necessity of yielding strengths and ammunitions will decay provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own hunger will break through their walls make avenues for conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much slatter and more weak and baffled but the inward man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. Jaâ—es and they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him and although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin he sees he hath a minde to it his refusalls are but saint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plaies with the objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know this by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his stayd Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shamefull spewings of their overtaken fellows riot then they do the shame and the reproch that such a man's strict conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every sinner shuns the company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome and as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their enemies which are sure to charge close put to flight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him so he did from Christ IV. Matt. ver 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will fly from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Souldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or miserie depend upon our being true and faithfull to our selves and oaths or otherwise nor is there more requir'd of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies conquest of us not to will captivity and servitude Yet as if in mere defiance of our vows and interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find in stead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former folâ—ies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that occasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats until they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joys of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard then to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodome if that will not judgements then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodome do attempt a violence and rape upon those very Angels but they really debauch the mercies and profane the judgements having blinded their own eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place I Sam. XVI 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor hear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be sav'd Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis II Thes. II. 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a ly that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness and that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be sav'd Blessed God! Is it so easie for such sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst interpose to hinder it and hide the possibilities of mercy from their eyes that they may never see them nor recover What can then become of those for whom God does contrive that they shall not escape when instead of those bowels that did make him swear he would not have the sinner die but would have him return and live he puts on so much indignation at such sinners as to take an order they shall not repent and take an order that they shall be damn'd And yet all this is onely to those men who being dull of hearing the suggestions of the Spirit and not willing to give entertainment to his holy motions grieve him so that they repell and drive him quite away and so by consequence onely make way for the Devil Whereas there are others that directly call him force him to them ravish and invade occasions to serve him Some there are that study how to disbelieve and with great labour and contrivance work out arguments and motives to
him to depart out of their coasts Lo here an equal enemy to Christ and all his Miracles that was indeed too hard for them The Senate of Hell had no project to keep out Religion like to this to make Religion thwart an Interest Rather no Christianity then lose an Earthly satisfaction by it Rather have the swine then Christ himself 4. But if he chance to fail in this Assault as by our Saviour he was beaten off he hath yet a Reserve in which he places his last strongest confidence with which he ventured to charge Christ when it is probable he knew He was the Son of God He takes him up into an high mountain and shews him all the Kingdomes of the earth in the twinkling of an eye and the glory of them and says All these things will I give thee He thought it was impossible for such a prospect not to make impression on the appetite raise some desire or stir one Covetous or Ambitious thought which if it could but doe he made no scruple then to clog the Gift with such conditions as that there All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me 'T is said indeed the Covetous man is an Idolater and here we see the God he does doe homage to and worship The Devil does require that those whom he gives wealth to now 't is he that gives it to the Covetous to all indeed that get it with injustice or with greediness he requires I say that these should pay all their Religion to Himself and the Ambitious in however high a place he sets them must fall down to him And truly these two dispositions can give worship to no other God but such an one as is Abaddon the Destroyer of Mankind For all the great Commotions of the world all those Convulsions that tear Provinces and Empires all Seditions and Rebellions with those armies of iniquities that attend them and that wage their designs which are upheld by legions of villanies as well as men all the Disturbances of States and Church are but attempts of Covetous and Ambitious spirits men that are unsatisfied with their condition and desire a change and care not how they compass it they can charge through seas of bloud and sin over the face of men and Conscience to get out of that condition which they therefore are not well content with because something they like better beckens their ambitious and their covetous desires Would you see what one of these will venture at When Christ our Saviour was to be betray'd when a Person of the Godhead was to be deliver'd up and crucified the Devil had no passion to imploy on that design so fit as the desire of getting money and when that desire was once entertain'd we see he enters really in person and possesses such a soul and when he is there he designs no farther but to warm and stir that passion 't is sufficient fruit of his possession he hath done enough in such an heart wherein he dwells if he but keep alive that desire of money for he knows that will make the man adventure upon any guilt for it made Judas undertake to betray Christ. And as for the other passion which the Devil did design the glories of his prospect to give fire to though he could not stir it in our Saviour yet he knew it vanquisht him himself when he was Angel What height is there which Ambition will not flie at since it made this Spirit aim at an equality with the Most High Heaven it self was not sufficient to content him while there was a God above him in it And since this affection peopled Hell with Devils 't is no wonder if it people Earth with Miseries and Vices 5. The remaining Trial with which Satan did assault our Saviour when he tempted him with Scripture and God's Promises and sought to ruine him with his own Priviledges with that also 6. His being a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets by which long ago he did destroy an Ahab in the I Kings XXII 22. But since by sad experience we know he ruin'd the best King purest Church and most flourishing State by the same stratageme But these with those other which S. Paul does call his wiles I must omit sufficient hath been said already to inforce the necessity of resisting which is the Duty and the next considerable Resist the Devil that is do not you consent to his Temptations for there is no more requir'd of us but this onely not to be willing to be taken and led captive by him For let him suggest incite assault and storm us no impression can be made upon us till we yield and till we give consent no hurt is done It is not here as in our other warrs In those no resolution can secure the victory but notwithstanding all resistence possible we may be vanquisht yea sometime men are overprest and die with conquering and the Victor onely gains a Monument is but buried in the heaps of his slain Trophies But in these warrs with the Devil whosoever is unwilling to be vanquisht never can be for he must first give consent to it and will the ruine for men do not sin against their wills Onely here we must distinguish betwixt Will and then Velleity and Woulding For let no man think when he commits deliberate iniquity with averseness and reluctancy of mind allows not what he does but does the evil that he would not what he hates that he does that this is not to be imputed to the Will that in this case he is not willing but here the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and yields through mere infirmity For on the contrary the Devil finds the flesh so strong in this case that with it alone he does assault the mind and breaks through its reluctancies and aversations bears down all its resolutions triumphs over all that does pretend to God or Vertue in him Where 't is thus let no man flatter or persuade himself he does what he would not when it is plain he does impetuously will the doing it Let him not think that he allows not but hates that which he does when it is certain in that moment that he does commit not to allow that which he does resolve and pitch upon and chuse to hate what with complacency he acts or to doe that unwillingly which he is wrought on by his own concupiscence to doe and by his inward incitations by the mutiny of his own affections which the Devil raises and when it is the mere height and prevalencie of his appetite that does make him doe it as it must be where there is reluctancy before he doe it his desires and affections there are evidently too strong for him or at last to hate the doing that which 't is his too much love to that makes him doe are all impossibilities the sâ—me things as to will
against the will desire against appetite But do but keep thy self sincerely and in truth from being willing and thou must be safe For God expects no more but that we should not voluntarily yield to our undoing He hath furnisht us with his own compleat armour for no farther uses of a warre but to encourage us to stand Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil and again Put ye on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand There is no need to doe more then this not to be willing and consent to fall for no man can be beaten down but he that will fall It were very easie for me to prescribe you how to fortifie against those Engines of the Devil's battery which I produc'd to you But that I may not stay upon particulars directing those whom he prevails upon through want of imployment to find out honest occasions not to be idle and here it is the most unhappy thing in the whole world for any man to be necessitated to be vicio as by his having nothing else to doe and because while the world accounts it a Pedantick thing to be brought up by rules and under discipline he cannot learn how to imploy himself to his advantage to pass by these I say the universal strength against this enemie is Faith Your adversary the Devil like a roaring Lion goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour whom resist steadfast in the Faith And that not onely as it frustrates all that he attempts by means of Infidelity but it also quenches all his fiery darts whatsoever bright Temptation he presents to draw us from our Duty or whatever fiery triall he makes use of to affright and martyr with For the man whose Faith does give him evidence and eye-sight of those blessed Promises eye hath not seen and gives substance present solid being to his after hopes and whose heart hath swallow'd down those happy expectations which have never entred in the heart of man to comprehend what is there that can tempt or fright him from his station To make all that which Satan gave the prospect of prevail on such a Soul the Kingdoms of the earth must out-vie God's Kingdome and their Gauds out-shine his Glory and the twinkling of an eye seem longer then Eternity for nothing less then these will serve his turn all these are in his expectations Or what can fright the man whose heart is set above the sphere of terrours who knows calamity how great soever can inflict but a more sudden and more glorious blessedness upon him and the most despiteful cruel usage can but persecute him into Heaven 'T is easie to demonstrate that a Faith and expectation of the things on earth built upon weaker grounds then any man may have for his belief of things above hath charg'd much greater hazards overcome more difficulties then the Devil does assault us with For sure none is so Scepticall but he will grant that we have firmer grounds to think there is another world in Heaven then Columbus if he were the first Discoverer had to think there was another Earth and that there are far richer hopes laid up there in that other world for those that do deny themselves the sinful profits and the jollities of this and force them from their inclinations then those Sea-men could expect who first adventur'd with him thither For they could not think to gain much for themselves but onely to take seisin of the Land if any such there were for others covetous cruelty cold get little else but onely richer graves and to lie buried in their yellow earth Nor are we assaulted in our voyage with such hazards as they knew they must encounter with the path of Vertue and the way to Heaven is not so beset with difficulties as theirs was when they must cut it out themselves through an unknown new world of Ocean where they could see nothing else but swelling gaping Death from an abysse of which they were but weakly guarded and remov'd few inches onely and as if the dangerousest shipwrecks were on shore they found a Land more savage and more monstrous then that Sea Yet all this they vanquisht for such slender hopes and upon so uncertain a belief A weak Faith therefore can doe mighty works greater then any that we stand in need of to encounter with our enemy It can remove these mountains too the golden ones that Covetousness and Ambition do cast up yea more it can remove the Devil also for if you resist him stedfast in the faith he flies which is the happy Issue and my last part Resist the Devil and he will flie from you And yet it cannot be deny'd but that sometimes when the messenger of Satan comes to buffet though S. Paul resist him with the strength of Prayer which when Moses manag'd he was able to prevail on God himself and the Lord articled with him that he might be let alone yet he could not beat off this assailant II Cor. XII 7 8 9. When God either for prevention as 't was there v. 7. or for exercising or illustrating of Graces or some other of his blessed ends gives a man up to the assaults of Satan he is often pleased to continue the temptation long but in that case he does never fail to send assistences and aids enough against it My grace is sufficient for thee saith he to S. Paul there And when he will have us tempted for his uses if we be not failing to our selves he does prevent our being overcome so that there is no danger on those Trials from their stay But yet it must not be deny'd but that the Devil does prevail sometimes by importunacy and by continuance of Temptation so that Resistence is not always a Repulse at least not such an one as to make him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him siding with a natural inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of invitation always pressing so that when a man hath struggled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart which strong inclinations busie Devils do lay siege to and so growing slack and careless he is presently surpris'd or else despairing that he shall be always able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardice that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very mischief which he would avoid merely for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither for 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance must reduce men to