Spirits are now groaning under Thirdly This Malice is the result of that Curse laid upon Satan Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity betwixt thee and the Woman between her Seed and thy Seed Which implies 1. a great enmity and some render it inimicitias implacabiles implacable enmities 2. A lasting enmity such as should continue as long as the Curse should last 3. That this should be his work and exercise to prosecute and be prosecuted with this enmity so that it shews the Devil 's whole mind and desire is in this Work and that he is whetted on by the opposing enmity which he meets withal it is the Work of his Curse of his Place of his Revenge and that wherein all the delight he is capable of is placed In that part of the Curse Dust shall be thy Meat 't is implyed if some interpret right that if Satan can be said to have any delight or ease in his Condition 't is in the eating of this Dust the exercise of this Enmity No wonder then if Christ speak of his desires and sollicitations with God to have a liberty and Commission for this Work Satan hath desired to have thee that he may winnow thee That this Curse relates not only to the Serpent who was the Instrument but also to Satan who was the Agent is agreed by all almost that it was not the Serpent alone but the Devil speaking by it is evinced from its speaking and reasoning and that the Curse reached further than a natural Enmity 'twixt a Serpent and a Man is as evident in that Christ is expresly held forth as giving the full accomplishment of this Curse against Satan 1 John 3. 8. The Devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil which is a clear Exposition and Paraphrasis of the Womans Seed bruising the Serpents head Fourthly I shall add to this some few Instances of Satan's Malice by which it will appear to be great First That Malice must needs be great which shews it self where there is such a load of anguish and horror that lies upon him he is now reserved in Chains of Darkness in Hell he is in Hell a place of Torment or which is all one Hell is in him he carries it about him in his Conscience which by God's decree binds him to his horror like a Chain 'T is scarce imaginable that he should have a thought free from the contemplation of his own misery to spend in a malicious pursuit of Man What can we think less of it than a desperate madness and revenge against God wherein he shews his rage against Heaven and hunts after our Blood as for a little Water to cool his Tongue and when he finds his hand too short to pull the Almighty out of his Throne he endeavours Panther-like to tear his Image in Man and to put Man created after his Image upon blaspheming and dishonouring his Maker Secondly That Malice must needs be great that seeks its own Fewel and provides or begs its own Occasions and those such as give no proper provocation to his anger Of this temper is his Malice he did thus with Job he begs the Commission calumniates Job upon unjust surmises presseth still for a further power to hurt him in so much that God expresly stints and bounds him which shews how boundless he would have been if left to his own will and gives him at last an open check Job 2. 3. wherein he lays open the malice of his heart in three things 1. His own pressing urgency Thou movedst me 2. His destructive Fury no less would serve than Job's utter destruction 3. Job's Innocency All this without cause thou movedst me to destroy him without cause Thirdly That Malice must needs be great that will pursue a small matter what small game will the Devil play rather than altogether sit out If he can but trouble or puzzle or affright yet that he will do rather than nothing if he can like an Addar in the Path but bite the Heel though his Head be bruised for it he will notwithstanding busie himself in it Fourthly That Malice must be great which will put it self forth where it knows it can prevail nothing but is certain of a disappointment Thus did Satan tempt Christ those Speeches if thou be the Son of God do not imply any doubt in Satan he knew what was prophesied of Christ and what had been declared from Heaven in testification of him so that he could not but be certain he was God and Man and yet what base unworthy temptations doth he lay before him as to fall down and worship him Was it that Satan thought to prevail against him No surely but such was his Malice that he would put an affront upon him though he knew he could not prevail against him Fifthly The Malice of wicked Men is an Argument of Satan's great Malice they have an antipathy against the Righteous as the Wolf against the Sheep and upon that very ground that they are called out of the World how great this fury is all Ages have testified This hath brought forth Discord Revilings Slanders Imprisonments spoiling of Goods Banishments Persecutions Tortures cruel Deaths as Burning Racking Tearing sawing asunder and what-ever the wit of Man could devise for a satisfaction to those implacable furious murtherous minds and yet all this is done to Men of the same Image and Lineage with themselves of the same Religion with themselves as to the main nay some time to Men of their own Kindred their own Flesh and Blood and all to those that would live peaceably in the Land What shall we say to these things How come Men to put on a savage Nature to act the part of Lions Leopards Tigars if not much worse The reason of all we have John 8. 54. Ye are of your Father the Devil he was a Murtherer from the beginning as also Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between her Seed and thy Seed So that all this shews what malice is in Satan's Heart who urgeth and provokes his Instruments to such bloody hatreds Hence who-ever were the Agents Rev. 2. 10. in imprisoning the Saints the Malice of Satan in stirring them up to it makes him become the Author of it Satan shall cast some of you into Prison CHAP. III. Of Satan's Power His Power as an Angel considered That he lost not that Power by his Fall His Power as a Devil Of his Commission The Extent of his Authority The Efficacy of his Power The Advantages which he hath for the management of it from the Number Order Place and Knowledge of Devils THat Satan's Power is Great is our next Enquiry Where First we will consider his Power as an Angel In Psalm 103. 20. Angels are said to excel in strength and in vers 21. as also Psal 148. 2. they are called God's Host which is more fully expressed 1 Kings 22.
did it will argue much for his Power if we can imagine as some do that they turned their Rods into real Serpents the Power is evident and there is this that favours that Opinion it is said They could not make Lice which seems to imply they really did the other things and it had been as easy to delude the Senses in the matter of Lice as in the Rods if it had been no more than a Delusion neither are some a-wanting to give a reason of such a Power viz. Serpents Lice c. being the Off-spring of Putrefaction by his dextrous application of the seminal Principles of things he might quickly produce them If we go lower and take up with the Opinion of those that think that they were neither meer Delusions nor yet true Serpents but real Bodies like Serpents though without life this will argue a very great Power Or if we suppose as some do that Satan took away the Rods and secretly conveyed Serpents in their stead or which is the lowest apprehension we can have that Pharaoh's sight was deceived The matter is still far from being contemptible for as much as we see the Spectators were not able to discern the Cheat. Thirdly The next Instance produceable for evidencing his Power is that of Apparitions It cannot be denyed but that the Fancy of melancholick or timerous Persons is fruitful enough to create a thousand Bugbears And also that the villany of some Persons hath been designedly imployed to deceive People with Mock-Apparitions of which abundance of Instances might be given from the knavery of the Papists discovered to the World beyond contradiction but all this will not conclude that there are no real Appearances of Spirit or Devils Such sad effects in all Ages there have been of these things that most Men will take it for an undenyable Truth Instead of others let the Apparition at Endor to Saul come to examination Some indeed will have us believe that all that was but a subtil Cheat managed by that Old Woman and that neither Samuel nor the Devil did appear but that the Woman in another Room by her self or with a Confederate gave the answer to Saul But whosoever shall read that Story and shall consider Saul's Bowing and Discourse and the Answers given must acknowledg that Saul thought at least he saw and spake with Samuel and indeed the whole Transaction is such that such a Cheat cannot be supposed Satisfying our selves then that there was an Apparition we must next enquire whether it was true Samuel or Satan it cannot be denyed but that many judg it was true Samuel but their Reasons are weak 1. That Proof from Ecclesiasticus 46. 23. is not Canonical with us 2. That he was called Samuel is of no force Scripture often gives names of things according to their appearances 3. That things future were foretold was but from conjecture in which Satan yet all things considered had good ground for his guessing 4. That the Name Jehovah is oft repeated signifies nothing the Devil is not so scarce of words Jesus I know saith that Spirit in the Acts. 5. That he reproved Sin in Saul is no more than what the Devil doth daily to afflicted Consciences in order to despair I must go then with those that believe this was Satan in Samuel's likeness 1. Because God refused to answer Saul by Prophets or Vrim And 't is too harsh to think he would send Samuel from the Dead and so answer him in an extraordinary way 2. This if it had been Samuel would have given too much countenance to Witchcraft contrary to that check to Ahaziah 2 King 1. 3. Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub 3. The prediction of Sauls Death though true for substance yet failed as to the exactness of time for the Battel was not fought the next day 4. The acknowledgment of the Witches Power Why hast thou disquieted me shews it could not be true Samuel the Power of Witchcraft not being able to reach Souls at rest with God 5. That Expression of Gods ascending out of the Earth is evidently suspicious The reality of Apparitions being thus established Satan's Power will be easily evinced from it To say nothing of the Bodies in which Spirits appear the haunting of Places and Persons and the other Effects done by such Appearances speak abundantly for it Fourthly The last Instance is of Possessions the reality of which can no way be questioned because the New Testament affords so much for it I shall only note some things as concerning this Head As First The multitudes of Men possessed scarce was there any thing in which Christ had more opportunities to shew his Authority than in casting out of Satan such Objects of Compassion he met with in every place Secondly The multitudes of Spirits in one Person is a consideration not to be passed by Thirdly These Persons were often strongly acted sometime with fierceness and rage Matth. 8. 28. some living without Cloaths and without House Luke 8. 27. some by an incredible strength breaking Chains and Fetters Mark 5. 3. Fourthly Some time the Possessed were sadly vexed and afflicted cast into the Fire and Water c. Fifthly Some were strengely influenced we read of one Acts 16. 16. that had a Spirit of Divination and told many things to come which we may suppose frequently came to pass else she could have brought no gain to her Master by South-saying Another we hear of whose Possession was with a Lunacy and had fits at certain times and seasons The Possessed Person with whom Mr. Rothwell discoursed within the memory of some living could play the Critick in the Hebrew Language Sixthly In some the Possession was so strong and so firmly seated that ordinary means and ways could not dispossess them This kind comes not out but by Prayer and Fasting Mat. 27. 21. which shews that all Possession was not of one kind and manner nor alike lyable to ejection To all these may be added Obsessions where the Devil afflicts the Bodies of Men disquiets them haunts them or strikes in with their melancholy temper and so annoys by hideous and black representations Thus was Saul vexed by an evil Spirit from the Lord which as most conceive was the Devil working in his melancholy Humor That the Devil should take possession of the Bodies of Men and thus act drive trouble and distress them so distort distend and rack their Members so seat himself in their Tongues and Minds that a Man cannot command his own Faculties and Powers but seems to be rather changed into the nature of a Devil than to retain any thing of a Man this shews a Power in him to be trembled at Satan's Power being thus explained and proved I shall next speak something of his Cruelty CHAP. VI. Of Satan's Cruelty Instances thereof in his dealing with wounded Spirits in ordinary Temptations of the
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
smelling without any taint of corruption 'T is irksome to repeat their Stories abundance of such stuff might be added out of their own Writings the design of all which is to prove to those that are so Prodigal of their Faith as to believe them that they only are the true Church and that by this note among others they may be known to be so But let us turn aside a little to observe Satans cunning in this pretence of Miracles let things be soberly weighed and we may see enough of the cheat This great boast is as Austin hath it resolved into one of these two either the figments of lying Men or the craft of deceitful Spirits As to the first of these 't is evident that a great many things that have been taken by the vulgar for mighty Wonders were nothing but the knaveries of Impostors who in this matter have used a threefold cunning First By meer jugling and Forgery in confederacies and private contrivances they have set upon the Stage Persons before instructed to act their parts or things aforehand prepared to pretend to be what they were not that others might seem to do what they did not and all to amaze those that know not the bottom of the matter Of this nature was Mahomets Dove and Bull who were privately trained up to that obedience and familiarity which they used to him The Pagan Priests were not altogether to seek in this peice of art Lucian tells us of one Alexander who nourished and tamed a Serpent and made the People of Pontus believe that it was the God Aesculapius and doubtless the Idol Priests improved their private artificial contrivances As of the movings of their Images as that of Venus made by Daedalus which by the means of Quicksilver inclosed could stir it self their eating and drinking as in the Story of Bel in the Apochryphal adjections to the Book of Daniel their responses and several other appearances as of the Paper Head of Adonis or Osiris which as Lucian reports comes swimming down the River every year from Aegypt to Byblos c. these and such like they improved as evidences of the Power Knowledg and reality of their Gods And though in the prevalency of Idolatry where there was no considerable party to oppose their cheats were not always discovered yet we have no reason to imagine that the Priests of those days were so honest that they were only deceived by the Devils craft and did not in a villanous design purposely indeavour the delusion of others If we had no other grounds for a just suspition in these cases the famous instances of the abuse of Paulina at the Temple of Isis in Rome in the Reign of the Emperour Tyberius by the procurement of Mondus who corrupted the Priest of Anubis to signify to her the love of their God and under that coverture gratified the Lust of Mondus mentioned by Josephus And that of Tyrannus Priest of Saturne in Alexandria who by the like pretence of the love of Saturne adulterated most of the fairest Dames of the City mentioned by Ruffinus These would sufficiently witness that the Priests of those times were apt enough to abuse the people at the rate we have been speaking of In Popery nothing hath been more ordinary who knows not the Story of the Holy Maid of Kent and the Boy of Bilson How common is it with them to play tricks with Women troubled with Hysterical Distempers and to pretend the casting out of Devils when they have only to deal with a natural Disease Not very many years since they practised upon a poor young Woman at Durbam and made great boasts of their Exorcisms Reliques and Holy-water against the Devil with whom they would have all believe she was possessed when the event discovered that her Fits were only the Fits of the Mother I my self and some others in this place have seen those Fits allayed by the Fume of Tobacco blown into her Mouth to the shame and apparent detection of that Artifice I might mention the Legerdemain of Antonius of Padua who made his Horse adore the Host for the conversion of an Heretick the finding of the Images of St. Paul and St. Dominick in a Church at Venice with this Inscription for Paul By this Man you may come to Christ and this for Dominick But by this Man you may do it easilier and the Honour put upon Garnet by his Image on Straw found at his Execution in all probability by him that made it and threw it down or by his Confederate but these are enough to shew the honesty of these kind of Men. Secondly They have also a cunning of ascribing effects to wrong causes and by that means they make those things Wonders that are none Mahomet called his Fits of Falling-Sickness Extasies or Trances Austin tells us the Heathens were notable at this the burning Lamp in the Temple of Venus though only the work of Art was interpreted to be a constant Miracle of that Deity The Image which in another Temple hung in the Air by ignorant Gazers was accounted a Wonder when indeed the Loadstone in the Roof and Pavement though unseen was the cause of it The Sydonians were confirmed in their constant annual Lamentations of Adoms by a mock Miracle of the redness of the River Adonis at one time of the year constantly they take it to be Blood when it is nothing else but the colouring of the Water by the dust of red Earth or Minium which the Winds constantly at that time of the year from Mount Libanus do drive into the Water Neither are the Papists out in this point I will only instance in that observation of Dr. Jenison to confirm the Doctrine and Practice of Invocation they take the advantage of Sovereign Baths and Waters and where they espy any Fountain good against the Stone or other Diseases presently there is the Statue or Image of some Saint or other erected by it by whose Vertue the Cure and Miracle must seem to be done or some Chappel is erected to this or that Saint to whom Prayers before and thanks after washing must be offered Thirdly Where the two former fail Men that devote themselves to this kind of Service imitate their Father the Devil and fall to plain lying and devised Fables Idolatry was mainly underpropped by fabulous Stories and no wonder when they esteemed it a pious fraud to nourish Piety towards the Gods in which case as Polibius saith though their Writers speak Monsters and write childish absurd and impossible things yet are they to be pardoned for their good intent Among the Papists what less can be expected when the same principle is entertained among them Canus and Ludovicus vives mentioned by him as also some few others do exceedingly blame that blind Piety of coining Lyes for Religion and feigning Histories for the credit of their opinions but while they with great freedom and ingenuity do tax
of preservation Thomas by his neglect slid into a greater unbelief than the rest of the Apostles David's unwatchful heart was easily smitten by the Intelligence which his Eyes brought him They that would plead their Innocency against Temptation had need to carry their arms and preservatives still with them This truth is a sufficient caution against the rash adventurousness of those who forwardly engage themselves in matters of Temptation As the former observation told us Temptations are not to be feared So this also tells they are not to be slighted The carriage of the Philistines when the Ark came among them is matter of Imitation to us We may tremble justly when we hear of their approach but our Hazard should be the Whet-Stone of our Courage and our danger should bring us to resolves of a more stout resistance that we may quit our selves like men The Apostle Gal. 6. 1. seems to imply when he tell those that were more severe and careless of others that they may also be tempted that the best of men do little know what a change a Temptation may make upon them a small Temptation may be too strong for them and may carry them to what they never thought of nay may break down the strongest of their resolves and snap their purposes as a Thread in a flame It did so with Peter who was quickly overcome by that which he had with so much confidence undervalued CHAP. III. The Third Circumstance the place of the Combat The advantage given to Temptations by Solitude THe Third Circumstance next to be considered is the place of this Combat the Wilderness To enquire what or where this Wilderness was is not only impertinent and useless as to any thing we can observe from it in reference to Temptation but also a matter of meer uncertain conjecture Only they that would understand it of a place more thinly peopled are expresly contradicted by Mark 1. 13. where 't is said he was with the Wild Beasts noting thereby a desolate and dangerous Solitude far remote from humane Society and comfort 'T is much more our concern to seek after the reasons of his choice of that place or rather among these many that are given to satisfy our selves with what may have the greatest appearance of Truth They that think Christ hereby designed to shew the uncertain changes and vicissitudes of outward things in this Life or to point at the future low Estate of his Church in the World that it should sojourn in a Wilderness or to direct those that have dedicated themselves to God to withdraw from the blandishments and allurements of the Earth with a great many more hints of Instruction and document of that kind they I say that offer no other seem not to attend to the true design of the choice of this place which notwithstanding is evidently discovered to have been done in order to the Temptation He was led into the Wilderness to be tempted The place then was subservient to the conflict as the proper Theater on which so great a Contest was to be acted And if we shall but mind what special consideration was to be had of such a place aâ— howling desolate Wilderness which may with ease pitch upon these following reasons First It pleased God to have an Eye to the glory of Christ's Conquest when in a single Combat he should so remarkably foil the Devil without any the least advantage on his part there being none that might be the least Support or Encouragement to him Secondly The condition of the place gave rise to the first Temptation For in that he hungred in a barren Wilderness it gave occasion to Satan to tempt him more strongly to turn Stones into Bread Thirdly In the choice of such a place God seems to offer Satan a special advantage in tempting which was the Solitude and danger of his present condition To omit the two former Considerations as not altogether so useful further than what I shall be engaged to speak to afterwards this last affords this Observation That Solitude affords a great advantage to Satan in the matter of Temptation This advantage ariseth from Solitude two ways First As it doth deprive us of help So great and many are the blessed helps arising from the Society and Communion of such as fear the Lord as Counsel Comfort Encouragement from their Graces Experiences and Prayers c. that the Woe pronounced to him that is alone is not groundless Christians in an holy Combination can do more work and so have a good reward for their Labour They can mutually help one another when they fall they can mutually heat and warm one another they can also strengthen one another's hands to prevail against an Adversary He then that is alone being deprived of these advantages lyeth more open to the stroke of Temptation Secondly Solitude increaseth Melancholy fills the Soul with dismal apprehensions and withal doth so spoil and alter the temper of it that it is not only ready to take any disadvantageous Impression but it doth also dispose it to leaven and sowre those very considerations that should support and to put a bad construction on things that never were intended for its hurt This may warn us to take heed of giving Satan so great an advantage against us as an unnecessary Solitude may do I know there are times and occasions that do justly require it to seek a solitary place for the privacy of Duty or for secret Lamentations as Jeremiah desired or to avoid the trouble and snare arising from our mixing with an Assembly of treacherous and wicked men This is no more than care and watchfulness But when these reasons urge not or some of like nature but either out of pettish discontent or a mopish reservedness we withdraw from those aids and comforts which are necessary for our support we do strengthen Satan's hands against us and weaken our own CHAP. IV. The Fourth Circumstance The end wherefore Christ was led to the Wilderness Holiness Imployment Priviledges Exempt not from Temptation Of Temptations that leave not Impressions of Sin behind them How Satan's Temptations are distinguished from the Lusts of our own Heart THe Fourth Circumstance was the End There was no other design in the main of Christs being led up and into the Wilderness but that he might be tempted In this two things seem to be matter of equal wonder First Why Christ would submit to be tempted For this many great and weighty reasons may be given As First Thus was Christ evidenced to be the second Adam and the Seed of the Woman His being tempted and in such a manner doth clearly satisfy us that he was true man and that in that nature he it was that was promised to break the Serpents head Secondly This was a fair preludium and earnest of that final conquest over Satan and the breaking down of his power Thirdly There was a more peculiar aim in God by these
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