art not Elected And Thou art not yet Regenerated Seeing the latter being granted there yet remains a hope of the Probability or Possibility of that Mans Conversion afterwards the suspitions of Non-conversion are more common and not so dangerous Nay in Unregenerate Persons the fears of their being yet in that condition being joyned with diligence and care to avoid the danger are necessary and advantagious but the former being granted all hopes are together with that concession laid off which must needs make the affrightment intollerable In this we may observe 1. That Satan for the better management of this Design doth not only inject these suspitions in the most dreadful Language as Thou art a lost and damned Wretâ—h hopelesly miserable to all Eternity God hath not Elected thee to Life but prepared for thee as a Vessel of wrath the Lake of fire and Brimstone for ever c. But also he doth assert them with the highest Peremptoriness imaginable as if he had Authority from God to pronounce a Sentence of Condemnation against a Man This must needs amaze the Afflicted unspeakably 2. In this he also observe his Advantages For there are some Men so sadly suited to this Design that Satan comes better to speed upon them than others Usually he fixeth his Eyes 1. Upon young Persons at their first serious attendances upon and considerations of Scripture Truths Their hearts are then tender Youth hath a natural tender-heartedness we find them coupled together in Rehoboam's Character 2 Chron. 13. 7. When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted and they are apt to receive strong impressions When those who were formerly mindless of their Spiritual concern begin to be serious they can no sooner fall upon a Consideration of those weighty Doctrines That there are Sheep and Goats some Saved and some Damned that the Blessed are few in comparison of the many that take the Broad-way to destruction and that these were from Eternity ordained unto Life and these only c. No sooner I say begin they to ponder these things but Satan is ready with this suspition And what dost thou know but thou art one of these excluded Wretches If but few are saved a thousand to one thou art none of them For why should God look upon thee more than another These are his first Assays with Young-Men beginning to be serious in which afterward he proceeds with greater boldness as he seeth occasion 2. He also doth this to Persons that are some way quickned to a devotional fear of God and care of their Souls but withal are ignorant and not able distinctly to apprehend and orderly to range the Doctrines of the Scriptures into a due consistency with one another Their careful fears make them enquire into what God hath said concerning the everlasting state of Men and before they can be able to digest the Principles of Religion Satan sets some Truths edg-ways against them which put them into great affrightment while through their ignorance other Truths appointed and declared for the satisfaction of the minds of those that hunger and thirst after Righteousness cannot come in to their relief How startling must the truths of Gods Election be when they stand forth alone and are not accompanied with the Invitations of the Gospel that promise Pardon and Acceptance to all that will come in and submit to Christ Satan usually holds such kind of Men to the consideration of those Truths that have the most dismal Aspect and while they are stopt there they can draw forth no other conclusions than these That they are in hazard and for ought they know utterly lost 3. Satan hath also this Plot against those that by some grievous iniquity or long continuance in sin have highly provoked the Lord. Here he useth Arguments from the heinousness of their Iniquity thou art a Reprobate because thou hast committed these great evils these are marks of Damnation c. Which Arguments though they be of no value and no way proving that for which they are brought yet Satan injecting suspitions and their own Consciences in the mean time justly accusing they so sink under their fear that they suffer Satan to make what conclusion he will and then they subscribe to it 4. Above all Melancholy Persons give the Devil the greatest advantage to raise affrightments That Distemper naturally fills Men with sad thoughts and is credulous of the worst evil that can be objected against him that hath it Of it self it can create the blackest Conceits and saddest Surmises and then believes its own fancy When Satan strikes in with this Humour they are the more confirmed in their Suspitions and the Fright is the greater because they are as Incredulous of what is good if it be told them as they are apt to believe what is evil and to believe it because they fear it though no other reason were offered But much more when Satan in a Prophetick manner foretels their misery and assures them they must never be happy 3. The suspitions which the Devil hath by these advantages raised up he doth endeavour to increase and to root them deeply in the minds of them upon whom he hath thus begun And indeed by frequent inculcating the same thing with his continued peremptoriness of asserting the certainty of their Non-election he at last brings up very many to a full perswasion that it is so and besides other Arts that he may have or exercise in this particular he commonly practiseth upon Men by perverting the true Intendment and use of the Doctrine of Election That there is such a thing as Election and that of a determinate number are Truths undeniable and the end of their discovery in the Gospel is the comfort and confirmation of the Converted Here they may see Gods unchangeable love to them how much they stand engaged for the freeness of Grace and that the Foundation of God is sure c. For to this purpose doth our Saviour improve these Doctrines John 17. 6 7 9 12 15 16. But nothing of this is spoken to discourage any Man from his endeavours neither can any Man prove that he or any other is excluded out of the decree of Election except in case of the sin against the Holy Ghost neither is it possible for the Devil to prove any such thing against any Man neither ought any to suppose himself not Elect But on the contrary if he is willing to forsake sin and desirous to be reconciled to God he ought to apprehend a probability that he is Elected because the proffer of Christ is made to all that will recieve him And therefore should Men stop their ears against such Suggestions and not dispute that with Satan but rather hearken to the Commands Exhortations and Promises of Scripture it being most certain that these secret things belong to God Deut. 29. 29. and are no Mans rule to walk by seeing revealed things only belong to us All this the Devil perverts for he endeavours
whereof they conclude to be such and so general that most Men are in hazard to be imposed upon by delusive Appearances But with far greater shew of likelihood do some make all such things to be nothing else but the Issues of Melancholly and corrupt Humors which makes Men believe they hear see and suffer strange things when there is nothing near them or really to undergo strange fits as in Lunacy and Epilepsy Leaving these Men as not capable of Information from Scripture evidence because disowning it Let us enquire what mistaken apprehensions there have been in this Matter among those that have pretended a reverence to and belief of Scripture The Sadducees deserve the first place because they are by name noted in Scripture to have denied the Resurrection and to have affirmed that there is neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. Matth. 22. 23. This opinion of theirs could we certainly find it out would make much for the confirmation of the Truth in question seeing what ever it was it is positively condemned in Scripture and the contrary asserted to be true Many and that upon considerable grounds do think that they do not deny absolutely that there were any Angels at all but that acknowledging that something there was which was called an Angel yet they imagining it to be far otherwise than what it is indeed were accused justly for denying such a kind of Angels as the Scripture had every where asserted and described For considering that they owned a God and at least the five Books of Moses if not all the other Books of the Old Testament as Scaliger and others judge not without great probability for neither doth the Scripture nor Josephus mention any such thing of the Prophets it is unimaginable that they would altogether deny that there was Angel or Spirit at all They read of Angels appearing to Lot to Abraham and met with it so frequently that believing Scriptures to be true they could not believe Angels to be an absolute fiction for one Fable or Falsity in Scripture which so highly asserts it self to be an unerring Oracle of the true God must of necessity have destroyed the credit of all and rendred them as justly suspected to be true in nothing when apparently false or fabulous in any thing Again If we call to mind what Apprehensions they had of God which all consent they did acknowledge we might more easily imagine what apprehensions they had of Angels for in regard that Moses made mention of Gods Face and Back-parts and that frequently Hands and other parts of Mans Body were attributed to him they concluded God to be Corporeal and seeing the best of Creatures which God created cannot be supposed to have a more noble Being than was that of their Creator and at the utmost to be made according to the Pattern of his own Image and likeness they might upon this Bottom easily fix a denial of Incorporeal Spirits and by consequence that the Soul of Man was mortal and therefore that there could be no Resurrection so that the nature of Angels being described under the notion of Spiritual Substances they are judged to deny any such thing supposing that to be Incorporeal was as much as not to be at all and yet it were unreasonable to deny that they had not some Interpretation for those passages of Scripture that mentioned Angels which in their apprehensions might be some Salvo to the truth of those Historical Writings which they acknowledged but what that was we are next to conjecture And indeed Josephus by a little hint of their Opinion seems to tell us that they did not so much deny the Being of the Soul as the permanency of it and so by consequence they might not so much deny absolutely the existence of Spirits as their Natural Being and continuance Something there was that was called by the name of Angel that they could not but own and that this must be a real and not an imaginary thing is evident from the real Effects and things done by them yet observing their appearances to have been upon some special occasion and their disappearing to have been on a sudden they might conjecture them to be created by God for the present service and then reduced to nothing when that service was done Their Opinion then of Angels seems to be one of these two Either that they were Corporeal Substances created upon a special emergency but not permanent Beings or that they were but Images and Impressions supernaturally formed in the Fancy by the special Operation of God to signify his Mind and Commands to Men upon which they might fitly be called God's Messengers and Ministers I put in this last into the conjecture because I find it mentioned by Calvin as the Opinion of the Sadducees but both are noted by Diodate on Acts 23. 8. as with equal probability belonging to them his words are They did not believe they were subsisting and immortal Creatures but transitory Apparitions or some divine Actions and Motions to produce some special and notable Effect Others also have been lately hammering out the same apprehension concerning Angels and profess themselves delivered from it with great difficulty differing only in this from some of the Heathens before mentioned that what those ascribed to the Puissance of the Stars Natural Powers or to weakness of Senses and corrupt Humors they by the advantage of the general notions of Scripture have ascribed to God putting forth his Power upon the Minds and Fancies of Men or working by the Humours of the Body upon this foundation they will easilier make bold with Devils to deny if not their Being yet their Temptations imagining that we may possibly do him wrong in fathering upon him these Sollicitations and Provocations to Sin which we by experience find to be working and acting upon our Minds thinking that our own Fancies or Imaginations may be the only Devils that vex us and this they more readily hearken to from the nature of Dreams and Visions which happen to Men in an ordinary Natural way where our Fancies play with us as if they were distinct from us as also from this consideration that the Lunatick Epileptick and Frenzical Persons are in Scripture called Demoniacks as Matth. 17. 15. with Luk. 9. where the Person is called Lunatick and yet said to be taken and vexed by a Spirit so also Joh. 10. 20. he hath a Devil and is mad But these reasonings can do little with an intelligent considering Man to make him deny what he so really feels and is so often forewarned of in Scripture for suppose these were called Demoniacks by the Vulgar it doth not compel us to believe they were so Men are apt to ascribe Natutural Diseases to Satan and Christ did not concern himself to cure their Misapprehensions while he cured their Diseases This some suggest as a Reason that may answer many Cases though indeed it cannot answer that of
capacities of the Parties as Extasies Trances and quakings of little Children their Prophesying and speaking Scripture-threatnings after such fits Some have been acted in a way of extatical Fury as Montanus of whom Eusebius witnesseth That sometimes he would be seized upon by a kind of malignant Spirit and would suddenly-break forth into a rage and Madness and presently utter rash and bold Speeches strange unusual Voices with Prophesyings insomuch that he was judged by those that saw him to be acted by the Devil Others have been as in a more sober spiritual Rapture an instance whereof I shall give you from Mr. Baxter in these words I have heard from an ancient godly Man that knew Arthington and Coppinger that they were possessed with the Spirit of the Grundletonians The same Man affirmed That he went but once among them himself and after Prayer they breathed on him as giving him the holy Ghost and he was so strangely transported for three days that he was not the same Man and his Family wondred what was the matter with him he had no Confession of Sin but an elevated strain in Prayer as if he had been in strange Raptures and after three days he was as before and came no more at them Some have been carried into Childish and ridiculous Actions such was the behaviour of Jo. Gilpin in his Delusion at Kendal in Westmerland as his going to the Fidlers House playing upon a Base Viol in token of Spiritual Melody his creeping up the Streets upon hands and knees in token of bearing his Cross his making Marks on the ground and beating it as his Mortification of Sin and a great many more things of like nature Such things as these are as spiritual Marks and Characters engraven upon Errours by which a diabolical Power moving and acting such deluded Creatures like so many Puppits is evidently discovered Thirdly When we see not only Idiots and those whose defect of Understanding might put them under the power of an ordinary Cheat thus imposed upon but Men otherwise intelligent rational and serious blinded with Follies taken with apparent Dotages admiring Trifles and carried away with things which common reason would teach them to abhor 't is more than suspicious that 't is not any probability of Truth or excellency in the Errour that prevails with them but a Spiritual Power that doth bewitch them When we consider that such a Learned Man as Tertullian begins to admire such a wretch as Montanus or such an one as Arthington led away with Hacket and Coppinger or such a Man as Kneperdollin seduced by John of Leyden and especially such numbers of wise and seemingly sober and Religious persons going down the stream after irrational and plainly irreligious Errours what else can be apprehended to be the cause but a powerful Satanical Delusion Fourthly Add we to these the consideration of the suddenness of the prevalency of such Errours against plain and evident Truths which is a circumstance taken notice of by the Apostle Gal. 1. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel In which case we may observe it usually falls out That Mens Affections prevent their Discoveries at the first view they are taken before they understand what the Errour is and they are perswaded before they know Fifthly and Lastly That the earnestness of the prosecution by which they maintain and propagate the Errour is a kind of unnatural fury which hurries Men with violence into an unyielding stifness to the stifling of all kind of Charity and Consideration These things put together I say makes the matter in hand evident when Men otherwise rational are at first touch highly inamoured with and violent in the pursuit of Errours that are sottish or devillish we can resolve it into nothing less than into that of the Apostle Who hath bewitched you The improvement of this first and great advantage for the introduction of Errours is more than can be well expressed but he hath besides other advantages which he no way neglects among which Secondly Our Imperfection in Knowledge is none of the least if our Knowledge had been perfect it would have been a task too hard for the Devil to make us Erroneous for Men do not err but so far as they are ignorant to impose upon Men against clear and certain Knowledg is impossible Men cannot believe that to be true which they know to be false It would be as silly for Satan to make such attempts as for a Jugler to endeavour the deception of those that know and see the ways of his Conveiances as well as himself That our Knowledg is imperfect I shall prove and explain in the following particulars First The Scripture plainly asserts it the greatest number of Men which are in an unregenerate Estate are expresly called foolish blind ignorant Men that are in Darkness Men that do not know nor consider that perish through Ignorance Others that in comparison to these are called Children of the Light and such as see with open face are notwithstanding when compared to a state of Perfection represented to be in the Non-age of their Knowledg unripe imperfect the Apostle doth so express it 1 Cor. 13. 9. We know in part we prophesie in part In the Explanation of this he compares our attainments in this World to the understanding thoughts and speakings of Children v. 11. concludes v. 12. That all our knowledg gives us but a dark imperfect reflection of things we see through a Glass darkly Secondly Men that have had the clearest heads and have been at the greatest pains in their enquiries to find out Truths have brought back the clear conviction of their own Ignorance Austin confesseth That in the Scriptures which he made his chief study the things which he knew not were more than the things he understood Chytraeus in humble Modesty goes a little further My dearest knowledg saith he is to know that I know nothing and it will be a clear demonstration of that Mans ignorance that boasts of his Knowledg his own mouth will prove against him that he knows nothing as he ought to know Thirdly The consideration of the Nature of the things which are the Objects upon which we employ our search will sufficiently convince us that we do comprehend but very little For though the Scripture hath expressed the main concerns of eternal Life so fully that they are as clear as Light and need no such stretch of the Brain but that the meanest capacities may as certainly understand them as they understood any thing of common business as That Christ dyed for Sinners that without Faith it is impossible to please God that without Holyness no Man shall see his face c. Yet as Peter speaks 2 Pet. 3. 16. There are many things that are hard to be understood there are Difficulties Depths and Mysteries Some things whereof we have but dark touches in
Scripture though enough to let us know that such things there are and to humble us for our ignorance are in their own nature sublime bounded on all sides with Rocks and Praecipices where our near and bold approaches are prohibited such are those things that concern the Decrees of God the Trinity c. Other things are dark and uncertain to us from their very proximity to us as some are pleased to fancy the reason such are the nature faculties and workings of our own Souls within us which we cannot directly see as the Eyes sees not it self and do but as it were guess by dark reflections Some things in Scripture are accidentally obscure to us that were plain to those that heard them first to whom they were spoken and written for now to the understanding of a great many passages there is necessary the knowledg of the Tongues in which they were dictated of the Histories of those times to which they severally related as also of the particular Customs of the Jewish Nation which gave a mold and form to a great many Scripture Assertions all which are easie and familiar to those that knew the exact propriety of such Languages were acquainted throughly with such Histories Customs Usages and manner of Speakings and besides all these the application of general Rules to particular Cases where a little circumstance may make a great alteration is full of puzzle and intricacy Insomuch that some have thought that there are several cases of Conscience that are not yet fully determined and that are like so to remain Fourthly Neither is the nature of Knowledg it self without an Argument to prove the insufficiency of our Knowledg to Know is properly to understand things by their Causes or at least by their Effects and to make a right result of Particulars from a general Maxim Such a kind of Knowledg is necessary in Religion for setting aside some particulars of mysterious height about which God hath set bounds lest Men in presumptuous boldness should adventure to break through unto the Lord to gaze And some things which are the Principles of Nature or their next results which are upon that score beyond all need of enquiry in all which 't is enough to believe that what the Scripture saith is true without asking a further account yet in other things the Scripture gives us the Grounds Reasons and Proofs of what it declares or asserts as may appear by infinite Examples so that to know Christ dyed or that we are justified by Faith or that Christ shall come to Judgment without a knowledge of the grounds and reasons of these things is indeed but gross ignorance The like may be said of the Knowledg of general Precepts without the Knowledg of their necessary Application But how few are there that do thus know the greatest part of Men satisfie themselves with the bare affirmations of Scripture and they resolve all into this That the Word of God saith so or That it is the Will of God it should be so without further enquiry And as for others though they may know the Reasons of many things yet are there a vast number of Particulars whose reasons we know not though the Scripture may contain them and as for Consequences and the application of general Rules their just limitation and the Enumeration of the Cases wherein they are true or false it is that that keeps the Wits of Men upon the rack perpetually Fifthly The unsuitableness of our Capacities to those Objects of Words we have but a mole-hill of substantial Matter Nay seeing we make but a sorry shift at best by these Artifices to come to some rude conceptions of things which otherwise we cannot in any tolerable manner comprehend it is as great a proof of our imperfection in Knowledg as the necessary use of staves and crutches is an evidence of lameness If I should pass from this to the consideration of the Multitude beyond all number of Books that are written we shall find them but so many Proclamations of our Ignorance for if we could believe them all to contain so many wholsome Precepts of necessary Truth which yet we cannot rationally imagin this would imply That the greatest part wanted these informations and that common Ignorance is not only a general distemper but also a Distemper hard to be cured that stands in need of such Multitudes of Instructors and such varieties of helps But if we believe that among this infinite number of Volumes there are thousands of Lyes millions of unproved Conjectures millions of millions of idle unprofitable Fancies then do we in express terms pronounce them guilty of Ignorance and of Ignorance so much the more dangerous by how much the more bold it is to avouch it self in the Light and to obtrude it self upon the belief of others who instead of being better informed by it shall but encrease their own blindess were there nothing to be said but this That there are such a vast multitude of Commentators upon the Bible which do all pretend to expound and explain it it would of necessity admit of these Conclusions 1 That the Bible hath in it things so dark or at least our capacities are so dull that there is need of great endeavours to explain the one or assist the other 2 That the Knowledg of Men is imperfect for if all or most Men could certainly interpret the Scripture there needed not so many Volumes but that one or two might have signified as much as now whole Libraries can do The imperfection of our Knowledg being thus laid open 't is easie to see what advantages the Devil may make out of it for the promoting of Errour for it must now become our wonder not that any Man errs but that all do not We find it easie to impose any thing upon Children 't is an easie matter for a trifle to cheat them out of all they have Surely then Satan may do as much by Men who are but Children in understanding The Apostle Ephes 4. 14. puts us in mind of this hazard under that very similitude That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine How fitly doth he resemble us to Children Their weaknesses are 1 Want of discerning they see not the true worth of things 2 Credulity they believe all fair speeches and specious Promises and the hazard of both these is in this That it makes them unconstant uncertain and fickle and such are we made by our Ignorance so little do we truly discern so apt are we to believe every pretence for the simple believes every word Prov. 14. 15. That as the Apostle's Metaphors do tell us we are easily tossed from one conceit or Opinion to another as a Ship is by the Waves or a Feather in the Wind. Thirdly A third advantage which the Devil takes against us in his design of Errour is the byass of the Mind were our Understandings purely free
said to forget God and to cast his Commandments behind their backs as also not to remember their latter-end though they cannot but believe that they shall dye Truth may be imprisoned and fettered where it cannot be slain We read of holding the Truth in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. Which was this That those Heathens of whom the Apostle speaks by reason of their vitious Inclinations and Practices though they could not obliterate those notices of Equity and Religion that were imprinted on their Minds yet they kept them at under as Captives in a Dungeon and suffered them not to rise up in a just practical improvement Now the wrong that is done to Truth this way is not only by rendring it unfruitful and useless at present but hereby the Devil hath his advantage in the gaining of time to gather together more Forces against that Truth and by frequent onsets of contrary Arguings especially upon the advantage of the Minds indifferency and remissness begot by long and often Diversions to set another face upon it and by degrees to over-turn former Perswasions This was the very Case of the Heathens in the place last cited who being first swayed by their Impieties became unwilling to give way to those Dictates of Light and Justice which they had and having thus gratified their Lusts the Devil further prevailing with them to find evasions from the power of those Truths they began to make unsuitable Inferences from these Premises which they could not deny and so became sottish and vain in their reasonings changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like unto corruptible Man And by such practices against Truth they at last changed the Truth into a Lye vers 25. and at long-run obliterated the knowledg of God out of their Minds This is Satan's old Method of over-turning Truth at last by diverting the Mind from receiving the present powerful Impressions of those Principles Secondly But in things doubtful where there is not a clear certainly what is Truth but contrary Opinions strive with such equal confidence that 't is difficult to determine which hath the Conquest there the Mind may be so swayed by its byass that it may give approbation to Errour nay where upon a fair and indifferent tryal Truth hath the greater appearance of strength and Errour nothing else than little shadows or appearances of Reason to shelter it self under yet that way may the mind be inclined by the aforesaid things We have a more easie and facile belief for what we would have than for what we would not Though there is nothing more noted by common experience than this that Men are usually drawn aside by Humours Inclinations Interests and Education c. to judg well of that which an unprejudiced person would easily see to be weak unjust ridiculous or unreasonable yet how these considerations and tempers do exert their force upon the Understanding to draw it into a compliance or by what secret Art they can heighten Probabilities and lessen Objections or by what insensible progress they move that Men thus carried do not perceive that they are under such a force is not so very discernible How often may we observe Men that are rational enough to discover the pitiful shifts and poor allegations of others with such gravity and confidence where their own Interests are concerned to offer such low reasonings and extravagant impertinences that all that hear them are ready to laugh at their folly and yet they themselves entertain no less than perswasions of the invincibleness of their Arguings they so eagerly desire what they would establish that they think any thing is enough to justifie it and are apt to imagine that their shifts and excuses appear as strong to others as to themselves I have known some that by the sway of Interest have changed their Opinions in Religious Matters and have really become otherwise perswaded than they had been formerly and not as some who for advantage will knowingly take up what they cannot believe to be true and have not been able to say That they have met with new Arguments or new Answers to Objections but I know not how Arguments which they had contemned and laid by for weak began to look big upon them the Arguments by which their former Perswasion was upheld grew insensibly feeble in their hands the one revived gathered strength after they had a little cherished them by thinking there might be something in them though before they knew all the Particulars and could not instance in any thing which they had not formerly notified and answered and the other sort of Arguments grew weaker and weaker till at last they parted with all good conceit of them so that such a change was but as the turning of the Tables that which acted behind the Curtain and wrought this change of the Fancy could be no other than some of the forementioned things that byassed their Mind for where the Arguments pro and con were the same the alteration of Opinion where Men are not so wicked as to go directly against their own Light must of necessity be imputed to the different positions of external things and the different humours and inclinations begot by them Even as the different stations of Men in the prospect of some Pictures represent them variously one way they give the shape of a beautiful face another way they express the ugly deformity of a Devil or as different reflections of the Sun-beams upon the same Object cloath it with several colours The Scripture doth also give us notice of this advantage which the Devil takes from the inclinations of Men to lead them into mistakes That of Mic. 2. 11. If a man walking in the Spirit of falshood do lye saying I will prophesie unto thee of Wine and of strong-drink he shall even be the Prophet of this People hath this for its Foundation that let the Errour be never so gross and palpable as if a Man should prophesie a liberty for Drunkenness if it be suitable to the sway of peoples humours it will readily enough be embraced He shall be a Prophet to this People that is such a Prophet will easily prevail with such a People their vitious inclinations fit them for any impression of a suitable Errour The Apostle Paul also found this too true in the Heresies of his own times for he tells us That Seducers had learned that cunning from the Devil to draw Men to Errour by the sway of their Lusts 2 Tim. 3. 6. They creep into houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins and led away with divers Lusts As also 2 Tim. 4. 6. He prophesies of the future use of this Stratagem After their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers So that the usual prevalency of Errour was and is from the under-ground-working of Lusts Humours Habits and Inclinations which make Men willing to entertain an Opinion which can but gratifie them with a suitableness or fitness
patronized and commonly such Men either fix upon such places as give warning of the necessary concomitances of the Spirit and Heart with the outward Act of service and from hence separating what God hath joyned together they set up Spiritual Sabbaths Spiritual Baptism Spiritual Worship to cry down and cashier the external Acts of such Ordinances or they pretend kindred to Scripture as prophesying or foretelling those new Administrations which they are about to set up Let H. Nicholas be an instance of this who though he decryed the Service of the Law under God the Father and the Service of the Belief under Christ and in the room of both these would set up another Administration under the Spirit yet that he might be the better believed he applyed several Scriptures to his purpose as Prophetically foretelling H. Nicholas and his services and would have Men imagine that he was that Angel flying in the midst of Heaven with the Everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6. And that Prophet enquired after by the Jews Joh. 1. 21. Art thou that Prophet and that Man ordained to Judg the World Act. 17. 31. And that the times of his Dispensation were the times of Perfection and Glory spoken of in 1 Cor. 13. 9. and Heb. 6. 1. The like pretences for new Administrations had Saltmarsh and several others Satan fixing his Foot upon this Design and taking advantage of Mens Ignorance Curiosity and Pride c. it is impossible to tell what he may do he hath introduced many Heresies already and none knows what may be behind many passages of Scripture are dark to the wisest of Men a great many more are so to the common sort of Christians A great many wits are imployed by him as Adventurers for new Discoveries and a small pretence is ground enough for a bold Undertaker to erect a new Notion upon and a new Notion in Religion is like a new Fashion in Apparel which bewitcheth the unsteady with an itch to be in it before they well understand what it is So that 't is alike impossible to stint the just number of Errours as to adjust the various pretences from Scripture upon which they may be countenanced Leaving therefore this task to those that can undertake it I shall only note a particular or two of Satans cunning in affixing an Errour upon Scripture First In any grand design of Error he endeavours to lay the Foundation of it as near to Truth as he can but yet so that in the tendency of it it may go as far from it as may be As some Rivers whose first Fountains are contiguous have notwithstanding a direct contrary course in their Streams For instance in those Errors that tend to overthrow the doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ and Ordinances and these are things which the Devil hath a great spite at he begins his work with plausible pretences of Love and Admiration of Christ and Grace he proceeds from thence to the pretence of purer Enjoyments from thence to a dislike of such Preachers and Preaching as threaten Sin and speak out the wrath of God against Iniquity and these are presently called Legal Preachers and the doctrine of Duty a Legal Covenant having them once at this point they easily come to immediate Assistances and special Gifts which they pretend to have above others being thus set up they are for free Grace and the enjoyment of God in Spirit from thence they come to Christian Liberty and by degrees Duties are unnecessary there is no Christ but within them and being freed from the Law whatever they do is no Transgression This is a Path that Satan hath trodden of old though now and then he may vary in some Circumstances and be forced to stop before he come to the utmost of his Journey You may observe this Method in the late Errors of New-England in the Familists of Germany and in those of Old-England in all which at the long-run Men are led as far from Scripture as Darkness is from Light Now this is not only to be seen in a progressive multiplication of Errors but often may we perceive the same subtilty of Satan in a simple Error as when he takes up part of a Truth which should stand in conjunction with another and sets it up alone against its own Companion where we shall have the name and pretence kept up but the thing quite destroyed God requires Services of Men and prescribes to their use Prayer Hearing Sacraments but because in these God is dishonoured when Men only draw near with their Lips he further tells us that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is of the Flesh c. This part are some Men so fixed upon that they think they are discharged of the other and in practice go quite from these duties and yet still they profess they are for Ordinances and the Worship of God just so are some Men for Christ but then 't is but the name not the thing they own Christ they say but then 't is Christ in them and Christ come in their Flesh but not that Christ that died at Jerusalem as a Sacrifice for the Sins of Men. Secondly Satan takes great care that an Errour be in all the ways of its propagation cloathed with Scripture phrases and the less the Errour can pretend to any plausible ground of Scripture the more doth he endeavour to adorn it with Scripture Language I understand this chiefly of such Errors as are designed for the Multitude so that though Scripture be not used to prove the Errour yet are Deceivers taught to express their conceptions by it and to accomodate the Words and Sentences of it to their purposes for besides pride and confidence Scriptural Eloquence is a necessary ingredient to make a powerful Deluder Observe the Ring-leaders of Errors and you shall find that ordinarily such have at first been studious of the Scriptures and though never able to digest them yet when they turned their Ears from Truth they have carried their Scripture Language which they had before brought themselves unto by long custom away with them and still retain it and express their Opinions by it Now this is a great advantage to Satan For First By this means the ignorant Multitude are often caught without any more ado if they hear Scripture Expressions they are apt to think that all is Truth which is spoken by them and they the rather believe it because they will imagine such Teachers to be well versed in Scripture and consequently either so honest or so knowing that they neither can nor will delude them Secondly There is a Majesty in Scripture which in some sence doth stick to the very expressions of it Men may perceive that generally Hearers are more affected with Scripture Eloquence than with Play-Book Language it hath as it were a charm in the words which makes the Ear attentive more than a quaint discourse starched up in the dresâ— of
pretence that Satan hath for this dealing is raised from some passages of the New Testament wherein many things of the Old Testament are said to have had a Mystical signification of things expressed or transacted then and some things are expresly called Allegories Hence Papists determine the Scripture to have besides the Grammatical Sence which all of us do own and besides the Tropological sence which is not divers or distinct from the Grammatical as when from Histories we deduce instructions of holy and sober carriage an Allegorical and Analogical sense in which dealing men consider not that the Spirit of God his interpreting a passage or two allegorically will never justify any Mans boldness in presuming to do the like to any other passage of Scripture and beside when any hath tryed his skill that way another may with equal probability carry the same Scripture to a different interpretation and by this means the Scripture shall not only become obscure but altogether uncertain and doubtful and unable to prove any thing so that this doth extreamly dishonour Scripture by making it little less than ridiculous Porphyry and Julian made themselves sport with it upon the occasion of Origens allegorizing and no wonder seeing that humour as one calls it is no better than a learned Foolery Notwithstanding this Men are sometime transported with a strange delight in turning all into Allegories and picking Mysteries out of some by-passages and circumstances of Scripture where one would least expect them which I can ascribe to no second cause more than to the working and power of Fancy which as it can frame Ideas and Images of things out of that that affords no real likeness or proportion as Men that create to themselves Similitudes and Pictures in the Clouds or in the Fire so doth it please it self in its own work and with a kind of natural affection it doth kiss and hug its own Baby It hath been my wonder sometimes to see how fond Men have been of their own Fancies and how extreamly they have doted upon a very bauble I might note you examples of this even to nauseousness in all Studies as well as in this of Religion Those that affect the sublimities of Chymistry do usually by a strange boldness stretch all the sacred Mysteries of Scripture as of the Trinity of Regeneration c. to represent their Secrets and Processes as may be seen sufficiently in their Writings One of them I cannot forbare to name and that is Glauber who doth so please himself with some idle whims about Sal and Sol that at last he falls in with Bernardinus Gomesius whom he cites and approves who in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Salt finds the Trinity the Generation of the Son the two natures of Christ the calling of the Jews and Gentiles the procession of the Spirit and the communications of the Spirit in the Law and Gospel and all this he gathers from the shapes stroaks and positions of these three Letters a very subtile invention Not unlike to this were some of the dotages of the Jewish Cabala which they gathered from the different writing of some Letters in the sacred Text from the transposing of them and from their Mystical Arithmetick R. Elias from the letter Aleph mentioned six times in Gen. 1. 1. collected his Notion of the Worlds continuance for 6000 years because that letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stands for a thousand in the Hebrew computation Another Rabbi mentioned by Lud. Cappellus hath a profound speculation concerning the first letter of Genesis which as he saith doth therefore begin with Beth and not with Aleph to shew the unexceptionable verity of God's Word against which no Mouth can justly open it self and this he gathers from the manner of the pronunciation of that letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is performed by the closure of the Lips It were not possible to imagine that wise Men should be thus carried away with childish Follies if there were not some kind of inchantment in Fancy which makes the hit of a Conceit though never so silly intoxicate them into an apprehension of a rare Discovery And doubtless this is the very thing that doth so transport the Allegorizers and Inventers of Mysteries that they are ravished either with the discovery of a New-nothing or with the rare invention of an Aenigmatical Interpretation Thirdly The Devil hath yet another way of coining Mysteries and that is a pretence of a more full discovery of Notions and Ways which as he tells those that are willing to believe him are but glanced at in the Scripture and this doth not only contain his boast of unfolding Prophecies and the dangerous applications of them to Times and Places that are no way concerned which hath more than once put Men upon dangerous undertakings but also his large promise of teaching the Way of the Lord more perfectly and of leading Men into a full comprehension of those tremendous Mysteries wherein the Scripture hath as industriously concealed the Reasons Way and Manner of their Being as it hath fully asserted that they are such are the Decrees of God the Trinity c. as also of unfolding and teaching at large those things that the Scripture seems only to hint at In all which points we have instances enough at hand which will shew us how the Devil hath played his Game either by making Men bold in things not revealed or by drawing Men to dislike solid Truths and by puffing them up with notions till at last they were prepared for the impression of some grand Delusion All this while I have only explained the first head of Satan's specious pretences which consists in the promise of Discoveries and Mysteries The next head of pretences are those that relate to the persons inamoured with these supposed Mysteries With these he strokes their heads and causeth them to hug themselves in a Dream of an imaginary happiness For if they have the knowledg of Mysteries which are locked up from other Men they cannot avoid this Conclusion That they are the only Favourites of Heaven that they only have the Spirit are only taught of God c. Such swelling words of vanity have ever accompanied Delusion And indeed we shall find the confidence of such Men more strong and their false embracements more rapturous than ordinarily the ways of Truth do afford upon this account that in such cases Fancy is elevated and the delights of a raised Fancy are excessive and Enthusiastical 'T is a kind of Spiritual Frenzy which extends all the Faculties to an extraordinary Activity the Devil doing all he can to further it by his utmost Contributions Joy delight hope love are all raised to make an hubbub in the heart whereas on the contrary Truth is modest humble sober and affords a more silent joy though more even and lasting Here might I set Errour before you in its rant and give you a taste of
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
the Trinity he ran to a contrary Extreme and that he might give the highest proof of a Trinity of Persons he affirmed that Jesus Christ had a beginning and that there was a time when he was not c. Thus Socrates speaks of the Rise of that Heresy We might further follow the footsteps of this Device and trace it in most Opinions where we might find the humour of running to a contrary Extreme hath still either set up a contrary Error or at least leavened the Truth with harsh and unjustifiable Expressions and Explanations The Disputes betwixt Faith and Works have been thus occasioned and aggravated Some speak so of Faith as if they slighted Works others so urge a necessity of Works as if they intended to make Faith useless Some talk of Grace to an utter Contempt of Morality others on the contrary magnify Morality to the annihilating of Grace Some in their practice acquiesce in the outward Performance of Ordinances if they pray or receive the Sacraments though never so formally they are at peace supposing they have done all that is required others observing the Mistake and knowing that God looks more to the performance of the Soul and Spirit than to the Act of the Body upon a pretence of worshipping God in Spirit throw off the observation of his Ordinances altogether Neither is there any thing that doth more generally and apparently undoe us in the present Dissentions as many have complained than Mens violent Over-doing and running to contrary Extremes 6. Satan makes use of Rewards or Punishments on the one hand to bribe or on the other to force the Affections and they being strongly possessed easily prevail with the Understanding to give Sentence accordingly Men are soon perswaded to take that for Truth which they see will be advantageous to them Some Men indeed take up with a Profession of Truth which yet their Hearts approve not but the Advantages they have by their Profession do silence their dissatisfactions these are said to use the Profession of Truth as a Cloak of Covetousness 2 Thes 2. 5. But others go further and are really brought to an Approbation of that Doctrine or Way that makes most for their Profit their Minds being really corrupted by a self-seeking Principle they perswade themselves where there is any Contest about Doctrines that that Doctrine is true which is gainful and will accordingly dispute for it Hence that Expression in 1 Tim. 6. 5. supposing that Gain is Godliness To this may be added that the Affections are quickly sensible of the Ease and sensual Gratifications of any Doctrine and these are usually thrown into the same Scale to make more weight Men have naturally a good liking to that Doctrine that promiseth fair for Ease Liberty Gain and Honour and this hath made it an usual piece of Satans business in all Ages to gild an Error with outward Advantages and to corrupt the Mind by secret Promises of Advancement On the other side he labours as much to prejudice Truth by representing it as hazardous and troublesom to the Professors of it And this not only affrights some from an open Confession of the Truth they believe but also by the help of the Affections doth perswade some to believe that to be an Error which unavoidably brings Persecution with it By this Engine are the Minds of Men turned about to think well or ill of a Doctrine presented to them This is so well known that I shall forbear a further Prosecution of this Head and go to the next Course than Satan takes to corrupt the Judgment by the Affections Which he doth 7. By stirring up some particular Passions which in Opinions do usually more influence the Vnderstanding And here I shall only insist upon these two Pride and Anger with the peculiar means that Satan hath to engage them in his Service That Pride and Anger are the two usual Firebrands of Contention and Fountains of Error all Ages have acknowledged and bewailed These two Companions in Evil do so darken the Mind that the miserable Captive in whom they domineer is carryed blindfold he knows not whither nor how Pride usually begins and Anger follows with all its forces to justify what Pride hath undertaken Hence the Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 4. rakes up all the concomitant Filth of Error as Envy Strife Railings evil Surmisings and perverse Disputings of Men and lays them at the Door of Pride He is proud knowing nothing For the ingaging of these two Thieves that rob the Understanding of its Light Satan hath many Artifices in readiness Pride which is forward enough of it self is soon excited by laying before it an Opportunity of a seeming rare Discovery or of advancing the Glory of Knowledge above the common Pitch of being seen and admired as more excellent than others c. for upon such unworthy Grounds have some dared to adventure upon strange Notions yet there is nothing that doth more firmly ingage it than Contention or Dispute for though the proper end of Disputation be the sifting out of Truth yet such is Mans Pride and Satans Advantage by it that it seldom attains its true end in those that are ingaged By-standers that keep their Minds calm and unbyassed may receive more satisfaction than the Contenders themselves and there needs no other evidence of this than the common Experience which Men have of our frequent Contentions where we have Confutations Answers and Replies and yet still all Parties continue in their Opinions without Conviction So that they that would unfeignedly feels Truth in my Mind take not the best Course in their Pursuit that presently engage themselves in a publick Dispute for the usual Heats that are begot in a Contention alienate their Minds from a just Impartiality and the dust they raise blinds their Eyes that they discern not truly Let us look into this Artifice of engaging Pride by Disputation and by it the Judgment First we find that when an humor of contending is raised certain Truths are neglected as to their improvement and Practice For so much of the Strength of the Soul is laid out upon disputable Questions that little is left for more weighty matters Secondly In Disputes Mens Credit is so concerned that 't is a most difficult thing to preserve a faithful regard to Verity especially where they are managed with Affronts and Contumelies They that by calm handling might be induced to acknowledge a Mistake will scarce come near that Point of Ingenuity when they must be called Fool Knave or Ass for their labour Hence ordinarily though they profess otherwise Men seek rather Victory than Truth Thirdly in Disputes Pride and Passion are usually heightned and the stronger the Passions are the weaker is the Judgment Eager Altercations bring a Confusion both upon the matter of which they dispute and upon the Understanding that should judge Fourthly in the heart of Disputation when the Mind is inflamed Men usually behave themselves like those in a Fray
where they snatch and throw any thing that comes to hand and never mind where it hits they will affirm or deny any thing that may seem any way to bring them off Fifthly these Assertions being once affirmed must be maintained and so Errors and Contentions increase without end Disputes fix a Man in his Perswasion and do as it were tye him to the Stake so that right or wrong he will go through with it Sixthly Some dispute in jest against their present Judgment and yet at last dispute themselves into a belief of what they wantonly at first affirmed as some tell Lies so long that at length they believe them to be true Seventhly A sadder Mischief often follows a disputing Humor which is an hazard of the loss of all Truth Men dispute so long till they suspect all things and after a long Trade of Scepticism turn Atheists After the same manner doth the Devil engage Anger in all Disputes and Controversies for it keeps company with Pride wherever there is a Provocation And besides this Anger stirring up Injuries and Wrongs hath often engaged Men as it were in revenge to change their Opinion and to take up another Way or Doctrine Nay often that simple Mixture of Pride and Anger which we call Emulation hath privately tainted the Integrity of Mind and prepared it for the next fair opportunity of Error This is noted of Arrius by Theodoret that when Alexander was chosen Bishop of Alexandria he envied him the preferency and from thence sought occasions of Contention which after a little while the Devil brought to his hand as we have heard So great is the power of these two Passions over the Understanding that we have cause to wonder at their success seldom or never can if be shown that any Ring-leader in Errour was not visibly tainted with Pride or not apparently sowred with Discontents and Emulation 8. To these ways of blinding the Understanding by the Affections I shall add but one more which is this Satan endeavours mainly to adorn an Errour with Truths clothing he takes its Ornaments and Jewels to dress up a false Doctrine that it may look more lovely and dutiful I mean that he designs where Errours are capable of such an imitation to put them into the way method garb and manner which Truth doth naturally use If Truth be adorned with Zeal Order Strictness or have advantageous ways of managing it self Errour must straight-way imitate it in all these things and though he that looks near may easily discern that 't is not the natural complexion of Errour but an artificial varnish and such as doth no more become it than a Court-dress doth become a course clownish Country Person for you may at first look usually discover the Wolf under Sheeps clothing and under the garb of the Apostles of Christ you may see the Ministers of Satan yet are the credulous usually affected with these appearances if they find a professed strictness a seeming severity an imitation of the ways of Truth or of the fruits thereof they commonly seek no further but judg that to be Truth which doth the things that Truth doth and if Errour can handsomly stand in competition with Truth upon a pretence of being as effectual in good works and doing things of themselves lovely and of good report it doth much gain upon the good liking of those whose consideration leads them not much further than fair appearances I shall only exemplify this by the Art and policy which Julian used to set up Paganism and to ruine Christianity and those who have observed the ways which he took to gain his end will readily acknowledg he was as well skill'd in advancing Errour and suppressing Truth as any whosoever and knew exactly to suit his designs to Mens inclinations he observing that Christian Religion had some particular things in its practice and way which made it's face to shine as that it had Persons solemnly set apart by Ordination for teaching the Mysteries of the Gospel and for managing the publick Worship of God that these Persons were to be grave in their carriage and exemplary in a strict holy conversation that the Constitutions of Religion appointed certain necessary and effectual ways of Discipline for Punishment and restoring of Offenders and bringing them to Repentance that it took care of the comfortable maintenance of those that had given up themselves to the Ministry of the Word and Prayer that it also enjoyned a relief of the Poor and Strangers c. Taking notice I say of these Excellencies in Christianity and how lovely they were in the eyes of their enemies He appointed the like Constitutions for Paganism and ordained that the Idol Temples should be suited in conveniency and comliness to Christian Churches That there should be Seats and Desks for the chief Doctors and Readers of Gentilism who at set-times were to exhort the Peoples and pray with them and that Colledges and Monasteries should be erected for them and for the relief of the Poor and Strangers he commanded Discipline and Penances for the chastisement of Offenders he required that their Priests should seriously give up themselves to the Worship of God as also their Families that they should not frequent Shews and Taverns nor practise any infamous Trade and Art Thus Sozomen reports him and gives us a Copy of his Letter to Arsacius high Priest of Galatia to this purpose and all this he did to bring Gentilism into credit with the Vulgar whom he had observed to be affected to Christianity for its Order Strictness and Government Yet is not this the only instance that may be given in this kind for observe but any Errour that by Schism sets up for it self in a distinct party and you shall see that though it departs from the Truth of the Church and from its Communion yet still as the Israelites did with the Egyptians it carries away with it these Jewels of the Church and keeps to some considerable part of the Churches way though modified according to its own bent that it might have a lustre with it to make it taking with others These eight particulars are the most remarkable ways of Satan whereby the Affections are gained to a good liking of Errour and by them the judgment secondarily corrupted to call it Truth CHAP. V. Satan's Attempts against the Peace of God's Children evidenced 1. By his Malice 2. From the concernment of Peace to God's Children What these Concerns are explained 3. From the Advantages which he hath against them by disquieting their Minds 1. Confusion of Mind 2. Unfitness for Duty and how 3. Rejection of Duty 4. A stumbling block to others 5. Preparation of the Mind to entertain venemous Impressions and what they are 6. Bodily Weakness 7. Our Miserie 's Satan's contentment WE have viewed the ways of Satan by which he 〈◊〉 all 〈…〉 to Sin by which he withdraws Men from Duty and Service by which he corrupts the Mind through
affrightment by the former but also in the manner of proceeding for when he designs chiefly to tempt to Atheism he first prepares his way by debauching the Conscience with vitious or negligent living According to Psal 14. 1. that which makes Men say in their Hearts there is no God is this that they are corrupt and have done abominable works and in this method was famous Junius tempted to Atheism But when he chiefly intends to affright he sets upon Men that by a watchful and strict conversation cut off from him that advantage yet he doth so manage himself that he can turn his course either way as he finds probability of success after tryal for he presseth on upon Men most where he finds them most to yeild so that those who were but at first affrighted may at last be solemnly perswaded and urged to believe the suggestion to be true if they give him any incouragement for such a procedure 2. Contemplative Heads and great Searchers are usually most troubled in this manner partly because they see more difficulties than other Men and are more sensible of Humane inability to resolve them and partly because God who will not suffer his Children to be tempted above what they are able doth not permit Satan to molest the weaker sort of Christians with such dangerous assaults 3. Persons of eminent and singular Holiness may be and often are troubled with Atheistical thoughts and have sad conflicts about them Satan labouring where he cannot prevail for a positive entertainment of Atheism at least to disquiet their Minds by haunting them with his Injections if not to weaken their assent to these Fundamental Truths in which he sometimes so prevails that good Men have publickly professed that they have found it an harder matter to believe that there is a God than most do imagine 4. Satan lies at the catch in this design and usually takes Men at the advantage suddenly setting upon them either in the height of their Meditations and Enquiries into Fundamental Truths for when they soar aloft and puzzle themselves with a difficulty then is he at hand to advise them to cut the knot which they cannot unloose or in the depth of their Troubles for when Men cannot reconcile the daily Afflictions and Sufferings which they undergo with the love and care of God toward his Children then 't is Satans season to tell them that there is no supream Disposer of things in both these cases the Devil leaps upon them unawares like a Robber out of a Thicket who if he do not wound them by the Dart of Atheistical Injection at least he is sure to astonish them and to confound them with amazement For 5. Sometimes he pursues with wonderful violence and will dispute with admirable subtilty urging the inequality of Providence the seeming contradictions of Scripture the unsuitableness of Ordinances to an infinite Wisdom and Goodness with many more Arguments of like kind and this with such unexpected acuteness and seeming demonstration that the most holy Hearts and wisest Heads shall not readily know what to answer but shall be forced to betake themselves to their Knees and to beg of God that he would rebuke Satan and uphold them that their Faith fail not Nay he doth not only dispute but by urging and with unspeakable earnestness threaping the Conclusion upon Men doth almost force them to a Perswasion so that they are almost carried off their Feet whether they will or no. Which was the very case of David when the Devil pursued him with Atheistical thoughts on the occasion of the prosperity of wicked Men and his daily Troubles Psal 73. 2. My Feet were almost gone my Steps had well-nigh slipt 6. Yet for all this he sometimes lays aside his Sophistical Subtilty and betakes himself to an Impudent Importunity for sometimes he insists only on one Argument not changing that which he first took up nor strengthening his Suggestion with variety of Arguments but by frequent repetition of the same Reason persists to urge his injected Atheism This gives no discovery of any deep reach if he designed to perswade for 't is scarce rational to imagine that serious Men who by many Arguments are fully perswaded there is a God should readily lose their hold upon the appearance of one Objection but it shews that he purposeth only to molest And this appears more evidently when he contents himself with weak and trivial Arguments which the afflicted Party can answer fully and yet cannot for all that quit themselves of the trouble for instance 'T is not very many years since a serious and pious Person came to me and complained that he could not be at rest for Atheistical thoughts that perpetually haunted him and upon a particular enquiry into the cause and manner of his Trouble he told me the first rise of it was from his Observation that I had interpreted some Scriptures otherwise than he had heard some others to have done but withall he added that he knew the reason of his perplexity was but silly and that which he could easily answer This being no just charge against the Scripture whose sense and truth might for all that be one and uniform to it self but only an implication of Humane weakness appearing in the different apprehensions of Expositors yet notwithstanding he affirmed he could not shake off the trouble and that his thoughts were ever urged with the same thing for a long time together nay such is his impudency in this kind of trouble that those who know 't is the best way not to dispute Fundamentals with Satan but with abhorrency to reject him after the example of Christ with a Get thee behind me Satan and accordingly do with their utmost strength reject them yet they find that he doth not readily desist How sad is this Trouble how are pious Persons affrighted to see the Face of their Thoughts made abominably ugly and deformed by these violent and unavoidable Injections 't is not only wearisome to those that know it to be solely Satans malice but it often proves to be an astonishing surprisal like that of a Traveller who while he passeth on his way without foresight or thought of danger is suddenly brought to the top of a great Precipice where when he looks down to the vast deep below his Head swims his Heart pants his Knees tremble and the very fear of the sudden danger so confounds him that he is through excessive dread ready to fall into that which he would avoid so are these amazed at so great hazards before them Satan could not by all his Art prevail with them to abandon the holy ways of God in exchange for the pleasures of Sin and now they seem to be in danger to lose all at once and yet 't is more affrightful by far to those that charge though Satans cunning all this Atheism upon themselves 2. Another affrightful Injection is that of blasphemous Thoughts as that God is not just not compassionate
Bilney Martyrs whose Consciences were so sorely wounded for Recanting the Truth which they professed that they seemed to feel a very Hell within them The more fixed Distresses as they are of longer continuance so they are often accompanied with the very worst Symptomes For when in these Agonies no Sun nor Star of comfort appears to them for many days all hope that they shall be saved seems to be taken away and being tired out with Complaints and Importunities without any Answer they at last reject the use of Means Some have lain many Years as the Paralytick Man at the Pool of Bethesda without Cure Some from their Youth up as Heman complains Some carry their Distresses to their Death-Bed and it may be are not eased till their Souls are ready to depart out of their Bodies and then they often end suddenly and comfortably Some I could tell you of who on their Death-Bed after grievous Terrours and many Out-crys concerning their miseries of Blackness and Darkness for ever lay long silent and then on a sudden brake out into Raptures of Joy and adoring Admiration of the Goodness of God using that speech of the Apostle Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Others go out of the World in Darkness without any appearance of Comfort Such an Instance was Mr. Chambers as the story of his Death testifies mentioned by Mr. Perkins in his Treatise of Desertions of whom this account is given that in great Agonies he cried out he was Damned and so died The case of such is surely very sad to themselves and appears no less to others yet we must take heed of judging rashly concerning such Nay if their former Course of Life hath been uniformly good for who will reject a fine Web of Cloth as one speaks for a little course List at the end especially if there be any obscure appearance of hope As that Expression of Mr. Chambers O that I had but one drop of Faith is by Mr. Perkins supposed to be we ought to judg the best of them We have seen the nature of Spiritual Distresses in the Ingredients and Differences thereof We are now to Consider 2. Satan's method in procuring them Which consists 1. In the Occasions which he lays hold on for that end 2. In the Arguments which he useth 3. In the working up of their Fears by which he confirms Men in them 1. As to the Occasions He follows much the same Course which hath been described before in Spiritual Troubles so that I need not say much only I shall note two things 1. That it makes much for Satan's purpose if the Party against whom he designs have faln into some grievous sins Sins of common Magnitude do not lay a foundation suitable to the Superstructure which he intends he cannot plausibly argue Reprobation or Damnation from every ordinary sin but if he finds them guilty of something extraordinary then he falls to work with his Accusations The most usual sins which he takes advantage from are as Mr. Perkins observes those against the Third Sixth and Seventh Command sometimes those against the Ninth Murther Adultery Perjury and the wilful denial of Truth against Conscience are the Crimes upon which he grounds his Charge but most usually the last Upon this the distressed Spira and some of the Martyrs As for the other the more private they are Satan hath oft the more advantage against them because God's secret and just Judgment will by this means bring to Light the hidden things of Darkness and force their Consciences to accuse them of that which no Man could lay to their Charge that he might manifest himself to be the searcher of the Hearts and trier of the Reins Thus have many been forced to disclose private Murthers secret Adulteries and to Vomit up though with much pain and torture that which they have by Perjury or Guile extorted from others 2. Where Satan hath not these particular Advantages he doth endeavour to prepare Men for Distresses by other Troubles long continued All men that are brought to dispair of their Happiness must not be supposed to be greater Sinners than others some are distressed with fears of Eternal Damnation that are in a good measure able to make Job's protestation in these cases That their Heart hath not been deceived by a Woman That they have not laid wait at their Neighbours door That they have not lift up their hand against the Fatherless when they saw their help in the Gate that their Land doth not cry against them nor the Furrows thereof complain that when they saw the Sun when it shined or the Moon walking in brightness their Heart hath not been secretly enticed nor their Mouth kissed their Hand that they rejoyced not in the destruction of him that hated them nor lift up themselves when evil found him c. Notwithstanding all which their Fears are upon and prevail against them But then before Satan can bring them to consent to such dismal Conclusions against themselves they must be extraordinarily fitted to take the Impression either tired out under great Afflictions or long exercised with Fears about their Spiritual Estates without intermixture of Comfort or Ease or their Faculties broken and weakned by Melancholy Any of these give him an advantage equivalent to that of great Sins For though he cannot say to these your sins are so Enormous that they are considered themselves together with their Circumstances sad signs or Reprobation yet he will plead that God's carriage towards them doth plainly discover that he hath wholly cast them off and left them to themselves without hope of Mercy 2. As for the Arguments which he useth they are much-what from the same Topicks which he maketh choice of in bringing on Spiritual Troubles Only as he aims at the Proof of a great deal more against God's Children than that they are not Converted so accordingly he scrues up his Mediums for proof to an higher pin His Arguments are 1. From Scriptures wrested or misapplied His choice of Scriptures for this purpose is of such places as either seem to speak most sadly the dangerous and fearful Estate of Men according to the first view and literal representation of them through the unskilfulness of those that are to be concerned Or of such places as do really signifie the miserable Unhappiness of some Persons who through their own fault have been cut off from all hope and the possibility of the like to some others for the future So that in framing Arguments from Scripture the Devil useth a twofold cunning 1. There are some Scriptures which have the word Damnation in them applied to some particular Acts and Miscarriages of Men when yet their intendment is not such as the word seems to sound or as he would make them to believe Now when he catcheth a Child of God in such acts as are there
became an Argument against him Joh. 7. 41. while some were convinced and said This is the Christ others said shall Christ come out of Galilee Thirdly Another part of his Design in the use of Scriptures is to put a Varnish upon Hypocrisy He is ready to serve Men by putting Scripture Expressions in their Mouths and inuring them to a constant use of the phrases of those Divine Writings that they may less suspect themselves of the Pride Formality and secret wickedness of their Hearts and to help on their mistakes concerning their Spiritual Condition he can urge upon their Consciences those Scriptures that serve to engage them in external Observances of Religion It may appear by the Pharisees boast of Fasting twice a Week of paying Tythes of giving Alms that their Consciences were some way concerned in these things so that though they were left without check of Conscience to devour Widows Houses yet were they urged to make long Prayers Suitable to this is that which Solomon speaks of the Harlot who to colour over her Wickedness had her Offerings and Vows and when her Conscience is appeased with these performances she can excuse her self in her way of sinning She eats and wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no wickedness Prov. 30. 20. Satan doth but hereby help to paint a Sepulchre or guild a Potsheard and to furnish Men with Excuses and Pretexts in their way of sinning Not unlike to this was that Service which the Devil with great readiness performed as I was informed from some of good credit to a young Student who had faln upon some Books of Magick in a Colledg-Library into which having stoln privately one Night in pursuit of that Study was almost surprised by the President who seeing a Candle there at an unseasonable time suddenly opens the Door to know who was up so late in which strait the Devil to gratify his Pupil with a ready excuse snatcheth away his Book and in a moment lays Montanus his Bible before him that he might pretend that for his imployment Secondly Another point of Satan's unfaithful dealing with Scripture is his falsecitation of it 't is nothing with him to alter change or leave out such a part as may make against him If he urge Promises upon Men in order to their Security and Negligence he conceals the Condition of them and bannisheth the Threatning far from their Minds representing the Mercy of God in a false Glass as if he had promised to save and bring to Heaven every Man upon the common and easy tearms of being called a Christian If it be his purpose to disquiet the Hearts of God's Children to promote their fears or to lead them to dispair then he sets home the Commands and Threatnings but hides the Promises that might relieve them and which is remarkable he hath so puzled some by setting on their Hearts a piece of Scripture that when the next words or next verse might have eased them of their Fears and answered the sad Objections which they raised against themselves from thence as if their Eyes had been holden or as if a mist had been cast over them they have not for a long time been able to consider the relief which they might have had This hiding of Scripture from their Eyes setting aside what God may do for the just chastisement of his Childrens Folly is effected by the strong Impression which Satan sets upon their Hearts and by holding their Minds down to a fixed Meditation of the dreadful inferences which he presents to them from thence not suffering them to divert their Thoughts by his incessant Clamours against them Thirdly He unfaithfully handleth Scriptures by wresting the true Import and Sense of them We read of some 2 Pet. 3. 16. who wrest the Scripture the word in the Original signifies a racking or torturing of it as Men upon a Rack are stretched beyond their due length to a dislocation of their joints and sometimes forced to spake what they never did nor intended so are the Scriptures used Those that do so are Satan's Scholars and taught of him though in regard of the Spirits true teaching they are called unlearned which is sufficient to shew Satan's deceitful dealing he often lays his dead and corrupt Sense as the Harlot did with her dead Child in the room of the living Infant in the place of the living meaning of the Scripture this may be seen evidently First In Heresies or Errors these are Satans Brood and there are none so vile that pretend to Christian Religion but they claima kindred to Scripture and are confident on its Authority for them Now seeing Truth is but one and these Errors not only contradictory to Truth but to each other Satan could never spin out such conclusions from the Divine Oracles but by wresting them from their true intendments and he that would contemplate the great Subtilty of Satan in this his Art need but consider what different strange and monstrous shapes are put upon the Scripture by the several Heresies which march under its Colours The Quakers in their way represent it like an old Almanack out of date and withal in the use they make of it they render it as a piece of nonsensical furious roving The Socinians take down the sublime Mysteries of Christs satisfaction and Justification by Faith with External Rewards and Punishments to a strain as low as the Turkish Alcoran The Papists make it like a few leaves of an imperfect Book wanting Beginning and End and so not fit to be set up as a sufficient Rule The Ranters make it seem rather like Language from Hell than the Commands of the Pure and Holy God Some will have it to countenance most ridiculous inventions in Worship others will have it to discharge all outward observations and Ordinances as Childish Rudiments Some raise it all to the pitch of Aenigmatical unintelligible Mysteries Others can find no more in the precepts of it than in Aristotles Ethicks Thus by distorting and wresting Satan hath learn'd these unskilful Ones to make it serve their vilest Lusts and Humours Secondly The same Art of wresting Scripture is observable in his secret Suggestions If he would encourage any in Sin he can Wrest Scripture for that and tell him that God is Merciful that Christ died for Sinners that there is hope of Pardon that Saints have done the like things very true in themselves but perverted by him to another sense than ever they were intended to by God who hath spoken these things that we sin not If he would discourage a Saint he can tell him when he finds him doubting his estate that the fearful and unbelieving have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone when he finds him under a known Sin he tells that of the Apostle If we sin willfully after we have received the knowldg of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins When he observes them discomposed and wandering in
Duty then he objects They draw nigh me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me If he sees them dull and without Consolation at the Lord's Supper then to be sure they hear of him he that eats and drinks unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself If he find him bemoaning that he is not so apprehensive of Mercies or Judgments as he would be then he sets home some such Scripture as this This Peoples Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing c. These Scriptures are frequently perverted by Satan from the true and proper meaning of them I have had complaints from several dejected Christians of these very Scriptures urged upon them to their great trouble when yet it was evident that none of these were truly applyed by Satans Temptation against them These things give us warning not to take any thing of this Nature upon trust If Satan can so imitate the Spirit of God in applications of Scripture and bringing it to our remembrance we have great reason to beware lest we be imposed upon by Satan's Design clothed in Scripture Phrase not that I would have Men esteem the secret setting of Scripture upon their Minds to be in all cases a delusion and to be disregarded as such Some indeed there are that so severely remark the weaknesses of Professors of Religion that they raise up a scorn to that which is of most necessary and serious use because the Devil prevails with some Hypocrites to guild themselves with Scripture phrase and others through imprudent inadvertency are unknown to themselves beguiled by Satan to misapplications of Scripture to their own estate or to other things they therefore decry all the inward workings of the Heart as Fancy or affected singularity these do but the Devils work But that the Spirit of God whom Satan treacherously endeavours to imitate doth set home Scripture Commands Threatnings and Promises upon the Hearts of his People is not only attested by the Experience of all that are inwardly acquainted with the ways of God but is one of the great Promises which Christ hath given for the comfort of his People in his absence Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father shall send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you This then being granted as a firm unshaken Truth our care must be in discovering and avoiding Satan's counterfeit using of Scripture and in this we should be more wary First Because we are not so apt to suspect what we meet with in such a way when 't is brought to us in the Language of Scripture Secondly And those that are not exercised in the Scripture will he at a sad loss as not knowing how to extricate themselves from such difficulties as may arise to them from Satan's Sophistry Thirdly Wariness is also more necessary because we are inclinable to believe what suits our Desires and Conscience awakened is averse to the rejecting of that which answers its fears You may say What is there of direction for us in this Case The Answer is ready Two things are given us in Charge 1. That we be wisely suspicious A facile hasty credulity is treacherous Christ forbids when he foretels the rising of false Christ's Math. 24. 26. the forwardness of a sudden belief taxing thereby those that are presently taken with every new appearance 'T is childish to be carryed with every Wind we are warned also of this 1 Joh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit 2. We are commanded to bring all Pretences whatsoever to Tryal though immediate Revelation or Vision be pretended or extraordinary Commission yet must all be brought to the Touch-Stone we must prove all things 1 Thes 5. 21. and try those that say they are Apostles Rev. 2. 2. Nay the Spirits are to be tryed whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. You will say How must we try I Answer God hath given a Publick Sufficient and Certain rule which is the Scripture and all must be tryed by that so that if there be Impulses or Discoveries or Remembrances of Scripture upon any it must not be taken for granted that they are of God because they pretend so high for so we shall make Satan Judg in his own Cause but lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written Word and if it answer not that call it confidently a delusion and reject it as accursed though it might seem in other regards to have been suggested by an Angel from Heaven But it will be said Satan pretends to this Rule and it is Scripture that is urged by him I Answer though it be so yet he useth not Scripture in its own Intendment and Sense for the discovery of his unfaithful dealing First Compare the Inference of the suggestion with other Scriptures If it be from a dark Scripture compare it with those that are more plain and in every case see whether the general Current of the Scriptures speak the same thing for if it be from Satan he either plays with the Words and Phrases from doubtful and equivolent terms making his conclusion or his citation will be found Impertinent or which is most usual contrary to Truth or Holiness if any of these appear by a true examination of the Import of the Scripture which he seeks to abuse or by comparing it with the Scope and Genius of other Scriptures you may certainly pronounce that it is not of God but Satan's deceit Secondly Consider the tendency of such Suggestions Let no Man say that this will come too late or that it is an after game I do not mean that we should stay so long as to see the Effects though this is also a certain discovery of Satan's knavery in his highest pretences the Phanatick Furies of the German Enthusiasts do now appear plain to all the World to have been Delusions by their End Fruits and Issue But that while these Conclusions are obtruded upon us we should observe to what they tend which we shall the better know if all Circumstances round about be considered Sometimes Satan doth covertly hint his Mind and send it along with the suggestion sometimes our condition will enough declare it and there is no case but it will afford something of discovery if seriously pondered If he either prompt us to Pride Vain-Glory or Presumption or that our condition sway us that way it will be sufficient ground of Suspition that 't is Satan that then urgeth Promises or Priviledges upon us If we are of a wounded Spirit inclined to Distrust or if we be put on to despair it is past denyal that 't is Satan that urgeth the Threatnings and presseth the Accusations of the Law against us He that gathers Stones Timber Lime and such Materials together as are usually imployed in Building doth discover his intention before he actually Build his
so much as once named by them Thirdly Disputing is a secret invitation to the Devil to urge the Temptation further we do but toy with him and give him occasion to follow us Eve found the truth of this by sad Experience she so managed her self that she plainly intimated she had a mind to hear what the Devil could say for the eating of the forbidden Fruit and so urged the Prohibition of God and the Threatning that she sought from Satan a confirmation of her secret unbelief rather than faithfully indeavoured a repulse of the Temptation and mentioned the Threatning under such terms of uncertainty and peradventure as an Objection which she desired might be removed rather than from a firm belief of that Death spoken of fortifying her self in her Duty by all which Satan was so encouraged to proceed that he presently confirmed her in her Distrust Fourthly These disputings usually return nothing of advantage to our account but to Satans We unnecessarily enter the Lists with him and that upon very unequal terms he being as Saul said of Goliah and David a Man of War from his Youth and we but weak unskilful Striplings we go out of our Trenches and leave our Weapons behind us we expose our naked Breasts to all his Darts and by discoursing with him he gains time wherein the Poyson may more powerfully work upon our Affections If he was too hard for our first Parents at this Weapon we whose Hearts are not so faithful to God as theirs in Innocency but corrupted by Satan who hath also a Party in us are not likely to come off with Triumph Fifthly These presage consequently an overthrow A parlying City holds not long out it implyes in it self an inclination to yield when Armies are willing to Treat Daily Examples and Experience of those that give up themselves to Sin after Communication with Satan sadly witness this Truth The Sum of this Direction is this that when a Motion of Sin is put into our heart instead of disputing where it may be avoided we should peremptorily deny it and send it away with an angry rebuke or severe Abomination I may not do it how can I do this Wickedness Get thee hence or The Lord Rebuke thee Satan CHAP. XXIV The third Direction of repelling a Temptation without delay the necessity of so doing What a speedy denial doth contain THe magnanimity of Christ and the peremptoriness of his denyal we have noted We must further observe the immediateness of his Answer he suffered not any of these Motions to stay long with him here was not a Cras tibi respondebo come again to Morrow and I will Answer he would not take time with the Devil but had his Answer ready no sooner was he tempted but the Temptation was repelled for these expressions but he answered and said Jesus said unto him Then saith Jesus unto him shew the quickness and speediness of these returns that he answered presently forthwith Hence we have a third Direction in our resisting of Satan which is this Temptation are best answered when they are presently denyed and forthwith repelled The Direction is of great Importance 't is not for us to pass by a Temptation with Silence or to defer an Answer For these Reasons First The nature of Temptations as dangerous or infectious doth sufficiently inforce a necessity of their speedy removal Things of danger require a sudden stop If Poyson be taken into the Body we speedily labour to cast it up or to overcome it by Antidotes We labour to stay the spreading of a Gangreen presently Who thinks it fit to delay when Fire hath taken hold upon an House The very opportunity of help is in the speediness of the endeavour 'T is too late to bring Water when the House is consumed too late to apply a Remedy when the Disease hath conquered They that consider what a Temptation is will see no reason to move slowly in opposing Secondly Silence encourageth Satan 'T is not with him as 't is with Men 'T is the Policy of some to overlook their Petitioners and by silence to scare them from any further address but Satan hath more impudence than to be put out of countenance by delay and more active Malice than to be discouraged by silence nay it doth on the contrary imbolden him Modest requests are disheartned by Silence but such Motions which by their nature imply a disgrace and carry no reason for their Acceptance but what they expect to find in the consent of those to whom they are made if they be not presently refused they give encouragement to hope for entertainment An immodest request to a chast Matron if not forthwith expresly abominated encourageth to further attempts Sin being so great an affront to an holy Heart the Motion of it cannot be entertained with Silence but Satan is imboldned to expect consent in time and follows his advantage accordingly He usually flies at a valiant peremptory resistance but if the pulse of the Soul beat slowly upon the Motion he grounds his hope upon that and is animated to a further procedure Thirdly Our wills are apt to be inclined by delay Though grace have made straight our crooked natures yet we still carry such a sway to our former dispositions that a small thing having the advantage of our natural Bias and inclination makes us like a deceitful Bow turn to our old stand For the understanding and will of the Regenerate are but imperfectly good the faculties that should obey are unruly in such a case how dangerous may delays prove Who will suffer a seditious Incendiary in an Army formerly inclined to Mutiny Who will permit Leaven to remain in that Mass which he desires may not be leavened and not quickly remove it Who will neglect a spark upon dry Tinder that would not have it consumed and not instantly put it out If it was so great a mischief to Eve in Innocency as hath been said to delay her peremptory denial of how much greater hazard is it to us Delays are dangerous to a very Proverb and Silence may end in Consent Fourthly Silence is also some degree of consent 'T is strange to find a Man delaying an answer to Temptation and yet no way guilty of consenting In things that are to be opposed with care and hatred no Man can withhold his Hand without blame he that is not against Satan who is to be perpetually resisted is so far for him as he is not against him He that delays Justice which is due denies it The Judge in the Parable was called unjust not because he had devoured the Widows House but because he deferred to do her right He that hinders not evil when and as soon as he can doth command and approve it These are received Axioms amongst Men and have the same truth in them if applyed to resistance of Temptations And this may further appear by considering 1. The weakness of the will in the
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