it hath begun and been carried on upon the most specious pretences The avoiding of Offences the smoothing of the way of Religion for the gaining of the contrary minded the preservation of Peace and Unity are Pleas very plausible and really upon the account of these things the Scripture both by its Precepts and Examples hath recommended to us condescentions and Brotherly forbearances The Jews who were dissatisfied at the first publication of the liberty from the Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies purchased for us by Christ were indulged in the use of Circumcision and observance of the difference of Meats for a long time till they might be the better satisfied in the Truth These pretences the Devil makes use of to undermine Truth And pleasing his Agents with the honour of a pious design and it may be at first really so intended by them he prevails with them not only for a present condescention to Men of contrary practice but to cast the principles of Truth into such a fixed Mould that they may carry a more near resemblance to those Opinions which they do most directly oppose The appearance of sanctity peaceableness prudence and successfulness in such an undertaking doth exceedingly animate the well-meaning designers which Satan in the mean time carries them beyond all bounds and so dangerously fixeth an unnatural representation of Truth that it loseth its own splendor and settles at last upon unsafe notions Thus by the continuance of such a complyance Errour begins to recruit its Forces and is as likely to draw over Truth wholly to its side by the argument of resemblance and the consequences following thereupon as Truth is wholly to extirpate and conquer Errour and if it do not that succeeding Ages that minded not the first design finding things so continued to them in deep reverence to their Predecessors form their prudential condescentions into perverse opinions If we follow the tract of Time from the first preaching of the Gospel we may find Satan's footsteps all along In the Apostles times when the believing Jews were tollerated necessarily till time and experience might fully convince them in their observation of the Law of Moses which was certainly given of God and so might very easily occasion an opinion of the continuance of it Act. 15. 1 5. though the Apostles did not at all accommodate the standing precepts of the New Testament to carry a perpetual resemblance of that Opinion neither did they still countenance that practice but did seasonably and fully declare against it exhorting Christians to stand in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free Gal. 5. 1 2. yet Satan was busie to take advantage of the present forbearances which the Holy Ghost had directed them unto insomuch that instead of convincing all the dissenters by that lenity some dissenters waxed bold to perswade the Christians to another Gospel But after their days the Devil pursued this design with greater scope for instance in Constantines time when the Gentiles flocked into the Church with dirty Feet and in their old Rags they were tollerated
wrought out to us by the Scripture and its Ordinances Faith which is our Shield and Hope which is our Helmet they neither of them act without the warrant and encouragement of it and whereas other parts of the Armour are defensive this of the Scripture is compared to the Sword which not only defends but also offends and beats back the Enemy If the matter be seriously considered all these parts of Armour are but these two the Graces of the Spirit Faith Hope Patience in their sincere exercise and the word of Scripture as the Instrument by and in which they shew their Operations so that all this Armour being put to use in every particular Temptation it amounts to no more than this we are speaking of viz. That sinful Motions are to be rejected by a believing sincerely resolute opposing of them with Arguments from the Word of God Thirdly Scripture as it is the Word and Command of the great King of Heaven hath a dâ—â—nting and commanding Authority over the Consciences of Men. Where the Word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 4. and such is the Majesty of a Divine Law that it hath Power over the Consciences of those that are yet in their Sins and can wound affright constrain and bind even the Rebellious so that so long as they retain any of their Natural Impressions of a Divine Power they have some awe for his Commands which may be seen and argued where it would be least expected from the enragement of the Hearts of Sinners when Sin by the Commandment accidentally becomes exceeding sinful For as that outragious fierceness doth arise from the contrariety that is betwixt a Carnal Heart and a Spiritual Law so that contrariety would never work if the Authority of that Law having a Power to restrain and give check to the corruption of the Heart were not some way owned by the Conscience for where no countermanding Law is owned there can be no irritating provoking restraint This it can do to the vilest of Men but of how much more Power may we imagine the Word to be with good Men whose Hearts tremble at the Word when they bind the Law upon their Heart and charge their Consciences with it 't is surely quick and powerful sharper than a two edged Sword nor doth it only by unlovely affrightments terrify them from Sin but by commanding Duty make the Heart in love with it so that it becomes a delightful satisfaction to be preserved from the Snare Fourthly There is no Argument that can be used against Temptations that can be more afflictively discouraging to Satan Satan as bad as he is cannot but believe those Truths which he knows and he knows that there are many Truths in Scripture which respect him as threatnings of Punishment and Divine Vengeance he believes these things and trembles Jam. 2. 19. His unavoidable knowledg or remembrance of these things begets horrour in him he cannot but be under a dread of these Truths What can be supposed so to wound him as the bringing these things to memory by urging the Command of God against him Dr. Arrowsmith gives two instances of this kind the one of Christopher Haas in Sweedland from the Epistle Dedicatory to the 5 tomes of Brentius's works The other of Daniel Cramer Rector of a School at Stetin in Germany on both which the Devil made a bold attempt in a personal Appearance from the first demanding a Catalogue of his Sins in Writing from the other demanding a Paper in which one of the Students had obliged himself to Satan's Service they both referred him to that Text of Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent And this was retorted upon him with such a strong exercise of Faith that he presently desisted the suit and vanished Fifthly This Weapon cannot easily be wrested out of our hands When we urge a Divine Prohibition against a Temptation what can he say in Answer he cannot deny it to be the Word of God or to be true or that we are not obliged to it he made none of these returns to Christ but by his silence owned that it was God's Holy Command obliging us to Duty Neither dares he stand upon these exceptions to us except he find our Faith inclined to waver or our minds weak and wounded by inward troubles of Spirit and when he puts on a boldness to deny Scripture to be the Word of God or that it signifies God's real intendments in his threatning for by begetting unbelief of the Truth of Scripture and by suggesting hopes of escape and pardon notwithstanding the violation of the Commands of it the wrests when he doth prevail this Weapon out of our hands yet he is forced to fetch a compass and by many previous insinuations to make his way to these atheistical assertions Thus he did with Eve first finding her a little inclinaable he dropt in privily something that might argue the Improbability of the threatned Penalty and then at last positively denyed it But now if we hold to this that the Command is true and holy and just and good he cannot wrest our plea from us Sixthly Nothing doth more undermine Temptations by rendring the reasons and motives thereof vain and empty than doth the contrary commands of Scripture Temptation hath always some inticement of pleasure or profit and these only seem to be taking or reasonable while we consider not the Word of God as rotten wood or Fish shine only in the dark but when we are urged with sinful pleasures how mean base dangerous and unlovely be they when the command to the contrary gives information that they are snares and lead to Death or the provocation of the Almighty Seventhly While we resist with Scripture-Arguments we engage God whose Command we would stand by to go down to the Battel with us we lay hold upon his strength and put obligations upon him to take us out of the snare and to deliver us from him who is too strong for us Fourthly It remains that in a word I shew how the Commands or Arguments of Scripture are to be used in resisting Satan which is thus When you have any sinful thought cast into your mind presently reject the offer by charging your heart with duty from some opposite command As if you be urged to acts of Uncleanness presently refuse thus No I must not God hath commanded the contrary he hath said thou shalt not commit Adultery If a covetous thought arise reject it with this God hath said thou shalt not Covet If you be tempted to please the Flesh and follow vain delights answer it with this If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die and the like must be done in other Temptations Some may perhaps think that this is easy work and quickly done and that it seems to attribute a Virtue and Power to the words of Scripture as if Satan were charmed by the language or phrase However
Silver but also of Wood and of Earth some to honour and some to dishonour By these very Apologies it appears That Satan by this device of Errour designs to shake Mens Faith and to drive them from their Religion Seventhly Neither can this that corrupt Doctrines bring forth corrupt Practices be of any less weight with Satan or less engageing for the pursuit of this Design than any of the fore-mentioned reasons Corrupt Doctrines are imbraced as the very truth of God by the Deluded and one way or other directly or consequentially they lead on Practice and that with the highest security and confidence as if they were very Truths indeed The Devil then hath this great advantage by Errour That if he can but corrupt the minds of Men especially in the more weighty and Fundamental Points of Religion then by a great ease and without any more labour he hath gained them to the practice of whatsoever these corrupted Principles will lead unto No course can be taken that with greater expedition and prevalency can introduce profane Debaucheries than this Thus he conquers Parties and Multitudes as a victorious General takes Cities and whole Countries by Surrender whereas his particular Temptations to Sin are but inconsiderable less successful picqueerings in comparison and when he hath once corrupted the understandings of Men he hath by that means a command over their Consciences and doth not now urge to Evil in the notion of a Devil or tempter but as an Angel of Light or rather as an Vsurper of Divine Authority he requires he commands these wicked Practices as necessary Duties or at least gives a liberty therein as being harmless allowances This difference was of old observed in Satans management of Persecution and Errour that in the former he did compel Men to deny Christ but by the latter he did teach them That the Lives and Practices of Men are so concerned by corrupt Doctrines may appear to any that are but indifferently acquainted with Scripture or History We are told by the Apostle Paul That Faith and Conscience stand so related to each other that they live and die together and that when the one is Shipwracked the other is Drown'd for company In Phil. 3. 2. he seems severely harsh against those of the Concision he calls them Dogs Beware of Dogs beware of evil Workers The reason of which expression I apprehend lyes not so much in these resemblances That Dogs spoyl the Flock by devouring or that they are fawning Creatures or that they are industrious in prosecution of their Prey though in all these particulars false Teachers may be compared to Dogs for they spare not the Flock they compass Sea and Land to gain Disciples and they intice them with fair speeches but rather he intends the similitude to express the prophane Life and carriage of these Seducers for Dogs are filthy creatures to a Proverb The Dog to his vomit And common Prostitutes for their uncleanness were called Dogs in the old Testament So some expound Deut. 23. 18. The hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog And we have full and clear descriptions of Seducers from their wicked and abominable Practices 2. Pet. 2. 10. They that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise Government Presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities Vers 14. Having eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from Sin an heart exercised with covetous Practices cursed Children Vers 18. They allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness Jude vers 4. There are certain Men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly Men turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness Vers 16. These are Murtherers Complainers walking after their own Lusts c. 2. Tim. 3. vers 2 3 4 5. Men shall be lovers of their own selves Coveteous Boasters Proud Blasphemers disobedient to Parents Vnthankful Vnholy without natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers Incontinent Fierce despisers of those that are Good Traitors Heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God of this sort are they which creep into Houses All which do set forth Heretical Persons as the most scandalous wicked Wretches that we shall meet with grosly filthy in themselves corrupted in all the Duties of their Relations natural and civil defiled in all the ways of their converse with Men. Neither are these wicked practices issuing from gross Errours to be looked upon as rare accidental or extraordinary effects thereof but as the natural and common fruits of them for Christ makes this to be the very special property and note whereby false Prophets may be discovered Matth. 7. 16. Ye shall know them by their Fruits Do Men gather Grapes of Thornes or Figs of Thistles c. These Fruits were not their Doctrines but their Lives for to know false Prophets by false Doctrines is no more than to know false Doctrine by false Doctrine If any object That many false Teachers appeared in the shape of seeming Holiness and strictness of Life they may be answered from Christ's own words for there he tells us to avoid mistakes That their first appearance and it may be the whole Lives of some of the first Seeds-men of any Errour is under the form of Sanctity They come to you in Sheeps-cloathing In an outward appearance of Innocency and plausible pretences but then he adds that their Fruits afterward will discover them A Tree at its first Planting is not discovered what it is but give it time to grow to its proper fruitfulness and then you may know of what kind it is so that we need not affirm That damnable Doctrines produce wicked Lives in all that entertain them at the very first 't is enough for discovery if there be a natural consequential tendency in such Doctrines to practical Impieties or that at last they produce them though not in all yet in many And that this matter hath been always found to be so all History doth confirm Such there were in the Apostles dayes as is evident by their complaints Such there were in the Church of Pergamos Rev. 2. 14. Thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto Idols and to commit Fornication There were also the Nicolaitans of whom Christ declares his abhorrency Vers 15. In the Church of Thyatira there was the woman Jezebel who taught and seduced many of that Church to the like abominable Doctrines and Practices Vers 20. Besides these the Apostle John was troubled with the abominable Gnosticks The filthy Carpocratians who taught That Men must sin and do the will of all the Devils or else they could not evade Principalities and Powers who would no otherwise be pleased to suffer them to escape to the Superiour Heavens Of these Men and their licencious Doctrine doth he speak 1 John 3. 6. c.
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
we may draw out those Instructions which he intended for us And the first thing that I shall take notice of shall be the Courage and Magnanimity of our Leader he had endured Temptations forty days and nights before and yet he keeps the Field without any appearance of shrinking or running away Satan no sooner tempts than he is repelled From this Consideration we have this Instruction That he that would succesfully resist Temptations must not fly but with a couragious resolve set himself to oppose Christians are apt to fear when Satan comes up against them and ready to turn their Backs As the Israelites were dismayed at the appearance of Goliah and fled before him But if we would conquer we must as David go out against him in the name of the Lord to this we are called 1 Cor. 16. 13. Stand fast in the Faith quit your selves like Men be strong and Ephes 6. 14. Stand having your Loins girt with Truth c. This Courage recommended is not a Contempt and negligent slighting of Danger nor is it a bold adventurousness upon occasions of Sin it is an Holy humble Courage and doth admit of a threefold fear First Of a fear of Sin that is a hatred of it We must fear Sin as the greatest evil this is no Cowardice but tends to the strongest resolution and highest endeavours against it From this Principle is it that Men oppose Sin as their Mortal Enemy and excite their utmost Courage to fight against it As the Philistines being affraid of Israel and yet hating to serve the Hebrews mutually encouraged one another Be strong and quit your selves like Men O ye Philistines A fear of hatred begets boldness Secondly Courage admits of a preventing fear and a provident avoidance Occasions of Sin are to be fled we are not with greater earnestness called upon to stand than we are warned in this case to fly So the Apostle often fly Fornication fly Idolatry fly youthful Lusts Occasions are best opposed by flying where Calling and Duty doth not engage Prov. 4. 14. Enter not into the Path of the Wicked and go not in the way of evil Men. He fights best that flies most where necessity doth not bid him stay Thirdly It also admits of the fear of an Holy Jealousy such a Distrust of our selves as puts us to seek to the Rock which is higher than we for shelter God calls us to turn into our strong hold and to lay hold upon his Strength 'T is rashness or desperateness and not true Courage to adventure our selves without our Guard or Shield But however we must fear Sin suspect our Strength and fly Occasions yet Satan we must not fly Here we are bid to stand for these Reasons First 'T is Impossible to fly from him He can follow us where ere we go if we go to Holy Assemblies he can come thither If we shut up our selves in our Closets he can meet us there If we betake our selves to a Wilderness or to a Croud to be sure he will find us out Secondly We are expresly charged to make resistance Jam. 4. 7. Resist the Devil 1 Pet. 5. 9. whom resist This plainly speaks positive endeavours and opposition on our part Thirdly A fainting fear is an unbelieving Distrust of God's Power as if he were not able to save to the utermost and of Christ's compassionate tenderness as if he would not succour those that are tempted Fourthly Our fainting makes Satan insult He triumphs when we turn our Backs and besides hath the greater advantage to wound us or to tread us down at Pleasure 'T is observed that God provides Armour for Head and Breast and all the fore-parts by a Sheild in case of Resistance but if we fly so little encouragement is there for cowardice there is no Armour for the Back Fifthly 'T is most suitable to Christian Courage to dye in the place and to put it to the utmost hazard rather than to yeild According to Vespasians Motto Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori Every Christian should say shall such an one as I fly One that hath given up my name to God one that hath professed Holiness afore Men one that hath so many advantages for resistance and such sweet encouragements from a Victorious General But the great Question is What is this fear that is forbidden and the Courage which is enjoined Answ The fear forbidden is an unbelieving weakness and pusilanimity through which as hopeless of success Men throw down their Weapons and yeild themselves up to Satan when the Hearts of Men fail them to the giving up of the Victory Spiritual Courage on the contrary is a serious resolve of fighting it out in the Strength of the Lord and it consists of these two parts First A Sincere Resolution to be on Christ's side against all Iniquity a deliberate unfeigned determination to stand for God and his Holy ways against Satan and Sin 1. The ground of this determination is a conviction of the evil of Sin even to an hatred of it He that hath not throughly weighed the Misery of living in Sin and fully purposed within himself to forsake it can have no true Christian Courage when it comes to a pinch 2. From this ground he lays himself under solemn engagements to Christ his General as Souldiers list themselves under their Captains that he will follow him and observe his Commands he gives up himself to God by Covenant So that now he is no longer his own but Christ's Servant bound for his work 3. And this with such or so much belief of his Promises for Aid and Victory that he hath some Hopes or Expectations at least that God may at last so assist him that he may attain to some real degree of the Mortification of the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof Secondly The second part of this Courage consists in a suitable management of this undertaking Courage is not only seen in the first onset but in the Prosecution of the Warfare and this lies in two things 1. When there are real indeavours against Sin answerable to this undertaking in all ways of striving to oppose it when Men do not engage against Sin with big words only or as the Children of Ephraim who arming themselves and carrying Bows seemed to have stout resolves but then turned back in the day of Battel but with real and consciencious wrestlings setting themselves with all their might and care against every Temptation and studying to pursue the Victory where in any degree 't is obtained to a greater height 2. When these endeavours are sincerely persisted in without being quite wearied out or utter fainting so that it never comes to this though they may be sometime under Satan's feet that they relinguish their first solemn Engagement or repent of their undertaking and then turn their backs upon God listing themselves under Satan's Colours such a fainting as this would bereave Men of their Crown Ye shall reap in due
deliverances that they would not take into consideration the unrighteous terms upon which they might have escaped Thirdly When a Temptation after all means used continues to be troublesom and is rather an annoyance than an infection then must we not dispute it but by an Holy Contempt despise it Temptations to Blasphemy are oft of this nature as hath been noted in its place and there are other things by which Satan creates to God's Children great disquiet while they in the mean time abhor the Sin and cry out of the Tryal Here when the Messenger of Satan will not depart 't is an advice that hath the general approbation of Holy experienced Men that we should despise the Temptation as an approved way to our quiet and ease for while we think to repel such assaults by strugling with Arguments we do but increase the force of them as he that thinks to shelter himself against the Wind by holding up his Cloak before him doth but derive upon himself a stronger blast Fourthly In Temptations of inward trouble and terror it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan David in Psal 42. 11. seems to correct himself for his mistake his Soul was cast down within him and for the cure of that Temptation he had prepared himself by Arguments for a Dispute but perceiving himself in a wrong course he calls off his Soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and the Promises Trust still in God for I shall yet praise him but in Psal 11. 1. he is more aforehand with his work for while his Enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him he rejects the Temptations at first before it setled upon his thoughts and chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to In thee Lord do I put my trust how say ye then to my Soul flee as a Bird to your Mountain And there are weighty reasons that should disswade us from entring the lists with Satan in Temptations of inward trouble As 1. the determination of the Sincerity of the Soul and its converted state is a Question of no small difficulty a knotty Controversy more intricate and abstruse than those Controversies that in the Schools are of greatest Name for difficulty for this is lyable to more weighty Objections and stands in need of nicer distinction As Dr. Goodwin Observes They that converse with dejected Spirits find so much quickness and nimbleness of reasoning turning every way to ward off the force of an Argument brought for their consolation that even wise and able Heads are oft put to a stand and know not what to answer Would it then be fit to give Satan this advantage or to admit him so far into our reasoning He that will invite Satan to such a contest shall be sure to have his hands full Secondly This kind of Temptation doth usually disable Men for arguing it oftentimes confounds the Brain stupifies the understanding and weakens the Memory Heman complains of himself as distracted by terrors Job calls himself desperate Such Persons are not surely in a fit case to manage a Temptation with so cunning a Sophister as Satan Thirdly If they descend into the Battel he is not only too strong for them but commonly after a while they take Satan's part against themselves and comply with him concluding against their own peace Fourthly There is also a better way at hand than to enter into a Dispute and that is By going to God by a present Faith Love or Repentance when the truth of any of these is questioned It is a difficult task to prove some time that former acts of Faith Love or other Graces were sincere this may admit of such objections from a wounded Spirit that it will be hard to answer them but in this case 't is a nearer way to see if there be not in all these complainings some present acts of these Graces whether such complainants are not willing to embrace Christ upon any terms whether they do not have Sin whether they would not unfeignedly be reconciled to God c. It oft falls out that this doth stay the trouble when examinations of former acts do nothing for them Some Men are at more pains as one saith to repair and fit an old Building then would serve to rear a new one Yet must it be remembred that though it were the best course to resist Temptations of this nature at first by avoiding unnecessary disputings notwithstanding when this as I noted before of other Temptations hath seized upon the heart and taken possession then shall we be forced to fill our Mouths with Arguments and whether we will or no must we undergo a Contest As we see in David who when his troubles had prevailed upon him was forced to plead with God with himself with the Temptation and to have recourse to former Experience the days of old and the years of the right hand of the most High and all little enough Thirdly All that I shall further say concerning the inconvenienceies of disputing with Satan shall be to give you the reasons manifesting these unnecessary Communings with him to be every way hazardous and unsuitable As First 'T is an Honour to Satan and a disgrace to our selves Men are loth to be seen contesting with Persons of a far inferiour rank especially in such things which have procured to such a noted Infamy 'T is an usual peice of Generosity in Men of Spirit that they scorn to strive with a Scold or contend with a Beggar or be found in Company of those that are under an evil name deservedly and in matters that are vile and base 't is highly disgraceful to admit them to a debate Such things will either get more credit than they deserve while they seem to be countenanced by a dispute or else shall communicate their discredit to those that shall shew such familiarity with them Secondly By refusing to dispute Temptations we raise up in our hearts an active abhorrency of them and by that abhorrency we are cautioned and strengthned against them It must needs awaken our hatred into a present activity against that Sin which our consideration at first view presents to us so abominable that it deserves no other Answer but to be whipt out of our sight And when our Heart is thus alarmed it cannot but stand upon its Guard 'T is a course that Holy Men have taken to keep Men at a greater distance from Sin to present it as a thing of greatest abhorrency and that is the intendment of that Expression Rom. 6. 1. Shall we Sin that Grace may abound God forbid The vileness of that abuse of Gospel Grace he shews by setting it below the merit of any serious thought he sharpens their apprehensions against it by an out-cry of detestation The like he doth Eph. 5. 3. where he indeavours to set their Hearts against uncleanness and covetousness by telling them that it was unbecoming Saintship that such things should be