{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61249/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61249","id":"gutenberg_61249","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61249","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Devil -- Early works to 1800","Temptation -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\nObvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations\nin hyphenation, spelling accents and punctuation remain unchanged.\n\nFootnotes are located at the end of the book.\n\nItalics are represented thus _italic_ and superscripts thus y^e.\n\n\n\n\n                 NICHOL\u2019S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.\n\n                            PURITAN PERIOD.\n\n\n                         With General Preface\n\n\n                       BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,\n  LINCOLN COLLEGE; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF GREENWICH.\n\n\n                          D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA;\n\n                                  OR,\n\n                  A TREATISE OF SATAN\u2019S TEMPTATIONS.\n\n\n                                  BY\n                         RICHARD GILPIN, M.D.\n\n\n\n\nCOUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.\n\n\n W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational\n Union, Edinburgh.\n\n JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.\n\n THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,\n Edinburgh.\n\n D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas\u2019s Episcopal Church,\n Edinburgh.\n\n WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church\n History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.\n\n ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presbyterian\n Church, Edinburgh.\n\n\n                            General Editor.\n                  REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBURGH.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Portrait of Richard Gilpin with handwritten note as\n               follows.\n\n _it was only my design to endeavour a more full discovery, though\n every way short of the thing itself, of Satan\u2019s Craft, because ye\n knowledge of this is so necessary, & withall others have done it more\n sparingly. Such as it is accept & improve for thy spiritual advantage\n for that was ye end of this undertaking, by him who desires that thy\n soul may prosper._\n\n  _Rich: Gilpin._]\n\n\n\n\n                          D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA;\n                                  OR,\n                  A TREATISE OF SATAN\u2019S TEMPTATIONS.\n\n\n                            IN THREE PARTS.\n\n\n                                  BY\n                         RICHARD GILPIN, M.D.,\n      VICAR OF GREYSTOKE, CUMBERLAND; LATER OF NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.\n\n\n                         EDITED, WITH MEMOIR,\n                BY THE REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART,\n                              LIVERPOOL.\n\n\n                       EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL.\n           LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN: G. HERBERT.\n\n                             M.DCCC.LXVII.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n  I. PREFATORY NOTE,                                                xiii\n\n  II. MEMOIR OF DR GILPIN,                                            xv\n\n  III. D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA.\n  To the Reader,                                                     3-6\n\n  CHAPTER I.\u2014The introduction to the text, from a consideration\n  of the desperate ruin of the souls of men\u2014The text opened,\n  expressing Satan\u2019s malice, power, cruelty, and diligence,         8-10\n\n  CHAPTER II.\u2014Of the malice of Satan in particular\u2014The grounds\n  and causes of that malice\u2014The greatness of it proved; and\n  instances of that greatness given,                               10-14\n\n  CHAPTER III.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s power\u2014His power as an angel considered\u2014That\n  he lost not that power by his fall\u2014His power\n  as a devil\u2014Of his commission\u2014The extent of his authority\u2014The\n  efficacy of his power\u2014The advantages which he hath for\n  the management of it, from the number, order, place, and\n  knowledge of devils,                                             14-20\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\u2014That Satan hath a great measure of knowledge proved, by\n  comparing him with the knowledge of Adam in innocency, and by his\n  titles\u2014Of his knowledge, natural, experimental, and accessory\u2014Of his\n  knowledge of our thoughts\u2014How far he doth not know them, and how\n  far he doth, and by what means\u2014Of his knowledge of things future,\n  and by what ways he doth conjecture them\u2014The advantages in point of\n  temptation that he hath by his knowledge,                        21-26\n\n  CHAPTER V.\u2014Instances of Satan\u2019s power\u2014Of witchcraft, what it\n  is\u2014Satan\u2019s power argued from thence\u2014Of wonder\u2014Whether\n  Satan can do miracles\u2014An account of what he can do that\n  way\u2014His power argued from apparitions and possessions,           27-35\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s cruelty\u2014Instances thereof in his dealing\n  with wounded spirits in ordinary temptations of the\n  wicked and godly, in persecutions, cruelties in worship\u2014His\n  cruel handling of his slaves,                                    35-44\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s diligence in several instances\u2014The\n  question about the being of spirits and devils handled\u2014The\n  Sadducees\u2019 opinion discovered\u2014The reality of spirits proved,     45-52\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s cunning and craft in the general\u2014Several\n  demonstrations proving Satan to be deceitful; and\n  of the reasons why he makes use of his cunning,                  52-58\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s deceits in particular\u2014What temptation\n  is\u2014Of tempting to sin\u2014His first general rule\u2014The consideration\n  of our condition\u2014His second rule\u2014Of providing\n  suitable temptations\u2014In what cases he tempts us to things\n  unsuitable to our inclinations\u2014His third rule\u2014The cautious\n  proposal of the temptation, and the several ways thereof\u2014His\n  fourth rule is to entice\u2014The way thereof in the general,\n  by bringing a darkness upon the mind through lust,              58-63\n\n  CHAPTER X.\u2014That Satan enticeth by our lust\u2014The several ways\n  by which he doth it\u2014Of the power and danger of the violence\n  of affections,                                                  63-68\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\u2014That lust darkens the mind\u2014Evidences thereof\u2014The\n  five ways by which it doth blind men: (1.) By preventing\n  the exercise of reason\u2014The ways of that prevention:\n  (1.) Secrecy in tempting; Satan\u2019s subtlety therein;\n  (2.) Surprisal; (3.) Gradual entanglements,                     68-72\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s perverting our reason\u2014His second\n  way of blinding\u2014The possibility of this, and the manner of\n  accomplishing it directly, several ways; and indirectly, by\n  the delights of sin, and by sophistical arguments; with an\n  account of them,                                                72-76\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s diverting our reason, being the third\n  way of blinding men\u2014His policies for diverting our thoughts\u2014His\n  attempts to that purpose in a more direct manner;\n  with the degrees of that procedure\u2014Of disturbing or distracting\n  our reason, which is Satan\u2019s fourth way of blinding\n  men\u2014His deceits therein\u2014Of precipitancy, Satan\u2019s fifth way\n  of blinding men\u2014Several deceits to bring men to that,           77-83\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s maintaining his possession\u2014His first\n  engine for that purpose is his finishing of sin, in its reiteration\n  and aggravation\u2014His policies herein,                            83-86\n\n  CHAPTER XV.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s keeping all in quiet, which is his second\n  engine for keeping his possession, and for that purpose his\n  keeping us from going to the light by several subtleties; also\n  of making us rise up against the light, and by what ways he\n  doth that,                                                      86-91\n\n  CHAPTER XVI.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s third grand policy for maintaining his\n  possession; which is his feigned departure: (1.) By ceasing\n  the prosecution of his design; and the cases in which he doth\n  it\u2014(2.) By abating the eagerness of pursuit; and how he doth\n  that\u2014(3.) By exchanging temptations; and his policy therein\u2014The\n  advantage he seeks by seeming to fly\u2014Of his fourth\n  stratagem for keeping his possession, which is his stopping\n  all ways of retreat; and how he doth that,                     91-100\n\n  CHAPTER XVII.\u2014Satan\u2019s deceits against religious services and\n  duties\u2014The grounds of his displeasure against religious duties\u2014His\n  first design against duties is to prevent them\u2014His\n  several subtleties for that end, by external hindrances, by\n  indispositions bodily and spiritual, by discouragements; the\n  ways thereof, by dislike; the grounds thereof, by sophistical\n  arguings\u2014His various pleas therein,                           100-118\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII.\u2014Satan\u2019s second grand design against duties is\n  to spoil them\u2014(1.) In the manner of undertaking, and how\n  he effects this\u2014(2.) In the act or performance, by distracting\n  outwardly and inwardly\u2014His various ways therein, by vitiating\n  the duty itself\u2014How he doth that\u2014(3.) After performance,\n  the manner thereof,                                           118-125\n\n\n  PART II.\n\n  CHAPTER I.\u2014That it is Satan\u2019s grand design to corrupt the minds\n  of men with error\u2014The evidences that it is so\u2014and the\n  reasons of his endeavours that way,                           127-140\n\n  CHAPTER II.\u2014Of the advantages which Satan hath, and useth, for\n  the introduction of error\u2014(1.) From his own power of\n  spiritual fascination\u2014That there is such a power, proved from\n  Scripture, and from the effects of it\u2014(2.) From our imperfection\n  of knowledge; the particulars thereof explained\u2014(3.)\n  From the bias of the mind\u2014What things do bias it, and the\n  power of them to sway the understanding\u2014(4.) From curiosity\n  (5.) From atheistical debauchery of conscience,               140-158\n\n  CHAPTER III.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s improving these advantages for error\u20141.\n  By deluding the understanding directly: which he doth,\n  (1.) By countenancing error from Scripture\u2014Of his cunning\n  therein\u2014(2.) By specious pretences of mysteries; and what\n  these are\u2014Of personal flatteries\u2014(3.) By affected expressions\u2014Reason\n  of their prevalency\u2014(4.) By bold assertions\u2014The\n  reasons of that policy\u2014(5.) By the excellency of the\n  persons appearing for it, either for gifts or holiness\u2014His\n  method of managing that design\u2014(6.) By pretended inspiration\u2014(7.)\n  By pretended miracles\u2014His cunning herein\u2014(8.)\n  By peace and prosperity in ways of error\u2014(9.) By lies against\n  truth, and the professors of it,                              158-189\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s second way of improving his advantages,\n  which is by working upon the understanding indirectly\n  by the affections\u2014This he doth, (1.) By a silent, insensible\n  introduction of error\u2014His method herein\u2014(2.) By entangling\n  the affections with the external garb of error, a gorgeous\n  dress, or affected plainness\u2014(3.) By fabulous imitations of\n  truth\u2014The design thereof\u2014(4.) By accommodating truth to a\n  compliance with parties that differ from it\u2014Various instances\n  hereof\u2014(5.) By driving to a contrary extreme\u2014(6.) By\n  bribing the affections with rewards, or forcing them by fears\u2014(7.)\n  By engaging pride and anger\u2014(8.) By adorning error\n  with the ornaments of truth,                                  190-208\n\n  CHAPTER V.\u2014Satan\u2019s attempts against the peace of God\u2019s children\n  evidenced\u2014(1.) From his malice\u2014(2.) From the concernment\n  of peace to God\u2019s children\u2014What these concerns\n  are, explained\u2014(3.) From the advantages which he hath\n  against them by disquieting their minds\u20141. Confusion of\n  mind\u20142. Unfitness for duty, and how\u20143. Rejection of\n  duty\u20144. A stumbling-block to others\u20145. Preparation of\n  the mind to entertain venomous impressions, and what they\n  are\u20146. Bodily weakness\u20147. Our miseries Satan\u2019s contentment,   209-218\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\u2014Of the various ways by which he hinders peace\u2014First\n  way, By discomposures of spirit\u2014These discomposures\n  explained: by shewing, (1.) What advantage he takes from\n  our natural temper, and what tempers give him this advantage\u2014(2.)\n  By what occasions he works upon our natural tempers\u2014(3.)\n  With what success\u2014[1.] These occasions suited\n  to natural inclinations, raise great disturbance\u2014[2.] They\n  have a tendency to spiritual trouble\u2014The thing proved, and\n  the manner how discovered\u2014[3.] These disturbances much\n  in his power\u2014General and particular considerations about\n  that power,                                                   219-237\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\u2014Of the second way to hinder peace\u2014Affrightments,\n  the general nature and burden of them, in several particulars\u2014What\n  are the ways by which he affrights\u20141. Atheistical\n  injections\u2014Observations of his proceeding in them\u20142.\n  Blasphemous thoughts\u20143. Affrightful suggestions of\n  reprobation\u2014Observations of his proceedings in that course\u20144.\n  Frightful motions to sin\u20145. Strong immediate impressions\n  of fear\u20146. Affrightful scrupulosity of conscience,            238-254\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\u2014Of his third way to hinder peace, by spiritual\n  sadness\u2014Wherein, 1. Of the degrees of spiritual sadness\u20142.\n  Of the frequency of this trouble, evidenced several ways\u2014Of\n  the difference betwixt God and Satan in wounding the\n  conscience\u20143. Of the solemn occasions of this trouble\u20144.\n  The engines by which Satan works spiritual sadness:\u2014(1.)\n  His sophistry\u2014His topics enumerated and explained\u2014[1.]\n  Scriptures perverted\u2014[2.] False notions\u2014[3.] Misrepresentations\n  of God\u2014[4.] Sins: how he aggravates them\u2014[5.]\n  Lessening their graces: how he doth that\u2014(2.) His second\n  engine, fear: how he forwards his design that way,            254-286\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\u2014Of his fourth way to hinder peace, by spiritual\n  distresses\u20141. The nature of these distresses\u2014The ingredients\n  and degrees of them\u2014Whether all distresses of soul\n  arise from melancholy\u20142. Satan\u2019s method in working\n  them; the occasions he makes use of; the arguments he\n  urgeth, the strengthening of them by fears\u20143. Their weight\n  and burden explained in several particulars\u2014Some concluding\n  cautions,                                                     287-311\n\n\n  PART III.\n\n  CHAPTER I.\u2014The first circumstance of the combat, the time\n  when it happened\u2014The two solemn seasons of temptation\u2014The\n  reasons thereof,                                              313-316\n\n  CHAPTER II.\u2014The second circumstance, Christ\u2019s being led by\n  the Spirit\u2014What hand the Spirit of God hath in temptations\u2014and\n  of running into temptations when not led into it,             316-321\n\n  CHAPTER III.\u2014The third circumstance, the place of the combat\u2014The\n  advantage given to temptations by solitude,                   321-322\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\u2014The fourth circumstance, the end wherefore\n  Christ was led to the wilderness\u2014Holiness, employment,\n  privileges, exempt not from temptation\u2014Of temptations\n  that leave not impressions of sin behind them\u2014How Satan\u2019s\n  temptations are distinguished from the lusts of our own\n  heart,                                                        322-328\n\n  CHAPTER V.\u2014Of Christ\u2019s fast, with the design thereof\u2014Of\n  Satan\u2019s tempting in an invisible way\u2014Of his incessant\n  importunities, and how he flies when resisted\u2014Of inward\n  temptations, with outward afflictions\u2014Several advantages\n  Satan hath by tempting in affliction,                         328-336\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\u2014That Christ\u2019s temptations were real, and not in\n  vision\u2014That temptation is Satan\u2019s employment, with the\n  evidences and instances thereof\u2014Of Satan\u2019s tempting visibly,\n  with the reasons thereof,                                     337-341\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\u2014The general view of these temptations\u2014Of\n  Satan\u2019s gradual proceeding in temptations\u2014Of reserving a\n  great temptation last\u2014What a great temptation is; in what\n  cases to be expected\u2014Of Satan\u2019s using a common road, in\n  comparing these temptations with the ordinary temptations\n  of men\u2014Of the advantage Satan takes of natural appetite,\n  sense, and affections,                                        341-346\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\u2014The rise of Christ\u2019s first temptation\u2014Of Satan\u2019s\n  suiting his temptations to the conditions of men\u2014Of tempting\n  men upon the plea of necessity\u2014The reasons and cheats\n  of that plea\u2014His pretences of friendship in tempting, with\n  the danger thereof,                                           346-350\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\u2014A particular consideration of the matter of the\n  first temptation, what Satan aimed at in bidding him turn\n  stones into bread\u2014Of Satan\u2019s moving us to things good or\n  lawful\u2014The end of such a motion\u2014How to know whether\n  such motions are from Satan or the Spirit\u2014What to do in\n  case they be from Satan\u2014Of his various aims in one temptation\u2014What\n  they are, and of his policy therein\u2014Of his artificial\n  contrivement of motions to make one thing infer\n  another,                                                      350-355\n\n  CHAPTER X.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s chief end in this temptation\u2014His skill\n  in making the means to sin plausible\u2014The reasons of that\n  policy, with his art therein\u2014Men\u2019s ignorance his advantage\u2014Of\n  the differences of things propounded to our use,              355-359\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\u2014Of the temptation to distrust upon the failure of\n  ordinary means\u2014Of the power of that temptation, and the\n  reasons of its prevalency\u2014Of unwarrantable attempts for\n  relief, with the causes thereof\u2014Of waiting on God, and\n  keeping his way\u2014In what cases a particular mercy is to be\n  expected,                                                     360-367\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s proceeding to infer distrust of sonship\n  from distrust of providences\u2014Instances of the probability\n  of such a design\u2014The reasons of this undertaking\u2014Of\n  Satan\u2019s endeavour to weaken the assurance and hopes of\n  God\u2019s children\u2014His general method to that purpose,            367-376\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\u2014The preparation to the second temptation\u2014Of\n  his nimbleness to catch advantages from our answers to\n  temptation\u2014That Satan carried Christ in the air\u2014Of his\n  power to molest the bodies of God\u2019s children\u2014How little\n  the supposed holiness of places privilegeth us from Satan\u2014Of\n  Satan\u2019s policy in seeming to countenance imaginary\n  defences\u2014Of his pretended flight in such cases, with the\n  reasons of that policy\u2014Of his improving a temptation to\n  serve several ends,                                           376-382\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\u2014That presumption was the chief design of this\n  temptation\u2014Of tempting to extremes\u2014What presumption is\u2014The\n  several ways of presuming\u2014The frequency of this\n  temptation, in the generality of professors, in hypocrites, in\n  despairing persons, and in the children of God\u2014The reasons\n  of Satan\u2019s industry in this design\u2014His deceitful contrivance\n  in bringing about this sin\u2014Preservatives against it,          382-390\n\n  CHAPTER XV.\u2014Self-murder, another of his designs in this\n  temptation\u2014How he tempts to self-murder directly, and\n  upon what advantage he urgeth it\u2014How he tempts to it\n  indirectly, and the ways thereof\u2014Of necessary preservatives\n  against this temptation,                                      390-396\n\n  CHAPTER XVI.\u2014Of pride, Satan\u2019s chief engine to bring on\n  presumption\u2014What pride is, and how it prepares men for sinning\n  presumptuously\u2014Considerations against pride\u2014The\n  remedies for its cure\u2014Pride kindled by a confidence of\n  privileges and popular applause,                              397-401\n\n  CHAPTER XVII.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s subtlety in urging that of Psalm xci.\n  11, 12, to Christ\u2014Of his imitating the Spirit of God in\n  various ways of teaching\u2014Of his pretending Scripture to\n  further temptation\u2014The reasons of such pretendings, and\n  the ends to which he doth abuse it\u2014Of Satan\u2019s unfaithfulness\n  in managing of Scripture\u2014Cautions against that deceit\u2014The\n  ways by which it may be discovered,                           402-415\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII.\u2014The manner of Satan\u2019s shewing the kingdoms\n  of the world\u2014Of Satan\u2019s preparations before the motion of\n  sin\u2014Of his confronting the Almighty by presumptuous imitation,\n  and in what cases he doth so\u2014Of his beautifying the\n  objects of a temptation, and how he doth it\u2014His way of\n  engaging the affections by the senses\u2014Of his seeming shyness, 415-423\n\n  CHAPTER XIX.\u2014Satan\u2019s end in tempting Christ to fall down and\n  worship him\u2014Of blasphemous injections\u2014What blasphemy\n  is\u2014The ways of Satan in that temptation, with the advantages\n  he takes therein, and the reason of urging blasphemies\n  upon men\u2014Consolations to such as are concerned in such\n  temptations\u2014Advice to such as are so afflicted,               424-430\n\n  CHAPTER XX.\u2014The nature of idolatry\u2014Satan\u2019s design to corrupt\n  the worship of God\u2014The evidences thereof, with the reasons\n  of such endeavours\u2014His general design of withdrawing the\n  hearts of men from God to his service\u2014The proof that this\n  is his design\u2014Upon whom he prevails\u2014That professions and\n  confidences are no evidences to the contrary\u2014His deceit of\n  propounding sin as a small matter\u2014The evidences of that\n  method, and the reason thereof,                               430-437\n\n  CHAPTER XXI.\u2014Of worldly pleasure\u2014Proofs that this is Satan\u2019s\n  great engine\u2014What there is in worldly delights that make\n  them so\u2014Counsels and cautions against that snare,             438-444\n\n  CHAPTER XXII.\u2014Of Christ\u2019s answer in the general\u2014That these\n  temptations were upon design for our instruction\u2014Of the\n  agreement betwixt Eph. vi. and Mat. iv.\u2014The first direction,\n  of courageous resolves in resisting temptations\u2014Its\n  consistency with some kind of fear\u2014The necessity of this\n  courage\u2014Wherein it consists; and that there is a courage in\n  mourning spirits,                                             445-450\n\n  CHAPTER XXIII.\u2014The second direction, that temptations are not\n  to be disputed\u2014The several ways of disputing a temptation\u2014In\n  what cases it is convenient and necessary to dispute\n  with Satan\u2014In what cases inconvenient, and the reasons\n  of it,                                                        451-458\n\n  CHAPTER XXIV.\u2014The third direction, of repelling a temptation\n  without delay\u2014The necessity of so doing\u2014What a speedy\n  denial doth contain,                                          459-462\n\n  CHAPTER XXV.\u2014The fourth direction, of repelling a temptation\n  by Scripture arguments\u2014Of several things implied in the\n  direction\u2014The necessity of answering by Scripture arguments\u2014The\n  excellency of the remedy\u2014How Scripture arguments\n  are to be managed,                                            462-469\n\n  CHAPTER XXVI.\u2014The fifth direction, of prayer, and of the seriousness\n  required of those that expect the advantage of prayer\u2014Of\n  God\u2019s hearing prayer while the temptation is continued\u2014Of\n  some that are troubled more, while they pray more,            470-471\n\n  INDICES, &c.,                                                 472-480\n\n\n\n\nPREFATORY NOTE.\n\n\nFew who know the fine old quarto \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_\u2019 of Dr Gilpin\nwill dispute its right to a place of honour in the Series of later\nPuritan Divines. To those who have not hitherto heard,\u2014or only heard\nof it,\u2014we commend it with all confidence and urgency as in various\nrespects a remarkable book by a remarkable man. It will be found\u2014as\nan early writer says of another\u2014\u2018_matter-full_,\u2019 and nevertheless\nsuggestive rather than exhaustive\u2014that is, you have many rich lodes\nof the ore of thought opened, but many others indicated, not worked;\nclear and keen of insight into the deepest places of the deepest\nthings discussed; wide in its out-look, yet concentrated in its\nin-look; sagacious and wise in its general conclusions, and passionate\nas compassionate in its warnings, remonstrances, and counsels; full\nof faith in all \u2018written\u2019 in The Word, and pathetically credulous\nin accepting testimony when a given fact (alleged) is fitted to\nbarb an appeal; curious and quaint in its lore; intense and anxious\nin its trackings of sin without and within; pre-Raphaelite in the\nvivid fidelity of its portrayals of satanic guiles, and guises\nthat are always disguises; and above all, tenderly _experimental_\nin its consolation to the tried and troubled. The third part is an\nexposition of the Temptation of our Lord, which may bear comparison for\nthoroughness and power with any extant.\n\nFor our Memoir of Dr Gilpin we have had literally to do everything,\ninasmuch as next to nothing has thus far been published concerning\nhim\u2014not even his birthplace, or birth or death dates known. If still we\nfeel the result of our \u2018labour of love\u2019 in prosecuting the necessary\nresearches, to be very inadequate, it is gratifying that we have\nsecured so much as we have done.\n\nAs in the preparation of former Memoirs, our visits and investigations\nhave brought us much pleasant intercourse and correspondence with\ndescendants, representatives, and reverers of the old Worthy. Family\npapers of the most private nature have been unreservedly confided to\nus\u2014as duly acknowledged in each place where referred to or used; and\naltogether the most ungrudging help has been rendered. The various\nfriends mentioned in the foot-notes of the Memoir will be so good as\naccept this further general acknowledgment.\n\nIt only remains to state that the present volume has been edited on\nthe same principle with Sibbes and Brooks. The text is given with\nscrupulous integrity; references and quotations are traced, and less\nknown names and dates annotated; every reference or quotation of\nScripture verified and filled in; and copious indices are subjoined;\nthe two last the more important, that Dr Gilpin himself seems to have\nquoted Scripture from memory, and furnished no \u2018table\u2019 or index beyond\nthe heading of the several chapters as \u2018contents.\u2019\n\nMay this revised treatise be used at this later day as in the past, to\nhelp in the great warfare against the Adversary.\n\n  ALEXANDER B. GROSART.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u2042 It has not been deemed needful to give a list of such slight\n _errata_ as have come under our eye in preparing the indices; but\n mark, with reference to the \u2018Note,\u2019 page 2, that for \u2018Dr\u2019 there is a\n misprint of \u2018Mr,\u2019 and that \u2018deficiency\u2019 is spelled with an \u2018i\u2019 for an\n \u2018e.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n\n\n\nMEMOIR OF THE REV. RICHARD GILPIN, M.D.\n\n\nIn pursuing our investigations for our Memoir of RICHARD SIBBES, we\nfound and noted, that his name\u2014in every one of its odd variations of\nspelling, numerous as those of Shakespeare and Raleigh\u2014had quite died\nout at once of his native county and country, being traceable nowhere\nfor fully a century of years\u2014the stream which rose at Cony-Weston,\nNorfolk, in 1524, lapsing in a \u2018Richard Sibbes, clerk, rector of\nGedding, aged 93, February 2, 1737;\u2019 and the blood thenceforward\nflowing in the female line.[1]\n\nVery different is it with the name of GILPIN, now before us.\nFrom family-muniments and genealogies intrusted to us by various\nrepresentatives, of nearer and remoter kin, it were easy to go back\nmany generations before the earliest-noticed SIBBES; while at the\npresent day, in nearly all gradations of circumstance, at home and\nabroad\u2014from the original Cumberland and Westmoreland, to \u2018the gray\nmetropolis of the North:\u2019 from the Castle of Scaleby, to \u2018huts, where\npoor men lie;\u2019 and from Wyoming of Pennsylvania to Acadie of Evangeline\nand \u2018distant Ind\u2019\u2014GILPINS, descending from our Worthy, and proud of the\ndescent\u2014sustain the ancient renown of goodness and brain-power. As I\nsit down to put my collections into shape, I am called to place therein\nthe statesman-like Speech on a great public question of our age, of\nCHARLES GILPIN, in the House of Commons\u2014words destined to re-echo\nagain and again, and determine legislation\u2014so grave, wise, patriotic,\nChristian are they; and now the Libraries are being besieged for the\n\u2018New America\u2019 of William Hepworth Dixon, wherein I was gladdened with\na splendid, yet penetrative and measured, eulogy of the Founder of\nColorado, WILLIAM GILPIN;[2] both, as I am informed, as do nearly all\nof the name\u2014in this resembling the Rogerses of the United States, who\nall claim descent from John Rogers, proto-martyr of England\u2014counting\nfrom Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the North, the venerable and holy\nSt Bernard of Protestantism; and so, as we shall see, from our Richard.\n\nI place in an Appendix[3] such genealogical-antiquarian details as some\nreaders may look for in a Memoir of a Gilpin; and summarise here that\nthe author of \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_\u2019 was sprung of a race such as old\nDan Chaucer would have cited in teaching \u2018_who is worthy to be called\ngentill_\u2019 as we may judge by a few of his golden lines:\u2014\n\n    \u2018The first stocke was full of rightwisnes,\n    Trewe of his worde, sober, pitous, and free.\n    Clene of his goste; and loved besinesse,\n    Against the vice of slouth, in honeste:\n    And but his heire love vertue as did he,\n    He is not gentill, though he rich seme,\n    All weare he miter, crowne, or diademe.\u2019[4]\n\nTurning now to DR RICHARD GILPIN\u2014whose remarkable book is in the\npresent volume faithfully reprinted; he was grandson of Richard, a\nyounger brother of the illustrious Bernard, his father being an Isaac\nGilpin. We get a glimpse of both grandfather and father in the county\nHistory as follows:\u2014\u2018In a small manuscript by one Isaac Gilpin,\u2014whose\nfather [Richard Gilpin, _as before_] had been steward of several manors\nwithin the barony of Kendal, and died about the year 1630, at the age\nof 92 years,\u2014he says he had heard of his father, and observed the same\nhimself, that by general custom within the said barony, if a woman\nhath an estate, and married, hereby the estate is so far vested in the\nhusband, that he may sell it in his life-time; but if in his life-time\nhe doth not alter the property, then it shall continue to her and her\nheirs.\u2019[5] This little record takes us to \u2018the barony of Kendal,\u2019\nthe \u2018Land\u2019 of Bernard Gilpin; and thither accordingly, we turned our\nsearch. There was a vague traditionary understanding that our Richard\nGilpin was born, as of the same family, so in the same region of\n\u2018Kentmere;\u2019 but nothing definite had hitherto been known. The Kentmere\n\u2018Registers\u2019 do not commence until A.D. 1700; and thus we were baffled\nthere. But Kentmere being a chapelry in the old Parish of Kendal, a\nhope was indulged that in the parent-parish the wished-for facts should\nbe discovered; nor were we disappointed, for in the Baptism-Register,\nunder date \u2018October 23, 1625,\u2019 there is this entry:\u2014\n\n  \u2018Richard, son of Isaac Gilpin, of Strickland Kettle,\u2019\n\nwhich is our Worthy, as after-dates will shew.[6] He might be born a\nweek more or less previously, according to the then \u2018use and wont\u2019\nof infant baptism. The same Register furnishes another earlier\nentry, which\u2014if we are correct in surmising that the Isaac Gilpin of\nStrickland Kettle in 1625, was the same with the Isaac of it\u2014informs us\nRichard was a younger son:\u2014\n\n  \u20181623, May 3, Henry, y^e soun of Mr Isaacke Gilpin of Helsington.\u2019\n\nElsewhere he is named \u2018of Gilthroton, co. Westmoreland;\u2019 and seems to\nhave been the same who was clerk to the Standing Committee of county\nDurham in 1645.[7] That Isaac Gilpin was \u2018steward of _several_ manors\u2019\nprobably covers the different local designations. There are so many\nGilpins, and so many of the same Christian name, that it is hard to\ndecide on given personalities; but, after considerable comparison\nand sifting, such appears to us to be the parentage paternally of Dr\nGilpin. Maternally I have come on nothing; for an Elizabeth Gilpin,\nwidow of Isaac Gilpin, merchant, Newcastle, though of the same\nstock, was not his mother. This \u2018widow\u2019 was buried in All Saints,\n7th November, 1694.[8] Archdeacon Cooper, of Kendal, in transmitting\nthese data, remarks: \u2018The mode of writing, and the insertion of _Mr_,\nindicates a person of some importance.\u2019 But with reference to \u2018Mr,\u2019 I\nsuspect it is rather accidental, as it is inserted in the one, and left\nout in the other; and moreover, is frequently omitted when, from other\nsources, we know the family was of importance. Little Richard must have\nbeen just beginning to toddle about when his venerable grandfather\u2019s\nsnow-white head [\u2018aged 92\u2019] was laid in the old Church-yard. One\ndelights to picture the aged Simeon, before his serene departure,\n\u2018blessing\u2019 by prayer his dear little grandchild, after the manner of\nsuch ancient Puritans as were the Gilpins in every branch.\n\nStrickland-Ketel, not Kettle, as in the Register and vulgarly,[9]\u2014now\nsettled to have been the birth-place of Dr Gilpin,\u2014was a most fitting\nnest for one destined to serve the master-Shepherd so well. It is\nan English Bethlehem\u2014a rich, kine-fragrant, pleasant, breezy tract\nof pasture-land, sloping from the west down to the river Kent, its\neastern boundary, which river, issuing out of a fair \u2018mere,\u2019 or lake,\ngives its name to Kent_mere_ Hall, the seat of the elder house of the\nGilpins. The hamlet of Ketel itself is on the road from Kendal to the\nFerry on Windermere; and thus partakes of the glory of Wordsworth\u2019s\npoetry, as of Scott\u2019s, who in Rokeby celebrates a local incident of the\nCromwellian time.[10] It is somewhat noticeable that within the space\nof an ordinarily-sized farm should have been born BERNARD GILPIN and\nHENRY AIRAY,[11] and later, Richard Gilpin.\n\nOf the childhood of our Richard, we can tell nothing directly. But\nwith the famous \u2018School\u2019 founded by his honoured ancestor available,\nwe are safe in assuming that he entered it. It is of this School that\nthe later biographer of Bernard Gilpin,\u2014himself a Gilpin,\u2014thus writes:\n\u2018The effects of his endowment were very quickly seen. His school was no\nsooner opened than it began to flourish, and to afford the agreeable\nprospect of a succeeding generation rising above the ignorance and\nerrors of their forefathers.\u2019 ... \u2018That such might be its effects,\nno care on his part was wanting. He not only placed able masters in\nhis school, whom he procured from Oxford, but he likewise constantly\ninspected it himself.\u2019[12] The saintly Apostle was long gone to his\nrest before the advent of Master Richard; but as bearing the name, and\nbeing of the blood of the Founder, he could not fail to be welcomed\nto all its privileges. The more\u2019s the pity that no memorial seems to\nhave been kept of the scholars of this celebrated Institution. Before\nproceeding to Houghton, he was probably initiated into learning at the\nnearer Kendal, then all astir with the enterprise of the Flemings. So I\ngather from family communications made to me; and thus we have to think\nof the \u2018little lad\u2019 trotting down the quiet rural roads among the sunny\nhills, much as another Richard earlier, from Packenham to Thurston,[13]\n\n               ... \u2018with his satchel\n    And shining morning face,\u2019\n\n_not_, we may be sure,\n\n               ... \u2018creeping like snail\n    Unwillingly to school.\u2019[14]\n\nThere is a tradition,\u2014reported by various descendants,\u2014that our\nGilpin went from \u2018School\u2019 to Queen\u2019s College, Oxford. This, it will\nbe remembered, was Bernard Gilpin\u2019s own College, and whither he sent\nhis favourite scholars, as Airay, Carleton, Ironside, and others. So\nthat if Richard went to Oxford at all, Queen\u2019s would most naturally\nbe selected. No mention of him, however, occurs in any of the College\nRegisters. Therefore he cannot at any rate have graduated.[15] I place\nin Appendix incidental valuable _data_ concerning other related Gilpins\ngleaned in Oxford.[16]\n\nIn lack of the facts of the case, it is impossible to explain why one\nso well-born and well-introduced did not, apparently, follow out a\nfull University career. That the circumstances of his own Family and\nkindred were adequate thereto\u2014apart from the Gilpin \u2018endowments,\u2019 which\nwere open to him specially\u2014and that they were of the right stamp to\nappreciate a sound, liberal education, is certain from numerous notices\nof the house that occur in old records.[17]\n\nAnother floating tradition,\u2014also brought before me by descendants, is,\nthat our Gilpin studied at the University of Glasgow; which so far\nreceives confirmation from the statement of his bosom-friend Alderman\nBarnes of Newcastle\u2014of whose MS. \u2018Memoirs\u2019 I have already spoken\u2014that\n\u2018he was educated in Scotland;\u2019 but neither there does his name\noccur.[18]\n\nEqually uncertain is it,\u2014advancing further,\u2014when or by whom Dr\nGilpin was \u2018licensed\u2019 or \u2018ordained\u2019 as a Preacher of the Gospel or\nClergyman. Barnes again says that he \u2018administered the Lord\u2019s Supper\nto a small congregation in Durham;\u2019[19] and Calamy, that \u2018he had been\n[_i.e._, before Greystoke] a Preacher in Lambeth, at the Savoy\u2014where\nhe was assistant to Dr Wilkins\u2014and at Durham.\u2019[20] Of all of these,\nthe memorial has perished. Neither under \u2018Lambeth,\u2019 nor \u2018Savoy\u2019,\nnor \u2018Wilkins\u2019\u2014afterwards Bishop of Chester[21]\u2014nor \u2018Gilpin,\u2019 does\nNewcourt\u2019s _Repertorium_[22] mention him; nor, after considerable\ninvestigation in each place, has any trace of him been found beyond the\nabove statements. So that his presentation to the Living of Greystoke\nin Cumberland is really the first definite fact we have, after his\nnow ascertained birth-place, baptism-date, and family connexion.\nThe Rector of Greystoke had been \u2018sequestered\u2019[23] by Sir Arthur\nHaselrigge and the Parliamentary Commissioners for the Propagation of\nthe Gospel in the four northern counties; which sentence having been\nappealed against, was confirmed by the Committee for (as they were\ncalled) Plundered Ministers. The Rector was William Moreland, M.A.,\n\u2018bred,\u2019 according to Walker of the \u2018Sufferings,\u2019 folio, \u2018at Jesus\nCollege, Cambridge.\u2019[24] This \u2018ejection\u2019 took place in 1649-50. He was\nsucceeded by \u2018one West, who died in about two years\u2019 time.\u2019[25] Such\nis all Walker says of West; but from another overlooked authority, we\nlearn a little more of him. In the \u2018Postscript\u2019 concerning \u2018Mr John\nNoble,\u2019 added to Audland\u2019s funeral sermon on that notable man, it is\nsaid, after mentioning the \u2018laying aside\u2019 of Mr Moreland, \u2018certain\nCommissioners appointed others, in his room, to supply the Parish, when\nJohn Noble was little turned of twenty years of age;\u2019 and then, \u2018In\nthe year 1650, Mr West was sent, a zealous Preacher, and one mighty in\nprayer, but sickly; and he soon died of a consumption. His doctrine\nbeing exemplified in his own life, was very effectual on many in that\nParish, and particularly on John Noble, who received lively convictions\nof Divine truth and the world to come, and so began earnestly to\ninquire about the life and power of godliness.\u2019[26] Gilpin immediately\nsucceeded Mr West, and thus must have entered on his duties in 1652 or\n1653, when he was in his twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth year.\n\nWhat influence procured our Worthy the \u2018presentation\u2019 to this\n(comparatively) rich benefice,\u2014for it was then worth \u00a3300 per annum,\nnow nearly trebled, being from \u00a3700 to \u00a3800, we do not know; but among\nthe neighbouring gentry there were intermarriages with the Gilpins,\n_e.g._, the Laytons and Whartons\u2014the former the ancient owners of\nDalemain in Dacre, the next parish to Greystoke. The Living was\nheld by the family of Arundel\u2014with a branch of whom it remains\u2014but\nwas subject no doubt to the Commissioners of Parliament during the\nCommonwealth.\n\nWe have Richard Gilpin, then in 1652-53 installed as the \u2018parish\npriest\u2019 of Greystoke; and save him of Bemerton, none ever brought a\nfiner spirit, or a more entire consecration, or a more \u2018ingenuous\u2019\nactivity, to the service of the one great Master.\n\nVisiting Greystoke recently, I found it a quaint-visaged, gray,\nlong, low-roofed church, venerable and time-stained still, though\n\u2018restored\u2019\u2014tenderly\u2014in 1848. It is dedicated to St Andrew. It nestles\nin a \u2018bit\u2019 of woodland such as\u2014flushed with autumnal tints of green\nand gold equal to the glories of a New England Indian summer among\nthe maples and elms\u2014would have burdened and kindled the eyes of a\nRuysdael or Gainsborough, aye and until the \u2018studies\u2019 were transferred\nto imperishable canvas; and the whole surrounding district, sweet,\nsoft, and tranquil enough for the Valley of Rip Van Winkle\u2019s long\ndreamless sleep\u2014much more so indeed than Irving\u2019s own, behind the\nshaggy bluffs of the Hudson. It is a genuinely English \u2018parish.\u2019 When\nGilpin came to it, the \u2018_common people_\u2019 were intelligent and godly\nafter the antique type of the mid-Reformation period, having a spice\nof sturdy originality of character and speech that is not altogether\ngone even now. For \u2018leisure hours,\u2019 if the cultured Rector wished it,\nthere were in the country Seats\u2014embracing ducal Castle and historic\nfamily mansion\u2014men and \u2018faire ladyes\u2019 of rare force and worth. There\nare \u2018Sunny Memories\u2019 still\u2014treasured in dim old manuscripts\u2014of the\nfull \u2018gatherings\u2019 from far and near, from hall and hut, from plain\nand fell, of the \u2018gentle and simple\u2019 over a wide area\u2014to hang on the\nlips of the \u2018good Parson,\u2019\u2014as everywhere he came to be named. We have\na fine \u2018testimony\u2019 to the integrity and devotedness of the Rector in\nthe \u2018Postscript\u2019 of John Noble\u2019s Funeral Sermon, previously quoted:\n\u2018Graistock parish was large, had a fair glebe and liberal revenue. It\nhad four chapels: the nearest three miles distant from the Church. Mr\nGilpin provided worthy, preaching ministers for those, and allowed\ngenerously for their support; himself residing at Graistock, where he\nhad a society of communicants prepared by the foregoing efficacy of the\nword on their minds and hearts, and manifested in a new life,\u2019 (page\n41.)\n\nAltogether Greystoke could not be other than a most congenial portion\nof the great \u2018Vineyard\u2019 for one like RICHARD GILPIN, who breathed the\nvery spirit of saintly GEORGE HERBERT, and had little taste for the\ncontroversies in which some of his contemporaries were engaged.\n\nNot very long after his settlement at Greystoke, viz., in 1654-5, a\nsad disaster befell the parent or \u2018Kentmere\u2019 house of the Gilpins,\nspringing out of the \u2018confusions\u2019 of the Commonwealth. I shall let\nthe good Prebendary tell it,\u2014preliminary remarks and all, from the\nmanuscript already quoted,\u2014reserving comment: \u2018In the year 1655, says\nhe, \u2018Cromwell dissolved his refractory parliament, and the members of\nthe House retiring to their several counties, spread everywhere such\nnew matter of discontent that measures were no longer observed. Men\nwere levied in many places against the usurper, and a general rising\nwas expected. But Cromwell, who had his eyes in all places, soon\ndispersed every insurrection as it made its appearance. It was at that\ntime he sent his major-generals throughout the kingdom to punish with\nfines and proscriptions all delinquents. Among the families ruined by\nthe severity of these military magistrates was Mr Gilpin of Kentmere\nHall, near Kendal, in Westmoreland. He was the head of the family,\nand lived respectably on an estate which had been in the hands of\nhis ancestors from the days of King John. _It seems probable he had\ntaken an active part against Cromwell in the kings life-time_; but his\naffairs being composed, _he lived quietly_ till these new disturbances\nbroke out on Cromwell\u2019s violent measures with the parliament. _Having\njoined an unsuccessful insurrection_, he became a marked man, and was\nobliged to provide for his safety as he could. To avoid a sequestration\nhe gave up his estate in a kind of trust-mortgage to a friend, and went\nabroad. There he died; but in a time of quiet, his heir not being able\nto get hold of the proper deeds to recover the estate, it was totally\nlost to the family. _In the meantime_ Dr Gilpin _lived quietly at\nGreystoke_, concerning himself only with his own parish, and lamenting\nthose public evils, which he could not remove.\u2019[27] One can smile at\nthis time of day at the name \u2018Usurper\u2019 applied to England\u2019s mighty\nProtector; can understand the inevitable royalism of a dignitary of\nthe Church, that holds for \u2018the king\u2019 as against \u2018the kingdom,\u2019 can\nleave the admissions of former freedom to \u2018live quietly,\u2019 and of an\nactive part \u2018against Cromwell,\u2019 to justify any enforced flight, without\neither refuting allegations or exposing prejudices. But as matter\nof fact, while Dr Gilpin, in common with many of his Presbyterian\nbrethren, condemned the execution of Charles, and while the shadow\nthat fell on Kentmere doubtless darkened the rectory of Greystoke, he\nyet unreservedly accepted the government of Cromwell, and in every way\nsought to carry out the measures devised by the Parliament. Moreover,\nfar from \u2018_living quietly at Greystoke_,\u2019 and \u2018_concerning himself only\nwith his own parish_,\u2019 it is the very opposite of the facts. Instead of\nretiring in the timid, nerveless fashion suggested, he took a foremost\npart in organising that modification of Church government which the\nabolition of Episcopacy demanded. The evidence of this, spite of the\nwreck and loss of contemporary \u2018records,\u2019 is abundant; and it is the\nnext landmark in the Life we are telling.\n\nIt needeth not that in a necessarily brief Memoir such as this we\nshould enter on the _merits_ of the national change of Church \u2018Polity\u2019\nwhich gave supremacy for the time to Presbytery over Prelacy. The\nmaterials for judgment lie in fulness in every worthy Ecclesiastical\nHistory of England; and the whole story has just been re-written with\nfine candour and attractiveness by Mr Stoughton.[28] Presbyterianism\nin England during the Commonwealth can hold its own,\u2014lustrous as it is\nwith the names of Edmund Calamy and Bates and Manton, Richard Baxter\nand William Jenkyn and Thomas Watson, Samuel Clark and Thomas Wilson of\nMaidstone, and Thomas Hall of King\u2019s Norton,\u2014selecting a few, urban and\nrural, almost at random.\n\nSuffice it to recall that, outside of the more ambitious organisation\nof London,\u2014whose unpublished \u2018Memorial\u2019 lies all but unknown in Sion\nCollege Library,[29]\u2014there were various voluntary Associations which\ntook a semi-Presbyterian mould, in the counties of Chester, Cumberland,\nWestmoreland, Dorset, Wilts, Worcestershire, and others. These\nAssociations embraced the \u2018clergymen,\u2019 and \u2018ministers\u2019 or \u2018pastors,\u2019\nand laymen belonging to the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, and\nthe Independents, and sought to combine the presidency of the first\nwith the union and co-operation of the second, and the freedom\nof the third; in short, a federated rather than organic oneness.\nSubordinating everything else, was an intense yearning after nearness\nto all who loved the one Lord Jesus, and heroic as devout endeavours\nfor \u2018discipline,\u2019 so as to vitalise and Christianise \u2018the _masses_.\u2019\nIt is pathetic to read of the days and nights of these good men\u2019s\nFasting and Prayer \u2018unto the breaking of the light,\u2019 for one another\u2019s\nParishes and Charges. Their ideal was lofty, their own practice\nbeautiful, their success marked in changing the face of erewhile\ngodless and heathen-dark communities. What RICHARD BAXTER was in\nWorcestershire, RICHARD GILPIN was in Cumberland and Westmoreland; and\nas the author of \u2018The Saint\u2019s Everlasting Rest\u2019 was chosen to draw\nup the \u2018Agreement\u2019 for his county, so the author of \u2018_D\u00e6monologia\nSacra_\u2019 was selected to execute the same office for Cumberland and\nWestmoreland. The \u2018Agreement,\u2019\u2014of which the title-page will be found in\nthe list at the close of our Memoir, must be studied by all who would\nmaster the problems of the period. It is comprehensive, without being\ngeneral or vague; decisive in dogma, but not uncharitable; high in\naim, but most practical; earnest, but not fanatic; stern to offences,\nbut hopeful and tender toward offenders; richly scriptural, but also,\nand because of it, most human, all a-glow with wide sympathies, and\nunutterably wistful in its appeals for oblivion on all lesser matters,\nso as to set a firm front to the evils and passions, the divisions and\nheart-burnings, the rivalries and recriminations, of the time. The\nwhole is perfumed, so to speak, with prayer. If it was a Utopia, it was\na grander and more celestial one than ever More or Bacon imagined; nor\nwhile it lasted was it a mere paper Agreement. For years through all\nthe Counties enumerated the \u2018good men and true\u2019 made their \u2018gatherings\u2019\nso many centres of light and love; and their Parishes were as spiritual\nGoshens amid the national formalism and barrenness.\n\nSeeing that the extent to which \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_\u2019 has gone prevents\nour reprinting the minor writings of Gilpin, as we had desired,\nwe shall here give a few brief extracts from the \u2018Agreement,\u2019 to\nillustrate its aims, tone, and style. Thus he struck the key-note:\n\u2018When we compare the present miseries and distempers with our former\nconfident expectations of unity and reformation, our hearts bleed\nand melt within us. We are become a byword to our adversaries; they\nclap their hands at us, saying, \u201cIs this the city that men call the\nperfection of beauty?\u201d Piety is generally decayed, most men placing\ntheir religion in \u201cdoting about questions\u201d which they understand not;\nprofaneness thrives through want of discipline; error, blasphemy\ndomineers; jealousies, divisions, unmerciful revilings and censurings,\nare fomented among brethren of the same household of faith; the weak\nones are discouraged and distracted by the multitude of opinions and\nfierce opposition of each party, and that which is worst of all, God\u2019s\nhonour suffers deeply, and the credit of religion is brought very low.\n\u201cIs this nothing to you, all ye that pass by?\u201d\u2019 But having lamented,\nas with Jeremiah, he assumes a more hopeful and encouraging attitude,\nthus: \u2018Though these things can never be sufficiently lamented, yet\nseeing it is not sufficient barely to lament them, without endeavouring\nto heal them, and considering that it is a duty incumbent upon all\nChristians, according to their several places and abilities, to promote\nthe welfare of Zion, especially when we have tasted so much of the\nbitterness of our divisions, and because a brotherly Union hath so\nmuch of God in it, and consequently gives so much hope that God will\ntake that course in establishing his Church when he shall arise to\nbuild Jerusalem, and seeing it is an unjustifiable pettishness and\npeevishness of spirit to be averse from joining together in anything\nbecause we cannot join in all things, therefore we resolve, [\u201cthe\nassociated ministers,\u201d] setting aside all carnal interests, and casting\nourselves, with all our concernments, at the Lord\u2019s feet, to walk\ntogether as far as we can for the present, not resting here, nor tying\nourselves from further progress in union, as the Lord shall give light\nand satisfaction, much less binding ourselves from a submission to and\ncompliance with a more general accommodation, if any such thing should\nhereafter be agreed on, which might be more suitable and fitted for\nthe composure of the different principles of brethren throughout the\nnation.\u2019\u2014(Pp. 1-3.) Hereupon follows the \u2018Basis\u2019 of the \u2018Agreement,\u2019\nwhich was very much the same with Baxter\u2019s in Worcestershire, and that\nof Essex, &c., &c. \u2018In order,\u2019 he proceeds, \u2018to the carrying on of\nthis great work, we lay down and assent unto these general rules as\nthe Basis and Foundation which must support and bear up our following\nAgreement:\u2014\n\n\u20181. That in the exercise of discipline it is not only the most\nsafe course, but also the most conducing to brotherly union and\nsatisfaction, that particular churches carry on as much of their work\nwith joint and mutual assistance as they can with conveniency and\nedification, and as little as may be, in their actings, to stand,\ndistinctly by themselves and apart from each other.\n\n\u20182. That in matters of church discipline those things which belong\nonly _ad melius esse_, ought to be laid aside, both in respect of\npublication and practice, rather than that the Church\u2019s peace should be\nhindered.\n\n\u20183. That where different principles lead to the same practice, we\nmay join together in that practice, reserving to each of us our own\nprinciples.\n\n\u20184. That where we can neither agree in principle nor in practice, we\nare to bear with one another\u2019s differences that are of a less and\ndisputable nature, without making them a ground of division amongst\nus. Yet notwithstanding we do not hereby bind up ourselves from\nendeavouring to inform one another in those things wherein we differ,\nso that it be done with a spirit of love and meekness, and with\nresolutions to continue our brotherly amity and association, though in\nthose particulars our differences should remain uncomposed,\u2019 (pp. 3, 4.)\n\nFurther, all pledge themselves to be true and faithful ambassadors,\nstewards, workmen, and overseers, and \u2018to this end we resolve in\nthe course of our ministry to observe the temper, disposition, and\ncapacity of the generality of the people, and to suit ourselves\nnot only in our matter to the people\u2019s condition, but also in our\nexpressions to the people\u2019s apprehension, that so our sermons may be\nplain, piercing, seasonable, and profitable,\u2019 (p. 4.) Speaking next\nof \u2018catechising\u2019 from the Assembly\u2019s \u2018Larger and Shorter\u2019 Catechisms,\nand of \u2018inspection,\u2019 there are these wise counsels, that there be\ntender dealing in consideration of \u2018first, unacquaintedness with\nthe terms and words of the question; or, secondly, from bashfulness\nor shamefacedness,\u2019 (p. 11.) And in regard to \u2018supervision,\u2019 to be\ncautious \u2018lest brotherly inspection degenerate into an unbrotherly\nprying,\u2019 (p. 15.) And there is this pronouncement on a _questio vexata_\nof the period: \u2018We agree not to press a declaration of the time and\nmanner of the work of grace upon the people as a necessary proof of\ntheir actual present right to the Lord\u2019s Supper, nor to exclude persons\nmerely for want of that; yet will we accept it if any will be pleased\nto offer it freely,\u2019 (p. 16); and onwards there is encouraged a \u2018holy\nmodesty and bashfulness\u2019 in speaking of the \u2018passage and transaction\n\u2018twixt God and our soul,\u2019 (p. 39.) Finally, the Confession of Faith\nconsists of the Creed paraphrased, and confirmed by texts, (pp. 23-25.)\n\nAnother incident proved with equal unmistakableness that RICHARD\nGILPIN regarded Oliver as no \u2018usurper,\u2019 but the rightful governor\nof the nation. I must leave the reader to consult the authorities\non the history of the establishment of the University of Durham.\nEvery one who knows anything of \u2018the times\u2019 knows that the efforts\nto found a University there\u2014which the death of Cromwell delayed, and\nthe Restoration quashed\u2014is one of the \u2018boasts\u2019 of the Protector\u2019s\nreign.[30] In honoured association with Sir Thomas Widdrington, Lords\nFairfax, Grey, Wharton, and Falconbridge, Sir Henry Vane, and Sir\nArthur Haselrigge, and other well-known names, Gilpin was appointed\none of the \u2018Visitors.\u2019[31] He had entered into the scheme with\nenthusiasm and hope. It is difficult to estimate what was lost herein\nby the death of Cromwell. If we may conjecture from the \u2018Model\u2019 of the\nlearned and pious Matthew Pool\u2014issued in 1657-58, while the grand jury\nwere addressing Richard to complete what his father had begun\u2014it is\nall but certain that a more strictly theological training would have\nbeen inaugurated than any of the great Universities even to this day\nsupplies.[32]\n\nTo shew that Dr Gilpin still adhered to his former action in Church\nmatters, it must here be stated that in 1658 he preached a \u2018Sermon\u2019\nbefore the \u2018associated ministers of Cumberland\u2019 at Keswick. By the\nrequest of the \u2018General Meeting\u2019 he published it. The title-page will\nbe found in our list of his writings at close of this Memoir. It was\nwith reluctance the good man consented to give his sermon \u2018to print,\u2019\nas he intimated in the \u2018Epistle Dedicatory.\u2019 \u2018What your commands,\u2019\nsays he, \u2018have wrested from me\u2014for of that force and prevalency with\nme are your desires\u2014I now lay at your feet. If I could have prevailed\nwith you to have altered your vote, or after you had passed it, durst\nhave resisted\u2014this had gone no further than your own hearing. But when\nyou would not be persuaded, I endeavoured to conform myself to those\nChristians in Acts xxi. 14, and took up with that which put a stop to\ntheir entreaties. \u201cThe will of the Lord be done,\u201d\u2019 (pp. 1, 2.) The\nText of this sermon\u2014which is no common one\u2014is Zech. vi. 13, \u2018Even He\nshall build the Temple of the Lord,\u2019 &c., and hence its title, \u2018The\nTemple Rebuilt.\u2019 I select a few of the more easily detached sentences.\nFirst of all, concerning \u2018Controversy,\u2019 he says admirably: \u2018Disputings,\nthough they have their fruits, yet are they like trees growing upon a\nrocky precipice, where the fruit cannot be gathered by all, and not\nby any without difficulty and hazard,\u2019 (p. 3.) Again, on the office\nof the ministry, he exclaims: \u2018Dream not of ease in an employment of\nthis nature. God, angels, and men have their eyes upon you to see\nhow you will bestir yourselves: it is your duty, and not a matter of\nunnecessary courtesy which you may give or hold back at your pleasure.\nHe that hath commanded you \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03cc\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9, (1 Tim. iv. 15,) to\n\u201cgive yourselves up wholly to these things,\u201d will not take himself to\nbe beholden to you when you have done your best: neither is it any\ndisparagement to you to become even servants to any: so that you may\nbut gain them and forward Christ\u2019s work. They that think it below them\nto trouble themselves so much with catechising, reproof, admonition,\nand are of Ptolem\u00e6us his mind, who changed the title of Heraclides\nhis book, from \u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd to \u1f44\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd: as if laboriousness\nwere nothing but an ass-like dulness, making a man crouch under every\nburden; but God having made the ox which treadeth out the corn to be\nthe hieroglyphic of your employment, he doth thereby teach you that\nlabour and patience are so far from being a disgrace to you, that\nthey are necessary qualifications for the calling of the ministry,\u2019\n(pp. 3, 4.) Lastly\u2014for we may not linger\u2014take a burning and fearless\nreproof of the lukewarm: \u2018How cowardly and sinfully shamefaced,\u2019 he\nobserves, kindling as he advances, \u2018are many when they should plead\nfor God and truth, as if their own hearts did secretly question the\nreality of religion! How strangely do many of the gentry spend their\ntime! What irreligious, prayerless families do some of them keep,\nwhen they should shew better example to the meaner sort; and yet how\nconfidently can they censure others for hypocrites\u2014sometime unjustly\nconcluding against the strictness of God\u2019s ways from the liberty of\nsome professors\u2014not considering what their own carriage and vanity\ndo testify against themselves! How do we needlessly multiply our\ncontroversies and disputes! and with what bitterness do we manage them,\neven when the strife is merely about words and method! and, generally,\nhow is the name of God and religion abused to serve the designs of men!\nWhat strange religious people have we! Some must needs be religious\nby taking up a singular conceit and opinion, though a man may easily\nsee their hearts through their lives: others have all their religion\non their tongue\u2019s-end: they can have good discourses, and yet be\nunconscionable in their callings, shops, and trading,\u2019 (pp. 33, 34.)\n\nThus taking a conspicuous part in all that belonged to the interests of\nthe Church of Christ, our Worthy behind these went out and in before\nhis flock a \u2018master-builder,\u2019 from Sabbath to Sabbath preaching the\nvery gospel of Jesus Christ, with unequalled power, pungency, and\npathos combined, while he drew all hearts to himself; for he acted on\nthe maxim\u2014\n\n                  \u2018All worldly joys go less\n    To the one joy of doing kindnesses.\u2019[33]\n\nHe was a large-hearted and open-handed man, as well as a faithful\n\u2018preacher\u2019\u2014his life an exemplification of his teaching. He was, says\nthe \u2018Noble\u2019 memorial, \u2018a gentleman and a Christian indeed; one of\nsingular gravity, temper, learning, and all valuable qualifications for\na minister; of a good family too, and an eligible estate; a witness and\nan honour to the good cause of a further Reformation,\u2019 (p. 38.) And so\nhe pursued the \u2018even tenor of his way\u2019 in his tranquil sphere. He had\nmarried shortly after coming to Greystoke; but, curiously enough, the\nlady\u2019s name has not been preserved in any of the numerous family papers\nput into my hands. The Greystoke \u2018Registers\u2019 record the baptism of two\nof his children, William and Susannah. The \u2018entries\u2019 may be given here:\u2014\n\n \u20181657. September. Borne the 5th Day in ye afternoune, and ye 23d day\n Baptized, William, the Soune of Mr Richard Gilpin, p\u2019son, [= parson],\n of Graistock.\n\n \u20181659. Susanna, ye Daughter of Mr Gilpin, p\u2019son, of Graistocke,\n was borne ye 17th day of October, And Baptized ye 7th of December,\n 1659.\u2019[34]\n\nI have described the parish of Greystoke as tranquil; but even into\nit there swept\u2014as the sea-swell sweeps into the smallest nook of\nshore\u2014the ruffle of that agitation which pervaded the nation in\nreligious matters; and, inasmuch as it gives colour and tone to not\na few passages of the \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_,\u2019\u2014his difficulty with the\nQuakers\u2014to which I have made reference\u2014falls now to be chronicled.\nWe shall have an after-occasion to notice subsequent interviews with\nthe pre-eminently good, though provoking, Quaker missionary-preacher,\nThomas Story. Here I glean my information from the \u2018Memoir\u2019 of a\n\u2018Greystoke\u2019 celebrity, HENRY WINDER, D.D.[35] The following, then, is\nthe narrative, omitting irrelevant portions:\u2014\n\n\u2018The Reverend Richard Gilpin, M.D., was the parish minister of\nGraystock before the Restoration.... Some time before the Restoration\nQuakerism began to spread in Cumberland and Westmoreland. Among other\nthings remarkable in their behaviour, the Quakers would go into the\nparish church of Graystock, and disturb Dr Gilpin in the pulpit during\ndivine worship. And such were their novel phrases and cross questions\nand answers, that the Doctor seemed sometimes at a loss what to say\nto them. Upon that, some of his parishioners were stumbled, withdrew\nfrom their former communion, and defended the cause of the Quakers.\nAmong others Henry Winder was seduced, to the no small grief of good Dr\nGilpin and his friends. A day of humiliation and prayer was appointed,\nin which Dr Gilpin, and some of the neighbouring ministers, as well\nas some of the laity of that parish, took such proper methods as to\nrecover some that had fallen, and to confirm and establish those that\nwere wavering, though, before that, the infection had spread far and\nwide. Then was Henry Winder secretly resolved to comply with the\ndesire of Dr Gilpin and his church, and make some public recantation.\nBut these convictions did not last long. For notwithstanding several\nconferences with him, Henry Winder openly joined with the Quakers, and\ncontinued among them some years.... Henry Winder and his [second] wife\n[finally] left the Quakers, returning to Dr Gilpin\u2019s church, in which\nthey afterwards continued.\u2019[36]\n\nAll this goes far to explain the unusual severity of the \u2018_D\u00e6monologia\nSacra_\u2019 against Quakers and Quakerism\u2014as also the \u2018Agreement\u2019\u2014and\nthe grave classification of \u2018double meanings,\u2019 and \u2018light within,\u2019\n&c., &c., among evident \u2018devices\u2019 of the Devil. At this later day we\nwillingly forget the eccentricities and vulgarities and blunders of\nthe early followers of GEORGE FOX, and in the spirit of the \u2018Quakers\u2019\nMeeting\u2019 of winsome Elia, reverence the service of this once powerful\nand still honoured and altogether inoffensive section of God\u2019s people.\n\nWith these minor \u2018troubles\u2019 now and again annoying him,\u2014for they ended\nin the setting up of Quaker \u2018tabernacles\u2019 in the district, remains of\nwhich survive until now,\u2014the Rector of Greystoke fulfilled his \u2018labour\nof love,\u2019 as a good servant of Jesus Christ, until the Restoration.\nThat event found him with a mind made up and \u2018ready\u2019 for all loss\nand sacrifice. Unable to accept the notorious \u2018Act\u2019 of Uniformity,\nhe anticipated the memorable \u2018Ejection\u2019 of 1662 by withdrawing from\nGreystoke; whereupon the former \u2018sequestered Rector Morland re-entered\non possession.\u2019\n\nWe turn to the Family-Manuscript,[37] formerly quoted, for the\ncircumstances of the resignation. \u2018After the Restoration,\u2019 observes\nPrebendary Gilpin, \u2018when Episcopacy again took the lead, the\nPresbyterian party made what stand they were able. But the Act\nof Uniformity passed, and was executed with rigour. Dr Gilpin,\nnotwithstanding his moderation, could not subscribe it in all its\nparts, and therefore resigned his benefice, trusting God for the\nmaintenance of himself and family, which consisted of a wife and five\nchildren.\u2019[38]\n\nThe good Rector was not without a home when he thus left his beloved\nGreystoke\u2014which was turned into a Bochim when his \u2018parishioners\u2019\nlooked their last upon him. During his incumbency he had invested what\n\u2018monies\u2019 he had at his disposal in the purchase from the Musgraves,\nof the Castle and small estate of Scaleby near Carlisle\u2014filling up\nthe amount of the purchase-money by a mortgage. Thither accordingly\nhe retired into privacy; but holding with the old Nonconformists\nthe indefeasibility of his office as a preacher of the gospel by an\nordination more sure than that from quasi-apostolic hands, he was\nwont to assemble his employ\u00e9s and neighbours in a \u2018great room\u2019 of\nthe old Castle\u2014originally a Border-fortalice erected against the\nScots\u2014and there \u2018preach\u2019 to them on the Sabbaths.[39] Moreover,\nhe resumed his previous medical studies and practice, to the great\nadvantage more especially of the poor. \u2018How acceptable,\u2019 says our\nManuscript, \u2018his services were among the poor people of those parts,\nand how much they revered him for wisdom and sanctity, appears from\nthe superstitious respect they paid him. During many years after his\ndeath, it was believed among them that he had \u201c_laid the devil_,\u201d as\nthey phrased it, in a morass not far from his house.\u2019[40] Besides\nthese semi-professional duties, he set about improving the somewhat\ndilapidated castle, and the lands, more particularly planted trees\nextensively; the result of which was an entire change of the appearance\nof the estate, and now the fine woodland within which venerable Scaleby\nlifts its gray towers, still worthily held by a descendant through the\nfemale line.[41]\n\nRICHARD GILPIN was too eminent and potential a man to be allowed to\nwithdraw thus from the stage of public events. He had not been long in\nhis retreat when a \u2018tempting\u2019 offer was made him of a Bishopric, as\nBernard Gilpin had been \u2018tempted\u2019 before him. I recur here again to\nour Manuscript. Following on the passage already given we read, \u2018The\nking and council however seemed to have been apprehensive lest this\nrigorous step against the Presbyterians [\u2018Act of Uniformity\u2019] might\nhave ill consequences. They were much inclined therefore to compound\nthe matter, at least, with some of the leaders of the party; and, in\nthis view, three or four bishoprics and many superior dignities in the\nChurch were offered to them. Among others, Dr Gilpin was represented to\nthe king as a person highly esteemed in the Northern parts of England,\nand as a man of great moderation. Accordingly, in filling up the vacant\nbishoprics, his name was inserted for the see of Carlisle: and it was\nnot doubted by his friends but he would get over the few scruples he\nhad to the Act of Uniformity, and accept the preferment: for he had\nalways spoken favourably of the Church of England, and considered the\nline between the two parties with regard to their religious sentiments\nas almost an invisible one. But, to the surprise of his nearest\nfriends, he declined the offer.\u2019[42] The \u2018friends,\u2019 who so lightly\nestimated the \u2018scruples\u2019 of the \u2018retired\u2019 Rector, little knew the stamp\nof man he was. Everything before and subsequent goes to shew that DR\nGILPIN remained a Nonconformist, with, no doubt, the same reluctance as\nBaxter and Calamy and the rest,\u2014to whom bishoprics had similarly been\noffered, and by whom they had similarly been promptly declined,\u2014but\nalso from the same deep conviction of necessity so long as that \u2018Act\u2019\noutraged the truth, and ignored conscience. And so, as his ancestor,\nBernard Gilpin to Elizabeth,[43] did Richard Gilpin to Charles II.\nrefuse that mitre which he could not have worn unless at the sacrifice\nof principles which were dearer to him then all civil or ecclesiastical\ndignities, and life itself.[44] We have an incidental allusion\u2014as I\nread it\u2014in \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_\u2019 to the \u2018temptation,\u2019 and the casuistic\npleas of the \u2018friends\u2019 alluded to. Speaking of the \u2018wiles\u2019 of the\nTempter, and his many snares to induce to sin, he specially notices\nthis, that \u2018he extenuates the offence by propounding some smaller good\nor convenience that may follow that evil,\u2019 and he continues, evidently\nspeaking from his own experience of the \u2018fiery dart:\u2019 \u2018This, though it\nbe a way of arguing directly contrary to that rule, \u201cDo not evil that\ngood may come,\u201d yet it oft proves too successful; and it is like that\ncommon stratagem of war when, by the proposal of a small booty in view,\nthe enemies are drawn out of their hold into a fore-contrived danger.\nThus Satan pleads, This one act of sin may put you into a capacity of\nhonouring God the more. _Some have admitted advancements and dignities\nagainst conscience, upon no better ground, but they might keep out\nknaves, and that they might be in a condition to be helpful to good\nmen._ ... Thus a pretended good to come becomes a pander to a present\ncertain iniquity.\u2019 There are other like intimations in the book, which\ngive new significance and a strange passion to the words; but this one\nmust suffice.\n\nRecurring to our Family-Manuscript\u2014which though somewhat stilted in\nits style, is generally accurate in its facts\u2014we reach the next point\nin our Worthy\u2019s \u2018Life.\u2019 \u2018The Dissenters,\u2019 remarks the Prebendary,\n\u2018having now found they could get nothing from government beyond a\nToleration, began to separate everywhere into assemblies, and choose\npastors of their own;\u2019 and so eyes and hearts turned toward the Doctor,\nsecluded at Scaleby. \u2018Among other places,\u2019 the Narrative proceeds, \u2018a\nlarge congregation united at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where they built a\nhandsome meeting-house, and sent an invitation to Dr Gilpin to be their\nminister; and though he had now taken his measures, and laid his plan\nfor a life of quiet and repose, he accepted their invitation, and as\nsoon as he could settle his affairs at Scaleby, removed with his family\nto Newcastle.\u2019 \u2018Here,\u2019 continues the Manuscript, \u2018a new scene of life\nopened before him. Hitherto he had lived in a country retirement, both\nat Greystock and at Scaleby, where party prevailed little. But here he\nwas in the midst of a large town, divided by various opinions, where\nhis candour and moderation had an ample field for exercise. In fact, I\nhave heard it said that his meeting-house was a kind of centre of unity\namong them all. It was frequented as much by Churchmen as Dissenters,\nand they all found here, what was seldom found in the pulpits of those\ntimes, their common Christianity preached, unsullied by the religious\ncontests which everywhere prevailed. His preaching was extremely\npleasing and popular. His subject-matter, his language, his voice, his\nmanner, were all engaging, and made such an impression on the people as\nwas never worn out, but with the lives of his contemporaries.\u2019[45]\n\nGilpin arrived in Newcastle, as the successor of the admirable\nSAMUEL HAMMOND, one of the ejected,[46] and the spiritual father\nof Oliver Heywood,\u2014about 1668-69, that is, in the crisis of the\n\u2018troubles\u2019 to all who bore the \u2018mark\u2019 of Nonconformity. High-Churchmen\nwere \u2018building-up,\u2019 as they deemed it, the Church, by persecuting\nrelentlessly those who dared not acquiesce in the \u2018Act of Uniformity;\u2019\nand accordingly \u2018Dissenters\u2019 had to preach furtively, even as \u2018of\nold,\u2019\u2014and all was clamour and confusion. One of themselves, who, if not\nof kin, was, in wit and wiseness, of kind, in more than name to Thomas\nFuller,\u2014thus vividly describes the period during which the recluse\nof Scaleby went to his new charge in Newcastle: \u2018I am ashamed,\u2019 says\nIgnatius Fuller, \u2018that whilst the Jews\u2019 temple was building, there was\nneither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house,\u2014now\nwhen we are raising an house to Him that dwells not in temples made\nwith hands, we should make so much use of iron and steel, and should\nreckon guns and swords, flames and fagots amongst our means of grace.\nI am sorry we should seem to have more of Nimrod than Solomon in our\nbuilding; that we should partake of the curse poured upon the workmen\nat Babel\u2014\n\n                      \u201cLet\u2019s make the brother,\n    The sire and son, not understand each other.\u201d\u2019[47]\n\nThus plunged into the midst of all manner of \u2018oppositions\u2019 and\nintolerance, RICHARD GILPIN, for a goodly number of years\u2014as William\nDurant before him\u2014confined his \u2018preaching\u2019 to his own private house in\nNewcastle. Very sad is it to come on \u2018records\u2019 such as these from the\n\u2018Depositions from the Castle of York, relating to offences committed in\nthe northern counties in the seventeenth century.\u2019[48] They may be well\nleft to speak for themselves, without a word of comment:\u2014\n\n \u2018clxxvi. Richard Gilpin, Clerk, and others. For holding a\n _Conventicle_.\n\n\u2018Aug. 4, 1669.\u2014Before Ralph Jenison, Mayor of Newcastle, Cuthbert\nNicholson, cordyner, [= cordwainer,] saith, that upon Sunday last,\nabout five or six of the clock in the morneng, he did see a great\nnomber of people goe inn to the house of Mr Richard Gilpyn, minister,\nin the White Freers, and afterward, he went to parson Jo^{n.} Shaw, and\nacquainted him with the premisses. Whereupon the said Mr Shaw togeither\nwith the church-wardens, constables, and serjeants-at-mace, by the\ncomaund of Mr Maor, did repaire to the said Richard Gilpin\u2019s howse. And\nwhen they came there all the dores were shutt and made fast. And after\nthe dores were broken open, he did see these severall persons come\nout, viz., Robert Johnson, merchant, Dr Tunstall, Wm. Cutter, James\nHargraves, merchant, Wm. Hutchinson, George Headlyn, fitter, Charles\nNewton, gent, Humphrey Gill, gent, Jno. Bittleston, tanner, Matthew\nSoulsbey, roper, Michaell Jobling, pully-maker, Robert Finley, chapman,\nand diverse other persons to the nomber of fortie.\u2019\n\nAgain:\u2014\n\n \u2018The information of Cuthbert Nicholas, cordwainer, against the persons\n hereinafter named, for being att meetings and conventicles:\u2014Mr\n Richard Gilping, Mr William Deurant, Mr John Pringle, Mr Henry Lever,\n preachers,\u2019 &c. &c. &c. &c.\n\nSo early as 1663\u2014which would intimate that Gilpin had previously\nresided and \u2018preached\u2019 in Newcastle\u2014Bishop Cosin wrote to the Mayor\nof Newcastle, telling him to look sharply after \u2018_the caterpillars_,\u2019\nnaming as the ringleaders, \u2018William Durant, Henry Leaver, _Richard\nGilpin_, and John Pringle.\u2019[49] When we consider who these men\nwere\u2014every one a \u2018pattern\u2019 of godliness and consuming consecration to\nthe Master, and more especially that one of them, viz., Gilpin, had\nlately refused to elevate himself to a level with Cosin, it is hard\nto repress indignation; while the word of scorn, \u2018_caterpillars_,\u2019\nreminds one of the Popish parallel of Pope Alexander, wondering how the\nSignory of Florence could so far have forgotten what was due to him\nand to themselves as to aid and abet that \u2018contemptible _reptile_,\u2019\n[vermicciattolo] in offending the majesty of the Holy See\u2014the\n\u2018reptile\u2019 being SAVONAROLA; or the \u2018_heretici et imperiti homines_\u2019\nof SALMERON, as applied to Augustine and Chrysostom, Jerome, _et hoc\ngenus omne_.[50] Very different was the \u2018letter\u2019 of Cosin, Bishop of\nDurham to the Mayor, from that of another \u2018in authority,\u2019 who had\nalso addressed to his Worship of Newcastle \u2018a letter,\u2019 wherein he\nhad counselled amity and forbearance; so much so, that Mr Durant and\nothers of the preachers in Newcastle, returned him an answer of thanks\nfor his \u2018inculcated exhortations to love the whole flock of Christ,\n_though not walking in the same order of the gospel_.\u2019 The writer was\nOLIVER CROMWELL.[51]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nUntil the \u2018Indulgence\u2019 of 1672, Gilpin carried on his \u2018ministry\u2019 in\nthe half-public, half-hidden, manner which these deplorable acts\nindicate. At one time he had to leave his own house; for in the Barnes\u2019\n\u2018Memoirs,\u2019 we read, \u2018When the Five Mile Act came out, Dr Gilpin\nlodged at Mr Barnes his house, for more security. When his goods\nwere destrained upon, Mr Barnes\u2014to prevent their being squandered\naway\u2014replevyed them.\u2019 ... \u2018And when there was a design to banish the\nDoctor from Newcastle, Mr Barnes, by persuading the magistrates of his\ngreat usefulness in the town, by his skill in physic, procured him\nquietness to the end of King Charles his reign.\u2019[52] Not however until\n1672 was there anything approaching \u2018religious liberty\u2019 in England, and\nthat only by connivance. Until that year, practically, Nonconformity\nand Dissent from the Church of England was politically treason, and\necclesiastically \u2018illegal.\u2019\n\nThe Reader will have noticed that by Barnes and others, our Worthy is\ndesignated \u2018Doctor,\u2019 and that this stood him in stead on one occasion.\nBut the title was not due technically until 1676. In that year he\nproceeded to Leyden\u2014like Sir Thomas Browne earlier\u2014and there \u2018took\u2019\nthe \u2018degree\u2019 of M.D. By the kindness of Professor J. Van Hoeden of\nLeyden, I am enabled\u2014for the first time\u2014to give the \u2018record\u2019 of it from\nthe \u2018Inscriptions of the Students.\u2019[53] It is as follows:\u2014\u2018Richard\nGilpin, [misspelled \u201cGulpin,\u201d] Cumbridus,\u2019 obtained his degrees July\n6, 1676\u2014_post disputationem privatam de Historia Hysteric\u00e6 Passionis\nmedicin\u00e6 doctor renunciatus est a clarissimo Kraame_\u2014and again, Richard\nGilpin\u2014_Med. Candid., anno 50, apud Prof. Spin\u00e6us, die_ xxix. _Junii\n1676_. This second inscription is only a week before \u2018the promotion,\n_die_ vi. _Julii 1676_.\u2019 Gilpin \u2018lodged\u2019 with Professor Spin\u00e6us during\nhis brief visit. In the list at close of the Memoir, along with his\nother Writings, is given the title-page of the medical Dissertation or\n\u2018Disputation,\u2019 which he read on the occasion and published. In passing,\nI may remark that the \u2018Disputation\u2019 is entirely technical, so that\nthere is nothing to interest an unscientific reader.[54]\n\nReturned from Holland as Dr RICHARD GILPIN,\u2014and by this time married to\nhis second wife, a daughter of a Cumberland squire, Brisco or Briscoe\nof Crofton Hall,\u2014he gave himself to his work with unflagging zeal,\nwith ever-deepening power and influence, and with most gratifying\ntokens that he was not labouring in vain, nor spending his strength\nfor nought. He was now in \u2018easy\u2019 circumstances. \u2018The purchase,\u2019\nsays Barnes, \u2018of the Lordship of Scaleby had put him into debt, but\nhe now cleared it off,\u2019 and Mr Barnes went with him to Sir Richard\nMusgrave, and got the conveyances finished, and this because \u2018by the\nencouragement his ministry met with from the liberality of the people,\nand his emoluments by the practice of physic, he [had] raised a\nconsiderable estate.\u2019[55] He was vigilant as a \u2018watchman\u2019 on the walls\nof Zion; and as he mellowed into a beautiful old age, surrounded by a\ngifted and affectionate family, and having \u2018troops of friends,\u2019 he came\nto be _the_ representative man of Nonconformity, so that the \u2018care\u2019 of\nall their churches, in large measure, came upon him. Very pleasant must\nhave been those holiday \u2018escapes\u2019 from smoky Newcastle to the sylvan\nsolitudes and brightness of Scaleby, which he interposed between his\ntoils.\n\nHis Congregation enormously increased\u2014at a bound probably, for, on\nthe death of William Durant in 1681, his \u2018flock\u2019 was received by\nGilpin.[56] Accordingly, in the course of years, he received several\n\u2018helpers.\u2019 One was the excellent William Pell, M.A., who, \u2018ejected\u2019\nfrom Great Stainton in 1662, after being \u2018seven years minister of a\ncongregation at Boston,\u2019 removed to Newcastle, where, says Calamy, \u2018he\nbecame assistant to Dr Gilpin, and died there, aged 63.\u2019 This was in\n1698.[57] Another was Timothy Manlove, M.D., who settled at Pontefract\nin 1688, removed to Leeds in 1694, and became assistant to Dr Gilpin in\n1698. He died August 3, 1699, and Gilpin preached two \u2018Sermons\u2019 before\nhis funeral, informed by a fine spirit. They were published; and the\ntitle-page will be found in our list of his Writings at close.\n\nAs before with the \u2018Temple Rebuilt,\u2019 it was only by constraint that\nGilpin issued these Sermons\u2014two in one. \u2018The following Discourse,\u2019\nhe says, \u2018was preached without the least thought of offering it to\npublic view; and yet I was persuaded to yield to the publication of\nit to prevent the printing of more imperfect notes.\u2019 The melancholy\nduty interrupted a series of Sermons on \u2018Striving to enter in at\nthe strait gate,\u2019 and from Galatians v. 16, \u2018This I say then, Walk\nin the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh;\u2019 but,\nhe continues, \u2018having received an intimation that my dear brother\nand fellow-labourer, now deceased, had found such comfort in his\nmeditations of this scripture in his prospect of death, that he\nexpressed his desires that his funeral sermon might be upon this text,\u2019\n[Romans viii. 35-39,] he had chosen it. I have space for only a very\nfew sentences from these \u2018Sermons\u2019 as follow:\u2014\u201cIn all these things we\nare more than conquerors.\u201d It is a glorious victory to stand in an\nevil day when Satan hath drawn up all his forces against us. It is\na glorious victory not only to escape without loss, but to gain by\nhis opposition. Thus we outshoot him in his own bow; and all this,\n_sine labore et sudore_, easily through Divine assistance, (page 17.)\nAgain: \u201cWe are led by the Spirit\u201d ver. 14. Whether we read the sense\nbackward or forward it holds true, \u201cas many as are led by the Spirit\nare the sons of God,\u201d and \u201cas many as are the sons of God have been and\nshall be led by the Spirit,\u201d (page 30.) He pays affectionate tribute\nto his departed \u2018assistants.\u2019 \u2018It hath pleased God Almighty and the\nall-wise Disposer of all things to make another breach upon us. It is\nnot long since he took Mr Pell from us, and now he hath called home Mr\nManlove, both of them excellent men, worthy ministers of the Gospel,\nsingularly both of them fitted with abilities for their work. They\nwere successively my dear brethren and fellow-labourers in this part\nof God\u2019s vineyard. It must be acknowledged that it is a stroke to be\nlamented: and if we look upon the present Providence we may have some\ncause to fear that when God is discharging His servants from His work,\nand paying them their wages, that He may shortly break up His house\nwith us,\u2019 (page 21.)\n\nFrom what must have been a large correspondence, only two letters\nof Dr GILPIN have come down to us, in so far as known. The one is\nan unimportant \u2018note\u2019 given in Horsley\u2019s \u2018Life of Dr Harle,\u2019 (8vo,\n1730,)\u2014not worth reprinting; the other hitherto unpublished, and of\nmuch interest and value, as shewing how staunch and true he was to the\nlast in his Nonconformity, and how his one fear in his \u2018old age\u2019 was\nlest the Church of England should absorb his large congregation on his\ndeath.\n\nThis Letter is among the Ayscough MSS. 4275 in the British Museum\n(Birchiana.) We have transcribed it _verbatim_.\n\n\n \u2018NEWCASTLE, _Decemb. 13 \u201898_.\n\n \u2018DEARE SR,\u2014Since I writ last to you concerning ye proposed\n correspondence, I received a lr from you, wherein you give answer to\n yr two obiections wch I had mentioned to you. Your lr I communicated\n to ye brethren; but then there arose new mutterings about ye designe\n of yr late reflections on the circular lre, [and they] have taken hold\n of ye same advantages against it: so yt at present little is to be\n expected of any procedure in yt matter till men see what will become\n of ye publick outcry against it.\n\n \u2018It hath pleased God to take from me my deare assistant, Mr Pell, by a\n feaver; we buryed him last weeke. It is a sad stroke upon us all, but\n it falls at present most heavy upon me. Ever since his sickness, it\n became necessary for me (such are our circumstances) to preach twice\n every Lord\u2019s day, and I must continue to do so at least every other\n Lord\u2019s day for some time, because there are a small party (and but\n a very small one) who have formed a designe, and are now encouraged\n upon this sad occasion to open it. This party were ye few remainders\n of Mr Durant\u2019s congregation, who have kept communion wth ours in all\n ordinances, wthout making any exceptions, about 15 years; but when old\n Mr Barnes (their politick engineer) brought home his young son Thomas,\n from London, they presently shewed their intentions to choose him for\n their pastor; but as introductory to that they (in my absence) thrust\n him into ye pulpit, without so much as asking leave. I was silent,\n and suffered him to preach in ye evenings; but they being weary of\n that\u2014few people staying to heare him\u2014they thought it more conduceable\n to their designe to separate from us, and set up at ye Anabaptists\u2019\n meeting-house; but no great party would follow them, and now they have\n chosen him to be their pastor, though before this he had in our pulpit\n vented some unsound Crispian notions, and at last had ye confidence\n to contradict what I had preached about preparation to conversion.\n For this, I thought it necessary to give him a publick rebuke, and\n to answer his exceptions. That theire designe is to worme us out of\n or meeting-house, and to breake or congregation, is visible to all:\n they now openly claime ye meeting-house for their pastor\u2019s use, (when\n he pleaseth,) and pretend old Mr Hutchinson (upon whose ground ye\n house is built) promised them so much when they contributed towards\n ye charge of building; but Mr Jonathan Hutchinson, his son, denyes\n any such promise, and stands firmly to us, though Mr Barnes (his\n father-in-law) surprised him wth solicitations; but we offer to repay\n them all ye money they contributed towards ye building.\n\n \u2018You see, Sr, how much I need your prayers, and (if it could be)\n ye nomination of a man of parts, prudence, piety, and authority\n to assist me at present, and to succeed me when I am gone. _Much\n of ye dissenters\u2019 interest in ye North depends upon ye welfare of\n or congregation. The Episcopall party have long since made their\n prognostik, yt token I die, ye congregation will be broken, and then\n there will be an end of ye dissenters\u2019 interest in Newcastle._ I pray\n give my deare love and respects to all ye brethren wth you, and\n pardon the trouble given by, Revd. sr, your affectionate brother and\n servant,\n\n RICH. GILPIN.\u2019\n\n On the 4th page, folio\u2014For the Reverend Mr Richard Stratton, minister\n of ye gospel, at the house, Hatton Garden, in London.\n\nWe have little more to tell of the author of _D\u00e6monologia Sacra_.\nHe survived his estimable \u2018assistant\u2019 Manlove but a short time.\nBut to the last he was \u2018in harness.\u2019 Looking over old Papers he\ncame upon a Sermon which he had preached so far back as \u20181660,\u2019 at\nthe \u2018Assize\u2019 in Carlisle, revised and published it; and it bears\nthe same date of \u20181700\u2019 as his own death: so that, like Sibbes, he\nmust have had proof-sheets passing through his hands very near \u2018the\nend.\u2019 The \u2018Epistle\u2019 or \u2018Preface\u2019 prefixed is as terse and effective\nas ever; and the \u2018Sermon\u2019 itself manly, outspoken, faithful, and\ntruly characteristic of the man. The title-page will be found in our\nlist.[58] This \u2018Sermon\u2019 having been preached before Judge Twisselton\nand Serjeant Bernard and the \u2018gentry\u2019 present at the Assize, is\nspecially searching on \u2018sins\u2019 in \u2018high places,\u2019 for Gilpin acted on\nthe sentiment of Edward Boteler, who, in his own quaint way, says of\nEarl Mulgrave, \u2018He knew what great evils evil great ones are; that they\nhave many followers, go they whither they will, and seldom go to hell\nalone.\u2019 [As after, p. 48.] I detach a single \u2018particular\u2019 from this\nweighty Sermon:\u2014\u2018If magistrates advance not the throne of Christ, they\ncommonly prove furious against it, and plagues of God\u2019s people. If this\nproceed from a careless blockish temper, then judgment of itself will\ndegenerate into gall, and the \u201cfruit of righteousness into hemlock.\u201d\nJustice, like water, purifies itself by motion, when it \u201cruns down\nlike a stream:\u201d if it be a standing water, it corrupts, and _corruptio\noptimorum pessima_. If this neglect proceed from enmity to Christ,\nthen, seeing they have the greatest advantages in their hands to do\nevil, they may \u201cestablish wickedness by a law:\u201d they can \u201cpush with\nthe horn, and tread down the pasture with their feet.\u201d [Ezek. xxxiv.\n18.] \u201cWhen the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.\u201d [Prov. xxix. 2.]\nOr if it proceed from apostasy, then \u201cthe revolters are profound to\nmake slaughter.\u201d [Hosea v. 27.] And this happens not so much from the\nchurlish and cruel dispositions of men, as from God\u2019s giving them up\njudicially to rage against His ways, either as a scourge to his people,\nor in order to their own ruin. Hence it is noted that the cruellest\npersecutions were set on foot by emperors, sometimes of the best parts,\nand most civil dispositions, as Antoninus Philosophus, Trajan, Severus,\nDecius, &c. Magistrates are for the most part like the prophet\u2019s figs,\neither very good or very bad: they are the heads of the people, and\nall diseases in the head are dangerous; so when the leprosy appeared\nin the head deeper than the skin, the party was pronounced utterly\nunclean,\u2019 (pp. 13, 14.)\n\nCalamy and Mr Thompson of Stockton thus record the \u2018good man\u2019s\nend:\u2019\u2014\u2018He went,\u2019 says the former, \u2018into the pulpit the last time he was\nin it under a feverish indisposition, and preached from 2 Cor. v. 2,\n\u201cFor in this we groan, earnestly,\u201d &c.; and to the surprise of all, he\nrather \u2018groaned\u2019 than spake this sermon. The lungs being at that time\ntoo tender for work, his disease seized that part, and he was brought\nhome in a _peripneumonia_, which in ten days put a period to his\nlife.\u2019[59] Mr Thompson, in his \u2018Diary,\u2019[60] thus writes:\u2014\u2018Dr Gilpin,\ny^t eminent servant of God, died much lamented by all, on (Tuesday)\nFeb. 13, 1699/1700, about eight o\u2019clock in y^e morning.\u2019[61] He was\ninterred in the churchyard of All Saints, Newcastle. And the following\nis the \u2018entry\u2019 in its Register of Burials:\u2014\u20181699 [= 1699-1700] Feb. 16.\nRich. Gilpin, doctor of physick.\u2019[62] The \u2018scutcheon of the \u2018Kentmere\u2019\nGilpins was placed on his coffin. He left a widow, who retired, as her\nhusband had asked, with her family, to Scaleby Castle.\n\nFrom point to point of our Memoir, it has been our endeavour to bring\nout the character of Dr Gilpin under his varying circumstances; so\nthat, unless I have failed more than I can suppose, my Readers must\nby this time\u2014even out of the scanty material which has been left to\nus\u2014have formed an idea of him, such as will bear me out, I anticipate,\nin characterising him summarily as a man of no ordinary type, large of\nsoul,\u2014with the spaciousness of genius that has been hallowed,\u2014strong\nand inevitable in his convictions, quick and sensitive in conscience,\nintense and full of _momentum_ in whatever he undertook; and, as his\n\u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_\u2019 proves, profound, sagacious, keen in his scrutiny\nof human and celestial-demoniac problems, and one who must have carried\nsunshine with him wherever he went. His portrait\u2014preserved in Nova\nScotia by a descendant, Dr Gilpin of Halifax\u2014as engraved in the earlier\nedition of Palmer, shews the liquid eye of genius, the mobile lip,\nthe brow compact and packed of brain, a nose somewhat audacious, and\na touch of sauciness in the chin, while the long cavalier-like curled\n\u2018locks\u2019 of his wig seem to proclaim the lord of the manor of Scaleby\nas much as the Preacher; for as Edward Boteler puts it of another,\nwith Fullerian alliteration, \u2018Though he was very humble, yet he knew\nhow to be a man and no worm, as well as when to be \u201ca worm and no man.\u201d\nHe knew when to lay his honour in the dust, and when to let no dust be\nupon his honour.\u2019[63]\n\nI would now bring together several \u2018estimates\u2019 of our Worthy by those\nwho knew him well, and thus could form an accurate judgment concerning\nhim. First of all, I am fortunate enough to be able to give, from\nan old, worn, and weather-stained holograph preserved by Prebendary\nGilpin, a quaint \u2018Poem,\u2019 which probably represents in portions of it\nthe inscription placed on his \u2018monument\u2019\u2014long since mouldered away.\nHere it is, rude and halting in rhyme and rhythm, but biographically\ninteresting:\u2014\n\n\n               TO THE MEMORY OF YE EXCELLENT DR GILPIN.\n\n    In mournfull numbers I did weep of late,\n    Criton the wise,[64] and sweet Philander\u2019s fate,[65]\n    And Calvus,[66] to ye learned world well known.\n    Oppress\u2019d and wth repeated grief borne down,\n    Pal\u00e6mon\u2019s[67] death succeeding struck me dumb,\n    My tears were all I offer\u2019d at his tomb.\n      Thus th\u2019 Eastern sage[68] wth wondrous patience bore\n    Thrice dismal news, but he could bear no more,\n    Did weep, fall down, and silently adore.\n    My trouble now swells o\u2019er, and artless strays,\n    Where nature yields, and passion leads ye ways.\n      Thou man of peace! born in our publick rage,\n    Designed to correct ye giddy age:\n    Thy solid judgment did resist ye flame,\n    In midst of civil fury still ye same.\n    When the grave world run madly uniform,\n    Serene within thou weather\u2019d out ye storm.\n    The miter thou refused with a brow\n    Wch calmness shew\u2019d, and resolution too.\n    Esteemed by ye good, by ill men fear\u2019d,\n    By ye wise admired, and followed by ye herd.\n    Ev\u2019n Satan did trembling on thy lectures wait,\n    When thou display\u2019d his mysteries of state.\n    Begg\u2019d leave to plague thee, but he begg\u2019d in vain,\n    Vowing revenge upon ye list\u2019ning train.\n      Great prophet! who could\u2019st prudently dispense,\n    With a becoming warmth, substantial sense;\n    In such a manner thou thy God addrest\n    As both thy rev\u2019rence and thy wants exprest.\n    Thy zeal was not confined to th\u2019 sacred chair,\n    But bright through all thy actions did appear.\n    Thy spotless life thy doctrine best apply\u2019d,\n    Truth recommending wch thou first had try\u2019d.\n\n    Our honour and defence[69] with thee depart,\n    The gift of preaching and ye healing art.\n                                        J. H.\n\n    Artes infernas Divin\u00e0 Gilpinus arte\n      Detexit, vicit, jam requiescit ovans.\n                                     _Id._\n\n    Presbyter\u00fbm pr\u00e6ses, pr\u00e6co optimus, et medicin\u00e6\n      Doctor Gilpinus, conditur hoc tumulo.\n                                        T. P.\n\nFitly accompanying this \u2018elegy\u2019 and\u2014as verse little superior\nbut\u2014similarly valuable as a \u2018testimony,\u2019 come the lines of Dr Harle,\nwhich Horsley thus prefaces:\u2014\u2018I have oft heard him mention the severe\nshock the death of Dr Gilpin gave him.\u2019 His tribute to Gilpin occurs\nin a \u2018copy of verses upon the death of the Rev. John Turnbull of North\nShields.\u2019 It is as follows:\u2014\n\n    \u2018How oft have we with admiration hung\n    On the angelic Gilpin\u2019s pow\u2019rful tongue,\n    Who in perfection had the mighty art,\n    To form the soul and captivate the heart;\n    Pour Gospel balm into the wounded soul,\n    And vengeance on the harden\u2019d conscience rowl.\n    When he hell\u2019s gloomy stratagems did clear[70]\n    Man ceased, and Satan then began to fear\n    His empire\u2019s utter ruin drawing near.\n    Great man! whom goodness did to greatness raise,\n    Nor forced applause, nor warmly courted praise.\n    The tempting dignity he did despise\n    Made him more glorious still in good men\u2019s eyes.\u2019[71]\n                             (As before, pp. 20, 21.)\n\nI have next to set forth the famous \u2018story\u2019 of THOMAS STORY the\nQuaker missionary-preacher\u2014of his interviews with Dr Gilpin; wherein\nit will be seen he shews the deepest respect for him, albeit in\nhis self-opinionativeness unconvinced of the erroneous tendency of\nhis \u2018views\u2019 and practice. These \u2018notes\u2019 are found in a folio that\nhas now gone out of sight, and become among the rarest of rare\nQuaker books.[72] The narrative is too tedious for reproduction in\nfull; but a specimen will interest. Having told of his conversion\nto the principles of Quakerism, and more especially of the result\nof the reading of \u2018three small books,\u2019 he goes on: \u2018Some time\nafter this, [1691,] Dr Gilpin, before mentioned, sent his son, a\ncounsellor-[at-law], under whom I had been initiated into the study\nof the law, and who was one of those at the tavern aforesaid, and\nstill retained a great affection for me\u2014to invite me to his house\nat Scaleby Castle, and desired to see some of the Quakers\u2019 books,\nsupposing I had been imposed upon by reading them; and I sent him,\nas I remember, all that I had. Soon after I had parted with these\nbooks, I observed a cloud come over my mind and an unusual concern;\nand therein the two sacraments\u2014commonly so termed\u2014came afresh into my\nremembrance, and divers scriptures and arguments _pro_ and _con_: and\nthen I was apprehensive the Doctor was preparing something of that\nsort to discourse me upon; and I began to search out some scriptures\nin defence of my own sentiments on those subjects: but as I proceeded\na little in that work I became more uneasy and clouded: upon which\nI laid aside the Scripture and sat still, looking towards the Lord\nfor counsel. For I considered the Doctor as a man of great learning,\nreligious in his way, an ancient preacher and writer too, famous in\nOliver\u2019s time, and a \u201cthrone\u201d among his brethren: and that he might\nadvance such subtilties as I could not readily confute nor would\nconcede to, as knowing them erroneous, though I might not be suddenly\nfurnished with arguments to demonstrate their fallacy; and so might\nreceive hurt. And then it was clear in my understanding that as he was\nin his own will and strength, though with a good intent, in his own\nsense, searching the letter [of the Scripture,] and depending upon\nthat and his own wisdom, acquirements, and subtilty, leaning to his\nown spirit and understanding, I must decline that way and trust in the\nSpirit of Christ, the divine Author of the Holy Scriptures. And as\nthis caution was presented in the life and virtue of truth, I rested\nsatisfied therein, and searched no further on that occasion. When I\nwent to his house, he entered into a discourse on those subjects; and\nhad such passages of Scripture folded down as he purposed to use. And\nwhen I observed it, I was confirmed that my sight of him in my own\nchamber at Carlisle, and of his work some days before, was right, [as\nif, to intercalate a remark, it needed prescience to foretell that the\nDoctor\u2019s appeal would be \u2018to the Law and to the Testimony\u2019!!] and\nmy mind was strengthened thereby. But before he began to move upon\nthe subject, he dismissed every other person out of the room, so that\nhimself and I remained alone. The first thing he said was, in a calm\nmanner, to admonish me to be very cautious how I espoused the errors\nof the Quakers; for he had heard of late and with concern that I had\nbeen among them, or seemed to incline that way. I answered that I had\nnot been much among them, nor seen any of their books but those I had\nsent him, and knew not of any errors they held. Yes, said he, they\ndeny the ordinances of Christ, the two sacraments\u2014Baptism and the Lord\ns Supper; and then opened his book [his!] at one of his down-folded\nleaves, where he read thus, 1 Cor. i. 2, xi. 23, 26....\u2019 Now follows\nthe usual delusive appeals beyond the \u2018letter,\u2019 as \u2018carnal,\u2019 and all\nthe unconsciously-blaspheming, \u2018_setting-aside_,\u2019 of plain words that\nreveal \u2018the mind of the Spirit,\u2019 commingled with a simple-minded\nself-superiority which need not be illustrated. Very patient and\nwonderingly-silent must have been the Doctor with his undoubtedly pious\nand acute, but most perverse, visitor. He thus closes, \u2018The Doctor\ndid not oppose this, [about prayer,] but only said I had given him\nbetter satisfaction on that point than he had found in the book; and\nafterwards he was much more free and familiar with me than before, or\nthan I expected: and so we parted in friendship, and I returned in\npeace and gladness,\u2019[73] (pp. 41-45.)\n\nBut by far the most important, as it is the most elaborate, \u2018estimate\u2019\nof our Worthy, is that of Calamy, who, usually marked by judicial calm,\nand chary of praise, glows and burns in the fulness of his admiration.\nThe fervour of his eulogy of Gilpin contrasts with his usual\nmatter-of-fact statements, and surprises by its suddenness and passion.\nWith this I shall close those personal tributes by contemporaries. Thus\nthe \u2018Account\u2019 under \u2018Grastoke\u2019 runs:\u2014\n\n\u2018Richard Gilpin, M.D. He was designed by God for great work in his\nchurch, and was singularly qualified for it. He had a large share of\nnatural abilities, which he had wonderfully improved by an unwearied\nindustry and long and hard study, so that there was scarce anything\nthat accomplished a man, a scholar, a physician, or divine, but he\npossessed it in great perfection.\n\n\u2018His stature was of the middle sort, rather inclining to the lesser\nsize; but his presence was far from being mean. There was a pleasing\nmixture of majesty and sweetness, affableness and gravity in his\naspect. He could readily set his countenance to a severity or mildness\nas the business or persons he had to do with required; and he did it\nnot by any artificial affectation, but naturally and with ease, in such\na way as kept up the dignity of his profession, and to such an end as\nmade religion both more awful and more alluring.\n\n\u2018He had a delicate, fine, and polite fancy, expressing itself in a\nplenty of words, which gave clear and lively images of things, and kept\nup the life, strength, and elegancy of the English tongue.\n\n\u2018His memory was strong and faithful, and gave back with great exactness\nwhat he committed to it, though it was a treasury of very great\nreading, and filled with variety of matter in several sciences.\n\n\u2018To these was added a most penetrating, discerning judgment. This\nenabled him in reading to choose well, and to form a just opinion of\nthe sentiments of others, which was always with that candour as made\nanother considerable addition to his many excellences.\n\n\u2018He had so well digested all necessary parts of learning that he had\nthem in readiness when he needed them. He used such things in their\nproper place, and adorned his discourses with them as there was\noccasion; and was able to make that which was little else but pageantry\nappear with a due gracefulness and beautiful in its season.\n\n\u2018As he had a rich fund of sense, learning, experience, and reading to\nfit him for a divine, so he had all the qualifications necessary for a\npreacher in the highest degree that can well be thought attainable. The\nseveral endowments that make a man a true, divine, orator did jointly\nmeet in him.\n\n\u2018He had a voice strong enough to command the most usual public places\nof divine worship. It was piercing and sweet, and naturally well\nmodelled. He had the true skill of fixing an accent upon particular\nwords where the matter needed it. There was a force attended his way\nof speaking without an undue transport. He was vigorous and vehement,\nbut under great conduct. His expressions were conceived and his sermons\ndelivered without the use of notes: and he was qualified for that way\nof preaching. His pregnant memory, his ready invention, his great\npresence of mind, his natural fluency, that made him able to speak well\nand gracefully, with ease and assurance, entitled him to it. He could\nclothe any matter in apt words, with all the ornaments of a regular\nelocution. He fell neither into too swift an utterance, nor was forced\nupon any unbecoming, unguarded expressions. There was no restraint\nupon his delivery by being thus managed. It made him only capable of\nspeaking what he did with much greater warmth and life and decency of\ngesture. It had all the smoothness of style and propriety of words to\nmake it acceptable. It had all the graces of natural oratory, all the\ndecencies of behaviour to recommend it. And that which completed all,\nit came from a serious mind, the concern of which was visibly to be\nread both in his countenance and expressions. He spoke from his very\nheart, as appeared sometimes in the force of his words, sometimes\nin his tears, and usually in both. He spake with solemnity and\nseriousness, with gravity and majesty, and yet with so much meekness\nmixed with all, as declared him to be a man of God and ambassador of\nChrist. There was a lively air of delivery, a sacred vehemence of\naffection in what he spake, that were very much his peculiar talent.\nHe knew how to temper his discourses with due motion. His gestures\nwere admirably taking and graceful, and further expressive of what he\nwas delivering. In prayer he was likewise most solemn and fervent, and\nusually expressed himself much in Scripture language, and with a flood\nof affection. The very fountains of it seemed in the performance of\nthat duty to be broken up and the great deep of it opened. It often\nforced him to silence for a little till it had flowed out at his eyes.\nIn his pulpit discourses he was a very great example, both as to\nthe design and method of them. His design was vast and noble in the\nordinary course of his preachings. He usually proposed some subject,\nand pursued it on various texts. Every head with its enlargements was\nclosely studied, and his particulars under each general were admirably\nchosen. If he had ever so many, none could be wanting; if never so few,\nthere seemed to need no more. In the handling of any subject, after\nhe had explained and proved what he had undertaken, with a great deal\nof clearness and affection, he was most plain, familiar, and moving\nin his applications. His way in these was another particular talent\nthat he had. In all his uses he was excellent, but mostly so in his\nexhortations. He made them as so many set discourses of persuasion.\nThey were delivered with most address and greatest warmth and vigour.\nHe entered upon them usually with some rousing, lively preface to\ngain attention, and then offered his motives, which were prosecuted\nwith the most pungent expressions. Here his earnestness increased,\ntogether with his voice, and the vehemency of it. He had a feeling\napprehension of the importance of what he was then urging upon his\nhearers, and every word was big with concern of mind. He affected an\nelaborate eloquence at no time, but least of all then. In easy but\nmoving expressions, and with a distinguishing \u03c0\u03ac\u03b8\u03bf\u03c2 he would plead with\nsinners sometimes for a whole sermon together, without flagging in his\naffections or suffering his attentive hearers to do it in theirs. He\nwas a man of a distinguishing knowledge and experience in the mysteries\nof Christianity; and of a discerning spirit in understanding a work\nof grace upon the hearts of others. With a clear head and searching\nskill in divine things, he had a sincere and warm heart. The fire of\nzeal and the light of knowledge accompanied one another. He kept up a\nserious temper at all times and in all places and company, without much\ndiscernible alteration or abatement; but this did not in the least sour\nhis disposition, which was cheerful, though thinking and solid. His\nskill in government appeared in the managing a numerous congregation\nof very different opinions and tempers. His integrity, modesty,\nand contempt of the world, in refusing the bishopric of Carlisle,\nas another of the family (Mr Bernard Gilpin) had done before him,\nconsonant to their motto, _dictis factisque simplex_. The care of the\nchurches lay upon him. His unblamable character had obtained amongst\nall but those whose ill-nature would suffer them to speak well of none\nwho differed from them. He was much respected by many for the good he\nhad done them as a physician. Among persons of rank and quality in the\nparts where he lived, all necessary means were scarce thought to have\nbeen used if he had not been consulted. He went about doing good to\nthe souls and bodies of men. This world was not in his eye, none could\ncharge him with anything like covetousness.\u2019\n\nBe it remembered that these are the \u2018words\u2019 in every case, of men who\nknew not to flatter, and spake out of \u2018perfect knowledge.\u2019 Above all,\nbe it specially remembered that I have been quoting from no \u2018Funeral\nSermon,\u2019 with its almost inevitable exaggerations.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt only remains that I give a complete annotated list of the extant\nwritings of Dr Gilpin, arranged chronologically as published, also an\naccount of the manuscript of _D\u00e6monologia Sacra_, and the destruction\nof other MSS.\n\nI. The Agreement of the Associated Ministers and Churches of the\nCounties of Cumberland and Westmerland [_sic._]. With something for\nExplication and Exhortation annexed. London: Printed by T. L., for\nSimon Waterson, and are sold at the sign of the Globe, in Paul\u2019s\nChurchyard, and by Richard Scot, Bookseller in Carlisle. 1656. Pp. 59.\n4to.\n\n \u2042 In the copy of above in St Patrick\u2019s (Cathedral) Library, (Marsh\u2019s,)\n at p. 52, there is a careful correction in Gilpin\u2019s autograph of\n Carolostadius for Oecolompadius, which itself confirms the authorship.\n There is no name on title-page or elsewhere; but Calamy gives it in\n his enumeration. Account, vol. ii. p. 157.\n\nII. The Temple Rebuilt: a Discourse on Zachery vi. 13. Preached at\na Generall Meeting of the Associated Ministers of the County of\nCumberland, at Keswick, May 19. By Richard Gilpin, Pastor of the Church\nat Graistock, in Cumberland. London: Printed by E. T., for Luke Fawne,\nat the Parrot, in Paul\u2019s Churchyard, and are to be sold by Richard\nScott, Bookseller in Carlisle. 1658. 4to. Ep. Dedy., pp. 6, and 40. On\nreverse of title-page is this note: \u2018We, the Associate Ministers of\nthe County of Cumberland, do earnestly desire our reverend brother, Mr\nRichard Gilpin, to print his acceptable Sermon preached this day at our\nGenerall Meeting.\n\n  TIMOTHY TULLIE, _Modr. pro Temp._\n  JOHN JACKSON, _Scribe_.\u2019\n\n \u2042 My own copy has inscribed in Gilpin\u2019s autograph, \u2018_Ex dono\n Authoris_,\u2019 and again misprints are carefully corrected.\n\nIII. Disputatio Medica Inauguralis de Hysterica Passione, quam Pr\u00e6side\nDeo Opt. Max. ex autoritate magnifici D. Rectoris D. Johannis Coccii,\nin Inclyt\u00e2 Lugd. Batav. Academia Eloquenti\u00e6 et Historiarum Professoris\nceleberrimi nec non amplissimi Senat\u00fbs Academici, Consensu et Alm\u00e6\nFacultatis Medic\u00e6 Decreto, Pro Gradu Doctoratus, Summisque in Medicina\nHonoribus ac Privilegiis legitime obtinendis, Eruditorum examini\nsubjicit Richardus Gilpin, Anglus Cumbriens. Die 6 Julii, loco horisque\nsolitis, ante merid. Lugduni Batavorum, Apud Viduam et Haeredes\nJohannis Elsevirii Academi\u00e6 Typograph. 1676. 4to. Pp. 8.\n\n \u2042 The following is the dedication to his (second) father-in-law:\n \u2018Celeberrimo et virtute maxime conspicuo viro Gulielmo Brisco de\n Crofton, in Comitatu Cumbri\u00e6 Armigero, Socero suo venerando. Hanc\n Disputationem Inauguralem observanti\u00e6 signum offert et inscribit\n Richardus Gilpin.\u2019\n\nIV. _D\u00e6monologia Sacra._ 1677. 4to. See our reprint, pp. 2, 7, 126,\n312, for general and special title-pages.\n\n \u2042 In our \u2018Prefatory Note,\u2019 I have characterised this the most\n important of Gilpin\u2019s works, and add here a little from the Barnes\u2019\n \u2018Memoirs,\u2019 (as before,) and from one well capable of pronouncing an\n opinion. 1. Barnes: \u2018What had greatly raised Dr Gilpin\u2019s fame was\n his treatise of \u201cSatan\u2019s Temptations,\u201d which, in imitation of a book\n of King James I., he entitled \u201cD\u00e6monologia Sacra,\u201d the largest and\n completest of any extant upon that subject. Being out of print, both\n it and an account of its author, and others of his writings, may be\n given the world when his posterity think it convenient, (pp. 145,\n 146.) 2. John Ryland, M.A.: \u2018If ever there was a man that was clearly\n acquainted with the cabinet-councils of hell, this author is the man,\u2019\n [in his \u2018Cotton Mather.\u2019]\n\nV. The Comforts of Divine Love: Preached upon the Occasion of the much\nLamented Death of the Reverend Mr Timothy Manlove. With his Character,\ndone by another Hand. London. 1700. 12mo. Epistle, pp. 2. Character,\npp. 4. Sermons, pp. 46.\n\n \u2042 The Williams\u2019 copy is marked contemporaneously \u201816th January 1699.\u2019\n Prefixed is a portrait of Dr Manlove\u2014for, like Gilpin and Pringle, he\n too was an M.D.\u2014by Vander Gucht.\n\nVI. An Assize Sermon, Preached before Judge Twisselton and Serg.\nBernard at Carlisle, September the 10th, Anno 1660. And Now Publish\u2019d\nand Recommended to the Magistrates of the Nation, as a Means, by God\u2019s\nBlessing, to quicken them to a serious Pursuit of the Honourable and\ntruly Religious Design, for the Reformation of Manners, which is now\non foot, and Countenanced by the Nobility, Bishops, and Judges, in\nthe late Account of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners, and\napplauded by the Serious and Religious Men of all Persuasions. By R.\nGilpin, now Minister of the Gospel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. London:\nPrinted for Tho. Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns, near Mercers\nChapple; and Sarah Burton, Bookseller at Newcastle. 1700. 4to.\n\nI have now to notice the MANUSCRIPTS of Gilpin. By the courtesy of\nthe Rev. Bernard Gilpin, Bengeo, Hertford, I have had confided to me\nthe original holograph of \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_,\u2019 and in our reprint\nI have found it clearing up occasional misprints and mis-pointings.\nThe MS. is not complete; the collation is as follows: General title\nand three special titles, pp. 3. To the Reader, pp. 6, signed \u2018Rich.\nGilpin.\u2019 Treatise on to Part II., page 255, (in our edition,) ending\nin line 21st from top, 4 disqui[eting].\u2019 The penmanship is clear and\nlegible, with few erasures, and having a margin on either side. On the\ntop of the page whereon Part I. begins, there is the date, \u2018Newcastle,\nJuly 9, 1671.\u2019[74] Further: Calamy, in his \u2018Account,\u2019 thus mentions a\n_manuscript_ treatise of which he had heard: \u2018Among other things he\nhath left behind him in manuscript, a valuable Treatise concerning\nThe Pleasantness of the Ways of Religion; and in whatsoever hands it\nlies, it is pity but it should see the light,\u2019 (vol. ii. p. 157.) It\nis to be lamented that this appeal was not responded to, as Prebendary\nGilpin records sorrowfully its loss as follows: \u2018Among his other papers\nwas found a treatise of considerable length, prepared, as it seemed,\nfor the press, \u201cOn the Pleasures of Religion.\u201d This MS., and several\nother MSS. of Dr Gilpin\u2019s, consisting chiefly of heads and divisions\nof sermons, from which he used commonly to preach, fell into the hands\nof the author of this memoir; and being deposited in a box with\nother papers, and placed in the corner of a closet, were attacked by\nwhat is commonly called dry damp, and were almost entirely spoiled.\nIf anything had been interposed between the bottom of the box and\nthe floor so as to have suffered the air to circulate, the mischief\nhad been prevented;\u2019 and what levity in the custodier of so precious\na legacy that this little care was neglected. Mr Gilpin of Juniper\nGreen writes me concerning these spoiled MSS.: \u2018Nevertheless [_i.e._,\nnotwithstanding their utter destruction by the dry-rot] my mother kept\nthe fragments all the days of her life with great veneration. But now\nthese relics\u2014they were little better than ashes\u2014of our ancestor have\nperished.\u2019\n\nI have thus done my best to revivify the story of RICHARD GILPIN, His\nhighest \u2018record\u2019 is \u2018on high;\u2019 but those who love the memory of our\nWorthy, will, it is hoped, accept kindly our endeavours to keep his\ngrave green, and to import, so to speak, personality to the name in an\nold title-page\u2014of one who did valiant service for The Master:\n\n    \u2018Sword and spear he might not wield,\n    But with faith his heart to shield,\n    Marched he to the battle-field.\u2019\u2014[\u2018_Paradisus Anim\u00e6._\u2019]\n\nAnd so I close with like verses by leal-hearted Sir Egerton Brydges:\n\n    \u2018His tongue, the Spirit\u2019s two-edged sword,\n      Had magic in its blade;\n    For while it smote with every word,\n      It healed the wounds it made.\n    Yet, who so humbly walked as he,\n      A conqueror in the field;\n    Wreathing the rose of victory\n      Around his radiant shield!\u2019\n                       ALEXANDER B. GROSART.\n\n LIVERPOOL.\n\n\nAPPENDIX TO MEMOIR.\n\nA.\u2014Page xvi.\u2014ANCESTRY AND DESCENDANTS OF THE GILPINS.\n\nThe different \u2018County\u2019 Historians, and Works on the old families of\nEngland, give more or less full details concerning the Gilpins in all\ntheir many branches. The \u2018Arms\u2019 are _Or_, a boar passant sable, armed\nand tusked Gules. A fine book-plate of this adorns Prebendary Gilpin\u2019s\nFamily Manuscript. These \u2018Arms\u2019 are hereditarily understood to have\nbeen derived from the fact that a Richard de Gylpyn or Gilpin\u2014who is\nregarded as the founder of the house\u2014killed a wild boar which had\ninfested the neighbourhood of Kentmere, in the reign of King John. [See\nNicholson and Burns\u2019 \u2018Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland,\u2019\n(as before,) vol. i. pp. 135-137.] This is confirmed by Sir Daniel\nFleming\u2019s Collection of Pedigrees, in the possession of Sir W. Fleming\nof Rydal, Co. Westm. Bart. A.D. 1713; and is given by Bishop Carleton\nin his Life of Bernard Gilpin. From these authorities, and various\nother Family documents, I construct this genealogy of the elder House:\u2014\n\n1. Richard ... founder. He a son, 2. William, who married a daughter of\nThomas Ayray, bailiff of Kentmere. He a son, 3. Richard, who married\ndaughter of Fleming of Coningston, from whom many descendants are found\nin and around Kendal. He a son, 4. William. He a son, 5. Richard. He a\nson, 6. William, a captain at Bosworth field, and there killed. He a\nbrother, 7. Edwin, two of whose sons were distinguished\u2014viz., (1.) The\nambassador of Queen Elizabeth to the States of Holland. (2.) Bernard,\nthe \u2018Apostle of the North,\u2019 was the fourth son. He, [_i.e._, Edwin,] a\nson, 8. William. He a son, 9. George. He a son, 10. William. He a son,\n11. George. He succeeded by, 12. Christopher Gilpin, a half brother of\nGeorge, in whom the direct _male_ line ended. The \u2018Kentmere\u2019 estate\nsold to Sir Charles Philipson.\u2014[_N._ and _B._\u2014_as before_.]\u2014William,\nson of Richard, [= the 4th of our list,] married a daughter of Thomas\nLancaster of Sockbred, who descended of the baron of Kendal. His son\nRichard, again [= 5th in our list,] married a daughter of Sir Rowland\nThornborroux, knight of Rampsell. This Richard married as his second\nwife Margaret Layton = Enwine, second daughter of Thomas Layton of\nDalemaine, who had several sons\u2014Anthony, Thomas, Sir William, Sir\nBryan, Sir Cuthbert, Sir Richard, all famous men, mostly soldiers, and\nsome knights of Rhodes. His daughters also intermarried with Redman,\nCarelton, Clyborne, and Vaux. We may now tabulate the descent. From\nRichard, and his second wife, Margaret Layton, comes\u2014\n\n     Randall = Sykes.\n             \u2502\n             \u251c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2510\n             \u2502        \u2502       \u2502         \u2502        \u2502          \u2502\n          Richard.  John.  Francis.  George.  Bernard.  2 daughters.\n             \u2502\n     \u250c\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014\u2014-\u253c\u2014\u2014-\u2014-\u2014-\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014-\u2014\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014-\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014--\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2014-\u2014\u2510\n     \u2502       \u2502         \u2502         \u2502         \u2502       \u2502       \u2502       \u2502\n  William  George.  Randall.  Bernard   Richard.  Caly.  Mary.  Margaret.\n  = Eliz.                    of Houghton   \u2502\n  Washington.                 le Spring.    \u2502father of Isaac, father\n     \u2502                                                of our Dr Gilpin.\n     \u2502\n   \u250c\u2014\u253c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u252c\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-\u2510\n   \u2502           \u2502       \u2502       \u2502        \u2502         \u2502        \u2502       \u2502\n   George.  2d son. 3d son. 4th son. 5th son. 6th son. 7th son.    3.\n      \u2502                                                         daughters\n      William = * * * * Sandforth.\n         \u2502\n         George.\n\n[See Hutchinson\u2019s \u2018History of Durham,\u2019 vol. ii. 703, account of the\nGilpins, from a paper in the hands of Mr Rob. Sober of Sherburn, near\nDurham, without date.\u2014Randall MSS. The last George, at the time of\nmaking out Sober\u2019s pedigree, is said to be living, and owner of the\nancient house of the Gilpins, Kentmere Hall.]\n\nTurning to _Dr Richard Gilpin_, I have had two elaborate pedigrees\n(of descent) entrusted to me, by the former of which, it appears our\nWorthy had a very large family by, (as I understand,) his two wives.\nBy this also I find that his second wife was born \u2018Oct. 15th, 1625,\u2019\neldest daughter of William Brisco of Crofton\u2014her name Susannah. I have\na suspicion that the first Mrs Gilpin died at Greystoke, and that the\nDoctor re-married before leaving it; but owing to the time-worn state\nof the Greystoke \u2018Registers,\u2019 all the entries that remain concerning\nDr Gilpin\u2019s family are the two children given in our Memoir. Following\nWilliam and Susannah were, 1. Isaac, born July 12, 1658; married\nElizabeth, daughter of Thomas Clagget. Then, 2. Susanna, born Nov.\n27th, 1659; married Matthew Parlis, minister. [The former Susannah must\nhave died as a child.] Then, 3. Anne, who married Sawrey of Broughton\nTower, Esq. [On this marriage, see Barnes\u2019 \u2018Memoir,\u2019 as before, pp.\n142, 143.] She was born December 5th, 1660. Then, 4. Elizabeth, born\nAug. 3, 1662; died unmarried. Then, 5. Richard: died of a blow of his\nschoolmaster. Then, 6. Mary, born Dec. 28th, 1666; died unmarried.\nThen, 7. Dorothy, born Aug. 13, 1668; married, (1.) Jabez Cay, M.D.;\n(2.) Eli Fenton. Then, 8. John, born Feb. 13, 1669. [More of him\nimmediately.] Then, 9. Francis, born July 27, 1671; ob. infant.\nThen, 10. Bernard, born Oct. 6, 1672, died in his youth at Jamaica,\nunmarried. Then, 11. Francis, born Jan. 27, 1675, died in infancy.\nThen, 12. Thomas, born July 27, 1677, died unmarried, June 20, 1700.\nReturning upon John, [eighth of this list,] he married Hannah, daughter\nof Robert Cay, Esq. of Newcastle, and left large issue, as follows: 1.\nRichard, born April 9, 1700, (soon after his grandfather died,) died\nunmarried, 1723. 2. Robert, born 17th Aug. 1702, married Ruth, daughter\nof Reynold Hall of Newbiggen, Esq. [More of this pair immediately.]\n3. William, born Jan. 1, 1700 (?), married Mary, daughter of Thomas\nDickenson, clerk. 4. John, born 1st Sept. 1705. 5. Thomas, born Jan. 8,\n1711, ob. 12 March 1713. 6. Susanna. 7. A daughter. 8. Barbara, born\n16th May 1710, wife of Braithwaite of Stockton. 9. Susanna, born 28th\nApril 1712, wife of Isaac Cookson of Newcastle. 10. Hannah, born 22d\nMay 1715, wife of.... Goldsmith. Returning again upon Robert, [second\nof the list from John,] he had issue\u20141. John, who married daughter of\nJohn Cookson of London. He took the name of Sawrey on succeeding to the\nBroughton Tower estate. 2. Richard, died in East Indies. 3. Ruth. 4.\n5. Jer. (?). William, [third of list from John,] had issue\u20141. Thomas,\nob. an infant. 2. John, dead 1809. 3. Robert, _ib._ 4. Hannah, married.\n5. William, died 18th September \u00e6t. 67. So much for the first paper.\nNow for the second, which gives the descendants of the eldest son of\nDr Gilpin, viz., William, born, as stated in Memoir, at Greystoke, 5th\nSept. 1657. He became a barrister-at-law, justice of the peace, and\ndeputy vice-admiral for county Cumberland, and recorder of the city\nof Carlisle; bought Highfield Moor and the tithes of Crosby; died at\nScaleby Castle, Aug. 14, 1724, \u00e6t. 67. He married Mary, eldest daughter\nand one of the co-heiresses of Henry Fletcher of Talantyre. The issue\nwere\u20141. Susan Maria, born at Scaleby Castle, 10th Nov. 1689, wife of\nJoshua Dacre Appleby of Kirklevington, by whom she had issue\u2014[will be\nenumerated immediately]. 2. Anne, born April 14, 1691. 3. Richard, born\n6th Feb. 1692, married Mary, daughter of Enoch Hudson. 4. Dorothy,\nob. an infant. 5. Henry, _ibid._ 6. William, born at Whitehaven,\nmarried Margaret, daughter of G. Langstaff. 7. Henry, born Oct. 1692,\nob. at Jamaica. 8. John Bernard, born at Scaleby, Jan. 24, 1701, ob.\ncirca 1776, buried at Carlisle Cathedral. He married Matilda, eldest\ndaughter of George Langstaff, ob. circa 1773, buried at Carlisle. 9.\nDorothy, born at Scaleby, wife of Eaglivfield Griffith, born 4th Nov.\n1703. 10. George, born at Scaleby, 29th Aug. 1706, married Elizabeth,\nthird daughter of George Langstaff. Returning on Susan Maria, [eldest\ndaughter,] she had a daughter, Elizabeth, born at Whitehaven, Feb.\n12, 1708, ob. an infant, and a son, William, born June 1724, ob. at\nWhitehaven, 4th Dec. 1779. He married Elizabeth Hodgson, daughter of\nRobert Hodgson of Whitehaven, died at Denbigh Castle, 25th April 1792,\n\u00e6t. 60. They had issue\u20141. William Gilpin, born at Whitehaven, 12th Nov.\n1758, ob. 15th Oct. 1822, at East Sheen, Surrey, having married Sarah,\ndaughter of George Holland, Esq. of London, in 1793. Finally returning\non John Bernard, [eighth, _supra_,] he was father of the Rev. William\nGilpin, vicar of Boldre, prebendary of Salisbury, died April 5, 1804 at\nBoldre, \u00e6t 80. He will not soon be forgotten, as his delightful books,\nwith their carefully finished \u2018Illustrations\u2019 on \u2018Picturesque Beauty,\u2019\nare gathering increasing value as they become older. He had issue by\nhis first cousin. John Bernard Gilpin, Esq., who went to Philadelphia,\nand afterwards became British Consul at Rhode Island. His descendants\nare now partly in Nova Scotia, [J. Bernard Gilpin, Esq., M.D.,\nHalifax,] and in England and Scotland; and Rev. William Gilpin, born\nApril 8, 1757, rector\u2014an excellent and venerable man, and clergyman\u2014in\ncounty Salop; and Sawrey Gilpin, born Oct. 30, 1733, ob. 1808. For the\ntwo Papers whence most of the preceding details have been collected,\nI owe thanks to my friend Joshua Wilson, Esq., Nevil Park, Tunbridge\nWells. I may add that in Prebendary Gilpin\u2019s Family-Manuscript there\nare \u2018Memoirs\u2019 of William Gilpin, Esq., the recorder of Carlisle,\ncontaining valuable and interesting letters to and from the Lowther\nfamily. The \u2018Recorder\u2019 was a man of mark. His portrait is at Scaleby\nCastle. Next, severally William \u2018merchant at Whitehaven,\u2019 [See Story,\nas before.] Henry, of \u2018the Navy,\u2019 Thomas, John Bernard, Anne, Dorothy,\nSusannah Maria, the eldest daughter, who must have been a lady of\nuncommon originality and force of character, and largeness of heart.\n[As _above_. She was married to Dacre Appleby, Esq. of Kirklinton,\ncontiguous to Scaleby Castle. Curiously enough, their eldest son\nmarried a daughter of the Bishop of Carlisle. Mrs Appleby \u2018was\nfollowed by all the country, in tears, to her grave.\u2019] John Bernard,\u2014a\nvery capital \u2018Memoir\u2019 of a gallant soldier. Somerville, in \u2018The\nChase,\u2019 refers to the Windsor \u2018roads\u2019 constructed under his military\nsupervision. He was a familiar friend of the good Colonel Gardiner.\nThere are glimpses of the Rebellion of 1745 in this Memoir, throwing\nlight on events at Carlisle. At \u2018leisure hours\u2019 he cultivated painting,\nand when he lived at Carlisle, he had sometimes half a dozen young\npeople, or more, who used occasionally to attend him for instruction.\u2019\nOf these some became famous, _e.g._, John Smith, whom Lord Warwick sent\nto Rome, Robert Smirke, Esq., R.A., Mrs Head, &c. The Prebendary, in\nhis MS., here gives also an account of literary society of the period,\nincluding Warburton, Dr Brown, and others. There are Letters of this\nmany-gifted man, revealing a very beautiful and tender veneration\nfor his departed wife, whose loss he \u2018mourned unto the grave.\u2019 The\ncorrespondence between Mr and Mrs Bernard Gilpin is striking and\nbrilliant. Sawrey Gilpin, R.A., of Knightsbridge, their son, became\ncelebrated as an animal painter. Sir J. D. A. Gilpin, another son,\nwas knighted for his long services in America, West Indies, and\nGibraltar. He was a friend of Washington\u2019s. Catherine, sister of the\ntwo last, born at Scaleby Castle, 1738, was a woman of rare intellect,\nand a friend of Miss Blamire, the sweet Poetess of Cumberland. In a\nnew edition of Miss Blamire\u2019s \u2018Poems and Songs,\u2019 recently published,\nthere are given some by Miss Gilpin, equal to the others. She died\nat Carlisle in 1811. Even these bare names and dates will suffice to\nreveal a Family distinguished in well-nigh every department of human\nachievement, to be placed in their hereditary talent with the Hunters,\nGregorys, and Browns, and equally remarkable in their hereditary piety\nand worth, as well where they belonged to the Church of England as\nwhere they held true to Nonconformity, and their descent from the great\nand good Dr RICHARD GILPIN.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nB.\u2014Page xix.\u2014GILPINS AT OXFORD.\n\nThe following memoranda are taken from the three Lists of Queen\u2019s\nCollege, as detailed:\u2014\n\n I. From the List of Fellows:\n\n 1555. Gilpin. [In another and later hand this note is appended:\n\n \u2018Bernardus (_ni fallor_) R^r de Houghton le Spring in Com. Dunelm.\n V. Batesii Vitas clar. virorum, p. 284.\u2019 The apostle.]\n\n  1569. Richard Gilpin.\n  1572. Joshua Gilpin,\n\nII. From the List of Entries:\n\n  1594. Term. Mic. Gilpin.\n  1602.   \u201d   Pasch.  \u201d\n  1610.   \u201d     \u201d     \u201d\n  1614.   \u201d     \u201d     \u201d   _b_, [= \u2018bateller,\u2019 or exhibitioner.]\n  1631.   \u201d     \u201d  Samuel Gilpin, _b_, [_ibid._]\n\nIII. From the List of Matriculations:\n\n     1602. } Franciscus Gilpin, Lancastrensis filius ministri verbi Dei.\n  Oct. 15. }   Nat. An. 17.\n\n\nC.\u2014Page xix.\u2014NOTICES OF GILPINS.\n\nThe following extract from N. and B. \u2018History,\u2019 (as before,) vol. i.\np. 130, shews the Gilpins were freeholders in Strickland as early as\nthe days of Queen Bess: \u2018And in the 14 Eliz. William Parr, marquis of\nNorthampton, died seised thereof [_i.e._, of the manor of Strykeland\nRogers] and the same was assigned to his widow for dower, and the\nparticulars in the rental made thereof was as follows: manor of\nStrickland Roger: freeholders there, Edward Lancaster, Esquire, 26s.\n8d.: John Master, Esquire, 11s. 9d.: _William Gilpin_, 9s. 9d. Total\nof the (customary) rent of this manor \u00a315, 14s. 5d.: ten shillings\npaid yearly by Mr Lancaster\u2019s tenants, to be free of their gift from\nthe lord\u2019s will, being part of the said sum.\u2019 Further, this notice\noccurs under Chapel of Crosthwaite in parish of Heversham, \u2018The chancel\nand steeple of this chapel were built by one William Gilpin, who also\ncontributed largely towards the three bells, in 1626: on which bells\nare the following inscriptions: on the first bell: \u201cJesus, be our\nspeed:\u201d the second bell: \u201c_Soli Deo gloria_:\u201d the third bell:\n\n    \u201cA young man grave in godliness\n      William Gilpin by name\n    Gave forty pounds to make these sounds\n      To God\u2019s eternal fame.\u201d\n                            [Vol. I.\u202fp. 215.]\n\n\n\n\n                          D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA.\n\n\n                                 NOTE.\n\n For account of the holograph MS. of \u2018D\u00e6monologia Sacra\u2019\u2014still in\n the larger portion preserved\u2014see our Memoir _in loco_. The original\n edition of the book forms a handsome quarto. The general title-page\n will be found below: the special ones of Parts I., II., and III. in\n their respective places. There have been at least two reprints, but\n none comparable with the first. Our text is a careful reprint of the\n Author\u2019s own edition, collated in all doubtful places with the MS. as\n above. Mr Gilpin very largely quotes Scripture, without giving the\n book, chapter, and verse; we have made up the deficiency by filling\n all in, within brackets.\u2014G.\n\n                         _D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA._\n\n                                 OR, A\n\n                               TREATISE\n\n                                  OF\n\n                          Satans Temptations:\n\n                            In Three Parts.\n\n                          By RICHARD GILPIN.\n\n          2 Cor. 2. 11. _We are not ignorant of his Devices._\n\n                               _LONDON_,\n    Printed by _J. D._ for _Richard Randel_, and _Peter Maplisden_,\n            Booksellers in _New Castle_ upon _Tine_. 1677.\n\n\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\n\nThe accurate searches into the secrets of nature which this age\nhath produced, though they are in themselves sufficient evidences\nof a commendable industry, yet, seeing they fall so exceedingly\nshort of that discovery which men aim at\u2014giving us at best but\nprobable conjectures and uncertain guesses\u2014they are become as little\nsatisfactory to men that look after the true causes of things, as those\n\u2018ships of desire\u2019 whose great undertaking for gold had raised high\nexpectations in their attempts, but in the return brought nothing home\nfor their ventures but \u2018apes and peacocks,\u2019[1 Kings x. 22, and 2 Chron.\nix. 21.] While men reflect upon themselves under such disappointments,\nthey cannot but check themselves, for over-promising themselves in\ntheir adventures, with that of Zophar, \u2018Vain man would be wise,\u2019 [Job\nxi. 12.]\n\nBut how happy would it be for men if such failures of expectation\nmight better inform them! If our attainments in these pursuits will\nnot bear our charges, nor recompense our pains and loss of time\nwith an answerable profit, though we may see cause sometimes, as a\ndivertisement or recreation, to use them, yet how shall we satisfy\nourselves to make them our chief and sole business?\n\nIf we knew of nothing of higher concern to us than these, our neglect\nof greater matters were more excusable; but seeing we are sufficiently\ninstructed that we have more weighty things to look after, such as\nrelate to a certain future estate of happiness or misery, the very\ndiscovery of this to a rational being must needs entitle such things\nto the first and greatest part of his care. He that knows that there\nis \u2018one thing necessary,\u2019 and yet suffers himself to be diverted from\nthe pursuit of that, by \u2018troubling himself about many things,\u2019 [Luke x.\n41,] is more justly chargeable with folly, than he that neglects his\nestate, and finds himself no other employment but to pursue feathers in\nthe wind.\n\nAmong those things that religion offers to our study, God and our\nown hearts are the chief. God is the first and last and whole of our\nhappiness; the beginning, progress, and completement of it is from him\nand in him\u2014for in that centre do all the lines meet; but our heart is\nthe stage upon which this felicity, as to the application of it, is\ntransacted: upon this little spot of earth doth God and Satan draw\nup their several armies; here doth each of them shew their power and\nwisdom; this is treated by both; each of them challenge an interest in\nit; it is attacked on the one side and defended on the other. So that\nhere are skirmishes, battles, and stratagems managed. That man, then,\nthat will not concern himself in his inquiries, how the matter goes\nin his own heart, what ground is got or lost, what forts are taken\nor defended, what mines are sprung, what ambuscados laid, or how the\nbattle proceeds, must needs lie under a just imputation of the greatest\nfolly; neither can he be excused in his neglect by the most pressing\nsolicitations of other things that seem to require his attendance\nupon the highest imaginable pretences of necessity: \u2018For what is he\nprofited, that gains the whole world, if he loses his soul?\u2019 [Mark\nviii. 36.]\n\nBut the exact and faithful management of such spiritual inquiries,\nwith their necessary improvement to diligent watchfulness and careful\nendeavours of resistance, is another manner of work than most men dream\nof. To discover the intrigues of Satan\u2019s policy, to espy his haunts and\nlurking-places in our hearts, to note his subtle contrivances in taking\nadvantages against us, and to observe how the pulse of the soul beats\nunder his provocations and deceitful allurements, how far we comply\nor dissent, requires so much attendance and laborious skilfulness,\nthat it cannot be expected that such men who design no more than to be\nChristians at the easiest rate, and content themselves with a formal\nsuperficiality of religion; or such who, having given up themselves to\nthe deceitful sweets of worldly carnal delights, are not at leisure to\nengage themselves in so serious a work; or such whose secret guilt of\nrebellious combination with the devil against God, makes them fearful\nto consider fully the hazards of that wickedness, which they had rather\npractise with forgetfulness, lest the review of their ways and sight of\ntheir danger should awaken their consciences to give them an unwelcome\ndisquiet; it cannot, I say, be expected that any of these sorts of men,\nwhilst they are thus set, should give themselves the trouble of so much\npains and toil as this business doth require.\n\nUpon this consideration I might rationally fix my prognostic of the\nentertainment of the following treatise. What acceptance soever it\nmay find with such as are cordially concerned for their souls and\nthe realities of religion\u2014and of such I may say as the apostle Paul\nconcerning brotherly love, 1 Thes. iv. 9, as touching this matter,\n\u2018They need not that I write unto them, for they themselves are taught\nof God\u2019 to be suspicious of Satan\u2019s devices; and by experience they\nfind his deceits so secret, and withal so dangerous, that any help\nfor further discovery and caution must needs be welcome to them;\nyet\u2014to be sure the prince of darkness, who is always jealous of the\nleast attempts that may be made against his empire, will arm his\nforementioned subjects against it, and whomsoever else he can prevail\nupon, by the power of prejudice, to reject it, as urging us to a study\nmore severe or harsh than is consistent either with the lower degrees\nof knowledge of many, or with that ease which most men desire to\nindulge to themselves; or as offering such things which they, to save\nthemselves from further trouble, will be willing to call chimeras or\nidle speculations: and this last I may rather expect, because in this\nlatter age Satan hath advanced so far in his general design against\nall Christianity, and for the introduction of paganism and atheism,\nthat none now can express a serious conscientious care for holiness\nand the avoidance of sin, but upon pain of the imputation of silliness\nor whining preciseness; and none can speak or write of conversion,\nfaith, or grace, but he shall be hazarded by the scoffs of those that\nare unwilling to judge the private workings of the heart to God-ward,\nor spiritual exercises of grace, to be any better than conceited whims\nand unintelligible nonsense: but seeing such men make bold to jeer,\nnot only that language and those forms of speech which the Holy Ghost\nthought fit to make use of in the Scriptures, but also the very things\nof \u2018Faith,\u2019 \u2018Grace,\u2019 and \u2018Spirit,\u2019 which are everywhere in the sacred\noracles recommended to us with the most weighty seriousness\u2014which with\nthem pass for no better than cheats and fancies\u2014we can easily sit under\ntheir contempt; and shall, as we hope, be so far from being jeered out\nof our religion, that their scorns shall have no more impression upon\nus than the ravings of a frenzical person that knows not what he speaks.\n\nNotwithstanding these, who are no way considerable for weight, there\nare, I hope, a great many who seriously employ themselves in the\ninwards as well as the outwards of religion\u2014and who will not suffer\nthemselves to be persuaded that the apostle obtruded an empty notion\nupon believers, when he recommended that observable truth to them,\nRom. ii. 28, \u2018He is not a Jew which is one outwardly,\u2019 &c.; for their\nsakes have I undertaken this labour of collecting and methodising the\ngrand stratagems and chief ways of delusion of the great deceiver. To\nthese I must particularly account for some few things relating to this\ndiscourse. As,\n\n1. That I have satisfied myself in the reasons of the publication of\nthese papers, and do not judge it requisite to trouble any so far as to\ntell what these reasons are. They who desire to resist such an enemy,\nand whose experience doth convince them that all helps are necessary,\nwill not need them; and those that are men of scorn or of avowed\ncarelessness will not regard them, though I should declare them.\n\n2. To prevent the misapprehensions, which possibly some may otherwise\nlabour withal, of a monstrous product from one text, because they may\nobserve one text in the front, and no other mentioned throughout the\nfirst and second parts; they may know that I made use of several in the\npreaching of these discourses, as suitable foundations for the several\nparticulars herein mentioned; but in the moulding up of the whole\ninto the method of a treatise, for the ease of the reader, I thought\nfit to lay aside those introductions\u2014as also many other occasional\napplications which were proper for sermons, and a great many things\nwhich were necessary to be spoken for explication and illustration\nof these points to a popular auditory\u2014and have only presented the\nsubstance in a more close connexion; because if there be any little\nobscurity that may at first appear to any for want of variety of words,\nthe treatise being under their eye, will be at leisure to attend their\nreview in a second or third reading; which, however, I would recommend\nearnestly to those that in these concerns do really design to be \u2018wise\nfor themselves.\u2019\n\n3. Neither should it seem strange that I have frequently made use\nof instances from history or other later relations. Whosoever shall\nconsider the nature of the matter treated on will not complain of this\nas a needless trouble put upon them; yet withal I have been so careful\nof doing any persons an unkindness, by making too bold with them, that\nI mentioned no names but such as upon such occasions have been made\npublic by others before. The rest I have only mentioned in the general,\ndiscovering their case where it was useful, but concealing the persons.\n\n4. It may perhaps seem a defect, that the several directions, remedies,\nor counsels which are requisite to be observed in making resistance\nagainst Satan are not added, except some few hints in the latter end of\nthe third part, and some other things in that part, in the applications\nof the several doctrines therein, which I thought fit, upon good\ngrounds, to leave in the order of a preaching method; but such may be\npleased to consider that several have performed that part very fully,\nto whose labours I had rather refer the reader than trouble him with a\nrepetition. It was only my design to endeavour a more full discovery,\nthough every way short of the thing itself, of Satan\u2019s craft, because\nthe knowledge of this is so necessary, and withal others have done it\nmore sparingly. Such as it is, accept and improve for thy spiritual\nadvantage; for that was the end of this undertaking, by him who desires\nthat thy soul may prosper,\n\n  RICH. GILPIN.\n\n\n\n\n                         _D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA_:\n\n                                 OR, A\n\n                               TREATISE\n\n                                  OF\n\n                          Satans Temptations\n\n                            The First Part.\n\n                              CONTAINING\n\n A Discourse of the Malice, Power, Cruelty and Diligence of Satan. Of\nhis cunning in Temptation in the general. Of his Method of tempting to\n  Sin. Of his Policies for maintaining his Possession. Of his Deceits\n    for the preventing and spoiling Religious Services and Duties.\n\n                              By _R. G._\n\n          2 Cor. 2. 11. _We are not ignorant of his Devices._\n\n                              _London_,\n    Printed by _J. D._ for _Richard Randel_, and _Peter Maplisden_,\n            Booksellers in _New-Castle_ upon _Tine_, 1677.\n\n\n\n\n                  A TREATISE OF SATAN\u2019S TEMPTATIONS.\n\n\nPART I.\n\n _Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring\n lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour._\u20141 PETER V. 8.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n _The introduction to the text, from a consideration of the desperate\n ruin of the souls of men.\u2014The text opened, expressing Satan\u2019s malice,\n power, cruelty, and diligence._\n\n\nThe souls of men are \u2018precious.\u2019 The whole world cannot repair their\nloss. Hence by God are all men in particular charged with care and\nwatchfulness about them. He hath also set up watchmen and overseers,\nwhose business it is to watch over souls, and in the most strict and\ncareful manner, as those that must \u2018give an account,\u2019 [Heb. xiii. 17.]\n\nWhat can more stir up men to the discharge of this duty than the\nfrequent alarms which we have of the assaults of such an adversary,\nwhose business it is to destroy the soul? \u2018The Philistines are upon\nthee, Samson!\u2019 [Judges xvi. 9;] he fights continually, and useth all\nthe policy and skill he hath for the management of his strength.\n\nBesides, it is a consideration very affecting, when we view the\n\u2018desolations that are made in the earth,\u2019 [Ps. xlvi. 8,] what wounds,\nwhat overthrows, what cruelties, slaveries, and captivities these\nconquered vassals are put to. It was, as some think, an inexcusable\ncruelty in David against the Ammonites, when he \u2018put them under saws,\nand harrows of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln,\u2019 2\nSam. xii. 31; but this spiritual Pharaoh hath a more grievous \u2018house\nof bondage,\u2019 and iron furnace. Neither is this miserable destruction\nended, but will keep pace with time, and shall not cease till Christ\nshall at his appearance finally conquer him and tread him down. If\nXerxes wept to look upon his army through the prospective of devouring\ntime, which, upon an easy foresight, shewed him the death of so great\na company of gallant men, we may well weep, as David at Ziklag, till\nwe can weep no more; or as Rachel for her children, \u2018refusing to be\ncomforted,\u2019 [Jer. xxxi. 15;] while we consider what a great number of\nsucceeding generations, \u2018heaps upon heaps,\u2019 [Judges xv. 16,] will be\ndrawn with him to a consuming Tophet. And could we follow him thither,\nto hear the cries of his prisoners, the roarings of his wounded, where\nthey \u2018curse the day\u2019 that brought them forth, and themselves for\ntheir folly and madness in hearkening to his delusions, the dreadful\noutcries of eternity, and then their \u2018rage against heaven\u2019 in cursings\nand blasphemings, while they have no mitigations or ease, nor the\nrefreshment of \u2018a drop of water to cool their tongues,\u2019 [Luke xvi.\n24,] we would surely think we could never spend our time better than\nin opposing such an enemy, and warning men to \u2018flee from the wrath to\ncome,\u2019 [Mat. iii. 7,] to take heed they come not into his snare. With\nwhat earnestness would we endeavour to persuade men! What diligence\nwould we use to cast water upon these devouring flames, and to pluck\nmen as brands out of the fire! It is true, if Satan had dealt plainly\nwith men, and told them what wages they were to expect, and set a\nvisible mark upon his slaves, or had managed a visibly destructive\nhostility, men have such natural principles of self-preservation, and\nof hatred of what appears to be evil, that we might expect they would\nhave fled from him, and still have been upon their guard; but he useth\nsuch artifices, such sleights and cozenage, that men are cast into a\nsleep or a golden dream; while he binds them in chains of darkness they\nsee not their end, the snare, nor the pit; nay, he intoxicates them\nwith a love of their misery, and a delight in helping forward their\nruin, so that they are volunteers in his service, and possessed with a\nmadness and rage against all that will not be as willing as themselves\nto go to hell; but especially if they put forth a compassionate hand to\nhelp any out of that gulf of misery, they hate them, they \u2018gnash upon\nthem with their teeth,\u2019 and run upon them with utmost violence, as if\nthey had no enemies but these compassionate Samaritans, [Luke x. 33.]\n\nHow great is this mystery of darkness! Who shall be able to open\nthe depths of it? Who shall declare it fully to the sons of men, to\nbring these \u2018hidden things to light\u2019? Especially seeing these hellish\nsecrets which are yet undiscovered, are double to those that have\nbeen observed, by any that have escaped from his power. He only whose\nprerogative it is \u2018to search the hearts of men\u2019 [Rev. ii. 23] can know,\nand make known, what is in the heart of Satan; he views all his goings,\neven those paths which the \u2018vulture\u2019s eye hath not seen,\u2019 [Job xxviii.\n7,] and can trace those footsteps of his, which leave no more print or\ntrack behind them than \u2018a ship in the sea, or a bird in the air, or a\nserpent on a stone,\u2019 [Prov. xxx. 19.]\n\nYet notwithstanding, we may observe much of his policies; and more\nwould God discover if we did but humbly and faithfully improve what we\nknow already. It is my design to make some discovery of those haunts I\nhave observed, if by that means I may be useful to you, to quicken and\nawaken you. And first I shall set before you the strength and power of\nyour enemy, before I open his cunning and craft.\n\nThere are found in him whatsoever may render an adversary dreadful.\n\n1. As, first, _Malice and enmity_: \u1f41 \u0391\u03bd\u03c4\u03af\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 is a law term, and\nsignifies an adversary \u2018at law,\u2019 one that is against our cause; and\nthe text, as some think, heightens this malice, (1.) By the article\n\u1f41, which denotes an arch enemy.[75] (2.) The name \u0394\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, which\nsignifies a slanderer or calumniator\u2014for the word is twice in the New\nTestament used for a slanderer\u2014shewing his hatred to be so great that\nit will not stick at lying and falsehood, either in accusing God to us\nor us to God. Nay, it particularly hints that when he hath in malice\ntempted a poor wretch to sin, he spares not to accuse him for it, and\nto load him with all things that may aggravate his guilt or misery,\naccusing him for more than he hath really done, and for a worse estate\nthan he is really in.[76]\n\n2. Secondly, _His power_. Under the metaphor of a \u2018lion,\u2019 a beast of\nprey, whose innate property is to destroy, and is accordingly fitted\nwith strength, with tearing paws, and a devouring mouth; that as a lion\nwould rend a kid with ease and without resistance, so are men swallowed\nup by him as with open mouth, so the word \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c0\u03b9\u1fc4 signifies, he can sup\nthem up at a draught, \u00e0 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c0\u03af\u03bd\u03c9.\n\n3. Thirdly, _His cruelty_: a \u2018roaring lion\u2019 implying not only his\ninnate property to destroy, which must be a strange fierceness, but\nalso that this innate principle is heightened and whetted on, as hunger\nin a lion sharpens and enrages that disposition till he get his prey,\nso that he becomes raving and roaring, putting an awful majesty upon\ncruelty, and frighting them out of endeavours or hopes of resistance,\nand increasing their misery with affrightments and tremblings. Thus\nSatan shews a fierce and truculent temper, whose power being put forth\nfrom such an implacable malice, must needs become rage and fierceness.\n\n4. Fourthly, _His diligence_: which, together with his cruelty, are\nconsequences of his malice and power; he \u2018goes about and seeks.\u2019 He is\nrestless in his pursuit, and diligent, as one that promiseth himself a\nsatisfaction or joyful contentment in his conquests.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n _Of the malice of Satan in particular.\u2014The grounds and causes of that\n malice.\u2014The greatness of it proved, and instances of that greatness\n given._\n\n\nI shall first give some account of his malice, by which it shall appear\nwe do not wrong the devil in calling him malicious, the truth of which\ncharge will evidence itself in the following particulars:\u2014\n\n1. First, _The devil, though a \u2018spirit,\u2019 yet is a proper subject of\nsin_. We need no other evidence for this than what doth by daily\nexperience result from ourselves. We have sins which our spirits and\nhearts do act, that relate not to the body, called \u2018a filthiness of\nthe spirit,\u2019 in contradistinction to the \u2018filthiness of the flesh,\u2019\n[2 Cor. vii. 1.] It is true, it cannot be denied but that those\niniquities which have a necessary dependence upon the organs of the\nbody, as drunkenness, fornication, &c., cannot properly, as to the\nformality of the act, be laid at Satan\u2019s door, though as a tempter and\nprovoker of these men he may be called the father of these sins; yet\nthe fore-mentioned iniquities, which are of a spiritual nature, are\nproperly and formally committed by him, as lying, pride, hatred, and\nmalice. And this distinction Christ himself doth hint: John viii. 44,\n\u2018When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own,\u2019 where he asserts\nsuch spiritual sins to be properly and formally acted by himself. The\ncertainty of all appears in the epithets given him\u2014\u2018the wicked one,\u2019\n\u2018the unclean spirit;\u2019 as also those places that speak his fall, \u2018They\nkept not their first estate,\u2019 Jude 6; \u2018The angels that sinned,\u2019 2 Peter\nii. 4. If sins spiritual are in a true and proper sense attributed to\nthe devil, then also may malice be attributed to him.\n\n2. Secondly, _The wickedness of Satan is capable of increase, a magis\net minus_. Though he be a wicked spirit, and as to inclination full of\nwickedness, though so strongly inclined that he cannot but sin, and\ntherefore as God is set forth to us as the fountain of holiness, so is\nSatan called the author and father of sin, yet seeing we cannot ascribe\nan infiniteness to him, we must admit that, as to acts of sin at least,\nhe may be more or less sinful, and that the wickedness of his heart may\nbe drawn more out by occasions, motives, and provocations; besides, we\nare expressly taught thus much, Rev. xii. 12, \u2018The devil is come down,\nhaving great wrath, because his time is short.\u2019 Where we note (1.) That\nhis wrath is called \u2018great,\u2019 implying greater than at other times; (2.)\nThat external motives and incentives, as the shortness of his time,\nprevail with him to draw forth greater acts of fury.\n\n3. Thirdly, _Whatsoever occasions do draw out or kindle malice to a\nrage, Satan hath met with them in an eminent degree, in his own fall\nand man\u2019s happiness_.[77] Nothing is more proper to beget malice than\nhurts or punishments, degradations from happiness. Satan\u2019s curse,\nthough just, fills him with rage and fretting against God, when he\nconsiders that from the state and dignity of a blessed angel he is\ncast down to darkness and to the basest condition imaginable. For the\npart of his curse, which concerned Satan as well as the serpent, \u2018Upon\nthy belly shalt thou go, and dust shall be thy meat,\u2019 implies a state\nmost base, as the use of the phrase proves: \u2018They shall lick the dust\nof thy feet,\u2019 Isa. xlix. 23; \u2018Thine enemies shall lick the dust,\u2019 Ps.\nlxxii. 9; \u2018They shall lick the dust as a serpent,\u2019 Micah vii. 17.\nWhere the spirit is so wicked that it cannot accept the punishment of\nits iniquity, all punishment is as a poison, and envenoms the heart\nwith a rage against the hand that afflicted it. Thus doth Satan\u2019s fall\nenrage him, and the more when he sees man enstated into a possibility\nof enjoying what he hath lost. The envy and pride of his heart boils up\nto a madness\u2014for that is the only use that the wretchedly miserable can\nmake of the sight of that happiness which they enjoy not, especially\nif, having once enjoyed it, they are now deprived. This begot the rage\nand wrath in Cain against Abel, and afterward his murder. The eye of\nthe wicked is evil where God is good. Hence may it be concluded that\nSatan, being a wicked spirit, and this wickedness being capable of\nacting higher or lower according to occasions, and with a suitableness\nthereto, cannot but shew an inconceivable malice against us, our\nhappiness and his misery being such proper occasions for the wickedness\nof his heart to work upon.\n\n4. Fourthly, _This malice in Satan must be great_.\n\n(1.) First, _If we consider the greatness of his wickedness in so\ngreat and total an apostasy_. He is so filled with iniquity, that\nwe can expect no small matters from him as to the workings of such\ncursed principles; not only is he wicked, but the spirit and extract\nof wickedness, as the phrase signifies, Eph. vi. 12, [\u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2\n\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03c2.]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _The Scripture lays to his charge all degrees, acts,\nand branches of malice_; as [1.] Anger, _in the impetuous haste and\nviolence of it_. Rev. xii. 12, \u2018Great wrath,\u2019 \u03b8\u03c5\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2, there signifies\n_excandescentia_, the inflammation of the heart and whole man, which is\nviolent in its motion, as when the blood with a violent stream rusheth\nthrough the heart and sets all spirits on fire; and therefore this\nwrath is not only called great, but is also signified to be so, in its\nthreatening \u2018a woe to the inhabitants of the earth.\u2019 [2.] _Indignation_\nis more than anger, as having more of a fixed fury; and this is applied\nto him, Eph. iv. 27, in that those that have this \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c1\u03b3\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2, are\nsaid \u2018to give place to the devil,\u2019 which is true not only in point of\ntemptation, but also in respect of the resemblance they carry to the\nframe and temper of Satan\u2019s furious heart. [3.] _Hatred_ is yet higher\nthan wrath or indignation, as having deeper roots, a more confirmed and\nimplacable resolution. Anger and indignation are but short furies, _ira\nbrevis furor_, which, like a land-flood, are soon down, though they are\napt to fill the banks on a sudden; but hatred is lasting, and this is\nso properly the devil\u2019s disposition, that Cain, in hating his brother,\nis [in] 1 John iii. 12 said to be the proper offspring and lively\npicture of that \u2018wicked one,\u2019 who is there so called rather than by the\nname of the devil, because the apostle would also insinuate that hatred\nis the masterpiece of Satan\u2019s wickedness, and that which gives the\nfullest character of him. [4.] All effects of his cruelty arise from\nthis root; this makes him accuse and calumniate, this puts him upon\nbreathing after those murders and destructions which damned spirits are\nnow groaning under.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _This malice is the result of that curse laid upon\nSatan_: Gen. iii. 15, \u2018I will put enmity betwixt thee and the woman,\nbetwixt her seed and thy seed.\u2019 Which implies, [1.] A _great enmity_;\nand some render it _inimicitias implacabiles_, implacable enmities.\n[2.] A _lasting enmity_, such as should continue as long as the curse\nshould last. [3.] That this should be _his work and exorcise_, to\nprosecute and be prosecuted with this enmity; so that it shews the\ndevil\u2019s whole mind and desire is in this work, and that he is whetted\non by the opposing enmity which he meets withal. It is the work of his\ncurse, of his place, of his revenge, and that wherein all the delight\nhe is capable of is placed. In that part of the curse, \u2018Dust shall be\nthy meat,\u2019 it is implied, if some interpret right,[78] that if Satan\ncan be said to have any delight or ease in his condition, it is in the\neating of this dust, the exercise of this enmity. No wonder, then,\nif Christ speak of his desires and solicitations with God to have a\nliberty and commission for this work: \u2018Satan hath desired to have thee,\nthat he may winnow thee,\u2019 [Luke xxii. 31.]\n\nThat this curse relates not only to the serpent, who was the\ninstrument, but also to Satan, who was the agent, is agreed by all\nalmost. That it was not the serpent alone, but the devil speaking by\nit, is evinced from its speaking and reasoning. And that the curse\nreached further than a natural enmity betwixt a serpent and a man,\nis as evident, in that Christ is expressly held forth as giving the\nfull accomplishment of this curse against Satan: 1 John iii. 8, \u2018The\ndevil sinneth from the beginning; for this purpose was the Son of God\nmanifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,\u2019 which is\na clear exposition and paraphrasis of the \u2018woman\u2019s seed bruising the\nserpent\u2019s head.\u2019\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _I shall add to this some few instances of Satan\u2019s\nmalice, by which it will appear to be great_.\n\n[1.] First, That malice must needs be great _which shews itself where\nthere is such a load of anguish and horror that lies upon him_. He is\nnow \u2018reserved in chains of darkness in hell,\u2019 2 Peter ii. 4. He is in\nhell, a place of torment; or, which is all one, hell is in him. He\ncarries it about him in his conscience, which, by God\u2019s decree, binds\nhim to his horror like a chain. It is scarce imaginable that he should\nhave a thought free from the contemplation of his own misery, to spend\nin a malicious pursuit of man. What can we think less of it than a\ndesperate madness and revenge against God, wherein he shews his rage\nagainst heaven, and hunts after our blood as for a little water to cool\nhis tongue; and when he finds his hand too short to pull the Almighty\nout of his throne, he endeavours, panther-like, to tear his image in\nman, and to put man, created after his image, upon blaspheming and\ndishonouring his Maker.\n\n[2.] Secondly, That malice must needs be great that _seeks its own\nfuel, and provides or begs its own occasions, and those such as give\nno proper provocation to his anger_. Of this temper is his malice. He\ndid thus with Job: he begs the commission, calumniates Job upon unjust\nsurmises, presseth still for a further power to hurt him, insomuch\nthat God expressly stints and bounds him\u2014which shews how boundless he\nwould have been if left to his own will\u2014and gives him at last an open\ncheck, Job ii. 3, wherein he lays open the malice of his heart in three\nthings: [1.] His own pressing urgency: \u2018Thou movedst me;\u2019 [2.] His\ndestructive fury: no less would serve than Job\u2019s utter destruction;\n[3.] Job\u2019s innocency: all this without cause: \u2018Thou movedst me to\ndestroy him without cause.\u2019\n\n[3.] Thirdly, That malice must needs be great that _will pursue a small\nmatter_. What small game will the devil play rather than altogether sit\nout! If he can but trouble, or puzzle, or affright, yet that he will\ndo, rather than nothing; if he can, like an adder in the path, but\nbite the heel, [Gen. xlix. 17,] though his head be bruised for it, he\nwill notwithstanding busy himself in it.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, That malice must be great which will _put itself\nforth where it knows it can prevail nothing, but is certain of a\ndisappointment_. Thus did Satan tempt Christ. Those speeches, \u2018if thou\nbe the Son of God,\u2019 do not imply any doubt in Satan; he knew what\nwas prophesied of Christ, and what had been declared from heaven in\ntestification of him, so that he could not but be certain he was God\nand man; and yet what base unworthy temptations doth he lay before him,\nas \u2018to fall down and worship him\u2019! Was it that Satan thought to prevail\nagainst him? No surely; but such was his malice, that he would put an\naffront upon him, though he knew he could not prevail against him.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _The malice of wicked men is an argument of Satan\u2019s great\nmalice_. They have an antipathy against the righteous, as the wolf\nagainst the sheep, and upon that very ground, that they are \u2018called\nout of the world.\u2019 How great this fury is, all ages have testified.\nThis hath brought forth discord, revilings, slanders, imprisonments,\nspoiling of goods, banishments, persecutions, tortures, cruel deaths,\nas burning, racking, tearing, sawing asunder, and whatever the wit\nof man could devise for a satisfaction to those implacable, furious,\nmurderous minds; and yet all this is done to men of the same image and\nlineage with themselves, of the same religion with themselves, as to\nthe main; nay, sometime to men of their own kindred, their own flesh\nand blood, and all to those that would live peaceably in the land. What\nshall we say to these things? How come men to put on a savage nature,\nto act the part of lions, leopards, tigers, if not much worse? The\nreason of all we have, John viii. 54, \u2018Ye are of your father the devil;\nhe was a murderer from the beginning:\u2019 as also Gen. iii. 15, \u2018I will\nput enmity between her seed and thy seed so that all this shews what\nmalice is in Satan\u2019s heart, who urgeth and provokes his instruments to\nsuch bloody hatreds. Hence whoever were the agents [Rev. ii. 10] in\nimprisoning the saints, the malice of Satan in stirring them up to it,\nmakes him become the author of it; \u2018Satan shall cast some of you into\nprison.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s power.\u2014His power as an angel considered.\u2014That he lost not\n that power by his fall.\u2014His power as a devil.\u2014Of his commission.\u2014The\n extent of his authority.\u2014The efficacy of his power.\u2014The advantages\n which he hath for the management of it, from the number, order, place,\n and knowledge of devils._\n\n\n_That Satan\u2019s power is great_, is our next inquiry; where,\n\n1. First, We will consider his power _as an angel_. In Ps. ciii.\n20 angels are said \u2018to excel in strength;\u2019 and in ver. 21, as also\nPs. cxlviii. 2, they are called \u2018God\u2019s host;\u2019 which is more fully\nexpressed, 1 Kings xxii. 19, \u2018I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne,\nand all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on\nhis left;\u2019 which phrase, though it import their order and observance,\nyet undoubtedly the main of its intendment is to set forth their\npower, as hosts are the strength of kings and nations. God himself,\nin putting on that title, \u2018The Lord of hosts,\u2019 makes it an evidence\nof his incomprehensible power, that such armies of strong and mighty\ncreatures are at his command. But this only in the general. That which\ncomes nearer to a particular account of their strength, is that notion\nof a spirit, by which they are frequently described, \u2018He maketh his\nangels spirits; his ministers flaming fire,\u2019 Ps. civ. 4. The being\nof a spirit is the highest our understanding is able to reach, and\nthat it shews a being very excellent, is manifest in this, that God\nis pleased to represent himself to us under the notion of a spirit;\nnot that he is truly and properly such, but that this is the most\nexcellent being that falls under our apprehension. Besides that the\nterm \u2018spirit\u2019 raiseth our understanding to conceive a being of a high\nand extraordinary power, it doth further tend to form our conceptions\nto some apprehensions of their nature. [1.] From the knowledge that we\nhave of our own spirits. That our spirit is of a vast comprehension\nand activity, our thoughts, desires, reasonings, and the particular\nundertakings of some men of a raised spirit, do abundantly evidence.\n[2.] In that it represents a spiritual being, freed from the clog and\nhindrance of corporeity. Our own spirits are limited and restrained by\nour bodies, as fire, an active element, is retarded and made sluggish\nby matter unapt to serve its proper force, as when it is in a heap of\nearth; which is also sufficiently pointed at in that opposition betwixt\nflesh and blood, and principalities and powers, Eph. vi.; shewing\nthat flesh and blood are a disadvantage and hindrance to the activity\nof a spirit. A spirit then, as incorporeal, may be conceived to move\neasily without molestation, quickly, imperceptibly, and irresistibly.\n[3.] This is yet further illustrated by the similitude of wind and\nfire, which are, to the common experience of all, of very great force.\nAnd it is yet further observable that the Scripture sometime speaks\nof the power of angels in the abstract, choosing rather to call them\n\u2018powers\u2019 than powerful, \u1f10\u03be\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03b9, Col. i. 16; clearly shewing that\nangels are beings of vast strength, as indeed the actions done by them\ndo abundantly testify. Such was the destroying Sennacherib\u2019s hosts in\na night, the opening the prison doors for Peter, the carrying Philip\nin the air, and such other acts, which tend to the protection of the\nfaithful, or punishing of the wicked.\n\nThough this may fully satisfy us that angels excel in strength, yet the\nScripture suggests another consideration relating to the office and\nemployment of angels, where their commission shews not only a liberty\nfor the exercise of this power, but also doth imply such a power as\nis fit to be commissionated to such acts. These invisible beings are\ncalled thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, Col. i. 16. It is\nindeed a task beyond a sober undertaking to distinguish these words,\nand to set their true bounds and marks of difference. This Augustine\nacknowledged;[79] yet may we hence conclude, [1.] That these words\nimply a very great authority in angels; [2.] A power and strength\nsuitable to their employment, and that God furnished them with power\nanswerable to the work which he intended for them, in his moving the\nheavens, and governing the world, &c. However, in some cases, God\nworks by instruments every way disproportionable to the service, \u2018that\nthe excellency of the power might be of God,\u2019 [2 Cor. iv. 7;] yet, in\nthe ordinary way of his working, he puts an innate, suitable force\nin creatures, for the acts to be done by them; as there is an innate\npower in the wind to blow, in the fire to burn, in herbs and plants for\nmedicinal uses. Thus may we conceive of angels, that God using them\nas his host, his \u2018ministers to do his pleasure,\u2019 he hath endowed them\nwith an innate natural power for those great things which he doth by\nthem, which must not be supposed in the least derogatory to the power\nof God, in his ways of mercies or judgments, seeing all the strength\nof angels is originally from God. Hence is it that all the names of\nangels which we read of in Scripture carry this acknowledgment in their\nsignification; Michael thus unfolds itself, \u2018Who is like God;\u2019 Gabriel\nthus, \u2018The glory of God and therefore may we suppose them not so much\nthe proper names of angels, but, as Calvin noteth, _Nomina ad captum\nnostrum indita_, Names implying God\u2019s great power in them.[80]\n\nSuch a powerful spirit is Satan by creation. But because it will be\ndoubted lest his fall hath bereaved him of his excellency, and cast\nhim down from his strength, I shall evidence that he still retains the\nsame natural power. To which purpose it is not unfit to be observed,\n[1.] That the same terms and names which were given to good angels,\nto signify their strength and commission, Col. i. 16, and ii. 10, are\nalso given to Satan, Eph. vi. 12. Devils are called \u2018principalities,\u2019\n\u2018powers,\u2019 \u2018rulers;\u2019 and Col. ii. 15, they have the same names which\nin ver. 10 were given to good angels, \u2018he spoiled principalities and\npowers.\u2019 [2.] The Scripture gives particular instances of Satan\u2019s\npower and working: as his raising tempests in the air, commanding fire\nfrom heaven\u2014both which he did in prosecution of his malice against\nJob; his carrying the bodies of men in the air\u2014as he did with Christ,\nhurrying him from the wilderness to the mountain, from thence to the\npinnacle of the temple; his breaking chains and fetters of iron, Mark\nv. 4; his bringing diseases\u2014instances whereof were that crooked woman\nwhom Satan had bowed together, Luke xiii. 16, and the lunatic person,\nLuke ix. 31, with a great many more. [3.] It is also observable that,\nnotwithstanding, Satan\u2019s fall hath made an alteration as to the ends,\nuses, and office of his power; yet, nevertheless, God makes use of\nthis strength in him, not only as an executioner of wrath against his\nenemies\u2014as when he vexed Saul by this evil spirit; and through this\nlying spirit, gave up Ahab to be deluded into his ruin, and inflicted\nplagues upon Egypt, by sending evil angels among them, 1 Sam. xvi. 14;\n1 Kings xxii. 21; Ps. lxxviii. 49\u2014but also for the trial of his own\nservants. Thus was Job afflicted by Satan, and Paul buffeted by his\nmessenger.\n\n2. Secondly, This power of his, as _a devil_, falls next under our\nconsideration, wherein are divers particulars to be noted: as,\n\n(1.) First, _His commission and authority_. If any put that question to\nhim which the Jews did to Christ, \u2018By what authority dost thou these\nthings?\u2019 or, \u2018Who gave thee this authority?\u2019 we have the answer in John\nxii. 24, and xvi. 11, where he is called, \u2018the prince of this world;\u2019\nand accordingly the Scripture speaks of a twofold kingdom, of light\nand of darkness; and in this we hear of Satan\u2019s seat or throne, of his\nservants and subjects. Yea, that which is more, the Scripture speaks\nof a kind of deity in Satan; he is called \u2018the god of this world,\u2019 2\nCor. iv. 4; which doth not only set forth the intolerable pride and\nusurpation of Satan in propounding himself as such, so drawing on poor\nblind creatures to worship him, but also discovers his power, which\nby commission he hath obtained over the children of disobedience,\n[Zanchius.] Hence doth he challenge it as a kind of right and due from\nthe poor Americans, and others, that they should fall down and worship\nhim; and upon this supposition was he so intolerably presumptuous in\noffering the kingdoms of the world to Christ for such a service and\nworship.\n\nIf it be questioned what Satan\u2019s authority is, I shall answer it thus:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, His authority is not _absolute or unlimited_. He cannot do\nwhat he pleaseth, and therefore we do find him begging leave of God for\nthe exerting of his power in particular cases, as when he was \u2018a lying\nspirit\u2019 in the mouth of Ahab\u2019s prophets, and in every assault he made\nupon Job; nay, he could not enter into the swine of the Gadarenes till\nhe had Christ\u2019s commission for it.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Yet hath he a commission in general_\u2014a standing\ncommission, as petty kings and governors had under the Roman emperor,\nwhere they were authorised to exercise an authority and power,\naccording to the rules and directions given them. This is clearly\nsignified by those expressions, \u2018they are captives at his will,\u2019 [2\nTim. ii. 16,] and \u2018given up to Satan,\u2019 [1 Tim. i. 20,] as persons\nexcommunicated; and when men are converted, they are said to be\n\u2018translated from his power,\u2019 and put under another jurisdiction, in the\n\u2018kingdom of Christ,\u2019 [Col. i. 13.] All which would have been highly\nimproper, if a commission for Satan, and an authority for those works\nof darkness, had not been signified by them.\n\nNext, let us view the _extent of this authority, both as to persons and\nthings_. In relation to persons, the boundary of his kingdom reacheth\nas far as darkness. He rules in \u2018the dark places of the earth,\u2019 or\nthe darkness of this _world_; and therefore his kingdom is hence\ndenominated \u2018a kingdom of darkness.\u2019 This extends, we may well imagine,\nas far as heathenism reacheth, where he is worshipped as God, as far as\nany darkness of Mohammedanism stretcheth itself, as far as the darkness\nof infidelity and blindness upon the hearts of unconverted men; which,\nif summed up together, must needs take up the greatest part of the\nworld by far; which is acknowledged, not only by that large expression\nworld, \u2018prince of the world,\u2019 &c., but also by that prophetic speech of\nRev. xi. 15, \u2018The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our\nLord and his Christ,\u2019 which acknowledgeth they had not been so before,\nin the sense wherein we now speak.\n\nNeither is his kingdom so bounded but that he also can, when allowed,\nmake excursions and inroads into the kingdom of Christ, so far as to\nmolest, disturb, and annoy his subjects; as the kings of any nation,\nbesides the power which they exercise in their proper jurisdiction, may\nmolest their neighbours. And Christ so far permits this as is useful to\nhis own designs, yet still with straiter reserves and limitations to\nSatan, and a resolved rescue and conquest for his own people.\n\nIf we inquire the extent of his power in relation to things, we find\nthe air in a peculiar manner permitted to him; so that he is named\nby it, as by one of his chief royalties, \u2018the prince of the power of\nthe air.\u2019 We find also death, with the powers of it, given up to him;\nso that this is a _periphrasis_ of him, \u2018He that hath the power of\ndeath,\u2019 Heb. ii. 14. And if we take notice of his large proffer to\nChrist of the kingdoms of the world, \u2018All this will I give thee,\u2019 we\nmay imagine that his commission reacheth far this way, as rewards and\nencouragements to his service; which we will the readilier entertain\nwhen we find that, by God\u2019s allowance, wicked men have their \u2018portion\nin this life,\u2019 and that these are called \u2018their good things.\u2019[81]\n\n3. Thirdly, Let us proceed a step further, to _the efficacy of this\nauthority_; which also,\n\n(1.) First, _Upon wicked men is no less remarkable than is his\ncommission_. He is called \u2018the strong man,\u2019 [Luke xi. 21,] in reference\nto their hearts, which he fortifies, as so many castles and garrisons,\nagainst God. He also \u2018rules in them\u2019 without control; his suggestions\nand temptations are as laws to them; he \u2018fills their hearts,\u2019 Acts\nv. 3, with his designs, and raiseth their affections to a high and\ngreedy pursuit of them; he works in them, and by an inward force doth\nhurry them on to achieve his enterprises, in all this ensnaring and\ncaptivating them \u2018at his pleasure,\u2019 Eph. ii. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 26.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _The saints, which are subjects of another kingdom, are\nstill fearing, complaining, watching, praying, and spreading out their\nhands, with lifting up their eyes to heaven for help against him_. They\ncomplain of violence and restless assaults from him; they are sensible\nthat he can suggest evil thoughts, and follow them with incessant\nimportunities; that he can draw a darkness upon their understanding by\nbribing their wills and affections against them; that he can disturb\ntheir duties, and that because of him they cannot do the good they\nwould. Many a fear doth he beget in their hearts; many a disquiet hour\nhave they from him; their flesh hath no rest, and happy are they if\nthey escape from him without broken bones; many excellent ones have\nbeen cast down by him, and for a time have been like dead men. It is\nsad to see so just a person as Lot under his feet; so choice a saint\nas David wounded almost to the death; so high an apostle as Peter, by\nforce and fear from him, to open his mouth with curses and imprecations\nin the denial of his Saviour; to say nothing of the buffetings of\nothers, which was sufficiently wearisome to Paul, and described by\n\u2018a thorn in the flesh,\u2019 2 Cor. xii. 7; which, if a learned man think\nright, is compared, by a metaphor, to those sharp stakes upon which\nChristians were cruelly spitted and burnt.[82]\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _His quick and ready accomplishment_ is a further proof\nof the efficacy of his power. No sooner had God given him a commission\nin reference to Job, but he quickly raiseth the tempest, brings down\nthe house, slays his children, brings fire from heaven; and, which\nwould seem strange, hath the troops of the Sabeans and Chaldeans at his\nbeck, as if they had been listed under his known command; so that in a\nlittle time he puts his malice into act.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, If any would slight all this, as being the force of\nprincipalities and powers against flesh and blood, we may see he\nhath so much strength and confidence _as to grapple with an angel of\nlight, as he did in the contesting for Moses his body_, Jude 9. This\nwas a created angel, else he durst not sure have brought a \u2018railing\naccusation;\u2019 but in that he strove, and railingly accused, it shews he\nwanted not a daring boldness to second his commission and power.\n\n4. Fourthly, It will be also requisite to lay open the _advantages he\nhath in the management of all this power_, which are great; as,\n\n(1.) First, _The multitude of devils_. That there are many is not\ndenied, upon the evidence of seven cast out of Mary Magdalene, and\nthe legion which were settled in one poor man at once. It may be we\nmay not credit the devil\u2019s own account of his strength so much as to\nbelieve that their number was exactly answerable to a Roman legion,\nwhich, if some speak right, was 6666; yet there being so plain an\nallusion to a Roman legion, and the Scripture in the recital favouring\nit so far as to consent to a truth in that part of the story, we can\ndo no less than conclude that the number of devils in that person was\na very great number, and so great, that the similitude of legion was\nproper to express it by. Besides, if the Scripture had been silent in\nthis particular, our reason would have clearly drawn that conclusion\nfrom such premises as these, that he is the \u2018god\u2019 of the world, and\nrules in the \u2018children of disobedience;\u2019 for whatsoever we conceive of\nhis power, we cannot think him omnipotent or omnipresent, these being\nthe incommunicable attributes of the great Creator of all things, in\nwhich no creature can share with God. Being then assured that he is\nthe tempter of all men, and that he cannot be in all places at once,\nwe must needs apprehend the devils to be many, as is signified by that\nexpression, \u2018the devil and his angels.\u2019\n\n(2.) Secondly, He hath also an advantage for the executing of his\ndesigns, from _that order, which from the fore-mentioned grounds\nwe must be forced to conceive to be among devils_. I know the bold\ndetermination of the order of angels by Dionysius is justly rejected,\nnot only by Iren\u00e6us and Augustine,[83] but also by the generality of\nprotestants, who upon that and other grounds of like presumption do\nreject that author as not being the true Dionysius the Areopagite.\nNeither do some of our protestant authors, as Chamier and others, admit\nthe government of angels to be monarchical, which supposition the\npapists would gladly make use of, as a foundation whereon to establish\nthe universal headship of the pope, being a thing which Dionysius\nhimself, as Chamier affirms, never dreamt of.[84] Yet do none of these\nauthors deny an order among the angels, but willingly grant it, as\nclearly implied from the term _archangel_ used by Paul, 1 Thes. iv.\n16,[85] and from their being called God\u2019s host or army, where order is\nnecessary for the right management of their strength, and confusion\nthe way to the ruin of their designs. The thing they dislike is, the\nbold and peremptory determination of the particular orders among them,\nand the assignment of the several charges, employments, and stations\nto each; which whosoever shall do, must needs be guilty of \u2018intruding\ninto things which he hath not seen.\u2019[86] It would upon the same score\nbe a presumptuous folly to make such a determination of the several\nranks and particular employments of devils. Yet this hindereth not,\nbut with a warrantable sobriety we may believe in the general that\nthere is an order among the devils. Not only do these expressions,\n\u2018Beelzebub the prince of devils,\u2019 \u2018the devil and his angels,\u2019 and in\nthat they are called \u2018principalities and powers,\u2019 warrant us so to\nthink, but the fore-mentioned considerations about the multitude of\ndevils will force our reason to an assent: for if they must be many,\nbecause all mankind is sensible of their assaults, they must have also\nan order in the management of their temptations\u2014without which their\ndesigns of cruelty and malice must, at least in great part, fall to\nthe ground.[87] Neither do I know well how those authors may be justly\nblamed, who proceed a little further in their suppositions, to tell\nus, as most probable,[88] that these infernal spirits do share the\nworld among them, and are allotted to several countries and places, as\ntheir own proper charge and jurisdiction; for what other interpretation\nthose passages in Dan. x. 13 can receive I cannot see: the prince of\nthe kingdom of Persia withstanding the angel one and twenty days; and\nhis help in that opposition from Michael, cannot, if things be well\nweighed, be properly understood of Cambyses the son of Cyrus, or a\ncontest with any man. However, if we let this go as a thing uncertain,\nbecause this interpretation is denied by some,[89] yet that which is\nspoken of their order in the general, and the advantage these spirits\nhave against us upon that consideration, seems to be past denial.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, The advantage _of place among armies is reckoned much_.\nSatan seems to have something this way as an advantage of ground,\nin that he is styled spiritual wickedness in high places.[90] What\nadvantage high places may be to devils and spirits we cannot further\nimagine, than that they, being thus above us and about us in the air,\nsee and know our ways and actions, and so receive information from\nthence for their malicious proceedings against us.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, But his greatest advantage is from _his knowledge_,\nwhich I shall a little explain in the following chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n _That Satan hath a great measure of knowledge, proved by comparing him\n with the knowledge of Adam in innocency, and by his titles.\u2014Of his\n knowledge, natural, experimental, and accessory.\u2014Of his knowledge of\n our thoughts.\u2014How far he doth not know them, and how far he doth, and\n by what means.\u2014Of his knowledge of things future, and by what ways he\n doth conjecture them.\u2014The advantages in point of temptation that he\n hath by his knowledge._\n\n\nIn the discovery of Satan\u2019s knowledge, I shall first give evidence and\ndemonstration thereof. To which purpose\u2014\n\n1. Let us consider _the knowledge of Adam in innocency_; which being\nfound to be great, it will thence be easily concluded that Satan\u2019s\nknowledge is far greater. Two notable discoveries we have of Adam\u2019s\nknowledge, the one was his giving of names to all creatures, Gen. ii.\n29, which was not only a sign of his dominion, but also a notable\ninstance of his understanding, seeing the names were given according\nto the natures of creatures; whereof Bochartus gives a large account,\nas the camel is called \u05d2\u05de\u05dc, because it is apt to repay\ninjuries; the kite, \u05d3\u05d0\u05d4, from its sharpness of sight; the\npelican is named \u05e7\u05d0\u05ea, from its usual vomiting, &c.[91] The\nconsideration of the aptness of names imposed on creatures made Plato\nacknowledge that it was a work above ordinary capacity. The other\ndiscovery of Adam\u2019s knowledge was his knowledge of the original of Eve\nat first sight, Gen ii. 23; he said, \u2018This is now bone of my bones,\nand flesh of my flesh,\u2019 &c. This instance Luther made use of to prove\nthe knowledge that we shall have of one another in heaven; which shews\nthat Adam\u2019s understanding was then incomparably more sublime than\nours, and of a nearer approach to the knowledge which a state of glory\nshall furnish us withal. To this might be added a further proof from\nthe rare inventions and excellent discoveries that some raised wits\nhave made, of things that have laid deep and far out of the view of\ncommon capacities. As also those views, sights, and more than ordinary\ncomprehensions which the souls of men have had, when they were a little\nfreed from the clog and hindrance of the body, either in ecstasies or\nby approaching death; all which put together will go far to prove a\nvery great measure of knowledge in Satan, if we take along with us this\nfoundation, that in all the works of God we find the highest knowledge\nin the noblest being. Living creatures are more excellent than stones\nor trees, and therefore hath God furnished them with senses, and hath\nalso distinguished them by higher degrees of sagacity, according to\ntheir excellency above others. Thus the ape, fox, elephant, &c., have\nsuch abilities above the worm and fly, &c., that some have questioned\nwhether they had not some lower degrees of reason: yet as these are\nbelow man, so doth his reason far excel their greatest quickness of\nsense. Angels are a higher being than man\u2014for he made him \u2018lower than\nthe angels\u2019\u2014and consequently their knowledge is proportionably greater.\nSo that if Adam in innocency understood the nature of things, how much\nmore exactly and fully must we imagine Satan to know them!\n\n2. Secondly, But the proof is more full and direct, from those\n_appellations and titles which the Scripture and the experience of men\nhave put upon him_; his usual name, \u0394\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, _quasi_ \u0394\u03b1\u03ae\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, which\u2014in\nMat. viii. 31; Mark v. 12; Rev. xvi. 14\u2014we translate _devil_, properly\nsignifieth one that is wise, knowing, or skilful. And however the\nwickedness of that spirit hath so far dishonoured this word, that it\nis always, as some think, used to signify \u2018unclean spirits;\u2019 yet still\nit carries an evidence of their nature in reference to knowledge, that\nthough they are wicked creatures, yet are they wise and knowing. It is\nsaid, Gen. iii. 1, \u2018The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the\nfield;\u2019 which, though it be true literally of the serpent, whose wisdom\nand subtlety naturalists have abundantly noted, yet that expression\nhath an eye upon Satan, who was the principal agent; and the serpent\nthere is called subtle, as influenced by Satan, whose instrument he\nwas:[92] which we may believe, not only upon the credit of Austin and\nLyra, but more securely upon the testimony of other scriptures, which\nname him \u2018the old serpent,\u2019 Rev. xvii. 9, and impute all that craft\nin the management of that temptation to a particular remarkable skill\nand subtlety of Satan. \u2018The serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety,\u2019 2\nCor. xi. 3; and, if Beza conjecture right, the appellation \u0394\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd do\nso fitly suit this history of the tree of knowledge, that the title of\nknowledge seems to be given him for this singular masterpiece of craft.\n\n3. Thirdly, That Satan hath great knowledge is by these arguments\ndiscovered; but if further inquiry be made into the _nature of his\nknowledge_, we shall be nearer to a satisfaction in this particular;\nand here we may observe a threefold knowledge in Satan.\n\n(1.) First, _A natural knowledge_; which the schoolmen have\ndistinguished into these two: [1.] _An evening knowledge_, which\nhe received from things created, whereby the _species_ of things\nwere impressed upon his mind, and so received, being a knowledge _\u00e0\nposteriori_, from the effects of things; which, because it is more\ndark and obscure than that which ariseth from the causes of things,\nthey termed evening knowledge. [2.] The other is _morning knowledge_,\nwhich is a knowledge of things in the power and wisdom of God, in\nwhich he saw the ideas and images of all things. This knowledge they\nprefer before the other, as lines and figures are better known from\nmathematical instruction than by their bare tract as written in\ndust.[93]\n\n(2.) Secondly, Besides this he hath an _experimental knowledge_; which\nis the improvement of that natural stock, by further acquisitions and\nattainments. And indeed Satan had very high advantages for an increase\nof knowledge. He had a great stock to begin withal; he hath had fit\nand suitable objects to work upon in his contemplations, so that by\ncomparing things with things in so large a field of variety, and that\nfor so many years together, it cannot be but that he should be grown\nmore experienced and subtle than he was at first; and the Scripture\ndoth fairly countenance this supposition, by telling us of his devices,\n2 Cor. ii. 11; of his wiles, Eph. vi. 11; and of his depths, Rev. ii.\n24.[94] All which phrases imply that Satan hath so studied the point\nof temptation, that he hath now, from long experience and observation,\ndigested it into an art and method, and that with such exactness that\nit is become a mystery and a depth, much covered and concealed from the\nnotice and observation of men.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, To both the former may be added another knowledge,\nwhich because it is from another spring, I may call it an _accessory\nknowledge_, consisting in occasional discoveries made to him, either\nwhen God is pleased to make known so much of his mind and purpose,\nas he employs him, as an instrument or servant, to execute, as he\ndid in the case of Job and Ahab; or when he informs himself from the\nScriptures, or catcheth hints of knowledge from the church and the\nordinances thereof. If good angels have an increase of knowledge this\nway, as is evident they have, \u2018for to principalities and powers in\nheavenly places is made known by the church the manifold wisdom of\nGod,\u2019 Eph. iii. 10, we cannot but imagine that Satan hath some addition\nof knowledge from such discoveries. While we are upon this point, it\nwill be necessary to offer some satisfaction to two questions.\n\n_Quest._ 1. First, Whether Satan knows our thoughts?\n\n_Ans._ 1. It is undoubtedly God\u2019s prerogative to know the thoughts. He\nknows them intuitively, which is beyond the power of any creature: Jer.\nxvii. 9, \u2018Who can know it?\u2019 This is a challenge to all, implying the\nutter impossibility of it to any but to God alone; \u2018I the Lord search\nthe heart;\u2019 he knows the most inward thoughts: Rev. ii. 23, \u2018I am he\nwhich searcheth the reins, and the heart;\u2019 he knows them evidently and\ncertainly: Heb. iv. 13, \u2018All things are naked and open[95] before him\nwith whom we have to do.\u2019 Those secret thinkings and intendments which\nare hid from others, and which we ourselves cannot distinctly read,\nbecause of their secret intricacy or confusedness, yet the very inside\nand outside of them are uncased, cut up and anatomised by his eye; in\nall which expressions God is careful to reserve this to himself, \u2018I the\nLord do it,\u2019 or \u2018I am he, &c., that searcheth;\u2019 and signifies that none\nelse is able to do the like.\n\n_Ans._ 2. Yet Satan can do much this way; for if we consider how he\ncan come so near to our spirits, as to communicate his injections to\nus, and that he often entertains a dispute with us in this secret way\nof access that he hath to our thoughts; if we observe his arguings,\nhis answers and replies to our refusals, so direct, so pertinent, so\ncontinued, we shall be constrained to grant that he can do more this\nway than is commonly imagined. That I may explain this with a due\nrespect to God\u2019s prerogative of knowing the heart, I shall,\n\n1. First, _Shew that there are two things which are clearly out of\nSatan\u2019s reach_. [1.] Our future thoughts; he cannot tell what shall be\nour thoughts for time to come. He may possibly adventure to tell what\nsuggestions he resolves to put into our hearts, but what shall be our\nresolves and determinations thereupon he knows not. This is singled\nout as one part of God\u2019s prerogative, that he knoweth the determinate\npurposes and resolves of the heart aforehand, because he turneth the\nheart as he pleaseth, Prov. xxi. 1. [2.] Our present formed thoughts,\nthe immediate and imminent[96] acts of the mind he cannot directly\nsee into. He may tell what floating thinkings he hath put into our\nheart, but our own proper thoughts, or formed resolves, he cannot\ndirectly view. This is also particularly insisted on as proper to God\nalone: John ii. 24, 25, \u2018Christ knew all men,\u2019 so directly, that \u2018he\nneeded not that any should testify of man.\u2019 This Satan stands in need\nof; he sometimes knows men and their thoughts, but he needs a sign\nor notification of these thoughts, and cannot immediately look into\nthem. The reason why Christ needed not this, is rendered thus: \u2018For he\nknew what was in man,\u2019 Mat. xii. 25, that is, intuitively he knew his\nthoughts, and could immediately read them.\n\n2. Secondly, _I shall endeavour to explain how much, or how far he can\npry into our thoughts_. Several things are granted which argue Satan\ncan go a great way toward a discovery. As,\n\n(1.) First, _That he knows the objects in our fancy or phantasms_, and\nthis as clearly as we do behold things with our eyes. And the proof\ngiven hereof is this: that there are diabolical dreams, in which the\ndevil cannot create new species, and such as our senses were never\nacquainted withal, as to make a blind man dream of colours, but that\nhe can only call forth and set in order those objects, of which our\nimagination doth retain the shadows or impressions; and this he could\nnot do if he did not visibly behold them in our fancy.[97]\n\n(2.) Secondly, It is certain he knows _his own suggestions and\ntemptations darted into our minds_, upon which he can at present know\nwhat our thoughts are busied upon.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, He knows _the secret workings of our passions, as love,\ndesire, fear_, &c., because these depend upon, or are in a concomitancy\nof the motions of the blood and spirits, which he can easily discern,\nthough their motions and workings may be kept secret from the\nobservation of all bystanders.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Some go further, as Scotus, (_referente Barthol.\nSybilla_,)[98] supposing that he knows what is in our thoughts at any\ntime, only he knows not to what these thoughts incline; but I leave\nthis to those that can determine it certainly. In the meantime I\nproceed,\n\n3. Thirdly, _To shew what a guessing faculty he hath of what he doth\nnot directly know_. He hath such grounds and advantages for conjecture,\nthat he seldom fails of finding our mind. As,\n\n(1.) First, _His long experience hath taught him what usually men\ndo think_, in such cases as are commonly before them. By a cunning\nobservation of their actions and ways he knows this.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _He by study and observation knows our temper and\ninclination_, and consequently what temptations do most suit them, and\nhow we do ordinarily entertain them.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, He knows this the more, _by taking notice of our prayers,\nour complainings and mournings over our defects and miscarriages_.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _He is quick and ready to take notice of any exterior\nsign, by which the mind is signified_, as the pulse, the motion of the\nbody, the change of the countenance, all which do usually shew the\nassent or dissent of the mind, and at least tell him what entertainment\nhis offers have in our thoughts.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Being so quick-sighted, he can understand _those\nparticular signs which would escape the observation of the wisest\nmen_.[99] There are some things small in themselves, and therefore\nunobserved, which yet to wise men are very great _indicia_ of things.\nThe like may be said of us, in reference to our inclinations, our\nacceptance or resistance of temptations, which yet he hath curiously\nmarked out.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, No doubt but he hath ways to _put us upon a discovery of\nour thoughts, while we conceal them_, as by continuing and prosecuting\ntemptations or suggestions, till our trouble or passions do some way\ndiscover how it is with us. By all which it appears that his guessings\nand conjectures do seldom fail him. It is now time to speak to the\nother question, which is,\n\n_Quest._ 2. Whether and how far Satan knows things to come?\n\n_Ans._ To this I shall return answer in these two conclusions:\n\n_Conclusion_ 1. First, There is a way of knowing future things, _which\nis beyond the knowledge of devils, and proper only to God_, Isa. xli.\n23; there God puts the competition betwixt himself and idols, about the\ntruth of a deity, upon this issue, that \u2018he that can shew the things\nthat are to come hereafter, he is God;\u2019 which because they cannot do,\nhe doth hereby evince them to be no gods. If Satan could truly and\nproperly have done this, he had had a plea for a godhead. In divine\npredictions two things are to be considered. [1.] The matter foretold;\nwhen the events of things contingent, and as to second causes casual,\ndepending upon indeterminate causes, are foretold. [2.] The manner;\nwhen these things are not uncertainly, or conjecturally, or darkly, but\nclearly, certainly, infallibly, and fully predicted. Of this nature are\ndivine predictions, which Satan cannot perform, nor yet the angels in\nheaven.\n\n_Conclusion_ 2. Secondly, _Yet Satan hath such advantages for the\nknowledge of future things, and such means and helps for a discovery of\nthem, that his conjectures have often come to pass_.\n\n[1.] First, He knows _the causes of things, which are secret to us_.\nUpon which he seems to foretell many things strange to us; as a\nphysician may foretell the effects, workings, and issues of a disease,\nas seeing them in the causes, which would pass for little less than\nprophecy among the vulgar. Thus an astrologer foretells eclipses, which\nwould be taken for a divine excellency, where the knowledge of the\nground of these foretellings had not taken away the wonder.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Many things are made known to him _by immediate divine\nrevelation_. We know not the intercourse betwixt God and Satan in\nthe matter of Job. Satan having obtained his commission to afflict\nhim, might have made a long prophecy of what should come to pass in\nreference to Job, his children and substance. How many such predictions\nhe might make, we little know.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, He hath _a deep insight in affairs of kingdoms and\nstates_, and so might, from his experience and observation, easily\nconjecture mutations and alterations. A politician may do much this\nway. For aught we know, Satan\u2019s prophecy, in the likeness of Samuel, to\nSaul, of his ruin, and the translation of his kingdom to David, might\nbe no more than a conjectural conclusion, from his comparing the order\nof the present providence with former threatenings and promises.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He hath _a greater understanding of Scripture\nprophecies, than ordinarily the wisest men have_, so that at second\nhand he might be able to foretell what shall come to pass; whilst we\nthat do not so clearly see into Scripture predictions, may not be able\nto find out the matter. Hence by oracle he foretold Alexander of his\nsuccess, which he knew from the prophecy of Daniel, chap. xi., long\nbefore.[100]\n\n[5.] Fifthly, He hath advantage from his nature _as a spirit, by\nwhich he overhears and sees the private actings, complottings, and\npreparations of men in reference to certain undertakings_, and can\neasily, by his agents, communicate such counsels or resolves in remote\ncountries and kingdoms, which must pass for real predictions, if the\nevent answer accordingly.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, _He can foretell, and with probability of success, such\nthings as he by temptation is about to put men upon, especially seeing\nhe can choose such instruments as he, from experience, knows are not\nlikely to fail his enterprise_.\n\n[7.] Seventhly, To this may be added, _the way and manner by which\nhe expresseth himself, either in doubtful or enigmatical terms, or\nin general expressions_, which may be applied to the event, what\nway soever it should happen. Of these, authors have observed many\ninstances, which were superfluous to enumerate.[101]\n\nSatan\u2019s knowledge being thus explained, it is easy to imagine what an\nadvantage it is to him in the management of his temptations. For,\n\nFirst, He by this means knows our tempers and dispositions.\n\nSecondly, And what is most likely to prevail with us.\n\nThirdly, How inclinable we are upon any motion made to us, and what\nhope to gain upon us.\n\nFourthly, He knows fit times, seasons, and advantages against us.\n\nFifthly, He knows how to pursue suggestions, and can choose strong\nreasons to urge us withal.\n\nSixthly, He knows how to delude our senses, to disturb our passions.\n\nSeventhly, He knows all the ways and arts of affrightments, vexations,\ndisquietments, hindrances, and disturbances of duty.\n\n[8.] Eighthly, He by this means is furnished _with skill for his public\ncheats and delusions in the world_; how to amuse, astonish, and amaze\nmen into errors and mistakes, which he hath always endeavoured with\nvery great success in the world, as we shall see hereafter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n _Instances of Satan\u2019s power.\u2014Of witchcraft, what it is.\u2014Satan\u2019s power\n argued from thence.\u2014Of wonders.\u2014Whether Satan can do miracles?\u2014An\n account of what he can do that way.\u2014His power argued from apparitions\n and possessions._\n\n\nI shall add, in the fifth place, some particular instances of his\npower, in which I shall insist upon these four\u2014witchcraft, wonders,\napparitions, and possessions.\n\n1. First, _Witchcraft_ affords a very great discovery of Satan\u2019s power.\nBut because some give such interpretations of witchcraft, as, if true,\nwould wholly take away the force of this instance, I shall first\nendeavour to establish a true notion of witchcraft; and secondly, from\nthence argue Satan\u2019s power.\n\n(1.) First, Though the being of witches is not directly denied, because\nthe authority of Scripture\u2014Exod. xxii. 18; Deut. xviii. 10, &c.\u2014hath\ndetermined beyond controversy that such there are; yet some will allow\nno other interpretation of the word,[102] than a skill and practice in\nthe art of poisoning, because the Septuagint doth interpret the Hebrew\nword, \u05de\u05db\u05e9\u05e4\u05d4, by \u03c6\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd, _veneficam_; which apprehension\nthey strengthen by the authority of Josephus,[103] who giveth this\naccount of the law, \u2018Let none of the children of Israel use any deadly\npoison, or any drug wherewith he may do hurt,\u2019 &c. It is easy to\nobserve that this conceit ariseth from a great inobservancy of the\nreason of the application of these words, \u03c6\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 and _veneficus_, to\nwitchcraft, in Greek and Latin authors.\n\nWitchcrafts were supposed to be helped forward by the strength of\nseveral herbs, and these, by incantations and other ceremonies at their\ngathering, imagined to attain a poisonous and evil quality or efficacy\nfor such effects as were intended to be produced by them, as appears\nby Ovid, Virgil, and other authors.[104] Hence was it that the word\n\u03c6\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 became applicable to any sort of witchcraft. To this may be\nadded, that such persons were resorted to for help against diseases,\n[_vide_ Leigh. Crit. Sac. in Voc.] As also that they used unguents\nfor transportations. Hence Godwin [Jew. Antiq., lib. iv. cap. 10]\nrenders \u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03ac\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 by _unguentarios_. Diascorides [Cap. de Rhamno] hath\nan expression to this purpose, \u2018that the branch of that tree, being\nplaced before the doors, doth drive away \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03ac\u03ba\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03c2,\nwitchcrafts.\u2019 It were ridiculous to say it drives away poisonings;\nwhich is a sufficient evidence that the Grecians used that word to\nsignify another kind of witchcraft than that which this mistake would\nestablish. Besides this, the Scripture doth afford two strong arguments\nagainst this interpretation of witchcraft.\n\n[1.] That this word is ranked with others, as being of the same\nalliance, which will carry the apprehensions of any considerate man\nto effects done by the help of Satan, in an unusual way, as Deut.\nxviii. 10, \u2018There shall not be found among you any that maketh his son\nor his daughter to pass through the fire\u2019\u2014this is not the consuming\nof their children to Moloch, but by way of lustration, a mock\nbaptism, a piece of witchcraft, to preserve from violent death\u2014\u2018or\nthat useth divination, an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a\nwitch,\u2019 &c.[105] The very neighbourhood of the witch will tell us\nthat this witch must be a diviner, divination being the general term,\ncomprehending the seven particulars following.[106] It would be a\nharsh straining to put in the poisoner, in the sense of our opposites,\namong the diviners. Yet the second argument is more cogent, which is\nthis: That among those whom Pharaoh called together to encounter with\nMoses, Exod. vii. 11, we find witches or sorcerers expressed by the\nsame word, \u05de\u05db\u05e9\u05e4\u05d9\u05dd, which is used in Exod. xxii. and Deut.\nxviii. What can more certainly fix the interpretation of the word than\nthis place, where the end of Pharaoh\u2019s calling them together was, not\nto poison Moses and Aaron, but by enchantment to outvie them in point\nof miracles? which will shew that witchcraft is not poisoning, but the\ndoing of strange acts by the aid of Satan. Neither was this the act of\none man\u2014who might possibly, together with that present age, be under a\nmistake concerning witches, though it be a thing not to be supposed\u2014but\nlong after him, Nebuchadnezzar, in Dan. ii. 4, being astonished with\nhis dreams, calls for the sorcerers or witches, and magicians, to give\nhim the interpretation; which had been a matter very improper for them,\nif their skill had lain only in mixing poisons.[107]\n\nWhen we have thus silenced this imagination, we have yet another to\nencounter with, and that is, Of those that think these witches, of\nwhich the fore-cited texts do speak, are but mere cheats, and by some\ntricks of delusion and legerdemain pretend they can do things which\nindeed they cannot do at all; and yet finding death threatened to such,\nwhich, in a business of mere juggling, would seem too great a severity,\nthey have framed this answer to it,[108] that the death is threatened,\nnot for juggling, but for their presumptuous and blasphemous\nundertaking to do things that belong to a divine power, and for taking\nhis name in vain. Or, as others are pleased to say,[109] though they\nhave no real power, they are justly punished for the belief they have,\nthat they can do such mischief, joined with their purpose to do it, if\nthey can.\n\nIn answer to this apprehension, I shall not much insist upon these\nreasons, which yet are sufficiently weak\u2014the latter accusing God\u2019s laws\nof unreasonable severity, and the former accusing them of unnecessary\nredundancy, seeing enough in other places is provided against\nblasphemers[110]\u2014but shall offer a consideration or two, which I judge\nwill be of force to rectify the mistake.\n\n[1.] First, Though it cannot be denied but that a great many cheats\nthere have been in all ages, by which men have endeavoured to raise\nthe repute and esteem of their own skill and excellencies, or for\nother base ends; yet, from hence to conclude that all these things\nthat have been done under the name of witchcraft were such, must be an\nunsufferable piece of insolence; not only denying that credit which\nall sober men owe to history, to the constant belief of all ages, to\nthe faithfulness and wisdom of judges, jurors, witnesses, laws, and\nsanctions, but also dangerously overthrowing all our senses; so that\nat this rate we may well question whether we really eat, drink, move,\nsleep, and anything else that we do. This reason is urged by grave and\nserious men.[111]\n\n[2.] Secondly, It cannot be imagined that such things are merely\ndelusory, where the voluntary confessions of so many have accused\nthemselves and others, not of thinking or juggling, but of really\nacting and doing such things\u2014with such circumstances as have\nparticularised time, place, thing, and manner.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, The real effects done by the power of witchcraft shew\nit not to be delusion. Such are the transportation of persons many\nmiles from their habitations, and leaving them there; their telling\nthings done in remote places; raising of storms and tempests;\nvomiting of pins, needles, stones, cloth, leather, and such like;\nand these, some of them, attested by sober and intelligent persons\nwho were eye-witnesses. Large accounts you have of these in Bodinus,\nSprengerius, and several others that have borrowed these relations from\nthem.[112]\n\nThe notion of poisonings, or delusory jugglings, being below what\nthe Scripture intends to set forth as witchcraft, it is evident that\nwitchcraft is a power of doing great things by the aid of the devil; by\nwhich our way is open to improve this instance, to demonstrate\u2014 which\nwas the second thing promised\u2014that Satan\u2019s power must be great. For,\n\n[1.] First, It is acknowledged that a great part of those things that\nare done in this matter, as concurrent with, or helpful toward the\npromoting of such acts, are Satan\u2019s proper works\u2014as the troubling of\nthe air, raising storms, apparitions, various shapes and appearances,\ntransportations from place to place, and a great many more things of\nwonder and amazement, all which exceed human power.[113]\n\n[2.] Secondly, Many things of wonder done by such persons, to which\nsome suppose the secret powers of herbs or things contribute their\nnatural aids or concurrence, are evidences of Satan\u2019s deep knowledge\nof and insight into natural causes. Of this nature is that ointment\nwith which witches are said to besmear themselves in order to their\ntransportation; the power and efficacy whereof is by some imagined\nto consist in this, that it keeps the body tenantable and in a fit\ncondition to receive the soul by re-entry after such separations, as,\nby all circumstances are concluded, have been really made in pursuit\nof those visionary perambulations and transactions; which things, if\nthey be so\u2014as they are not improbable\u2014witches have them from Satan\u2019s\ndiscovery, and they are to be ascribed to his power.[114]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Those actions that are most properly the witch\u2019s own\nactions, and in which the power of hurting doth, as some suppose,\nreside, are notwithstanding either awakened or influenced by Satan;\nso though we grant, what some would have, that the power of hurting\nis a natural power, and a venomous magnetism of the witch, and that\nher imagination, by her eye darts those malignant beams which produce\nreal hurts upon men\u2014after the manner of the imagination\u2019s force upon a\nchild in the womb, which hath, as by daily experience and history is\nconfirmed, produced marks, impressions, deformities, and wounds\u2014and\nthat Satan doth but cheat the witch into a belief of his aid in that\nmatter; that with a greater advantage he may make use of her power,\nwithout which he could do nothing; yet even this speaks his ability,\nin that at least he doth awaken and raise up that magical force which\notherwise would be asleep, and so puts the sword into their hand. Yet\nsome attribute far more to him\u2014to wit, the infusion of a poisonous\nferment\u2014by that action of sucking the witch in some part of the body\u2014by\nwhich not only her imagination might be heightened by poisonous streams\nbreathed in, which might infect blood and spirits with a noxious\ntincture.[115]\n\n2. The second grand instance of his power I shall produce from those\nactions of _wonder and astonishment which he sometime performs, which\nindeed have been so great that they have occasioned that question_\u2014\n\nWhether Satan can do miracles?\n\nTo this we answer\u2014\n\n(1.) _That God alone can work miracles_, a miracle being a real act,\ndone visibly, and above the power of nature. Such works some have\nranked into three heads:[116] [1.] Such as created power cannot\nproduce; as to make the sun stand still or go backward. [2.] Such\nas are in themselves produceable by nature,[117] but not in such an\norder; as to make the dead to live, and those that were born blind to\nsee, which is strongly argued, John ix. 32, to be above human power;\nand, John x. 21, to be above the power of devils. [3.] Such as are the\nusual works of nature, yet produced, above the principles and helps of\nnature, as to cure a disease by a word or touch.\n\nThings that are thus truly and properly miraculous are peculiarly works\nof God; neither can it be imagined, that since he hath been pleased\nto justify his commands, ways, and messages, by such mighty acts\u20142\nCor. xii. 12; Heb. ii. 4; John x. 38\u2014and also hath been put to it,\nto justify himself and his sole supreme being and godhead from false\ncompetitors\u2014Ps. lxxxvi. 10, and lxxii. 18\u2014by his miraculous works, it\ncannot be imagined, I say, that he would permit any created being, much\nless Satan, to do such things.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Though Satan cannot do things miraculous, yet he can\ndo things wonderful and amazing\u2014mira non miracula_. And in this point\nlies the danger of delusion, as Christ foretells: Mat. xxiv. 24, \u2018False\nChrists shall arise, and shew great signs and wonders.\u2019 In 2 Thes. ii.\n4, the apostle tells us, \u2018The coming of antichrist shall be with all\npower, and signs, and wonders\u2019\u2014that is, as some interpret,[118] with\nthe power of signs and wonders; which, however they be lying, both in\nreference to the design they drive at\u2014which is to propagate errors\u2014and\nalso in their own nature, being truly such, in respect of their form,\nfalse as miracles, being indeed no such matter, but juggling cheats;\nyet, notwithstanding, there is no small cunning and working of Satan\nin them, insomuch that the uncautious and injudicious are \u2018deceived\nby those wonders that he hath power to do,\u2019 Rev. xiii. 13. In this\nmatter, though we are not able to give a particular account of these\nunderground actions, yet thus much we may say\u2014\n\n[1.] First, That in many cases his great acts, that pass for miracles,\nare no more _but deceptions of sense_. Naturalists have shewn several\nfeats and knacks of this kind. Jo. Bap. Porta[119] hath a great many\nways of such deceptions, by lamps and the several compositions of oils,\nby which not only the colours of things are changed, but men appear\nwithout heads, or with the heads of horses, &c. The like deceptions are\nwrought by glasses of various figures and shapes. If art can do such\nthings, much more can Satan.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He can mightily work upon _the fancy and imagination_;\nby which means men are abused into a belief of things that are not; as\nin dreams, the fancy presents things which are really imagined to be\ndone and said, whenas they are visions of the night, which vanish when\nthe man is awake; or as in melancholy persons, the fancy of men doth\nso strongly impose upon them, that they believe strange absurd things\nof themselves\u2014that they have horns on their head, that they are made\nof glass, that they are dead, and what not. If fancy, both asleep and\nawake, may thus abuse men into an apprehension of impossible things,\nand that with confidence, no wonder if Satan, whose power reacheth thus\nfar, as was before proved, doth take this advantage for the amusing\nof men with strange things. Nebuchadnezzar his judgment, Dan. iv. 25,\nwhereby he was \u2018driven from men, and ate grass as oxen,\u2019 was not a\nmetamorphosis, or real change into an ox. This all expositors reject\nas too hard. Neither seems it to be only his extreme necessity and low\nestate, whereby he seemed to be little better than a beast, though\nCalvin favour this interpretation;[120] but by that expression, ver.\n25, \u2018then my understanding came to me,\u2019 it seems evident, as most\ncommentators think, that his understanding was so changed in that\npunishment that he imagined himself to be a beast, and behaved himself\naccordingly, by eating grass, and lying in the open fields. There are\nseveral stories to this purpose of strange transformations, as the\nbodies of men into asses, and other beasts, which Augustine thinks to\nbe nothing else but the devil\u2019s power upon the fancy.[121]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, There are wonderful _secrets in nature, which if\ncunningly used and applied to fit things and times, must needs amaze\nvulgar heads_; and though some of these are known to philosophers and\nscholars, yet are there many secret things locked from the wisest\nmen, whose powers and natures because they know not, they may also\nbe deluded by them. Augustine[122] reckons up many instances, as the\nloadstone, the stone pyrites, selenites, the fountain of Epirus, that\ncan kindle a torch, and many more; and determines that many strange\nthings are done by the application of these natural powers, either by\nthe wit of man or diabolical art. To this purpose he gives an account\nof an unextinguishable lamp, \u039b\u03cd\u03c7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f04\u03c3\u03b2\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, in a temple of Venus,\nwhich allured men to worship there, as to an unquestionable deity, when\nin truth the thing was but an ingenious composition from the stone\nasbeston, of which Pliny makes mention, that being kindled, it will\nnot be quenched with water.[123] Of this nature were those lamps found\nin several vaults accompanying the ashes of the dead, reserved there\nin urns, both in England and elsewhere.[124] If men by such helps find\nsuch easy ways to delude men, what exactness of workmanship and seeming\nwonders may be expected from Satan upon such advantages!\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Many of his wonders may challenge _a higher rise_.\nSatan knows the secret ways of nature\u2019s operations, and the ways\nof accelerating or retarding those works; so that he cannot only\ndo what nature can do, by a due application of active to passive\nprinciples,[125] and the help of those seminal powers that are in\nthings, but he may be supposed to perform them in a quicker and more\nexpeditious manner. Thus worms, flies, and serpents, that are bred of\nputrefaction, Satan may speedily produce; and who can tell how far this\nhelp may reach in his works of wonders?\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _The secret way of Satan\u2019s movings and actings is no\nsmall matter in these affairs_. How many things do common jugglers by\nthe swift motions of their hands, that seem incredible! Thus they make\nthe bystanders believe they change the substances, natures, and forms\nof things, when they only, by a speedy conveyance, take these things\naway, and put others in their room. They that shall consider Satan as\na spirit, subtle, imperceptible, quick of motion, &c., will easily\nbelieve him to be more accomplished for such conveyances than all the\nmen in the world.\n\nHaving now seen the way of his wonders, let us next consider the\nadvantage he hath by such actions. If we look upon Simon Magus, Acts\nviii. 10, 11, we find that he by these ways had a general influence\nupon the people, \u2018To him they all gave heed, from the least to the\ngreatest;\u2019 and that his actions were reckoned no less than miraculous,\nas done by \u2018the mighty power of God.\u2019 If we go from hence to the\nmagicians of Pharaoh, Exod. vii. 11, it is said, \u2018They did so with\ntheir enchantments,\u2019 which, howsoever the matter was, prevailed so with\nPharaoh and the court, that they saw no difference betwixt the wonders\ndone by Moses and them, save that, it may be, they thought Moses the\nmore skilful magician. But besides this, if we consider what they did,\nit will argue much for his power, if we can imagine, as some do,[126]\nthat they turned their rods into real serpents; the power is evident:\nand there is this that favours that opinion; it is said they could\nnot make lice, which seems to imply they really did the other things,\nand it had been as easy to delude the senses in the matter of lice as\nin the rods, if it had been no more than a delusion. Neither are some\nawanting to give a reason of such a power\u2014viz., serpents, lice, &c.,\nbeing the offspring of putrefaction; by his dexterous application of\nthe seminal principles of things, he might quickly produce them. If we\ngo lower, and take up with the opinion of those that think that they\nwere neither mere delusions, nor yet true serpents; but real bodies\nlike serpents, though without life, this will argue a very great\npower.[127] Or if we suppose, as some do,[128] that Satan took away the\nrods, and secretly conveyed serpents in their stead, or\u2014which is the\nlowest apprehension we can have\u2014that Pharaoh\u2019s sight was deceived, the\nmatter is still far from being contemptible, forasmuch as we see the\nspectators were not able to discern the cheat.\n\n3. Thirdly, The next instance produceable for evidencing his power\nis that _of apparitions_. It cannot be denied but that the fancy\nof melancholic or timorous persons is fruitful enough to create a\nthousand bugbears; and also that the villainy of some persons hath been\ndesignedly employed to deceive people with mock apparitions\u2014of which\nabundance of instances might be given from the knavery of the papists,\ndiscovered to the world beyond contradiction; but all this will not\nconclude that there are no real appearances of spirit or devils. Such\nsad effects in all ages there have been of these things, that most men\nwill take it for an undeniable truth.\n\nInstead of others, let the apparition at Endor to Saul come to\nexamination. Some indeed[129] will have us believe that all that was\nbut a subtle cheat managed by that old woman; and that neither Samuel\nnor the devil did appear, but that the woman, in another room by\nherself, or with a confederate, gave the answer to Saul. But whosoever\nshall read that story, and shall consider Saul\u2019s bowing and discourse,\nand the answers given, must acknowledge that Saul thought at least he\nsaw and spake with Samuel; and indeed the whole transaction is such,\nthat such a cheat cannot be supposed.\n\nSatisfying ourselves, then, that there was an apparition, we must next\ninquire whether it was true Samuel or Satan. It cannot be denied but\nthat many judge it was true Samuel, but their reasons are weak.[130]\n\n[1.] That proof from Ecclesiasticus xlvi. 23, is not canonical with us.\n\n[2.] That he was called Samuel, is of no force. Scripture often gives\nnames of things according to their appearances.\n\n[3.] That things future were foretold, was but from conjecture; in\nwhich Satan yet, all things considered, had good ground for his\nguessing.\n\n[4.] That the name Jehovah is oft repeated, signifies nothing. The\ndevil is not so scarce of words. \u2018Jesus I know,\u2019 saith that spirit in\nthe Acts.\n\n[5.] That he reproved sin in Saul, is no more than what the devil doth\ndaily to afflicted consciences in order to despair.\n\nI must go then with those that believe this was Satan in Samuel\u2019s\nlikeness.\n\n[1.] Because God refused to answer Saul by prophets or Urim; and it is\ntoo harsh to think he would send Samuel from the dead, and so answer\nhim in an extraordinary way.\n\n[2.] This, if it had been Samuel, would have given too much countenance\nto witchcraft, contrary to that check to Ahaziah, 2 Kings i. 3, \u2018Is\nit not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of\nBaal-zebub?\u2019\n\n[3.] The prediction of Saul\u2019s death, though true for substance, yet\nfailed as to the exactness of time, for the battle was not fought the\nnext day.\n\n[4.] The acknowledgment of the witch\u2019s power, \u2018Why hast thou disquieted\nme?\u2019 shews it could not be true Samuel, the power of witchcraft not\nbeing able to reach souls at rest with God.\n\n[5.] That expression of \u2018gods ascending out of the earth,\u2019 is evidently\nsuspicious.\n\nThe reality of apparitions being thus established, Satan\u2019s power will\nbe easily evinced from it. To say nothing of the bodies in which\nspirits appear, the haunting of places and persons, and the other\neffects done by such appearances, speak abundantly for it.\n\n4. Fourthly, The last instance is _of possessions_, the reality of\nwhich can no way be questioned, because the New Testament affords so\nmuch for it. I shall only note some things as concerning this head. As,\n\n(1.) First, The multitudes of men possessed. Scarce was there anything\nin which Christ had more opportunities to shew his authority than in\ncasting out of Satan. Such objects of compassion he met with in every\nplace.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The multitudes of spirits in one person is a\nconsideration not to be passed by.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, These persons were often strongly acted, sometime with\nfierceness and rage, Mat. viii. 28; some living without clothes and\nwithout house, Luke viii. 27; some by an incredible strength breaking\nchains and fetters, Mark v. 3.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Sometime the possessed were sadly vexed and afflicted,\ncast into the fire and water, &c.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Some were strangely influenced. We read of one, Acts\nxvi. 16, that had a spirit of divination, and told many things to\ncome, which we may suppose frequently came to pass, else she could\nhave brought \u2018no gain to her master by soothsaying.\u2019 Another we hear\nof whose possession was with a lunacy, and had fits at certain times\nand seasons. The possessed person with whom Mr Rothwell discoursed,\nwithin the memory of some living, could play the critic in the Hebrew\nlanguage.[131]\n\n(6.) Sixthly, In some the possession was so strong, and so firmly\nseated, that ordinary means and ways could not dispossess them: \u2018This\nkind comes not out but by prayer and fasting,\u2019 Mat. xvii. 21; which\nshews that all possession was not of one kind and manner, nor alike\nliable to ejection.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, To all these may be added _obsessions_: where the devil\nafflicts the bodies of men, disquiets them, haunts them, or strikes\nin with their melancholy temper, and so annoys by hideous and black\nrepresentations. Thus was Saul vexed by \u2018an evil spirit from the Lord,\u2019\nwhich as most conceive was the devil working in his melancholy humour.\nThat the devil should take possession of the bodies of men, and thus\nact, drive, trouble, and distress them, so distort, distend, and rack\ntheir members; so seat himself in their tongues and minds that a man\ncannot command his own faculties and powers, but seems to be rather\nchanged into the nature of a devil than to retain anything of a man,\nthis shews a power in him to be trembled at.\n\nSatan\u2019s power being thus explained and proved, I shall next speak\nsomething of his cruelty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s cruelty.\u2014Instances thereof in his dealing with wounded\n spirits, in ordinary temptations of the wicked and godly, in\n persecutions, cruelties in worship.\u2014His cruel handling of his slaves._\n\n\nHe that shall consider his malice and power, must unavoidably conclude\nhim to be cruel. Malice is always so where it hath the advantage of\na proportionable strength and opportunity for the effecting of its\nhateful contrivances. It banisheth all pity and commiseration, and\nfollows only the dictate of its own rage, with such fierceness, that it\nis only limited by wanting power to execute. We may then say of Satan,\nthat according to his malice and power such is his cruelty. The truth\nof this will be abundantly manifested by instances: as,\n\n1. First, _From his desperate pursuits of advantage upon those whose\nspirits are wounded_. The anguish of a distressed conscience is\nunspeakably great, insomuch that many are, as Heman, Ps. lxxxviii.\n15, \u2018even distracted, while they suffer the terrors of the Almighty.\u2019\nThese, though they look round about them for help, and invite all\nthat pass by to pity them, \u2018because the hand of the Lord hath touched\nthem,\u2019 [Job xix. 21,] yet Satan laughs at their calamity, and mocks\nat them under their fears, and doth all he can to augment the flame.\nHe suggests dreadful thoughts of an incensed majesty, begets terrible\napprehensions of infinite wrath and damnation, he aggravates all\ntheir sins to make them seem unpardonable. Every action he calls a\nsin, and every sin he represents as a wilful forsaking of God, and\nevery deliberate transgression he tells them is \u2018the sin against the\nHoly Ghost.\u2019 He baffles them in their prayers and services, and then\naccuseth their duties for intolerable profanations of God\u2019s name; and\nif they be at last affrighted from them, he then clamours that they\nare \u2018forsaken of God\u2019 because they have forsaken him. He, as a right\nBaal-zebub,[132] rakes in their wounds, as flies are ever sucking where\nthere is a sore. Their outcries and lamentations are such music to him,\nthat he gives them no rest; and with such triumph doth he tread upon\nthose that thus lie in the dust, that he makes them sometimes accuse\nthemselves for that which they never did, and in derision he insults\nover them in their greatest perplexities, with this, \u2018Where is now thy\nGod?\u2019 [Ps. xlii. 3,] and \u2018Who shall deliver thee out of my hand?\u2019 This\nwere enough to evidence him altogether void of compassion. But,\n\n2. Secondly, He shews no less cruelty _in his usage of those that are\nhis slaves_. The service that he exacts of those that are his most\nwilling servants, is no less than the highest cruelty; and not only\n[1.] in regard of the misery and destruction which he makes them work\nout for themselves, which is far greater than where men are forced by\nthe most brutish tyrants to buy their own poison or to cut their own\nthroats, because this is unspeakably less than the endless miseries\nof eternal torments; but [2.] also in regard of the very slavery and\ndrudging toil of the service which he exacts from them. He is not\npleased that they sin, but the vilest iniquities most contrary to God\nand most abominable to man, as the highest violations of the laws of\nnature and reason, are the things which he will put them upon, where\nthere are no restraints in his way. He drave the heathens, as Paul\ntestifies, Rom. i., to affections so vile and loathsome, that in\ntheir way of sinning they seemed to act rather like brutes than men,\ntheir minds becoming so injudicious that they lost all sense of what\nwas fit and comely. Neither [3.] doth this satisfy his cruelty, that\nthe worst of abominations be practised, but he urgeth them to the\nhighest desperateness in the manner of performance, and so draws them\nout to the front of the battle, that they might contemn and outdare\nGod to his face. He will have them sin with a high hand, and in the\nhighest bravado of madness to rush into sin as \u2018the horse into the\nbattle.\u2019 This cruelty of Satan were yet the less if he only brought\nthem forth presumptuously in some one or two set battles upon special\noccasions; but [4.] he would have this to be their constant work,\nthe task of every day, upon the same score that Ahithophel advised\nAbsalom to an open and avouched defilement of his father\u2019s concubines,\nthat so the breach betwixt them and God might be fixed by a resolute\ndetermination, and consequently that their hands might be strong and\ntheir hearts hardened in rebellion against God. And [5.] that Satan\nmight not come short of the utmost of what cruelty could do, we may\nyet further observe, that though sinners offer themselves willingly\nenough to conflict against God in the high places of the field, yet,\nas not satisfied with their forwardness, he lasheth and whips them on\nto their work, and sometime overdrives them in their own earnestness.\nHaman was so hurried and overborne with violent hatred against Mordecai\nand the Jews, that his own advancement and the marks of singular\nfavour from the king availed him not, as to any satisfaction and\npresent contentment, Esther v. 13. Ahab, though king of Israel, is so\nvehemently urged in his desires for Naboth\u2019s vineyard, that he covered\nhis face and grew sick upon it, [1 Kings xxi. 1, _seq._] Thus as\ngalley-slaves were they chained to their oar, and forced to their work\nbeyond their own strength.\n\n3. Thirdly, There is also a cruelty seen in _his incessant provokings\nand force upon the children of God_, while he urgeth his loathed\ntemptations upon them against their will. When I consider Paul\u2019s outcry\nin this case, Rom. vii. 15, 19, \u2018That which I do, I allow not; the evil\nwhich I would not, that do I,\u2019 &c., my thoughts represent him to me,\nlike those Christians that were tortured in the trough, where water was\npoured by a continued stream upon their mouths, till the cloth that lay\nupon their lips was forced down their throats; or like those that had\nstinking puddle-water by a tunnel poured into their stomachs, till they\nwere ready to burst; and surely he apprehended himself to be under very\ncruel dealing by Satan when he cried out, \u2018O wretched man that I am!\nwho shall deliver me?\u2019 If we seriously consider the mind and endeavours\nof those children of God that are striving against sin, and have cast\nit off as the most loathsome abominable thing, when Satan urgeth them\nto evil with his incessant importunities, it is as if they were forced\nto eat their own excrements, or to swallow down again their own vomit;\nfor the devil doth but as it were cram these temptations down their\nthroats against their will.\n\n4. Fourthly, If we cast our eye upon _the persecutions of all ages_, we\nshall have thence enough to charge Satan withal in point of cruelty,\nfor he who is styled \u2018a murderer from the beginning,\u2019 [John viii. 44,]\nset them all on foot. It is he that hath filled the world with blood\nand fury, and hath in all ages, in one place or other, made it a very\nshambles and slaughter-house of men. [1.] Can we reckon how often\nSatan hath been at this work? That is impossible. His most public and\ngeneral attempts of this kind are noted by histories of all ages.\nThe persecutions of Pharaoh against Israel, and of the prevailing\nadversaries of Israel and Judah against both or either of them, are\nrecorded for the most part in Scripture. The persecutions of the Roman\nemperors against Christianity are sufficiently known, and what is yet\nto come who can tell? A great persecution by Antichrist was the general\nbelief and expectation of those that lived in Austin\u2019s time, and long\nbefore; but whether this be one more to the ten former persecutions,\nthat so the parallel betwixt these and Pharaoh\u2019s ruin in the Red Sea\nafter his ten plagues might run even, be only to be looked for, or\nthat others are also to be expected, he thinks it would be presumption\nand rashness to determine.[133] But, however, his particular assaults\nof this nature cannot be numbered: how busy is he still at this work\nin all times and places! insomuch that \u2018He that will live godly in\nthis world must suffer persecution,\u2019 2 Tim. iii. 12. But [2.] If we\nwithal consider what inventions and devices of cruelty and torture he\nhath found out, and what endless variety of pains and miseries he hath\nprepared, a catalogue whereof would fill a great deal of paper, we can\ndo no less than wonder at the merciless fury and implacable rage of him\nthat contrived them. Satan, the great engineer, doth but give us the\npicture of his mind in all those instruments of destruction. And when\nwe see amongst tyrants ways of torturing every member of the body, and\narts of multiplying deaths, that so those that perish by their hands\nmight not have so much as the mercy of a speedy despatch, but that they\nmight feel themselves to die, we may reflect it upon Satan, in Jacob\u2019s\nwords to Simeon and Levi, \u2018Cursed be his anger, for it is fierce; and\nhis wrath, for it is cruel,\u2019 [Gen. xlix. 7.] [3.] But if we consider\nwhat instruments he useth, and against whom, we shall see cruelty in a\nhigher exaltation. Had he used some of the beasts of the earth, or some\nof his apostate associates, to persecute and afflict the innocent lambs\nof Christ, it might have been much excused from the natural instinct or\ncursed antipathy of such agents; or had he used only the vilest of the\nchildren of men to act his tragical fury, the matter had been less; but\nas not content with common revenge, he persecutes men by men, though\nall of one blood and offspring, and so perverts the ends of nature,\nmaking those that should be the comforts and support of men to be the\ngreatest terror and curse to them\u2014a thing which nature itself abhors,\nand in regard of which, that the impressions of pity might be more\npermanent and efficacious, God forbade Israel to \u2018seethe a kid in the\nmother\u2019s milk,\u2019 [Exod. xxiii. 19;] nay, he hath prevailed with some\nof good inclinations and rare accomplishments\u2014for such were some of\nthe persecuting emperors\u2014to be his deputies for authorising the rack,\nfor providing fire and faggot, and, which is strange, hath prevailed\nso far with them, that they have been willing to open their ears to\nthe most palpable lies, the grossest forgeries, the most unreasonable\nsuggestions that known malice could invent; and then after all, when\nthey were drawn out to butchery and slaughter by multitudes, they have\nmade such spectacles\u2014which might make impressions upon an iron breast\nor an adamant heart\u2014only advancements of their jollity; and as Nero\nupon the sight of flaming Rome took his harp and made melody, so have\nthese tormenting furies fired, by the help of combustible matter,\nmultitudes of such harmless creatures, and then taken the opportunity\nof their light for their night sports. And yet, methinks, the devil\nhath discovered a keener fury when he hath made them rage against the\ndead, and dig their graves, and revenge themselves upon their senseless\nashes, and when they could do no more, seek to please themselves by\nexecuting their rage against their pictures or statues; which actions,\nthough they might be condemned for follies, yet are they evidences of\nhighest fury, which commonly destroys the judgment, and sacrificeth\nwit, reason, and honour upon the altar of revenge. That the devil\nshould so poison man\u2019s nature that he should thus rise up against his\nfellow, that carries the same specific being with himself, shews enough\nof his temper against man, but never more than when he prevails against\nthe engagements of kindness, blood, affinity, and relation, to raise a\nman\u2019s enemies out of his own house, \u2018the father against the son, and\nthe son against the father, the daughter against the mother, and the\nmother against the daughter,\u2019 [Mat. x. 35;] for this is little less\nthan an unnatural mutiny of the members against the body.\n\n5. Fifthly, We have yet a more visible instance of his cruelty in\n_his bloody and tyrannical superstitions_. Look but into the rites\nand ways of his worship among the heathen in all ages and places, and\nyou will find nothing but vile and ridiculous fooleries, or insolent\nand despiteful usages. In the former he hath driven men to villainous\ndebaucheries, in the latter to execrable cruelties. Of the latter I\nshall only speak; though in the former, by debasing man to be his\nlaughing-stock, he is cruel in his scorn and mockery. Here I might\nmention his tyrannical ceremonies of the lower order, such as touch not\nlife; such were their tedious pilgrimages, as in Zeilan; their painful\nwhippings, as of the youth of Laced\u00e6mon at the altar of Diana; of\ntheir priests, and that with knotted cords upon their shoulders, as at\nMexico and New Spain; their harsh usages in tedious fastings, stinking\ndrenches, hard lyings upon stones, eating earth, strict forbearances\nof wine and commerce, their torturings and manglings of their bodies\nby terrible lancings and cuttings for the effusion of blood, 1 Kings\nxviii.; their dismembering themselves, plucking out their eyes,\nmangling their flesh, to cast in the idol\u2019s face, sacrificing their\nown blood, as did the priests of Bellona and Dea Syria.[134] So did\nthe kings of New Spain at their election, as Montezuma the Second,\nwho sacrificed by drawing blood from his ears and the calves of\nhis legs.[135] In Narsinga and Bisnagar they go their pilgrimages\nwith knives sticking on their arms and legs till the wounded flesh\nfestered. Some cast themselves under the wheels of the waggon on which\ntheir idol is drawn in procession.[136] Yet are all these but small\nmatters in comparison of the bloody outrages committed upon mankind\nin the abominable custom of sacrificing men to him. Of this many\nauthors give us a large account.[137] The Laced\u00e6monians to avert the\nplague sacrifice a virgin; the Athenians, by the advice of Apollo\u2019s\noracle, sent yearly to King Minos seven males and so many females to\nbe sacrificed to appease the wrath of the god for their killing of\nAndrogeus. The Carthaginians, being vanquished by Agathocles, king of\nSicily, sacrificed two hundred noblemen\u2019s children at once. The Romans\nhad every year such sacrifices of men and women, of each sex two, for\na long time; and this was so common among the wiser pagan nations,\nthat whensoever they fell into danger, either of war, sicknesses,\nor of any other calamity, they presently, to expiate their offences\nagainst their supposed incensed gods, and to clear themselves of their\npresent miseries or dangers, sacrificed some mean persons, who for\nthis reason were called \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1, expiations,[138] and to this doth\nthe apostle allude in 1 Cor. iv. 13, as Bud\u00e6us, Stephanus, Grotius,\nand many others think; as if he should say, we are as much despised\nand loaded with cursings as those that are sacrificed for public\nexpiation. But what cruel usage may we expect for the poor barbarous\nnations of the world, where he had all possible advantages for the\nexercise of his bloody tyranny! Many sad instances of this kind are\ncollected by Purchas in his Pilgrimage, in his discourses of Virginia,\nPeru, Brasilia, Mexico, Florida, and other places, whose stories of\nthis subject are so terrible, and occur so frequently, that they are\nalmost beyond all belief,[139] all which for brevity\u2019s sake I omit,\ncontenting myself to note one instance or two out of the Scripture: 2\nKings iii. 27, the king of Moab \u2018took his eldest son that should have\nreigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the\nwall.\u2019 This he did, according to the customs of the Ph\u0153nicians and\nothers, being reduced to great straits, as supposing by this means,\nas his last refuge, to turn away the wrath of his God. Of Ahaz it is\nrecorded, 2 Chron. xxviii. 3, that \u2018he burnt his children in the fire,\nafter the abominations of the heathen.\u2019 That this was not a lustration\nor consecration of their children, though that also was used, but a\nreal sacrificing, is without doubt to Josephus, who expresseth it thus:\n\u2018He offered his son as an holocaust,\u2019 [\u1f41\u03bb\u03bf\u03ba\u03ac\u03c5\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c3\u03b5.] But whatever Ahaz\ndid, it is certain the children of Israel did so; \u2018They offered their\nsons and daughters to devils,\u2019 Ps. cvi. 37. And if the \u2018sacrifices\nof the dead\u2019 which they ate in the wilderness, mentioned ver. 28, be\nunderstood of the feasts which were made at \u2018the burning of their\nchildren,\u2019 as some think[140]\u2014though many understand it of their\nsenseless dead gods or their deceased heroes, or for their deceased\nfriends\u2014then this cruelty had soon possessed them. However, possess\nthem it did, as appears also by the description of their devouring\nMoloch, which the Jewish Rabbins say was a hollow brazen image in\nthe form of a man, saving that it had the head of a calf, the arms\nstretched in a posture of receiving; the image was heated with fire,\nand the priest put the child in his arms, where it was burnt to death;\nin the meantime a noise was made with drums, that the cries of the\nchild might not be heard, and hence was it called Tophet, from _toph_,\nwhich signifies a drum; so that the name and shape of the image shews\nthat it was used to these execrable cruelties.[141]\n\nThese Scripture evidences, if we were backward to credit what histories\nsay of this matter, may assure us of the temper and disposition of\nSatan, and may enable us to believe what bloody work he hath made in\nthe world, which I shall briefly sum up in these particulars:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, These inhuman, or rather, as Purchas calls them, over-human\nsacrifices, were practised in most nations. Not only the Indians,\nParthians, Mexicans, &c., but \u00c6thiopians, Syrians, Carthaginians,\nGrecians, Romans, Germans, French, and Britons used them.\n\n[2.] Secondly, These cruelties were acted not only upon slaves and\ncaptives, but upon children, whose age and innocency might have\ncommanded the compassions of their parents for better usage.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, These sacrificings were used upon several occasions, as\nat the sprouting of their corn, at the inauguration, coronation, and\ndeaths of their kings and noblemen, in time of war, dearth, pestilence,\nor any danger; in a word, as the priests in Florida and Mexico used to\nsay, whenever the devil is hungry or thirsty, that is, as oft as he\nhath a mind.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, In some places the devil brought them to set times for\nthose offerings; some were monthly, some annual. The Latins sacrificed\nthe tenth child; the annual drowning of a boy and a girl in the lake of\nMexico; the casting of two yearly from the _Pons Milvius_[142] at Rome\ninto Tiber, are but petty instances in comparison of the rest.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, We cannot pass by the vast number of men offered up at\none time. So thirsty is Satan of human blood, that from one or two, he\nhath raised the number incredibly high. In some sacrifices five, in\nsome ten, in some a hundred, in some a thousand have been offered up.\nIt was the argument which Montezuma, the last Emperor of Mexico, used\nto Cortez to prove his strength and greatness by, that he sacrificed\nyearly twenty thousand men, and some years fifty thousand. Some have\nreserved their captives for that end, others have made war only to\nfurnish themselves with men for such occasions.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, There are also several circumstances of these diabolical\noutrages that may give a further discovery of his cruelty, as that\nthese miserable creatures thus led to be butchered have been loaden\nwith all the cursings, revilings, and contumacious reproaches as a\nnecessary concomitant of their violent deaths. Thus were those used who\nwere forced to be the public \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1, or expiation, for the removal\nof common calamities. Death also was not enough, except it had been\nmost tormenting in the manner of it, as of those that suffered by the\nembracements of Moloch. The joy and feastings of such sacrificings,\nwhich were in themselves spectacles of mourning and sorrow, were\ncruelties to the dead, and a barbarous enforcement against the laws\nof nature in the living. But the dashing of the smoking heart in the\nidol\u2019s face, and the pulling off the skins from the massacred bodies,\nthat men and women might dance in them, were yet more cruel ceremonies.\nAnd lastly, In those that have been prepared for those solemnities,\nby delicious fare, gorgeous ornaments, and the highest reverence or\nhonours, as was the manner of several countries; yet was this no other\nthan Satan\u2019s insulting over their miseries, of which we can say no\notherwise, than that his tenderest mercies are cruelties.\n\n[7.] Seventhly, I may cast into the account, that in some places\nSatan, by a strange madness of devotion, hath persuaded some to be\nvolunteers in suffering these tortures and deaths. Some have cast\nthemselves under the chariot-wheels of their idols, and so have been\ncrushed to pieces.[143] Some sacrifice themselves to their gods: first\nthey outcut off several pieces of their flesh, crying every time, \u2018For\nthe worship of my god, I cut this my flesh;\u2019 and at last say, \u2018Now do\nI yield myself to death in the behalf of my god,\u2019 and so kills himself\noutright.\n\n[8.] Eighthly, It is wonderful to think that the devil should, by\nstrange pretexts of reason, have smoothed over these barbarous\ninhumanities, so that they have become plausible things in the\njudgments of those miserable wretches. In piacular sacrifices they\nbelieved that except the life of a man were given for the life of\nmen, that the gods could not be pacified.[144] In other sacrifices,\nboth eucharistical and for atonement, they retained this principle,\n\u2018that those things are to be offered to the gods that are most\npleasing and acceptable to us; and that the offering of a calf or\na pigeon was not suitable to such an end.\u2019 This maxim they further\nimproved by the addition of another of the same kind, \u2018that if it\nwere fit to offer a human sacrifice, it must also be innocent, and\nconsequently little children are the fittest for such a purpose.\u2019\nAnd some have also conjectured that the devil hath not been awanting\nto improve the example of Abraham sacrificing his son, or the law in\nLev. xxvii. 28, or the prophecies concerning the death of Christ,\nas the great sacrifice of atonement, to justify and warrant his\nhellish cruelty.[145] In some cases cruelty hath arisen from the very\nprinciples of reverence and love which children have to parents, and\nfriends to friends: as in Dragoian, when any are sick, they send to\ntheir oracle to know whether the parties shall live or die; if it be\nanswered they shall die, then their friends strangle them and eat them;\nand all this from a kind of religious respect to their kindred, to\npreserve, as they imagine, their flesh from putrefaction, and their\nsouls from torment.[146] The like they do at Javamajor, when their\nfriends grow old and cannot work, only they eat not their own friends,\nbut carry them to the market and sell them to those that do eat\nthem.[147]\n\n[9.] Lastly, Let us call to mind how long the devil domineered in\nthe world at this rate of cruelty. When the world grew to a freer\nuse of reason and greater exercise of civility, they found out ways\nof mitigation, and changed these barbarous rites into more tolerable\nsacrifices; as in Laodicea, they substituted a hart to be sacrificed\ninstead of a virgin; in Cyprus, an ox was put instead of a man; in\nEgypt, waxen images instead of men. Images of straw at Rome were cast\ninto Tiber in the place of living men; and the terrible burnings of\nMoloch, which was not peculiar only to the nations near to Canaan, but\nwas in use also at Carthage, and found in the American islands by the\nSpaniards; the like brazen images were also found in Lodovicus Vives\nhis time, by the French, in an island called by them Carolina.[148]\nThese were at last changed into a _februation_,[149] and instead of\nburning their children, they only passed them betwixt two fires; but\nit was long before it came to this. In the time of Socrates, human\nsacrifices were in use at Carthage, and they continued in the Roman\nprovinces till the time of Tertullian, Eusebius, and Lactantius; though\nthey had been severely forbidden by Augustus C\u00e6sar, and afterward by\nTiberius, who was forced to crucify some of the priests that dared to\noffer such sacrifices, to affright them from those barbarous customs.\nIn other places of the world, how long such things continued, who can\ntell, especially seeing they were found at Carolina not so very long\nsince?\n\nHow impossible is it to cast up the total sum of so many large\nitems! When these terrible customs have had so general a practice in\nmost nations, upon so many occasions, upon such seeming plausible\nprinciples; when such great numbers have been destroyed at once, and\nthese usages have been so long practised in the world, and with such\ndifficulty restrained, what vast multitudes of men must, we imagine,\nhave been consumed by Satan\u2019s execrable cruelty!\n\n6. Sixthly, There remains one instance more of the devil\u2019s cruelty,\nwhich is yet different from the former, which I may call his _personal\ncruelties_; because they are acted by his own immediate hand upon\ncertain of his vassals, without the help or interposure of men, who,\nin most of the fore-mentioned cases, have been as instruments acted by\nhim. Here I might take notice of his fury to those that are possessed.\nSome have been as it were racked and tortured in their bodies, and\ntheir limbs and members so distorted, that it hath been not only\nmatter of pity to the beholders to see them so abused, but also of\nadmiration[150] to consider how such abuses should be consistent\nwith their lives, and that such rendings and tearings have not quite\nseparated the soul from the body. In the Gospels we read of some such\n\u2018cast into the fire, and into the water,\u2019 [Mat. xvii. 15;] others,\nconversing \u2018with tombs and sepulchres,\u2019 in the cold nights \u2018without\nclothes;\u2019 and all of them spoken of as creatures sadly tormented, and\n\u2018miserably vexed.\u2019 The histories of later days tell us of some that\nvomited crooked pins, pieces of leather, coals, cloth, and such like;\nof others snatched out of their houses, and tired even to fainting,\nand waste of their spirits, as Domina Rossa, mentioned by Bodin, with\na great many more to this same purpose. We may take a view of his\ndealing with witches, who, though he seem to gratify them in their\ntransportations from place to place, and in their feastings with music\nand dancings, are but cruelly handled by him very often. The very work\nthey are put upon\u2014which is the destruction of children, men, women,\ncattle, and the fruits of the earth\u2014is but a base employment; but the\naccount he takes of them, of the full performance of their enterprizes,\nand the cruel beatings they have of him, when they cannot accomplish\nany of their revenges, is no less than a severe cruelty. He gives them\nno rest unless they be doing hurt; and when they cannot do it to the\npersons designed, they are forced to do the same mischief to their\nown children or relations, that they may gratify their tyrannical\nmaster. Bodin relates the story of a French baron, [p. 180,] who was\nafterward put to death for witchcraft, that after he had killed eight\nchildren, was at last upon a design of sacrificing his own child to the\ndevil. And if at any time they grew weary of so execrable a slavery,\nor confess their wickedness, they are so miserably tormented that they\nchoose rather to die than live. And what else but cruelty can these\nslaves expect from him, when the ceremonies of their entrance into that\ncursed service betokens nothing else; for their bonds and obligations\nare usually writ or subscribed with their own blood; and some magical\nbooks have been writ with the blood of many children; besides, the\nfarewell that they have of him at their usual meetings, is commonly\nthis thundering threatening, \u2018Avenge yourselves, or you shall die.\u2019\nAll these particulars are collected from the confessions of witches by\nBodin, Wierus, and others.\n\nBut leaving these, let us further inquire into Satan\u2019s carriage toward\nthose that in America and other dark and barbarous places know no\nother god, and give their devoutest worship to him. To those he is\nnot so kind as might be expected; but his constant way is to terrify\nand torment them, insomuch that some know no other reason of their\nworship but that he may not hurt them. And since the English colonies\nwent into these parts, these Americans have learned to make this\ndistinction between the Englishman\u2019s God and theirs, that theirs is an\nevil god, and the other a good God; though that distinction in other\nplaces is in the general far more ancient, where they acknowledge two\ngods, one good, the other bad; and the worse the god is, the saddest,\nmost mournful rites of sacrificing were used, as in caves, and in the\nnight\u2014the manner of the worship fitly expressing the nature of the\ngod they served.[151] Our countrymen have noted of the natives of New\nEngland, that the devil appeared to them in ugly shapes, and in hideous\nplaces, as in swamps and woods. But these are only the prologue to\nthe tragedy itself, for they only serve to impress upon the minds of\nhis worshippers what cruelties and severities they are to expect from\nhim; and accordingly he often lets them feel his hand, and makes them\nknow that those dark and dismal _preludiums_ are not for nothing. For\nsometimes he appears to the worshippers, tormenting and afflicting\ntheir bodies, tearing the flesh from the bones, and carrying them away\nquick[152] with him; sometimes six have been carried away at once, none\never knowing what became of them.[153] By such bloody acts as these he\nkept the poor Americans in fear and slavery; so that as bad a master\nas he is, they durst not but pay their homage and service to him. All\nthese particulars being put together, will shew we do the devil no\nwrong when we call him cruel.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s diligence in several instances.\u2014The question about\n the being of spirits and devils handled.\u2014The Sadducees\u2019 opinion\n discovered.\u2014The reality of spirits proved._\n\n\nThe last particular observed in the text is his _diligence_. This adds\nforce and strength to his malice, power, and cruelty, and shews they\nare not idle, dead, or inactive principles in him, which, if they could\nbe so supposed, would render him less hurtful and formidable. This I\nshall despatch in a few instances, noting to this purpose,\n\n1. First, _His pains he takes in hunting his prey, and pursuing his\ndesigns_. It is nothing for him to \u2018compass sea and land,\u2019 to labour\nto the utmost in his employment; it is all his business to tempt and\ndestroy, and his whole heart is in it. Hence intermission or cessation\ncannot be expected. He faints not by his labour; and his labour, with\nthe success of it, is all the delight we can suppose him to have. So\nthat, being pushed and hurried by the hellish satisfactions of deadly\nrevenge, and having a strength answerable to those violent impulses, we\nmust suppose him to undergo, with a kind of pleasing willingness, all\nimaginable toil and labour. If we look into ourselves, we find it true,\nto our no small trouble and hazard. Doth he at any time easily desist\nwhen we give him a repulse? Doth he not come again and again, with\noften and impudently-repeated importunities? Doth he not carry a design\nin his mind for months and years against us? And when the motion is not\nfeasible, yet he forgets it not, but after a long interruption begins\nagain where he left; which shews that he is big with his projects, and\nhis mind hath no rest. He stretcheth out his nets all the day long. We\nmay say of him, that he riseth up early, and sitteth up late at his\nwork, and is content to labour in the very fire, so that he might but\neither disturb a child of God or gain a proselyte.\n\n2. Secondly, Diligence is not only discovered in laboriousness,\nbut also in _a peculiar readiness to espy and to close in with fit\noccasions, which may in probability answer the end we drive at_. In\nthis is Satan admirably diligent; no occasion shall slip, or through\ninadvertency escape him. No sooner are opportunities before us, but we\nmay perceive him suggesting to us, \u2018Do this, satisfy that lust, take\nthat gain, please yourselves with that revenge.\u2019 No sooner obtains he a\ncommission against a child of God, but presently he is upon his back,\nas he dealt with Job; he lost no time, but goes out immediately from\nthe presence of the Lord and falls upon him. Besides what he doth upon\nsolemn and extraordinary occasions, these that are common and ordinary\nare so carefully improved by him, that everything we hear or see is\nready to become our snare, and Satan will assay to tempt us by them,\nthough they lie something out of the way of our inclination, and be not\nso likely to prevail with us.\n\n3. Thirdly, It is also a discovery of his diligence, that he never\n_fails to pursue every advantage which he gets against us to the\nutmost_. If the occasion and motion thereupon incline us, so that if\nwe are persuaded by them, he follows it on, and is not satisfied with\neither a lower degree of acting sinfully, or with one or two acts;\nbut then he presseth upon us to sin to the height, with the greater\ncontempt of God and grievance of his Spirit, the greater scandal and\noffence to our brethren; and having once caused us to begin, he would\nnever have us to make an end. His temptations roll themselves upon\nus like the breaking in of waters, which, by the fierceness of their\ncurrent, make a large way for more to follow. He knows how to improve\nhis victories, and will not, through slothfulness or pity, neglect to\ncomplete them. Hence it is that sometimes he reaps a large harvest\nwhere he had sown little, and from one temptation not only wounds the\nsoul of him that committed it, but endeavours to diffuse the venom and\npoisonous steam of it to the infection of others, to the disgrace of\nreligion, the hardening the hearts of wicked men, and the turning the\nignorant out of the way of truth. In like manner, if he perceive the\nspirits of men grow distempered and wounded, he then plies them with\nthreatenings, fills them with all manner of discouragements, dresseth\nevery truth with the worst appearance, that it may be apprehended\notherwise than it is, and puts such interpretations on all providences,\nthat everything may augment the smart of the wound, till they be\noverwhelmed with terrors.\n\n4. Fourthly, _The various ways which he takes_, shews also his\ndiligence. If one plot take not, he is immediately upon another. He\nconfines not himself to one design nor to one method; but if he find\none temptation doth not relish, he prepares another more suitable. If\ncovetousness doth not please us, then he urgeth to profuseness; if\nterrors do not affright us to despair, then he abuseth mercies to make\nus careless and presuming. If we are not content to be openly wicked,\nthen he endeavours to make us secretly hypocritical or formal. Sometime\nhe urgeth men to be profane; if that hit not, then to be erroneous.\nIf he cannot work by one tool, then he takes another; and if anything\nin his way disgust, he will not urge it over-hard, but straight takes\nanother course. Such is his diligence, that we may say of him, as it\nwas said of Paul upon a better ground, he will \u2018become all things to\nall men, that he may gain some,\u2019 [1 Cor. ix. 19.]\n\n5. Fifthly, Diligence will most shew itself _when things are at the\ngreatest hazard, or when the hopes of success are ready to bring\nforth_. In this point of diligence our adversary is not wanting. If men\nare upon the point of error or sin, how industriously doth he labour to\nbring them wholly over, and to settle them in evil! One would think at\nsuch times he laid aside all other business, and only attended this.\nHow frequent, incessant, and earnest are his persuasions and arguings\nwith such! The like diligence he sheweth in obstructing, disturbing,\nand discouraging us when we are upon our greatest services or near\nour greatest mercies. What part of the day are we more wandering and\nvain in our thoughts, if we take not great care, than when we set\nabout prayer? At other times we find some more ease and freedom in our\nimaginations, as if we could better rule or command them; but then, as\nif our thoughts were only confusion and disorder, we are not able to\nmaster them, and to keep the door of the heart so close but that these\ntroublesome, unwelcome guests will be crowding in, is impossible. Let\nus observe it seriously, and we shall find that our thoughts are not\nthe same, and after the same manner impetuous at other times as they\nare when we set about holy things; which ariseth not only from the\nquickness of our spiritual sense in our readier observation of them\nat that time, but also from the devil\u2019s busy molestation and special\ndiligence against us on such occasions. Besides, when he foresees\nour advantages or mercies, he bestirs himself to prevent or hinder\nus of them. If ministers set themselves to study and preach truths\nthat are more piercing, weighty, or necessary, they may observe more\nmolestations, interruptions, or discouragements of all sorts, than when\nthey less concern themselves with the business of the souls of men.\nHe foresees what sermons are provided, and often doth he upon such\nforesight endeavour to turn off those from hearing that have most need\nand are most likely to receive benefit by them. Many have noted it,\nthat those sermons and occasions that have done them most good, when\nthey came to them, they have been some way or other most dissuaded\nfrom and resolved against before they came; and then when they have\nbroken through their strongest hindrances, they have found that all\ntheir obstruction was Satan\u2019s diligent foresight to hinder them of such\na blessing as they have, beyond hope, met withal. The like might be\nobserved of the constant returns of the Lord\u2019s day. If men watch not\nagainst it, they may meet with more than ordinary, either avocations\nto prevent and hinder them, or disturbances to annoy and trouble, or\nbodily indispositions to incapacitate and unfit them. And it is not\nto be contemned, that some have observed themselves more apt to be\ndrowsy, dull, or sleepy on that day. Others have noted greater bodily\nindispositions than ordinarily, than at other times; all which make no\nunlikely conjecture of the devil\u2019s special diligence against us on such\noccasions.\n\nLet us cast in another instance to these, and that is, of those that\nare upon the point of conversion, ready to forsake sin for Christ. Oh,\nwhat pains then doth the devil take to keep them back! He visits them\nevery moment with one hindrance or other. Sometimes they are tempted\nto former pleasures, sometime affrighted with present fears and future\ndisappointments; sometime discouraged with reproaches, scorns, and\nafflictions that may attend their alteration; otherwhile obstructed by\nthe persuasion or threatening of friends and old acquaintances; but\nthis they are sure of, that they have never more temptations, and those\nmore sensibly troubling, than at that time\u2014a clear evidence that Satan\nis as diligent as malicious.\n\nI should now go on to display the subtlety of this powerful, malicious,\ncruel, and diligent adversary. There is but one thing in the way,\nwhich hitherto I have taken for granted, and that is, Whether indeed\nthere be any such things as devils and wicked spirits, or that these\nare but theological engines contrived by persons that carry a goodwill\nto morality and the public peace, to keep men under an awful fear of\nsuch miscarriages as may render them otherwise a shame to themselves\nand a trouble to others. It must be acknowledged a transgression of\nthe rules of method to offer a proof of that now, which, if at all,\nought to have been proved in the beginning of the discourse: and\nindeed the question at this length, whether there be a devil, hath such\naffinity with that other, though for the matter they are as different\nas heaven and hell, whether there be a God, that as it well deserves\na confirmation,\u2014for the use that may be made of it to evidence that\nthere is a God, because we feel there is a devil,\u2014so would it require\na serious endeavour to perform it substantially. But it would be not\nonly a needless labour to levy an army against professed atheists, who\nwith high scorn and derision roundly deny both God and devils\u2014seeing\nothers have frequently done that\u2014but also it would occasion too large a\ndigression from our present design. I shall therefore only speak a few\nthings to those that own a God, and yet deny such a devil as we have\ndescribed: and yet not to all of these neither, for there were many\nheathens who were confident assertors of a deity, that nevertheless\ndenied the being of spirits as severed from corporeity; and others were\nso far from the acknowledgment of devils, that they confounded them in\nthe number of their gods. Others there were who gave such credit to\nthe frequent relations of apparitions and disturbances of that kind,\nthat many had attested and complained of, that they expressed more\ningenuity[154] than Lucian, who pertinaciously refused to believe,\nbecause he never saw them; and yet though they believed something of\nreality in that that was the affrightment and trouble of others, they\nnevertheless ascribed such extraordinary things to natural causes,\nsome to the powers of the heavens and stars in their influences upon\nnatural bodies, or by the mediation of certain herbs, stones, minerals,\ncreatures, voices, and characters, under a special observation of the\nmotion of the planets.[155] Some refer such things to the subtlety\nand quickness of the senses of hearing and seeing, which might create\nforms and images of things, or discover I know not what reflections\nfrom the sun and moon. Some [Pomponatius, Epicureans] fancy the shapes\nand visions to be exuvi\u00e6, thin scales or skins of natural things,\ngiving representations of the bodies that cast them off, or exhalations\nfrom sepulchres, representing the shape of the body. Others [Cardan,\nAcademics] make them the effects of our untrusty and deceitful\nsenses, the debility and corruption whereof they conclude to be such,\nand so general, that most men are in hazard to be imposed upon by\ndelusive appearances. But with far greater show of likelihood do some\n[Averrhoes] make all such things to be nothing else but the issues of\nmelancholy and corrupt humours, which makes men believe they hear, see,\nand suffer strange things, when there is nothing near them; or really\nto undergo strange fits, as in lunacy and epilepsy.[156] Leaving these\nmen as not capable of information from Scripture evidence, because\ndisowning it, let us inquire what mistaken apprehensions there have\nbeen in this matter among those that have pretended a reverence to and\nbelief of Scripture. The Sadducees deserve the first place, because\nthey are by name noted in Scripture to have \u2018denied the resurrection,\u2019\nand to have \u2018affirmed that there is neither angel nor spirit,\u2019 Acts\nxxiii. 8, and Mat. xxii. 23.\n\nThis opinion of theirs, could we certainly find it out, would make much\nfor the confirmation of the truth in question, seeing, whatever it was,\nit is positively condemned in Scripture, and the contrary asserted to\nbe true. Many, and that upon considerable grounds, do think that they\ndo not deny absolutely that there were any angels at all, but that,\nacknowledging that something there was which was called an angel, yet\nthey imagining it to be far otherwise than what it is indeed, were\naccused justly for denying such a kind of angels as the Scripture had\neverywhere asserted and described. For considering that they owned\na God, and, at least, the five books of Moses, if not all the other\nbooks of the Old Testament\u2014as Scaliger and others judge, not without\ngreat probability, for neither doth the Scripture\u2014nor Josephus mention\nany such thing of the prophets\u2014it is unimaginable that they would\naltogether deny that there was angel or spirit at all.[157] They read\nof angels appearing to Lot, to Abraham, and met with it so frequently,\nthat, believing Scriptures to be true, they could not believe angels to\nbe an absolute fiction; for one fable or falsity in Scripture, which so\nhighly asserts itself to be an unerring oracle of the true God, must of\nnecessity have destroyed the credit of all, and rendered them as justly\nsuspected to be true in nothing, when apparently false or fabulous in\nanything.\n\nAgain, If we call to mind what apprehensions they had of God, which\nall consent they did acknowledge, we might more easily imagine what\napprehensions they had of angels, for in regard that Moses made mention\nof God\u2019s face and back-parts, Exod. xxxiii., and that frequently hands\nand other parts of man\u2019s body were attributed to him, they concluded\nGod to be corporeal; and seeing the best of creatures which God created\ncannot be supposed to have a more noble being than was that of their\nCreator, and, at the utmost, to be made according to the pattern of\nhis own image and likeness, they might upon this bottom easily fix a\ndenial of incorporeal spirits, and by consequence that the soul of\nman was mortal, and therefore that there could be no resurrection;\nso that the nature of angels being described under the notion of\nspiritual substances, they are judged to deny any such thing, supposing\nthat to be incorporeal was as much as not to be at all; and yet it\nwere unreasonable to deny that they had not some interpretation for\nthose passages of Scripture that mentioned angels, which in their\napprehensions might be some salvo to the truth of those historical\nwritings, which they acknowledged; but what that was we are next to\nconjecture. And indeed Josephus, by a little hint of their opinion,\nseems to tell us that they did not so much deny the being of the soul,\nas the permanency of it; and so, by consequence, they might not so much\ndeny absolutely the existence of spirits, as their natural being and\ncontinuance.[158] Something there was that was called by the name of\nangel\u2014that they could not but own\u2014and that this must be a real and not\nan imaginary thing, is evident from the real effect, and things done by\nthem; yet observing their appearances to have been upon some special\noccasion, and their disappearing to have been on a sudden, they might\nconjecture them to be created by God for the present service, and then\nreduced to nothing when that service was done.\n\nTheir opinion, then, of angels seems to be one of these two: either\nthat they were corporeal substances created upon a special emergency,\nbut not permanent beings; or that they were but images and impressions\nsupernaturally formed in the fancy by the special operation of God,\nto signify his mind and commands to men, upon which they might fitly\nbe called God\u2019s messengers and ministers. I put in this last into the\nconjecture, because I find it mentioned by Calvin,[159] as the opinion\nof the Sadducees; but both are noted by Diodate,[160] on Acts xxiii. 8,\nas with equal probability belonging to them. His words are, \u2018They did\nnot believe they were subsisting and immortal creatures, but transitory\napparitions, or some divine actions and motions to produce some special\nand notable effect.\u2019\n\nOthers also have been lately hammering out the same apprehension\nconcerning angels, and profess themselves delivered from it with great\ndifficulty, differing only in this from some of the heathens before\nmentioned, that what those ascribed to the puissance of the stars,\nnatural powers, or to weakness of senses and corrupt humours, they,\nby the advantage of the general notions of Scripture, have ascribed\nto God, putting forth his power upon the minds and fancies of men, or\nworking by the humours of the body.[161] Upon this foundation they\nwill easilier make bold with devils, to deny, if not their being, yet\ntheir temptations, imagining that we may possibly do him wrong in\nfathering upon him these solicitations and provocations to sin, which\nwe by experience find to be working and acting upon our minds, thinking\nthat our own fancies or imaginations may be the only devils that vex\nus; and this they more readily hearken to, from the nature of dreams\nand visions which happen to men in an ordinary natural way, where our\nfancies play with us as if they were distinct from us; as also from\nthis consideration, that the lunatic, epileptic, and frenzical persons\nare in Scripture called demoniacs, as Mat. xvii. 15, with Luke ix.,\nwhere the person is called lunatic, and yet said to be taken and vexed\nby a spirit. So also John x. 20, he hath a devil, and is mad. But these\nreasonings can do little with an intelligent, considering man, to\nmake him deny what he so really feels, and is so often forewarned of\nin Scripture; for suppose these were called demoniacs by the vulgar,\nit doth not compel us to believe they were so. Men are apt to ascribe\nnatural diseases to Satan, and Christ did not concern himself to cure\ntheir misapprehensions, while he cured their diseases.[162] This some\nsuggest as a reason that may answer many cases, though indeed it cannot\nanswer that of Mat. xvii., because, ver. 18, it is said expressly that\n\u2018Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him,\u2019 which would not\nhave been proper to have been spoken on the account of Christ by the\nevangelist, to express the cure of a natural disease, for so would\nhe unavoidably have been rendered guilty of the same mistake with the\nvulgar. But if we should grant that divers mentioned under the name of\ndemoniacs were men disturbed with melancholy, or the falling-sickness,\nall were not so; for those in Mat. viii. 31, \u2018besought Christ, after\ntheir ejection,\u2019 to have liberty \u2018to go into the herd of swine:\u2019 that\nif Mr Mede intended to assert that all demoniacs were no other than\nmadmen and lunatics, I question not but he was mistaken, and by his\nreason, not only must madmen and lunatic persons pass for demoniacs,\nbut all diseases whatsover; for the blind and dumb were called also\ndemoniacs, Mat. ix. 32, and xii. 22.[163] But the matter seems to\nbe this, that where men were afflicted with such distempers, Satan\ntook the advantage of them, and acted the possessed accordingly; as\nhe frequently takes the advantage of a melancholy indisposition, and\nworks great terrors and affrightments by it, as in Saul; or at least\nthat, where he possessed, he counterfeited the fits and furies of those\nnatural distempers, and acted some like madmen, and others he made dumb\nand deaf\u2014which seems to have been the case of those in Mat. ix. and\nxii., where the deafness and dumbness did depend upon the possession,\nand was cured with it\u2014others were made to \u2018fall on a sudden into fire\nor water,\u2019 as those that are epileptic, and therefore might such be\ncalled both lunatic or epileptic, and also possessed with a devil.\n\nAs to that reason which some fetch from dreams, it is rather a dream\nthan a reason against the being of devils, seeing the effects of these\ninfernal spirits are far otherwise than the utmost of what can be\nimagined to be acted upon the stage of imaginations; so that the real\nand permanent being of devils may be easily proved:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _From those real acts noted to be done by angels and\ndevils_. The angels that appeared to Lot were seen and entertained in\nthe family\u2014seen and observed by the Sodomites. Those that appeared\nto Abraham were more than fancied appearances, in that they \u2018ate and\ndrank\u2019 with him. The devil conveyed Christ from place to place. This\ncould not be a fancy or imagination. Their begging leave to go \u2018into\nthe swine\u2019 shews them real existences.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _From the real effects done by them_. We have undoubted\ntestimonies of men really hurt and tormented by Satan. Of some really\nsnatched away, and carried a great distance from their dwellings. Of\nothers possessed, in whom the devil really speaks audible voices and\nstrange languages, gives notice of things past, and sometime of things\nto come. The oracles of the heathen, which however they were for the\nmost part false or delusory, yet, in that they were responses from\nimages and idols, were more than phantasms.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _From what the Scripture speaks everywhere of them_. Of\ntheir malice and cruelty; that devils are murderers from the beginning;\ntheir daily waiting how they may devour; their arts, wiles, and\nstratagems; their names and appellations, when styled principalities,\npowers, spiritual wickednesses, the prince of the power of the air,\nand a great many more to that purpose, shew that, without apparent\nfolly and dotage, we cannot interpret these of motions only upon the\nminds and fancies of men. Besides, the Scripture speaks of the offices\nof good angels, as their standing continually before the throne, their\nbeholding the face of God, their accompanying Christ at his second\ncoming, their gathering the elect from the four winds, &c., Dan. vii.\n10, which cannot be understood of anything else but real and permanent\nbeings; and this is also an evidence that devils are, seeing the\nScripture mentions their fall and their punishment.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _Seeing also the Scripture condemned the opinion of the\nSadducees, the contrary of that opinion must be true_. And expressly in\nActs xii. 9, that which was done by an angel is opposed to what might\nbe visional or imaginary.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, The reality of devils and their malignity hath been\nthe opinion of heathens. For there is nothing more common among them\nthan the belief of inferior deities, which they called \u03b4\u03ac\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 or\n\u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1, that is, devils; and notwithstanding that they supposed these\nto be mediators to the supreme gods, yet they learned to distinguish\nthem into good and evil.[164] The Platonists thought that the souls\nof tyrants after death became _lemures_ and _larv\u00e6_, that is, hurtful\ndevils; and at last the name _devil_ became of so bad a signification,\nthat to say, \u2018thou hast a devil,\u2019 was reproach and not praise; but what\nthese groped at in the dark, the Scripture doth fully determine, using\nthe word _devil_ only for a malignant spirit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s cunning and craft in the general.\u2014Several demonstrations\n proving Satan to be deceitful; and of the reasons why he makes use of\n his cunning._\n\n\nWe have taken a survey of our adversary\u2019s strength, and this will\nopen the way to a clearer discovery of his subtlety and craft, which\nis his great engine by which he works all his tyranny and cruelty in\nthe world, to the ruin or prejudice of the souls of men; of which\nthe apostle in 2 Cor. ii. 11 speaks, as a thing known by the common\nexperience of all discerning persons. His way is to overreach and take\nadvantages, and for this end he useth devices and stratagems, which is\na thing so ordinary with him, that none can be ignorant of the truth of\nit: \u2018We are not ignorant of his devices.\u2019\n\nThis, before I come to the particulars, I shall prove and illustrate\nin the general, by the gradual procedure of these few following\nconsiderations:\u2014\n\nFirst, _All the malice, power, cruelty, and diligence of which we have\nspoken, with all the advantages of multitude, order, and knowledge,\nby which these cruel qualifications are heightened\u2014these are but his\nfurniture and accomplishment which fit him for his subtle contrivances\nof delusion, and make him able to deceive; neither hath he any rise\nof his power and knowledge but in reference to deceit_. In Eph. vi.\n11, 12, which is a place wherein the apostle doth of purpose present\nSatan in his way of dealing with men, his whole practice is set forth\nunder the term and notion of arts and wiles: \u2018that you may be able to\nstand against the wiles of the devil.\u2019 This is the whole work of Satan,\nagainst which the furniture of that spiritual armour is requisite; and\nlest any should think that his power or wickedness are other distinct\nthings in him, which are to be provided against by other means of\nhelp, he presently adds, that these are no otherwise used by him but\nin order to his wiles and cunning, and therefore not to be looked\nupon as distinct, though indeed to be considered in conjunction with\nhis subtlety and cunning, as things that make his wiles the more\ndangerous and hazardous: \u2018For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,\nbut against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the\ndarkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places;\u2019\nwhich words do but strengthen the apostle\u2019s warning and caution about\nthe forementioned wiles, which are therefore the more carefully to be\nobserved and watched against, because his power is so great that he can\ncontrive snares with the greatest skill and art imaginable; and his\nwickedness is so great, that we cannot expect either honesty or modesty\nshould restrain him from making the vilest and most disingenuous\nproposals, nor from attesting a conveniency or goodness in his motions,\nwith the highest confidence of most notorious lying.\n\n2. Secondly, _The subtlety that the Scriptures do attribute to sin, or\nto the heart, is mostly and chiefly intended to reflect upon Satan,\nas the author and contriver of these deceits_. In Heb. iii. 13 there\nis mention of the \u2018deceitfulness of sin,\u2019 but it is evident that\nsomething else besides sin is intended, to which deceitfulness must\nbe properly ascribed; for sin being, as most conclude, formally a\nprivation, or if we should grant it a positive being, as some contend,\nyet seeing the highest notion we can arrive at this way, excluding\nbut the figment of Flacius Illyricus, who seems to make original sin\nindistinct from the very essence of the soul, is but to call it an\nact.[165] Deceitfulness cannot be properly attributed to it, but with\nreference to him who orders that act in a way of deceitfulness and\ndelusion; which ultimately will bring it to Satan\u2019s door. If here\nthe deceitfulness of sin be devolved upon the subject, then it runs\ninto the same sense with Jer. xvii. 9, \u2018The heart is deceitful above\nall things.\u2019 But why is the deceitfulness fixed upon the heart? The\nground of that we have in the next words; it is deceitful, because it\nis wicked, \u2018desperately wicked.\u2019 But who then inflames and stirs up\nthe heart to this wickedness? Is it not Satan? Who then is the proper\nauthor of deceit but he? It is true, indeed, that our hearts are proper\nfountains of sin, and so may be accused possibly in some cases where\nSatan cannot be justly blamed; yet if we consider deceitfulness as a\ncompanion of every sin, though our hearts be to be blamed for the sin,\nSatan will be found guilty of the deceitfulness. It may be said a man\ncomplies with those things which are intended for his delusion, and so\nimproperly by his negligence may fall under blame of self-deception;\nbut it is unimaginable that he can properly and formally intend to\ndeceive himself. Deceit then, not being from sin nor ourselves\nproperly, can find out no other parent for itself than Satan. Besides\nthis, that these texts upon a rational inquiry do charge Satan with\nthe deceitfulness of sin; they do over and above point at the known\nand constant way of Satan, working so commonly by delusion, that\ndeceitfulness is a close companion of every sin. The deceitfulness of\none sin is as much as the deceitfulness of every sin. Nay, further,\nthat text of Jer. xvii. 9, shews this deceitfulness not to be an\nordinary sleight, but the greatest of all deceits above measure, and of\nan unsearchable depth or mystery; \u2018who can know it?\u2019\n\n3. Thirdly, _All acts of sin, some way or other, come through Satan\u2019s\nfingers_. I do not say that all sin is Satan\u2019s proper offspring, for we\nhave a cursed stock of our own; and it may be said of us, as elsewhere\nof Satan, sometime we sin out of our own inclination and disposition;\nyet in every sin, whether it arise from us or the world, Satan blows\nthe sparks and manageth all. As David said to the woman of Tekoah,\n\u2018Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?\u2019 [2 Sam. xiv. 19;]\nso may we say, Is not the hand of Satan with thee in every sin thou\ncommittest? This is so eminently true, that the Scripture indifferently\nascribes the sin sometimes to us, sometimes to the devil. It was\nPeter\u2019s sin to tempt Christ to decline suffering, yet Christ repelling\nit with this rebuke, \u2018Get thee behind me, Satan,\u2019 Mat. xvi. 23, doth\nplainly accuse both Peter and Satan. It is the personal sin of a man\nto be angry, yet in such acts he \u2018gives place to the devil;\u2019 both man\nand Satan concur in it, Eph. iv. 26. Paul\u2019s \u2018thorn in the flesh,\u2019 2\nCor. xii. 7, whatever sin it was, he calls \u2018Satan\u2019s messenger.\u2019 He\nthat submits not to God, doth in that comply with Satan; as, on the\ncontrary, he that doth submit himself to God, doth resist the devil,\nJames iv. 7.\n\nNeither doth that expression of the apostle, James i. 14, \u2018Every man\nis tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust,\u2019 &c., give any\ncontradiction to this. It is not the apostle\u2019s design to exclude\nSatan, but to include man as justly culpable, notwithstanding Satan\u2019s\ntemptations; and that which he asserts is this, that there is sin and\na temptation truly prevalent when there is the least consent of our\nlust or desire, and that it is that brings the blame upon us; so that\nhis purpose is not to excuse Satan, or to deny him to have a hand in\ndrawing or tempting us on to sin, but to shew that it is our own act\nthat makes the sin to become ours.\n\n4. Fourthly, _Such is the constitution of the soul of man, that its\nsinning cannot be conceived without some deception or delusion_;[166]\nfor, granting that the soul of man is made up of desires, and that the\nsoul were nothing else but, as it were, one willing or lusting power\ndiversified by several objects; and that this power or these faculties\nare depraved by the fall, and corrupted; and that man in every action\ndoth consult with his desires; and that they have so great an influence\nupon him, that they are the law of the members, and give out their\ncommands accordingly for obedience; yet still these three things are\nfirm and unshaken principles:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, That desires cannot be set upon any object but as it is\napprehended truly or apparently good. It is incompatible to a rational\nsoul to desire evil as evil: _Omne appetit bonum_.\n\n[2.] Secondly, The will doth not resolvedly embrace any object till\nthe light of the understanding hath made out, some way or other, the\ngoodness or conveniency of the object.[167]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, There is no man that hath not a competent light for\ndiscovery of the goodness or evil of an object presented. Unregenerate\nmen have, (1.) The light of nature. (2.) Some have an additional\nlight from Scripture discovery. (3.) Some have yet more from common\nconvictions, which beget sensible stirrings and awful impressions upon\nthem. (4.) To those God sometime adds corrections and punishments,\nwhich are of force to make that light burn more clear, and to stir up\ncare and caution in men for the due entertainment of these notices that\nGod affords them. Regenerate men have all this light, and besides that,\nthey have, (1.) The light of their own experience, of the vileness and\nodiousness of sin; they know what an evil and bitter thing it is. (2.)\nThey have a more full discovery of God, which will make them abhor\nthemselves in dust and ashes, Job xlii. 6; Isa. vi. 5. (3.) They have\nthe advantage of a new heart, the law of the spirit of life, making\nthem free from the law of sin and death. (4.) They have also the\nhelp and assistance of the Spirit, in its motions, suggestions, and\nteachings. (5.) They fortify themselves with the strongest resolutions\nnot to give way to sin.\n\nNotwithstanding all these, it is too true that both regenerate and\nunregenerate men do sin; the reason whereof cannot be given from any\nother account than what we have asserted\u2014to wit, they are some way or\nother deluded or deceived; some curtain is drawn betwixt them and the\nlight; some fallacy or other is put upon the understanding some way or\nother; the will is bribed or biassed; there is treachery in the case,\nfor it is unimaginable that a man in any act of sin should offer a\nplain, open, and direct violence to his own nature and faculties; so\nthat the whole business is here, evil is presented under the notion of\ngood; and to make this out, some considerations of pleasure or profit\ndo bribe the will, and give false light to the understanding. Hence is\nit, that in every act of sin, men, by compliance with Satan, are said\nto deceive, or to put tricks and fallacies upon themselves.[168]\n\n5. Fifthly, _All kinds of subtlety are in Scripture directly charged\nupon Satan, and in the highest degrees_. Sometime under the notion\nof logical fallacies; those sleights which disputants, in arguing,\nput upon their antagonists. Of this import is that expression, 2\nCor. ii. 11, \u2018We are not ignorant of his devices,\u2019 where the word\nin the original is borrowed from the sophistical reasonings of\ndisputants.[169] Sometime it is expressed in the similitude of\npolitical deceits; as the Scripture gives him the title of a prince, so\ndoth it mark out his policies in the management of his kingdom, Rev.\nxii. 7, expressly calling them deceits, and comparing him to a dragon\nor serpent for his subtlety. Sometime he is represented as a warrior:\nRev. xii. 17, \u2018The dragon was wroth, and went to make war,\u2019 &c.; and\nhere are his warlike stratagems pointed at. Mention is made, 2 Tim. ii.\n26, of his snares, and the taking of men alive, or captive, directly\nalluding to warlike proceedings, [\u1f10\u03b6\u03c9\u03b3\u03c1\u03ae\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9.] The subtle proceedings\nof arts and craft are charged on him and his instruments. Men are said\nto be enticed, James i., as fish or fowl, by a bait; others deluded,\nas by cheaters in false gaming: Eph. iv. 14, \u2018By the sleight of men,\nand the cunning craft of those that lie in wait to deceive.\u2019[170] The\noverreaching of merchants or crafty tradesmen is alluded to in 2 Cor.\nii. 11. All these sleights are in Satan, in their highest perfection\nand accomplishment. He can \u2018transform himself into an angel of light,\u2019\n2 Cor. xi. 14, where he hath an occasion for it; in a word, all\n\u2018deceiveableness of unrighteousness is in him,\u2019 2 Thes. ii. 10. So that\na general \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03af\u03b1, a dexterity and ability for all kind of subtle\ncontrivances, is ascribed to him, 2 Cor. xi. 3, and that in his very\nfirst essay upon Eve, when the serpent deceived her \u2018through subtlety;\u2019\nso that whatsoever malice can suggest, or wit and art contrive for\ndelusion, or whatsoever diligence can practise, or cruelty execute, all\nthat must be imagined to be in Satan.\n\n6. Sixthly, All this might be further proved _by instances_. What\ntemptation can be named wherein Satan hath not acted as a serpent? Who\ncan imagine the cunning that Satan used with David in the matter of\nUriah? How easily he got him to the roof of the house in order to the\nobject to be presented to him! How he directs his eye, wrought upon his\npassions, suggested the thought, contrived the conveniences! What art\nmust there be to bring a darkness into David\u2019s mind, a forgetfulness\nof God\u2019s law, a fearlessness of his displeasure, and a neglect of his\nown danger! Surely it was no small matter that could blind David\u2019s\neye, or besot his heart to so great a wickedness. But, above all\ninstances, let us take into consideration that of Eve, in the first\ntransgression, wherein many things may be observed; as (1.) That he\nchose the serpent for his instrument, wherein, though we are ignorant\nof the depth of his design, yet that he had a design in it of subtlety,\nin reference to what he was about to suggest, is plain from the text,\n\u2018Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.\u2019 It had\nbeen needless and impertinent to have noted the serpent\u2019s subtlety as\nSatan\u2019s agent, if he had not chosen it upon that score, as advantageous\nfor his purpose. (2.) He set upon the weaker vessel, the woman; and\nyet such, as once gained, he knew was likely enough to prevail with\nthe man, which fell out accordingly. (3.) Some think he took the\nadvantage of her husband\u2019s absence, which is probable, if we consider\nthat it is unlikely that Adam should not interpose in the discourse\nif he had been present. (4.) He took the advantage of the object. It\nappears she was within sight of the tree, \u2018She saw that it was good\nfor food, and pleasant to the eyes;\u2019 thus he made the object plead\nfor him. (5.) He falls not directly upon what he intended, lest that\nshould have scared her off, but fetcheth a compass and enters upon the\nbusiness by an inquiry of the affair, as if he intended not hurt. (6.)\nHe so inquires of the matter\u2014 \u2018Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of\nevery tree of the garden?\u2019\u2014as if he made a question of the reality of\nthe command; and his words were so ordered that they might cast some\ndoubt hereof into her mind. (7.) He, under a pretence of asserting\nGod\u2019s liberality, secretly undermines the threatening, as if he had\nsaid, \u2018Is it possible that so bountiful a creator should deny the\nliberty of eating of any tree? To what purpose was it made, if it might\nnot be tasted?\u2019 (8.) When he finds that by these arts he had gained\na little ground, and brought her to some land of questioning of the\nreality of the threatening, for she seems to extenuate it in saying,\n\u2018lest we die,\u2019 he grows more bold to speak out his mind, and plainly\nto annihilate the threatening, \u2018Ye shall not die.\u2019 This he durst not\ndo, till he had gained in her mind a wavering suspicion, that possibly\nGod was not in good earnest in that prohibition. (9.) Then he begins\nto urge the conveniency and excellency of the fruit, by equivocating\nupon the name of the tree, which he tells her could make them knowing\nas gods. (10.) He reflects upon God as prohibiting this out of envy and\nill-will to them. (11.) In all this there is not a word of the danger,\nbut impunity and advantage promised. (12.) This deadly advice he covers\nwith a pretence of greater kindness and care than God had for them. See\nin this, as in a clear glass, Satan\u2019s way of policy; after this rate he\nproceeds in all his temptations.\n\nIf any inquire why so mighty and potent a prince useth rather the fox\u2019s\nskin than the lion\u2019s paw, these reasons may satisfy:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _There is a necessity upon him so to do_.[171] He must use\nhis craft, because he cannot compel; he must have God\u2019s leave before he\ncan overcome; he cannot winnow Peter before he sue out a commission,\nnor deceive Ahab till he get a licence; neither can he prevail against\nus without our own consent. The Scripture indeed useth some words that\nsignify a force in tempting, as that he \u2018put it into the heart of\nJudas,\u2019 \u2018filled the heart of Ananias,\u2019 \u2018provoked David,\u2019 \u2018rules in the\nhearts of the children of disobedience,\u2019 and \u2018leads them captive at his\nwill,\u2019 &c.; yet all these and the like expressions intend no more than\nthis, that he useth forcible importunities, frames strong delusions,\nand joins sometime his power to his temptations; as sometime fowlers\nshew themselves to the birds they intend to ensnare, that so they may\nbe affrighted into an awe and amazement, to give a better opportunity\nto spread their nets over them.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _If he could compel, yet his way of craft and subtlety\nis generally the most prevalent and successful_. Force stirs up an\nopposition; it usually alarms to caution and avoidance, and frights to\nan utter averseness in any design; so that where force should gain its\nthousands, subtlety will gain its ten thousands.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _His strength is not useless to him_. For besides that\nit enables him to deceive with higher advantage than otherwise he\ncould do, as hath been said, he hath times and occasions to shew his\nstrength and cruelty, when his cunning hath prevailed so far as to give\nhim possession. What was said of Pope Boniface, that he entered like\na fox, and ruled like a lion, may be applied to him; he insinuates\nhimself by subtlety as a fox or serpent, and then rules with rigour as\na lion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s deceits in particular.\u2014What temptation is.\u2014Of tempting to\n sin.\u2014His first general rule.\u2014The consideration of our condition.\u2014His\n second rule.\u2014Of providing suitable temptations.\u2014In what cases he\n tempts us to things unsuitable to our inclinations.\u2014His third\n rule.\u2014The cautious proposal of the temptation, and the several ways\n thereof.\u2014His fourth rule is to entice.\u2014The way thereof in the general,\n by bringing a darkness upon the mind through lust._\n\n\nOur next business is to inquire after these ways of deceit in\nparticular; in which I shall first speak of such as are of more general\nand universal concernment\u2014such are his temptations to sin, his deceits\nagainst duty, his cunning in promoting error, his attempts against the\npeace and comfort of the saints, &c.\u2014and then I shall come to some ways\nof deceits that relate to cases more special.\n\nAs an introduction to the first, I shall speak a word _of temptation\nin the general_. This in its general notion is a trial or experiment\nmade of a thing. The word that signifies to tempt, comes from a word\nthat signifies to pierce, or bore through,[172] implying such a trial\nas goes to the very heart and inwards of a thing. In this sense it is\nattributed to God, who is said to have tempted Abraham, and to put our\nfaith upon trial; and sometime to Satan, who is said to have tempted\nChrist, though he could not expect to prevail. But though God and\nSatan do make these trials, yet is there a vast difference betwixt\nthem, and that not only in their intentions\u2014the one designing only\na discovery to men of what is in them, and that for most holy ends;\nthe other intending ruin and destruction\u2014but also in the way of their\nproceedings.[173] God by providence presents objects and occasions;\nSatan doth not only do that, but further inclineth and positively\npersuadeth to evil. Hence is it that temptations are distinguished\ninto trials merely, and seducements; suitable to that of Tertullian,\n[De Orat.] _Diabolus tentat, Deus probat_, The devil tempts, God\nonly tries. We speak of temptation as it is from Satan, and so it is\ndescribed to be a drawing or moving men to sin under colour of some\nreason.[174] By which we may observe that, in every such temptation,\nthere is the object to which the temptation tends, the endeavour of\nSatan to incline our hearts and draw on our consent, and the instrument\nby which is some pretence of reason; not that a real and solid reason\ncan be given for sin, but that Satan offers some considerations to us\nto prevail with us, which, if they do, we take them to be reasons. This\nmay a little help us to understand Satan\u2019s method in tempting to sin,\n&c., of which I am first to speak.\n\nIn temptations to sin, we may observe, Satan walks by four general\nrules:\u2014\n\n1. First, _He considers and acquaints himself with the condition of\nevery man, and for that end he studies man_. God\u2019s question concerning\nJob, \u2018Hast thou considered my servant Job?\u2019 Job i. 8, doth imply, not\nonly his diligent inquiry into Job\u2019s state\u2014for the original expresseth\nit by Satan\u2019s \u2018putting his heart upon Job, or laying him to his\nheart\u2019[175]\u2014but that this is usual with Satan so to do; as if God had\nsaid, It is thy way to pry narrowly into every man: hast thou done this\nto Job? Hast thou considered him as thou usest to do? And indeed Satan\nowns this as his business and employment in his answer to God, \u2018I come\nfrom going to and fro in the earth, from walking up and down in it.\u2019\nThis cannot be properly said of him who is a spirit. Bodies go up and\ndown, but not spirits; so that his meaning is, he had been at his work\nof inquiring and searching. And so Broughton translates it,[176] from\nsearching to and fro in the earth; as it is said of the eyes of God,\nthat they \u2018run to and fro,\u2019 which intends his intelligence, search, and\nknowledge of things. It is such a going to and fro as that in Dan. xii.\n4, which is plainly there expressed to be for the increase of knowledge.\n\nThe matter of his inquiry or particulars of his study are such as\nthese: (1.) Man\u2019s state; he considers and guesseth whether a man\nbe regenerate or unregenerate. (2.) The degree of his state: if\nunregenerate, how near or far off he is the kingdom of God; if\nregenerate, he takes the compass of his knowledge, of his gifts, of his\ngraces. (3.) He inquires into his constitution and temper; he observes\nwhat disposition he is of. (4.) His place, calling, and relation; his\ntrade, employment, enjoyments, riches, or wants. (5.) His sex. (6.) His\nage, &c.\n\nThe way by which he knows these things is plain and easy. Most of\nthese things are open to common observation; and what is intricate or\ndark, that he beats out, either by comparing us with ourselves, and\nconsidering a long tract of actions and carriage; or by comparing us\nwith others, whose ways he had formerly noted and observed.\n\nThe end of this search is to give him light and instruction in point\nof advantage; hence he knows where to raise his batteries, and how to\nlevel his shot against us. This Christ plainly discovers to be the\ndesign of all his study, John xiv. 30, where he tells his disciples\nhe expected yet another onset from Satan, and that near at hand; \u2018for\nthe prince of the world\u2019 was then upon his motion, he was a-coming;\nbut withal, he tells them of his security against his assaults, in\nthat there was \u2018nothing in Christ\u2019 of advantage in any of these\nforementioned ways to foot a temptation upon. It appears, then, that\nhe looks for such advantages, and that without these he hath little\nexpectancy of prevailing.\n\n2. Secondly, Satan having acquainted himself with our condition, makes\nit his next care to provide _suitable temptations, and to strike in the\nright vein_; for he loves to have his work easy and feasible, he loves\nnot [to] go against the stream. Thus he considered Judas as a covetous\nperson, and accordingly provided a temptation of gain for him. He\ndid the like with Achan; and hence was it that he had the Sabeans so\nready for the plunder of Job; he had observed them a people given to\nrapine and spoil; and accordingly, Job\u2019s goods being propounded to\nthem as a good and easy booty, he straightway prevailed with them. It\nwas easy for him to draw Absalom into an open rebellion against his\nfather; he had taken notice of his ambitious and aspiring humour, and\nof the grudges and dissatisfactions under which he laboured; so that,\nproviding him a fit opportunity, he engaged him immediately. According\nto this rule, where he observes men of shallow heads and low parts, he\nthe more freely imposeth upon them in things palpably absurd; where he\ntakes notice of a fearful temper, there he tempts them with terrors and\naffrightful suggestions. He hath temptations proper for the sanguine\ncomplexion and for the melancholy; he hath his methods of dealing with\nthe lustful and wanton, with the passionate and revengeful; he hath\nnovelties at hand for the itching ear, and suggestions proper for those\nthat are atheistically inclined.\n\n_Obj._ To this may be objected, That experience tells us Satan doth not\nalways walk in this road, nor confine himself to this rule: sometime he\ntempts to things which are cross to our tempers and inclinations, &c.\n\n_Ans._ It is true he doth so; but yet the general rule is not\nprejudiced by this exception, especially if we consider,\n\n[1.] First, _That Satan being still under the commands and restraint\nof the Almighty, he cannot always tempt what he would, but according\nto a superior order and command_. Of this nature I suppose was that\ntemptation of which Paul complained so much; \u2018he kept down his body,\u2019\n1 Cor. ix. 27, upon this very design, that he might have it in\nsubjection, and yet is he buffeted with a temptation which expected\nan advantage usually from the temper and frames of our bodies\u2014for so\nmuch, I suppose, that phrase, \u2018a thorn in the flesh,\u2019 will unavoidably\nimply\u2014though it still leave us at uncertainties what the temptation was\nin particular. Here Satan tempts at a disadvantage, and contrary to\nthis rule; but then we must know that he was not the master of his own\ngame\u2014God expressly ordering such a temptation as was disagreeing with\nthe apostle\u2019s disposition, that it might the less prevail or hazard\nhim, and yet be more available to keep him low, \u2018lest he should be\nexalted above measure,\u2019 which was God\u2019s design in the matter.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Sometime our temper alters_; as the tempers of our\nbodies in a sickness may in a fit be so changed that they may desire at\nthat time what they could not endure at another. A special occasion or\nconcurrence of circumstances may alter for the time our constitution,\nand so an unusual temptation may at that time agree with this design.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Sometime by one temptation Satan intends but to lay the\nfoundation of another_; and then of purpose he begins with a strange\nsuggestion, either to keep us at the gaze while he covertly doth\nsomething else against us, or to move us to a contrary extreme by an\nover-hasty rashness.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _Sometime he tempts when his main design is only\nto trouble and disquiet us_; and in such cases the most unnatural\ntemptations, backed with a violent impetuousness, do his work the best.\n\n3. Thirdly, Satan\u2019s next work is _the proposal of the temptation_.\nIn the two former he provided materials and laid the trains; in this\nhe gives fire, by propounding his design; and this also he doth with\ncaution these several ways:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He makes _the object speak for him, and in many he is\nscarce put to any further trouble_: the object before them speaks\nSatan\u2019s mind, and gains their consent immediately; yet is there no\nsmall cunning used in fitting the object and occasion, and bringing\nthings about to answer the very nick of time which he takes to be\nadvantageous for him.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Sometime he appoints _a proxy to speak for him_; not\nthat he is shamefaced in temptation, and not always at leisure for his\nown work, but this way he insinuates himself the more dangerously into\nour affections, and with less suspicion, using our friends, relations,\nor intimate acquaintance to intercede for a wicked design. He did\nnot speak himself to Eve, but chose a serpent: he thought Eve would\nsooner prevail upon Adam than the serpent could. He tempted Job by the\ntongue of his wife, as if he had hoped that what so near a relation had\ncounselled would easily be hearkened to. He tempted Christ to avoid\nsuffering by Peter, under a pretence of highest love and care, \u2018Master,\nspare thyself,\u2019 [Mat. xvi. 23;] yet our Saviour forbears not to note\nSatan\u2019s temptation closely twisted with Peter\u2019s kindness. At this rate\nare we often tempted where we little suspect danger.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, If he finds the two first ways unhopeful or unsuitable,\nthen he _injects the motion, and so plainly speaks to us inwardly\nhimself_, \u2018Do this act, take this advantage for pleasure or profit,\u2019\n&c. He thought it not enough to tempt Judas by the object of gain, but\nhe brake his mind in direct terms, and \u2018put it into his heart,\u2019 John\nxiii. 2. He did the like to Ananias, whose heart he filled with a large\nmotion for that lie, and backed it with many considerations of the\nnecessity and expediency of it, Acts v. 3. There is no question to be\nmade of this. Dr Goodwin gives clear proofs of it, and so do several\nothers.[177] When we consider that thoughts are sometime cast upon the\nminds of men which are above their knowledge, and that they say and\ndo things sometime which are far beyond any of their accomplishments\nand parts, and yet in the nature of it wicked, we must be forced to\nrun so high as to charge it upon Satan. Saul\u2019s prophesying, 1 Sam.\nxviii. 10, was by the influence of the evil spirit; and this\u2014as Junius,\nTirinus, and others interpret[178]\u2014must of necessity be understood of\nsuch a kind of action and speaking as the true prophets of the Lord\nusually expressed under the influences of the blessed Spirit; for from\nthe likeness of the action in both must the name be borrowed. The\nexperience that we have of inward disputings, the bandying of arguments\nand answers in several cases, is a proof of this beyond exception.\nWounded consciences express an admirable dexterity in breaking all\narguments urged for their peace and establishment; as also in framing\nobjections against themselves, so far above the usual measure of common\ncapacities, that we cannot ascribe it to any other than Satan\u2019s private\naid this way.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, The motion being made, if there be need, he doth\n_irritate and stir up the mind to the embracement of it_; and this he\ndoth two ways:\u2014\n\n_First, By an earnestness of solicitation_; when he urgeth the\nthing over and over, and gives no rest; when he joins with this an\nimportunity of begging and entreating with the repeated motion;\nwhen he draws together and advantageously doth order a multitude of\nconsiderations to that end; and when in all this he doth hold down the\nmind and thoughts, and keep them upon a contemplation of the object,\nmotions, and reasons. Thus he provoked David, 1 Chron. xxi. 1; and this\nkind of dealing occasioned the apostle to name his temptations and our\nresistance by the name of \u2018wrestlings,\u2019 in which usually there appears\nmany endeavours and often repeated, to throw down the antagonist.\n\n_Secondly_, He doth irritate _by a secret power and force that he\nhath upon our fancies and passions_. When men are said to be carried\nand led by Satan, it implies, in the judgment of some,[179] more than\nimportunity; and that though he cannot force the spring of the will,\nyet he may considerably act upon it by pulling at the weights and\nplummets\u2014that is, by moving and acting our imaginations and affections.\n\n4. Fourthly, The motion being thus made, notwithstanding all his\nimportunity, often finds resistance; in which case he comes to the\npractice of a fourth rule, which is _to draw away and entice the heart\nto consent_\u2014as it is expressed, James i. 14, \u2018Every man is tempted,\nwhen he is drawn away and enticed.\u2019[180] I shall avoid here the variety\nof the apprehensions which some declare at large about the meaning of\nthe words, satisfying myself with this, that the apostle points at\nthose artifices of Satan by which he draws and allures the will of\nman to a compliance with his motions, which when he effects in any\ndegree, then may a man be said to be prevailed upon by the temptation.\nBut then here is the wonder, how he should so far prevail against\nthat reason and knowledge which God hath placed in man to fence and\nguard him against a thing so absurd and unreasonable as every sin is.\nThe solution of this knot we have in 2 Cor. iv. 4, \u2018The god of this\nworld blinds the eyes of men,\u2019 draws a curtain over this knowledge,\nand raiseth a darkness upon them: which darkness, though we cannot\nfully apprehend, yet that it is a very great and strange darkness may\nbe discovered, (1.) Partly by considering the subject of it\u2014man, a\nrational creature, in whom God hath placed a conscience, which is both\na law, and witness, and judge. It cannot be supposed an easy matter to\ncloud or obliterate that law, to silence or pervert that witness, or to\ncorrupt that judge; but it will rise higher in the wonder of it if we\nconsider this in a godly man, one that sets God before him, and is wont\nto have his fear in his heart\u2014such a man as David was, that in so plain\na case, in so high a manner, so long a time, with so little sense and\napprehension of the evil and danger, Satan should so quickly prevail,\nit is an astonishment: neither will it be less strange if we consider,\n(2.) The issue and effect of this blindness. Some rise up against\nthis law of conscience, arguing it false and erroneous, and making\nconclusions directly contrary, as Deut. xxix. 19, \u2018I shall have peace,\nthough I walk on in the imaginations of my heart;\u2019 \u2018I have fellowship\nwith him, though I walk in darkness,\u2019 1 John i. 6; \u2018We will not hearken\nunto thee, but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own\nmouth,\u2019 Jer. xlv. 16, 17; in which cases the \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, or principles\nof conscience, are quite overthrown. Some are hardened, and as to any\napplication of their acts to this rule, quite dead and senseless.\nThough they rise not up against the light, yet are they willingly\nignorant, without any consideration of what they are doing. Here the\n\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b4\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, or witnessing and excusing power of conscience, is idle and\nasleep. Some, though they know the law, and in some measure see their\nactions are sinful, yet they pass no judgment, apprehend no danger:\n\u2018No man smites upon his thigh, saying, What have I done?\u2019 Jer. viii.\n6. Nay, some are so far from this, that they presumptuously justify\nthemselves, though they see their own blame and ruin before them: \u2018I do\nwell to be angry, and that to the death,\u2019 saith Jonah, when Satan had\nspread a darkness upon him.\n\nWhat shall we say of these things? Here is darkness to be felt,\nEgyptian darkness. To explain the way of it fully is impossible for\nus; to do it in any tolerable way is difficult. To make some discovery\nherein I shall, (1.) Shew that the devil doth entice to sin by\n\u2018stirring up our lust;\u2019 (2.) That by the power and prevalency of our\nlust he brings on the blindness spoken of.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n _That Satan enticeth by our lust.\u2014The several ways by which he doth\n it.\u2014Of the power and danger of the violence of affections._\n\n\nThe way, then, by which he doth entice is by \u2018stirring up our lust.\u2019 By\n\u2018lust\u2019 I mean those general desirings of our minds after any unlawful\nobject which are forbidden in the tenth commandment. Thus we read of\n\u2018worldly lusts,\u2019 of the \u2018lusts of the flesh,\u2019 of \u2018lustings to envy,\u2019\nand, in a word, we read of \u2018divers lusts,\u2019 the whole attempt and\nstriving of corrupt nature against the Spirit being set forth by this\nexpression \u2018of lusting against the Spirit,\u2019 Titus ii. 12; 1 Peter ii.\n18; James iv. 5; Titus iii. 3; Gal. v. 17.\n\nThat Satan takes advantage of our own lusts, and so ploughs with our\nheifer, turning our own weapons against ourselves, is evident by the\ngeneral vote of Scripture. The apostle James, chap. i. 14, tells us\nthat every temptation prevails only by the power and working of our\nown lusts. Satan is the tempter, but our lusts are the advantages by\nwhich he draws and enticeth. The corrupt principle within us is called\n\u2018flesh,\u2019 but the way whereby it works, either in its own proper motion\nor as stirred up by the devil, is that of lust and affection; and\ntherefore he that would stop that issue must look to mortify it in its\naffections and lusts, Gal. v. 24. We are further told by John, 1 Epist.\nii. 16, that all those snares that are in the world are only hazardous\nand prevailing by our lusts. More generally the apostle Peter speaks,\n2 Peter i. 4; the whole bundle of actual sins that have ever been in\nthe world came in at this door, \u2018The corruption that is in the world\nis through lust.\u2019 In the stirring up our lusts Satan useth no small\nart and subtlety, and ordinarily he worketh by some of these following\nways:\u2014\n\n1. First, He useth his skill _to dress up an object of lust that\nit may be taking and alluring_. He doth not content himself with a\nsimple proposal of the object, but doth as it were paint and varnish\nit, to make it seem beautiful and lovely. Besides all that wooing\nand importunity which he useth to the soul by private and unseen\nsuggestions, he hath no doubt a care to gather together all possible\nconcurring circumstances, by which the seeming goodness or conveniency\nof the object is much heightened and enlarged. We see those that have\nskill to work upon the humours of men place a great part of it in\nthe right circumstantiating a motion, and in taking the tempers and\ninclinations of men at a right time. And they observe that the missing\nof the right season is the hazard of the design, even there where\nthe object and inclination ordinarily are suitable. There is much in\nplacing a picture in a right position, to give it its proper grace and\nlustre in the eyes of the beholders. When a man is out of humour he\nnauseates his usual delights, and grows sullen to things of frequent\npractice. It is likely Eve was not a stranger to the tree of knowledge\nbefore the temptation, but when the serpent suggests the goodness of\nthe fruit, the fruit itself seems more beautiful and desirable, \u2018good\nfor food, and pleasant to the eyes,\u2019 [Gen. ii. 9.] Though we are not\nable to find out the way of Satan\u2019s beautifying an object that it may\naffect with more piercing and powerful delights, yet he that shall\nconsider that not only prudence, in an advantageous management of\nthings, adds an additional beauty to objects proposed, but also that\nart, by placing things in a right posture, may derive a radiancy and\nbeam of beauty and light upon them, as an ordinary piece of glass may\nbe so posited to the sunbeams that it may reflect a sparkling light\nas if it were a diamond,\u2014he that shall consider this, I say, will not\nthink it strange for the devil to use some arts of this kind for the\nadorning and setting off an object to the eye of our lusts.\n\n2. Secondly, We have reason to suspect that he may have _ways of deceit\nand imposture upon our senses_. The deceits of the senses are so much\nnoted, that some philosophers will scarce allow any credit to be given\nthem; not that they are always deceitful, but that they are often so,\nand therefore always suspicious.[181] The soul hath no intelligence but\nby the senses. It is then a business of easy belief, that Satan may\nnot altogether slight this advantage, but that when he sees it fit for\nhis purpose, he may impose upon us by the deception of our eyes and\nears. We little know how oft our senses have disguised things to us.\nIn a pleasing object, our eyes may be as a magnifying or multiplying\nglass. In the first temptation Satan seems to have wrought both upon\nthe object and also upon the senses; she \u2018saw it was good for food\nand pleasant.\u2019 Who can question but that she saw the fruit before?\nBut this was another kind of sight, of more power and attraction. An\ninstance of Satan\u2019s cunning in both the forementioned particulars we\nhave from Austin, relating the story of his friend Alypius, who by the\nimportunity of his acquaintance consented to go to the theatre, yet\nwith a resolve not to open his eyes, lest the sight of these spectacles\nshould entice his heart; but being there, the noise and sudden\nshouting of the multitude prevailed so far with him that he forgot his\nresolution; takes the liberty to see what occasioned the shouting, and\nonce seeing, is now so inflamed with delight that he shouts as the rest\ndo, and becomes a frequenter of the theatre as others.[182] What was\nthere to be seen and heard he knew before by the relation of others;\nbut now being present, his eyes and ears were by Satan so heightened\nin their offices, that those bloody objects seemed pleasant beyond all\nthat had been reported of them, and the lust of his heart drawn out by\nSatan\u2019s cunning disposal of the object and senses.\n\n3. Thirdly, There is no small enticement arising from _the fitness and\nsuitableness of occasion_. An occasion exactly fitted is more than\nhalf a temptation. This often makes a thief, an adulterer, &c., where\nthe acts of these sins have their rise from a sudden fit of humour,\nwhich occasion puts them in, rather than from design or premeditation.\nCunningly contrived occasions are like the danger of a precipice. If\na man be so foolish as to take up a stand there, a small push will\nthrow him over, though a far greater might not harm him if he were upon\na level. It is Satan\u2019s cunning to draw a man within the reach of an\noccasion. All the resolves of Alypius were not safeguard to him, when\nonce he was brought within hearing and sight of the temptation. If he\nhad stayed at home, the hazard of Satan\u2019s suggestions, though earnest,\nhad not been so much as the hearing of his ears and sight of his eyes.\nIn 2 Cor. ii. 11, Paul\u2019s fears of Satan\u2019s taking advantage against the\nCorinthians, did manifestly arise from the present posture of their\nchurch affairs: for if the excommunicated person should not be received\nagain into the church, an ordinary push of temptation might either have\nrenewed or confirmed their contentions, or precipitated[183] them into\nan opinion of too much severity against an offending brother; and that\ntheir present frame made them more than ordinarily obnoxious to these\nsnares, is evident from the apostle\u2019s caution inserted here in this\ndiscourse, so abruptly, that any man may observe the necessity of the\nmatter, and the earnestness of his affections did lead his pen.[184]\nThe souls of men have their general discrasias and disaffections, as\nour bodies have, from a lingering distemperature of the blood and\nhumours; in which case, a small occasion, like a particular error of\ndiet, &c., in a declining body, will easily form that inclination into\nparticular acts of sin.\n\n4. Fourthly, Satan hath yet a further reach in his enticements, by\n_the power which he hath upon our fancies and imaginations_. That he\nhath such a power was discovered before. This being then supposed,\nhow serviceable it is for his end it is now to be considered. Our\nfancy is as a glass, which, with admirable celerity and quickness of\nmotion, can present before us all kinds of objects; it can in a moment\nrun from one end of the earth to the other; and besides this, it hath\na power of creating objects, and casting them into what forms and\nshapes it pleaseth, all which our understanding cannot avoid the sight\nof. Now the power of imagination is acknowledged by all to be very\ngreat, not only as working upon a melancholy and distempered spirit,\nof which authors give us large accounts,[185] but also upon minds\nmore remote from such peremptory delusions; as may be daily observed\nin the prejudices and prepossessions of men, who by reason of the\nimpressions of imagination, are not without difficulty drawn over to\nthe acknowledgment of the truth of things, and the true understanding\nof matters; neither is the understanding only liable to a more than\nordinary heat and rapture by it, but the will is also quickened and\nsharpened in its desires by this means. Hence is it, as one of the\nforecited authors observes,[186] that fancy doth often more toward\na persuasion by its insinuations than a cogent argument or rational\ndemonstration.\n\nThis is no less a powerful instrument in Satan\u2019s hand, than commonly\nand frequently made use of. Who amongst us doth not find and feel him\ndealing with us at this weapon? When he propounds an object to our\nlust, he doth not usually expose it naked under the hazard of dying\nout for want of prosecution, but presently calls in our fancy to his\naid, and there raiseth a theatre, on which he acts before our minds the\nsin in all its ways and postures. If he put us upon revenge, or upon\nlusts of uncleanness, or covetousness, or ambition, we are sure, if we\nprevent it not, to have our imagination presenting these things to us\nas in lively pictures and resemblances, by which our desires may be\ninflamed and prepared for consent.\n\n5. Fifthly, Sometime he shews his art _in preparing and fitting our\nbodies to his designs, or in fitting temptations to our bodies and\nthe inclinations thereof_. The soul, though it be a noble being, yet\nis it limited by the body, and incommodated by the craziness and\nindispositions thereof, so that it can no more act strenuously or\nevenly to its principles in a disordered body, than it can rightly\nmanage any member of it, in its natural motions, where the bones are\ndisjointed. Hence sickness or other bodily weaknesses do alter the\nscene, and add another kind of bias to the soul than what it had\nbefore. This Satan takes notice of, and either follows his advantage\nof the present indisposition, or, if he hath some special design,\nendeavours to cast our body into such a disorder as may best suit his\nintention. Asa was more easily drawn to be overseen in peevishness and\nrash anger in his latter days, when his body grew diseased. Satan had\nhis advantage against Solomon to draw him to idolatry when old age and\nuxoriousness had made him more ductile to the solicitations of his\nwives; \u2018When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart,\u2019 1 Kings\nxi. 4. The devil, when he took upon him to foretell Job\u2019s blaspheming\nGod to his face, yet he attempted not the main design till he thought\nhe had thoroughly prepared him for it, by the anguish and smart of a\ndistempered body and mind; and though he failed in the great business\nof his boast, yet he left us an experiment in Job, that the likeliest\nway to prevail upon the mind in hideous and desperate temptations, is\nto mould the body to a suitable frame. He prevailed not against Job\nto cause him curse God, yet he prevailed far, \u2018he cursed the day of\nhis birth,\u2019 and spake many things by the force of that distress, which\nhe professeth himself ashamed of afterwards. The body then will be in\ndanger, when it is disordered, to give a tincture to every action, as\na distempered palate communicates a bitterness to everything it takes\ndown.\n\n6. Sixthly, _Evil company is a general preparatory to all kinds of\ntemptation_. He enticeth strongly that way. For, (1.) Evil society doth\ninsensibly dead the heart, and quench the heat of the affections to\nthe things of God. It hath a kind of bewitching power to eat out the\nfear of the Lord in our hearts, and to take off the weight and power\nof religious duty. It not only stops our tongues, and retards them in\nspeaking of good things, but influenceth the very heart, and poisons it\ninto a kind of deadness and lethargy, so that our thoughts run low, and\nwe begin to think that severe watchfulness of thoughts and the guard of\nour minds to be a needless and melancholy self-imposition. (2.) Example\nhath a strange insinuating force to enstamp a resemblance, and to beget\nimitation. Joseph, living where his ears were frequently beaten with\noaths, finds it an easy thing, upon a feigned occasion, to swear by\nthe life of Pharaoh, [Gen. xlii. 15]. Evil company is sin\u2019s nursery\nand Satan\u2019s academy, by which he trains up those whose knowledge and\nhopeful beginnings had made them shy of his temptations; and if he can\nprevail with men to take such companions, he will with a little labour\npresently bring them to any iniquity.\n\n7. Seventhly, But his highest project in order to the enticing of\nmen, is to _engage their affections to a height and passionateness_.\nThe Scripture doth distinguish betwixt the \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03b8\u03c5\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 and \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03ae\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1,\nthe affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24; clearly implying that the way\nto procure fixed desires and actual lustings, is to procure those\npassionate workings of the mind.\n\nHow powerful a part of his design this is, will appear from the nature\nof these passions: which are,\n\n[1.] First, _Violent motions of the heart_; the very wings and sails\nof the soul, and every passion, in its own working, doth express a\nviolence.[187] Choler is an earnest rage; voluptuousness is nothing\nless; fear is a desperate hurry of the soul; \u2018love strong as death;\njealousy cruel as the grave;\u2019 each of them striving which should excel\nin violence, so that it is a question yet undetermined which passion\nmay challenge the superiority.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Their fury is dangerous and unbridled_; like so many\nwild horses let loose, hurrying their rider which way they please.\nThey move not upon the command of reason, but oft prevent it in their\nsudden rise; neither do they take reason\u2019s advice for their course\nproportionable to the occasion, for often their humour, rather than\nthe matter of the provocation, gives them spurs; and when they have\nevaporated their heat, they cease, not as following the command of\nreason, but as weakened by their own violence.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _They are not easily conquered_; not only because they\nrenew their strength and onset after a defeat, and, like so many\nhydra\u2019s heads, spring up as fast as cut off; but they are ourselves\u2014we\ncan neither run from them, nor from the love of them.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, And consequently _highly advantageous in Satan\u2019s design\nand enticement when they are driven up to a fury and passionateness_;\nfor besides their inward rage, which the Scripture calls burning, 1\nCor. vii. 9; Rom. i. 27, by which men are pricked and goaded on without\nrest or ease, to \u2018make provisions for the flesh,\u2019 and to enjoy or act\nwhat their unbridled violence will lead to in the execution of their\ndesires, they carry all on before them, and engage the whole man with\nthe highest eagerness \u2018to fulfil every lust,\u2019 Eph. ii. 3, to go up\nto the highest degrees, and with an unsatiable greediness to yield\nthemselves \u2018servants of iniquity unto iniquity,\u2019 Rom. vi. 19.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n _That lust darkens the mind.\u2014Evidences thereof.\u2014The five ways by\n which it doth blind men: First, By preventing the exercise of\n reason.\u2014The ways of that prevention: (1.) Secrecy in tempting;\n Satan\u2019s subtlety therein; (2.) Surprisal; (3.) Gradual\n entanglements._\n\n\nThat Satan doth entice us by stirring up our lust, hath been\ndiscovered; it remains that I next speak to the second thing\npropounded, which was,\n\nThat by this power of lust he _blinds and darkens our mind_. That the\nlusts of men are the great principle upon which Satan proceeds in\ndrawing on so great a blindness as we have spoken of, I shall briefly\nevince from these few observations:\u2014\n\n1. First, _From the unreasonableness and absurdity of some actions\nin men otherwise sufficiently rational_. He that considers the acts\nof Alexander, in murdering Calisthenes, for no other crime than\ndefending the cause of the gods, and affirming that temples could\nnot be built to a king without provoking a deity; and yet this so\nsmoothed, if Quintus Curtius represent him right, that he seemed to\nflatter Alexander with an opinion of deification after his death;[188]\nwhosoever, I say, shall consider this cruelty, will condemn Alexander\nas blind and irrational in this matter; and yet no other cause can be\nassigned hereof, but that his lust after glory and honour darkened his\nreason. The like may be said of his killing Heph\u00e6stion\u2019s physician,\nbecause _he_ died. The brutal fury of that consul, that made a slave\nto be eaten up with lampreys, for no other fault than the breaking of\na glass, can be ascribed to nothing else but the boiling over of his\npassion. A sadder instance of this we have in Theodosius senior, who,\nfor an affront given to some of his officers in Thessalonica, commanded\nthe destruction of the city, and the slaughter of the citizens to\nthe number of seven thousand, without any distinction of nocent\nand innocent.[189] This blind rage the historian notes as the fruit\nof violent and unbridled lust in a man otherwise just and gracious.\nThousands of instances of this nature might be added. But,\n\n2. Secondly, If we consider _the known and visible hazards to life\nand estate, and, that which is more, to that part of them which is\nimmortal_; upon all which men do desperately adventure, upon no other\nground or motive than the gratifications of their lusts,\u2014we may easily\nconclude that there is a strange force and power in their passions to\nblind and besot them; and this, notwithstanding, is the common practice\nof all men, where grace, as the only eye-salve, doth not restore the\nsight. The heathens in all these practices of filthiness and folly,\nrecorded Rom. i. 29, they had so far a discovery of the danger, if\nthey had not imprisoned that truth and light in unrighteousness, ver.\n18, that they knew the \u2018judgment of God, that they which commit such\nthings are worthy of death,\u2019 ver. 32. Yet, notwithstanding, the vanity\nof their imaginations, influenced by lust, darkened their heart so much\nthat they did \u2018not only do these things,\u2019 of so great vileness and\nunspeakable hazard, \u2018but had pleasure in those that did them.\u2019\n\n3. Thirdly, The blinding power of lust is yet more remarkable, _when we\nsee men glorying in their shame, and mounting their triumphal chariots\nto expose themselves a spectacle to all, in that garb of deformity\nwhich their lusts have put them in_. It is a blindness to do any act\nagainst the rules of reason, but it is a far greater blindness for men\nto pride themselves in them. What have the issues of most wars been,\nbut burning of cities, devastations of flourishing kingdoms, spilling\nthe blood of millions, besides all the famine and other miseries that\nfollow; yet these actions, that better beseem tigers, lions, and savage\nbrutes, than men of reason, are honoured with the great, triumphant\nnames of virtue, manhood, courage, magnanimity, conquest, &c. If the\npower and humour of their lusts of vainglory and revenge had not quite\nmuffled their understandings, these things would have been called by\ntheir proper names of murder, cruelty, robbery, &c.; and the actors of\nsuch tragedies, instead of triumphal arches and acclamations of praise,\nwould have been buried under heaps of ignominy and perpetual disgraces,\nas prodigies of nature, monsters of men, and haters of mankind.\n\n4. Fourthly, But there is yet one evidence more plain and convincing;\n_when our lusts are up, though reason offer its aids to allay the\nstorm, yet the wisest of men, otherwise composed and calm, are so far\nfrom taking the advantage of its guidance, that oftentimes they trample\nupon it and despise it_; and as if lusts, by some secret incantation,\nhad made them impenetrable, they are not capable of its light and\nconduct, and can make no more use of it than a blind man can do of a\ncandle. To this purpose, let us observe the carriage of disputants.\nIf men do any way publicly engage themselves in a contest of this\nnature, though truth can be but on the one side, yet both parties\ngive arguments and answer objections with equal confidence of victory,\nand a contempt of the reasons and strength of each other\u2019s discourses;\nand this proves so fatal to him that maintains the mistake or untruth,\nthat not one of a thousand hath the benefit and advantage for the\nfinding of truth, which free and unprejudiced bystanders may have;\nso true is that, _Omne perit judicium cum res transit in affectum_,\nWhen affections are engaged, judgment is darkened. It is a thing of\ncommon observation, that when men are discoursed into anger and heat,\nthey presently grow absurd; are disabled for speaking or understanding\nreason, and are oft hurried to such inconveniences and miscarriages,\nthat they are ashamed of themselves; when they cool, and the fit is\nover, _Impedit ira animum_, &c. To all this might be added the power of\nlust in persons voluptuous, who dedicate themselves to the pleasures of\nthe flesh. Those that \u2018serve divers lusts and pleasures,\u2019 their slavish\nestate, their base drudgery, do clearly evince that lust unmans them,\nand puts out their eyes. Mark Antony by this means became a slave to\nCleopatra; never did a poor captive strive more to obtain the good-will\nof his lord than he to please this woman, insomuch that, besotted\nwith his lust, he seemed to want that common foresight of his danger,\nwhich the smallest measure of reason might have afforded to any, and\nso dallied himself into his ruin. From all these considerations and\ninstances, it appears our lusts afford such vapours and mists that our\nreason is darkened by them, or rather they are like a dose of opium,\nthat strongly stupifies and binds up the senses. But yet it remains\nthat the various ways by which our lusts do blind us be particularly\nopened, and they are five. (1.) Our lusts blind us by preventing the\nuse and exercise of reason. (2.) By perverting it. (3.) By withdrawing\nthe mind from it. (4.) By disturbing it in its operation. And (5.) By a\ndesperate precipitancy; all which I shall more fully explain.\n\nI. First, Our lusts blind us _by preventing and intercepting the\nexercise of light and reason_; and Satan in this case useth these\ndeceits:\u2014\n\n1. First, He endeavours so to _stir up our lust as yet to conceal his\ndesign_. Secrecy is one of his main engines. He doth not in this case\nshew his weapon before he strikes; and indeed his policy herein is\ngreat. For, [1.] By this means he takes us at unawares, secure, and\nunprepared for resistance. [2.] We are often ensnared without noise,\nand before our consideration of things can come in to rescue us. [3.]\nIf he get not his whole design upon us this way, yet he oft makes a\nhalf victory. By this means he procures a half content or inclination\nto sin, before we discover that we are under a temptation; for when the\nfoundation of a temptation is laid unespied, then we awaken with the\nsin in our hand, as sleeping men awake sometime with the word in their\nmouths. If any question, How can these things be? How can he steal a\ntemptation upon us with such secrecy? I answer, he can do it these\nthree ways:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, He sometimes after _a careless manner, and as it were by\nthe by, drops in a suggestion into our hearts, and that without noise\nor importunity, giving it as it were this charge, \u2018Stir not up nor\nawaken him;\u2019_ and then he sits by to observe the issue, and to see if\nthe tinder will take fire of itself. Thus many a motion thrown into our\nhearts, as it were accidentally, ere ever we are aware, begets a sudden\nflame.\n\n(2.) Secondly, He sometimes _fetcheth a compass, and makes a thing far\ndifferent to be a preamble or introduction to his intended design_.\nThus by objects, employments, discourse, or company, that shew not any\ndirect tendency to evil, doth he insensibly occasion pride, passion,\nor lust. How slyly and secretly doth he put us upon what he intends\nas a further snare! How unawares, while we think of no such thing,\nare we carried sometime upon the borders of sin, and into the enemy\u2019s\nquarters! Satan in this acts like a fowler, who useth a stalking-horse,\nas if he were upon some other employment, when yet his design is the\ndestruction of the bird.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Another way of secrecy is his raising _a crowd of\nother thoughts in the mind, and while these are mixed and confusedly\nfloating in the understanding or fancy, then doth he thrust in among\nthem the intended suggestion_; and then suffering the rest to vanish,\nhe by little and little singles this out as a more special object of\nconsideration, so that we cast a sudden glance upon this, and we are\noften taken with it before we consider the danger. In this Satan doth\nas soldiers, who take the advantage of a mist to make a nearer approach\nto their enemies, and to surprise them before discovery of the danger.\nThis he doth with us while we are in a musing fit or a melancholy dream.\n\n2. A second deceit for the preventing of a serious consideration\nis _sudden surprisal_. In the former he endeavoured to conceal the\ntemptation while he is at work with us, but in this he shews the\ntemptation plainly, only he sets upon us without giving of us warning\nof the onset; but then he backs it with all the violent importunity\nhe can, and by this he hinders the recollecting of ourselves and the\naid of reason. This course Satan only takes with those whose passions\nare apt to be very stirring and boisterous, or such as, being his\nslaves and vassals, are more subject to his commands. Thus a sudden\nprovocation to an angry man gives him not time to consider, but carries\nhim headlong. A surprise of occasion and opportunity is frequently\na conquest to those that have any earnestness of hope, desire, or\nrevenge. Surely David was taken at this advantage in the matter of\nBathsheba. And here we may note that good men upon such a sudden motion\ndo yield, without any blow or struggling, to that which at other times\nthey could not be drawn to by many reasons.\n\n3. Thirdly, Consideration is prevented by _gradual entanglements_.\nSatan so orders the matter that sin creeps on upon us as sleep, by\ninsensible degrees. For this end sometimes he dissembles his strength,\nand sets upon us with lower temptations, and with less force than\notherwise he could. He knows we are not moved to extremes, but by steps\nand habits; are not confirmed, but by gradual proceedings. To take too\ngreat strides may sometime prevail at present; but the suddenness and\ngreatness of the alteration begetting a strangeness on the soul, may\noccasion after-thoughts and recoiling. Therefore he tempts first to\nthoughts, then to a delight in these thoughts, then to the continuation\nof them, then to resolve, and so on to practice. And in like manner,\nhe tempts some to make bold with a small matter, which shall scarce\ncome under the notion of wrong; then to a greater, and so gradually to\nhigher things, and thus he insensibly brings on a thievish inclination\nand practice. For the same end sometimes he shews his skill in the\nmanagement of occasions; he imperceptibly hooks men into sin by drawing\nthem first to be bold with occasions; he tells them they may sit at\nthe ale-house, and yet not be drunk; that they may keep familiarity,\nand yet not be lewd; that they may look upon a commodity, and yet not\nsteal; and when the occasions are by this means made familiar to them,\nthen he puts them on a step further, but by such slow motions that the\nprogress is scarce discerned till they be in the snare.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s perverting our reason.\u2014His second way of blinding.\u2014The\n possibility of this, and the manner of accomplishing it directly,\n several ways; and indirectly, by the delights of sin, and by\n sophistical arguments; with an account of them._\n\n\nII. Secondly, The second way by which Satan blinds us through the\npower of lust is by _perverting and corrupting our reason, drawing it\nto approve of that which it first disapproved_. That our lusts have\nsuch a power upon the understanding to make such an alteration, need\nnot seem strange to those that shall consider that the Scripture,\npropounding the knowledge of the highest mysteries, doth positively\nrequire, as a necessary pre-requisite to these things, that we \u2018lay\naside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,\u2019 James i. 20,\u2014in\nthese terms, noting the loathsome defilement of our lusts,\u2014that so we\nmay \u2018receive the engrafted word;\u2019 strongly implying that our lusts have\na power to elude and evade the strongest reasons, and to hinder their\nentertainment: which our Saviour notes to have been also the cause of\nthe Jews\u2019 blindness, \u2018How can ye believe, which receive honour one of\nanother?\u2019 John v. 44. Their lusts of honour stood in their light, and\nperverted their reason.\n\nBut because this may seem to some almost impossible, that lusts should\nturn our sun into darkness, I shall a little explain it.\n\nThe understanding doth usually, if practice of sin have not put out its\nlight, at the first faithfully represent to our mind the nature of good\nand evil in matters of temptation and duty; yet its power in this case\nis only directive and suasive to the will, not absolutely imperative.\nThe will must follow the understanding\u2019s dictate, but is not under any\nnecessity of following its first advice; it is the _ultimum dictamen_,\nthe last dictate, that it is engaged to follow. However the will, in\nthe case last mentioned, be dependent upon the understanding, yet the\nunderstanding doth also, _quoad exercitium_, depend upon the will, and\nas to the act of consideration, is under its command; so that after the\nunderstanding hath faithfully represented the evil of a sin, the will\ncan command it to another consideration, and force it to new thoughts\nand consultations about it; in which case the will doth prompt the\nunderstanding, tells it what verdict it would have it to bring in, and\nso doth really solicit and beg for a compliance.\n\nThe understanding is ductile and capable of being bribed, and therefore\nsuffers its right eye to be put out by the will, and as a false witness\nor a partial judge gives sentence as the will would have it; and thus,\nas one observes,[190] the understanding and will are like Simeon and\nLevi, brethren in evil, mutually complying with and gratifying each\nother.\n\nThe possibility of lusts perverting our understanding being discovered,\nthe way and manner how lust doth thus corrupt it, is needful to be\nopened.\n\nLust exerciseth this power under the management of Satan, directly and\nindirectly.\n\n1. First, _Our reason is directly perverted when it is so far wrought\nupon as to call that good, which is indeed plainly and apparently\nevil_. So great a corruption is not common and ordinary, neither can\nthe heart of man be easily drawn to go so palpably against clear light\nand evidence. It is therefore only in some cases and in some persons,\neither of weaker faculties or of extraordinary debauched principles,\nthat Satan can work up lust to give so great a darkness. However, it is\nevident that Satan useth these deceits in this thing.\n\n(1.) First, He strives, where the matter will bear it, _to put the\nname of virtue or good upon actions and things that are not so_. This\ntemptation doth most appear in those things that are of a doubtful and\ndisputable nature, or in those actions which in their appearance or\npretensions may seem to be virtuous. Whatever sin is capable of any\npaint or varnish, that he takes the advantage of. Saul\u2019s sacrificing\nwas a great iniquity, and yet the pretence of the general goodness of\nthe action, being in itself commanded, and the supposed necessity of\nSaul\u2019s doing it, because Samuel came not, were considerations upon\nwhich his understanding warranted to him that undertaking. Paul\u2019s\npersecution, though a real gratification of his envious lustings, by\nhis blinded understanding was judged duty. What more common than for\nworldly-mindedness and covetousness to be called a faithful and dutiful\ncare for the provision of our families! Lukewarmness is often justified\nunder the notion of moderation and prudence; and anything that can but\npretend any kindred to or resemblance of good, our lusts presently\nprevail for an approbation and vindication of it.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Satan useth _the advantage of extremes for the\ncorrupting of our understandings_. To this purpose he doth all he can\nto make such an extreme odious and displeasing, that so we may run upon\nthe contrary as matter of duty. Many there are whose heads are so weak,\nthat if they see the danger of one extreme, they never think themselves\nin safety till they fly to a contrary excess, and then they think the\nextreme they embrace needs no other justification than the apparent\nevil of what they have avoided. Satan knowing this, like the lapwing,\nmakes the greatest noise when he is furthest from his nest, and in much\nseeming earnestness tempts us to something that is most cross to our\ntemper or present inclination; or endeavours to render something so to\nus, not with any hopes to prevail with us there, but to make us run as\nfar from it as we can into another snare, and also to make us believe\nthat we have done well and avoided a temptation, when indeed we have\nbut exchanged it.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, He directly binds our understandings in sinful practices,\nby engaging us _to corrupt opinions which lead to wicked or careless\ncourses_. Satan with great ease can put men upon sin, when once he hath\nprevailed with them to receive an error which directly leads to it.\nCorrupt principles do naturally corrupt practices, and both these may\nbe observed to meet in those deluded ones whom the Scripture mentions,\n\u2018that denied the only Lord God, and Jesus Christ, turning also the\ngrace of God into lasciviousness,\u2019 Jude 4; false teachers that brought\nin \u2018damnable heresies,\u2019 counted it \u2018pleasure to riot,\u2019 had \u2018eyes full\nof adultery, and could not cease from sin,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 1, 13, 14. With\nwhat confidence and security will sin be practised, when an opinion\nsigns a warrant and pleads a justification for it!\n\n(4.) Fourthly, In actions whose goodness or badness is principally\ndiscoverable _by the ends upon which they are undertaken, it is no\ngreat difficulty for Satan to impose upon men a belief that they act\nby ends and respects which do not indeed move them at all_; and in\nthis case men are so blinded that they do not, or will not know or\nacknowledge they do evil. The matter of the action being warrantable,\nand the end being out of the reach of common discovery, they readily\nbelieve the best of themselves; and looking more at the warrantableness\nof the nature of the act in the general than at their grounds and\nintentions, they think not that they do evil. This was a fault which\nChrist observed in the disciples when they called for \u2018fire from\nheaven upon the Samaritans,\u2019 Luke ix. 55. The thing itself Elias had\ndone before, and Christ might have done it then, but they wanted the\nspirit of Elias, and therefore Christ rejects their motion as unlawful\nin them, who considered not that a spirit of passion and revenge did\naltogether influence them; and instead of shewing a just displeasure\nagainst the Samaritans, he shews that Satan had blinded them by their\nlust, and that the thing they urged was so far from being good, that\nit was apparently evil, in that they were acted by \u2018another spirit\u2019\nthan they imagined. This way of deceit is very common. How often may\nwe observe Christians pretending conscientious dissatisfactions about\nthe actions of others, when the private spring that animates them is\nsome secret grudge that lies at the bottom; and yet because the thing\nwherein they are dissatisfied may truly deserve blame, they are not apt\nto condemn themselves, but think they do well.\n\n2. Secondly, _Lusts also pervert our reason and knowledge indirectly_;\nand this is, when we are not so far blinded as to believe the thing\nunto which we are tempted, to be good absolutely; yet notwithstanding,\nwe are persuaded of some considerable goodness in it, and such as may\nfor the present be embraced. For this purpose Satan hath ready these\ntwo engines:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, He sets before us _the pleasures, profits, and other\ndelights of sin_. These he heightens with all his art and skill, that\nhe may fix in our minds this conclusion, that however it be forbidden,\nyet it would conduce much to our satisfaction or advantage if it were\npractised; and here he promiseth such golden ends and fruits of sin as\nindeed it can never lead unto, inviting us in the words of the harlot,\n\u2018I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works,\nwith fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed it with myrrh, aloes, and\ncinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of these delights,\u2019 Prov. vii.\n16. Thus he set upon Eve, \u2018Take this fruit, and ye shall be as gods.\u2019\nThus he attempted Christ himself, \u2018All these will I give thee,\u2019 [Mat.\niv. 9,] proffering the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.\nThe pleasures of sin are Satan\u2019s great bait, and these strongly invite\nand stir up our lusts; yet because the fear of the danger may stick\nin the heart, \u2018It is pleasant, but oh I dare not,\u2019 saith the sinner,\n\u2018I fear the hazard or the evil that may follow:\u2019 therefore Satan hath\nhis other engine at hand to blind us, and to carry our minds from such\nconsiderations; and that is,\n\n(2.) Secondly, _His sophistical arguments_, by which the danger may be\nlessened. Of these his quiver is full: as,\n\n[1.] First, He urgeth that the sin tempted to _is little_. \u2018But a\nlittle one;\u2019 it is not, saith he, so great a matter as you make it;\nthere are other sins far greater, and these also practised by men that\nprofess as much as you. Thus he would shame us, as it were, out of our\nfear, by calling it severity, niceness, or an unnecessary preciseness.\nIf this prevail not,\n\n[2.] Secondly, He hath then another argument: Oh, saith he, be it so,\nthat it is a little more than ordinary, yet it is but once; taste or\ntry it; you need not engage yourselves to frequent practice, you may\nretreat at pleasure. But if the fear of the danger prevail against\nthis, then,\n\n[3.] Thirdly, He labours to put us under _a kind of necessity of\nsinning, and this he pleads as a justification of the evil_. It is\nnot altogether right, but you cannot well avoid it. This plea of\nnecessity is large; occasion, example, command of others, strength of\ninclination, custom, and what not, are pleaded by him in this case.\nSome particularly reckon them up;[191] and rather than some men will\nacknowledge the evil, they will blame God\u2019s decree, as if they were\nnecessitated by it, or his providence, as Adam, \u2018The woman that thou\ngavest me, she gave me of the tree.\u2019 David\u2019s bloody resolve against\nthe house of Nabal seems to be justified by him, from Nabal\u2019s great\ningratitude, \u2018In vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the\nwilderness,\u2019 &c., 1 Sam. xxv. 21; and as one engaged by a necessity of\nrepaying such wrongs and affronts, doth he determine to cut them off.\nAaron, when he was taxed by Moses about the golden calf, excuseth the\nmatter by a pretended necessity of doing what he did upon the violent\nimportunity of such a heady people, Exod. xxxii. 22; and that when\nMoses was not to be found, \u2018Thou knewest the people, that they are set\non mischief.\u2019 This that he urged to Moses Satan no doubt had urged to\nhim, and he had acquiesced in it as something that he thought would\nexcuse, or at least mitigate the offence. Yet if the sinner break\nthrough this snare,\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He comes on with _a softer plea of infirmity_, and\nendeavours to persuade men that they may yield under pretence of being\nforced, and that their strivings and reluctances will lessen the evil\nto an apparent sin of infirmity; and thus he bespeaks them, Have not\nGod\u2019s children infirmities? They sin, though with reluctancy, and\ndost not thou resist?\u2014doth not the fear that is in thy heart shew an\nunwillingness? Mayest thou not plead, the evil that I would not do,\nthat do I? If thou yield, will not God account it a rape upon thine\nintegrity? If this arrow stick not,\n\n[5.] Fifthly, Then he _extenuates the offence by propounding some\nsmaller good or convenience that may follow that evil_. And this,\nthough it be a way of arguing directly contrary to that rule, \u2018Do\nnot evil that good may come,\u2019 yet it oft proves too successful; and\nit is like that common stratagem of war, when, by the proposal of a\nsmall booty in view, the enemies are drawn out of their hold into a\nfore-contrived danger. Thus Satan pleads, This one act of sin may put\nyou into a capacity of honouring God the more. Some have admitted\nadvancements and dignities against conscience, upon no better ground\nbut that they might keep out knaves, and that they might be in a\ncondition to be helpful to good men. Surely the devil prevailed with\nLot by this weapon, when he offered the prostitution of his daughters\nto the lusts of the Sodomites, that the strangers, as he thought them,\nmight be preserved; by this evil, thinks he, a greater may be avoided.\nHerod\u2019s conscience could not at first consent to the cutting off the\nhead of John Baptist, but when Satan suggests the obligation of his\noath, he concludes that in the killing of John he should escape the\nviolation of the oath. Thus a pretended good to come becomes a pander\nto a present certain iniquity. Now if after all these arguings the\nconscience carrieth an apprehension of danger, then,\n\n[6.] Sixthly, He plainly disputeth _the possibility of the escape of\ndanger, though the sin be committed_. All the insinuations of pleasure\nand advantage by which Eve was tempted could not at first blot out her\nfears of the consequence of that transgression; it did stick in her\nmind still, \u2018lest we die;\u2019 then Satan plainly denieth the danger she\nfeared: \u2018Ye shall not surely die.\u2019 \u2018The threatening,\u2019 saith he, \u2018it may\nbe, was but for trial, or without a strict and positive purpose in God\nto execute it; there is no certainty that God was in good earnest when\nhe spake so.\u2019 The devil usually urgeth the mercy of God, the merits of\nChrist, his promises of pardon, the infirmities of the saints, their\nsins and repentances, &c.; from all these drawing this conclusion,\nthat we may venture upon the temptation without any apparent hazard.\nIt is but repenting, saith he, and that is an easy work to a gracious\nsoul. God is ready to be reconciled, even to a prodigal son; he is\nnot so cruel as to cast away any for a small matter; he that waits to\nbe gracious will not lie at catch for opportunities and occasions to\ndestroy us; he that delights not in the death of a sinner will not\ndelight to take strict exceptions against every failing.\n\nIf Satan can prevail with us to extenuate the sin, to slight the\nhazard, or any way to lessen it upon any of the forementioned accounts;\nthen having possessed us before with high apprehensions of delights and\nsatisfactions in the sin, he quickly persuades to accept the motion, as\nhaving a conveniency and advantage in it not to be despised: and thus\ndoth he indirectly pervert our reason; which is the second way by which\nhe blinds us through the working of our lust.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s diverting our reason, being the third way of blinding\n men.\u2014His policies for diverting our thoughts.\u2014His attempts to\n that purpose in a more direct manner; with the degrees of that\n procedure.\u2014Of disturbing or distracting our reason, which is Satan\u2019s\n fourth way of blinding men.\u2014His deceits therein.\u2014Of precipitancy,\n Satan\u2019s fifth way of blinding men.\u2014Several deceits to bring men to\n that._\n\n\nIII. Thirdly, Satan blinds the sons of men by _diverting and\nwithdrawing their reason_, and taking it off from the pursuit of its\ndiscovery or apprehensions. For sometime it cannot be induced to go\nso contrary to its light as to call evil good, either directly or\nindirectly. Then is Satan put to a new piece of policy, and if the\nframe of the heart and the matter of the temptation suit his design,\nhe endeavours to turn the stream of our thoughts either wholly another\nway, or to still them by turning them into a dead sea, or by some trick\nto beguile the understanding with some new dress of the temptation. So\nthat we may observe in Satan a threefold policy in a subserviency to\nthis design. For,\n\n1. First, _Satan sometimes ceaseth his pursuit and lets the matter\nfall, and thinks it better to change the temptation than to continue\na solicitation at so great a disadvantage_. When he tempted Christ\nand could not prevail, he \u2018departed for a season,\u2019 Luke iv. 13, with\na purpose to return at some fitter time, which Christ himself was\nin expectation of, knowing it to be his manner to lie in wait for\nadvantages; and accordingly when his suffering drew nigh, which, as\nhe speaks to the Jews, was \u2018their hour and power of darkness,\u2019 Luke\nxxii. 53, he foretold his return upon him, \u2018Now the prince of this\nworld cometh.\u2019 However this attempt of his against the Lord Jesus\nprevailed not, yet he shewed his art and skill in the suspending of his\ntemptation to a more suitable time. And the success of this against us\nis sadly remarkable, for however we resist and at present stand out,\nyet his solicitations are often like leaven, which while it is hid in\nour thoughts, doth not a little ferment and change them, so that at his\nreturn he often finds our lusts prepared to raise greater clouds upon\nour mind. Many there are that resist strongly at present that which\nthey easily slide into when Satan hath given them time to breathe; that\nsay, \u2018I will not,\u2019 and yet \u2018do it afterwards,\u2019 [Mat. xxi. 29.]\n\n2. Secondly, He sometimes withdraws their considerations, by _huffing\nthem up with a confidence that they are above the temptation_; as a\nconquest in a small skirmish, begetting an opinion of victory, makes\nway for a total overthrow over a careless and secure army. We are\ntoo apt to triumph over temptations because we give the first onset\nwith courage and resolution. Christ forewarned Peter of his denial;\nhe stoutly defies it, and not improving this advertisement to fear\nand watchfulness, Satan, who then was upon a design to sift him, took\nhim at that advantage of security, and by a contemptible instrument\noverthrew him. Thus while we grow strong in our apprehensions by a\ndenial of a sin, and undervalue it as below us, our confidence makes us\ncareless, and this lets in our ruin.\n\n3. Thirdly, If these ways of policy fail him, he _seemingly complies\nwith us, and is content we judge the matter sinful, but then he\nproffers his service to bring us off by distinctions_; and here the\nsophister useth his skill to further our understanding in framing\nexcuses, coining evasions, and so doth out-shoot us in our own bow.\nThe Corinthians had learnt to distinguish betwixt eating of meat in an\nidol\u2019s temple in honour to the idol, and as a common feast in civility\nand respect to their friends that invited them. This presently withdrew\ntheir consideration, and so quieted them in that course, that the\napostle was forced to discover the fallacy of it. The Israelites cursed\nhim that gave a wife to any of the tribe of Benjamin; but when they\nturned to them in compassion, they satisfied themselves with this poor\ndistinction, that they would not give them wives, but were willing to\nsuffer them to take them, Judges xxi. 18, 20. It is a common snare in\nmatters of promise or oath, where conscience is startled at a direct\nviolation thereof, by some pitiful salvo or silly evasion to blind the\neyes, and when they dare not break the hedge, to leap over it by the\nhelp of a broken reed.\n\nBut I must here further observe, that Satan doth sometimes set\naside these deceits aforementioned, and tries his strength for the\nwithdrawing of our consideration from the danger of sin in a more plain\nand direct manner\u2014that is, by continuing the prospect of the sweets\nand pleasures of sin under our eye, and withal urging us by repeated\nsolicitations to cast the thoughts of the danger behind our back:\nin which he so far prevails sometimes, that men are charged with a\ndeep forgetfulness of God, his law, and of themselves; yet usually it\nariseth to this by degrees. As,\n\n(1.) First, When a temptation is before us, and our conscience _relucts\nit_. If there be any inclination to recede from a conviction, the\nmotion is resisted with a secret regret and sorrow. As the young man\nwas said to \u2018go away sorrowful,\u2019 [Mat. xix. 22,] when Christ propounded\nsuch terms for eternal life as he was not willing to hear of: so do\nwe; our heart is divided betwixt judgment and affection, and we begin\nto wish that it might be lawful to commit such a sin, or that there\nwere no danger in it; nay, often our wishes contradict our prayers, and\nwhile we desire to be delivered from the temptation, our private wishes\nbeg a denial to those supplications.\n\n(2.) Secondly, If we come thus far, we usually proceed to the next\nstep, which is, to _give a dismission to those thoughts that oppose the\nsin_. We say to them, as Felix to Paul, \u2018Go thy way for this time, and\nwhen I have a convenient opportunity I will send for thee,\u2019 [Acts xxiv.\n25.]\n\n(3.) Thirdly, If a plain dismission serve not to repel these thoughts,\nwe begin to _imprison the truth in unrighteousness_, Rom. i. 18; 2\nPeter iii. 5, and by a more peremptory refusal to stifle it and to keep\nit under, and become at last willingly ignorant.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, By this means at last the heart grows _sottish and\nforgetful_. The heart is \u2018taken away,\u2019 as the prophet speaks, and\nthen do these thoughts of conviction and warning at present perish\ntogether. This withdrawing of our consideration is Satan\u2019s third way\nof blinding us. Follows next,\n\nIV. The fourth way by which our lust prevails in Satan\u2019s hand to blind\nknowledge, and that is by _distracting and disturbing it in its work_.\nThis piece of subtlety Satan the rather useth, because it is attended\nwith a double advantage, and, like a two-edged sword, will cut either\nway. For (1.) A confusion and distraction in the understanding will\nhinder the even and clear apprehensions of things, so that those\nprinciples of knowledge cannot reach so deep nor be so firm and full\nin their application. For as the senses, if any way distracted or\nhindered, though never so intent, must needs suffer prejudice in their\noperations, a thick air or mist not only hinders the sight of the eye,\nbut also conduceth to a misrepresentation of objects. Thus is the\nunderstanding hindered by confusion. But (2.) If this succeed not, yet\nby this he hinders the peace and comfort of God\u2019s children. It is a\ntrouble to be haunted with evil thoughts. To work this distraction,\n\n1. First, Satan useth a _clamorous importunity_, and doth so follow us\nwith suggestions, that what way soever we turn they follow us. We can\nthink nothing else, or hear nothing else, they are ever before us.\n\n2. Secondly, He worketh this disturbance in our thoughts by _levying a\nlegion of temptations against us_\u2014many at once, and of several kinds,\nfrom within, from without, on every side. He gathers all, from the Dan\nto the Beersheba of his empire, to oppress us with a multitude; so that\nwhile our thoughts are divided about many things, they are less fixed\nand observant in any particular.\n\n3. Thirdly, He sometimes endeavours _to weary us out with long\nsolicitations_: as those that besiege a city, when they cannot storm,\nendeavour to waste their strength and provisions by a long siege. His\ndesign in this is to come upon us, as Ahithophel counselled Absalom,\nwhen we are \u2018weary and weak-handed\u2019 by watching and long resistance.\n\n4. Fourthly, But his chief design is _to take the advantage of any\ntrouble, inward or outward_, and by the help of this he dangerously\ndiscomposeth and distracts our counsels and resolves. If any have a\nspirit distempered, or lie under the apprehensions of wrath, it is easy\nfor him to confound and amaze such, that they shall scarce know what\nthey do or what they think. The like advantage he hath from outward\nafflictions, and these opportunities he the rather takes, for these\nreasons:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, Usually inward or outward troubles leaves some _stamp of\nmurmuring and sullenness upon our hearts_, and of themselves distemper\nour spirits with a sad inclination to speak \u2018in our haste,\u2019 or to\nact unadvisedly. Job\u2019s affliction imbittered his spirit, and Satan\nmisseth not the advantage. Then he comes upon him with temptations, and\nprevailed so far that he spake many things in his anguish of which he\nwas ashamed afterward, and hides his face for it. \u2018Once have I spoken,\nbut I will not answer: yea, twice, but I will proceed no further,\u2019 Job\nxl. 5.\n\n(2.) Secondly, By reason of our burden we are _less wieldy and more\nunapt to make any resistance_. God himself expresseth the condition of\nsuch, under the similitude of those that are \u2018great with young,\u2019 who,\nbecause they cannot be driven fast, he \u2018gently leads\u2019 them. But Satan\nknows a small matter will discompose them, and herein he deals with us,\nas Simeon and Levi dealt with the Shechemites, who set upon them when\nthey were sore by circumcision.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Troubles of themselves occasion confusion, multitudes of\nthought, distractions, and inadvertencies_. If men see a hazard before\nthem they are presently at their wits\u2019 end, they are puzzled, they know\nnot what to do\u2014thoughts are divided, now resolving this, then presently\nchanging to a contrary purpose. It is seldom but \u2018as in a multitude\nof words there is much folly,\u2019 Prov. x. 19, so in a distraction of\nthoughts there are many miscarriages, and Satan with a little labour\ncan improve them to more. Here he works unseen; in these troubled\nwaters he loves to angle, because his baits are not discerned.\n\nV. Fifthly, Our considerations and reasonings against sin are hindered\nby _a bold forward precipitancy_. When men are hasted and pressed to\nthe committing of sin, and like the \u2018deaf adder stop their ears against\nthe voice of the charmer,\u2019 [Ps. lviii. 4;] in this case, the rebellious\nwill is like a furious horse, that takes the bridle in his teeth, and\ninstead of submitting to the government of his rider, he carries him\nviolently whither he would not. Thus do men rush into sin, as the horse\ninto the battle. The devices by which Satan doth forward this, we may\nobserve to be these, among others:\u2014\n\n1. First, He endeavours _to affright men into a hopelessness of\nprevailing against him_, and so intimidates men that they throw down\ntheir weapons, and yield up themselves to the temptation; they conclude\nthere is no hope by all their resistance to stand it out against him,\nand then they are easily persuaded to comply with him. To help this\nforward, Satan useth the policy of soldiers, who usually boast high of\ntheir strength and resolutions, that, the hearts and courage of their\nadversaries failing, the victory may fall to them without stroke. The\ndevil expresseth a disdain and scorn of our weak opposition, as Goliath\ndid of David, \u2018Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? Dost\nthou think to stand it out against me? It is in vain to buckle on thine\narmour, and therefore better were it to save the trouble of striving\nthan to fight to no purpose.\u2019 With such like arguings as these are men\nsometimes prevailed with to throw down their weapons, and to overrun\ntheir reason through fear and hopelessness.\n\n2. Secondly, Sometimes he is more subtle, and _by threaping[192] men\ndown, that they have consented already, he puts them upon desperate\nadventures of going forward_. This is usually where Satan hath used\nmany solicitations before, after our hearts have been urged strongly\nwith a temptation. When he sees he cannot win us over to him, then he\ntriumphs and boasts we are conquered already, and that our thoughts\ncould not have dwelt so long upon such a subject but that we had a\nliking to it, and thence would persuade us to go on and enjoy the\nfulness of that delight which we have already stolen privately: over\nshoes, over boots. Now though his arguings here be very weak\u2014for though\nit be granted that by the stay of the temptation on our thoughts he\nhath a little entangled us, it cannot hence be inferred that it is our\nwisdom to entangle ourselves further\u2014yet are many overcome herewith,\nand give up themselves as already conquered, and so give a stop to any\nfurther consideration.\n\n3. Thirdly, When men will not be trepanned into the snare by the former\ndelusions, he attempts to work them up _to a sudden and hasty resolve\nof sinning_; he prepares all the materials of the sin, puts everything\nin order, and then carries us, as he did Christ, into the mountain, to\ngive us a prospect of their beauty and glory: \u2018All these,\u2019 saith he,\n\u2018will I give thee,\u2019 [Mat. iv. 9;] do but consent, and all are thine.\nNow albeit there are arguments at hand, and serious considerations to\ndeter us from practice, yet how are all laid aside by a quick resolve!\nSatan urgeth us by violent hurry, as Christ said to Judas, \u2018What thou\nhast to do, do it quickly,\u2019 [John xiii. 27.] The soul, persuaded with\nthis, puts on a sudden boldness and resolution, and when reason doth\noffer to interpose, it holds fast the door, because the \u2018sound of\nits master\u2019s feet is behind it,\u2019 [2 Kings vi. 32.] Doth it not say\nto itself, \u2018Come, we will not consider, let us do it quickly, before\nthese lively considerations come in to hinder us\u2019? It is loath to be\nrestrained, and conceiteth that if it can be done before conscience\nawaken and make a noise, all is well; as if sin ceased to be sinful\nbecause we by a violent haste endeavoured to prevent the admonition\nof conscience. Thus they enjoy their sin, as the Israelites ate their\npassover, \u2018in haste, and with their staves in their hands,\u2019 [Exod. xii.\n11.]\n\n4. Fourthly, _When opportunities and occasions will well suit it_. He\ntakes the advantage of a passionate and sullen humour, and by this\nmeans he turns us clearly out of our bias; reason is trampled under\nfoot, and passion quite overruns it. At this disadvantage the devil\ntakes Jonah, and hardens him to a strange resolve of quarrelling God,\nand justifying himself in that insolency. The humour that Satan wrought\nupon was his fretful sullenness, raised up to a great height by the\ndisappointment of his expectation; and this makes him break out into\na choleric resolution, \u2018I do well to be angry,\u2019 [Jonah iv. 9.] Had\nhe been composed in his spirit, had his mind been calm and sedate,\nthe devil surely could not by any arguments have drawn him up to it;\nbut when the spirit is in a rage, a little matter will bind reason in\nchains, and push a man upon a desperate carelessness of any danger that\nmay follow; suitable to that expression of Job, chap xiii. 13, \u2018Let me\nalone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.\u2019\n\n5. Fifthly, All these are but small in comparison of those _deliberate\ndeterminations which are to be found with most sinners_, who are\ntherefore said to sin with a high hand, presumptuously, wilfuly,\nagainst conscience, against knowledge; and this ordinarily to be found\nonly among those whom a custom of sin hath hardened and confirmed into\na boldness of a wicked way and course. When the spirits of men are thus\nharnessed and prepared, Satan can, at pleasure almost, form them into\na deliberate resolve to cast the commandment behind their back, and to\nrefuse to hearken. When any temptation is offered them, if God say,\n\u2018Ask for the old paths, and walk therein,\u2019 as Jer. vi. 16, they will\nreadily answer, \u2018We will not walk therein.\u2019 If God say, \u2018Hearken to the\nsound of the trumpet,\u2019 they will reply, \u2018We will not hearken.\u2019 When\nthe people by a course of sinning had made themselves like the wild ass\nused to the wilderness, then did they peremptorily set up their will\nagainst all the reason and consideration that could come in to deter\nthem, though they were told the inconveniences, Jer. ii. 25; that this\ndid unshoe their foot, and afflicted them with thirst and want, yet\nwas the advice slighted. \u2018There is no hope,\u2019 said they; there is no\nexpectation that we will take any notice of these pleadings, for we\nhave fixed our resolve, \u2018We have loved strangers, and after them will\nwe go.\u2019 So Jer. xliv. 16, \u2018As for the word that thou hast spoken unto\nus in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will\ncertainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth.\u2019 A plain and\nfull resolve of will dischargeth all the powers of reason, and commands\nit silence. And that this is most ordinary among men, may appear by\nthese frequent expressions of Scripture, wherein God lays the blame\nof all that madness which their lives bring forth upon their will,\n\u2018Ye would not obey,\u2019 \u2018ye will not come to me\u2019; \u2018their heart is set to\ndo evil,\u2019 &c. It may indeed seem strange that Satan should proceed\nso far with the generality of men, and that they should do that that\nshould seem so inconsistent with those principles which they retain,\nand the light which must result from thence; but we must remember that\nthese _wills_ and _shalls_ of wicked men are for the most part God\u2019s\ninterpretation of their acts and carriage, which speaks as much, though\nit may be their minds and hearts do not so formally mould up their\nthoughts into such open and brazen-faced assertions. And yet we ought\nalso further to consider, that when the Spirit of God chargeth man with\nwilfulness, there is surely more of a formal wilfulness in the heart of\nman than lieth open to our view. And this will be less strange to us\nwhen we call to mind,\n\n6. Sixthly, That through the working of Satan _the minds of men\nare darkened, and the light thereof put out by the prevalency of\natheistical principles_.[193] Something of atheism is by most divines\nconcluded to be in every sin, and according to the height of it in its\nvarious degrees, is reason and consideration overturned. There are, it\nmay be, few that are professed atheists in opinion, and dogmatically\nso, but all wicked men are so in practice. Though they profess God,\nyet \u2018the fool saith in his heart, There is no God,\u2019 [Ps. liii. 1,] and\nin \u2018their works they deny him,\u2019 [Titus i. 16.] This is a principle\nthat directly strikes at the root: for if there be no God, no hell or\npunishment, who will be scared from taking his delight in sin by any\nsuch consideration? The devil, therefore, strives to instil this poison\nwith his temptation. When he enticed Eve by secret insinuations, he\nfirst questions the truth of the threatening, and then proceeds to an\nopen denial of it, \u2018ye shall not surely die;\u2019 and it is plain she was\ninduced to the sin upon a secret disbelief of the danger. She reckons\nup the advantages, \u2018good for food, pleasant to the eye, to be desired\nto make one wise;\u2019 wherein it is evident she believed what Satan had\naffirmed, \u2018that they should be as God,\u2019 and then it was not to be\nfeared that they should die. This kind of atheism is common. Men may\nnot disbelieve a Godhead; nay, they may believe there is a God, and yet\nquestion the truth of his threatenings. Those conceits that men have\nof God, whereby they mould and frame him in their fancies, suitable to\ntheir humours\u2014which is a \u2018thinking that he is such a one as ourselves,\u2019\nPs. 1.\u2014are streams[194] and vapours from this pit, and \u2018the hearts of\nthe sons of men are desperately set within them to do evil,\u2019 upon these\ngrounds; much more when they arise so high as in some who say, \u2018Doth\nGod know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?\u2019 [Ps. lxxiii. 11.] If\nmen give way to this, what reason can be imagined to stand before them?\nAll the comminations of Scripture are derided as so many theological\nscarecrows, and undervalued as so many pitiful contrivances to keep men\nin awe.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s maintaining his possession.\u2014His first engine for\n that purpose is his finishing of sin, in its reiteration and\n aggravation.\u2014His policies herein._\n\n\nHaving explained the five ways by which Satan through the power of lust\ncauseth blindness of mind in tempting to sin, I shall next lay open\nSatan\u2019s devices for the _keeping and maintaining his possession_, which\nare these:\u2014\n\n1. First, He endeavours, after he hath prevailed with any man to commit\nan iniquity, _to finish sin_: James i. 15, \u2018After if is conceived\nand brought forth, then it is finished;\u2019 which notes its growth and\nincrease. This compriseth these two things, its reiteration and its\naggravation.\n\n(1.) First, Its _reiteration_ is, when by frequent acts it is\nstrengthened and confirmed into a habit. There are various steps,\nby which men ascend into the seat of the scornful. _Nemo repent\u00e8\nturpissimus_, It is not one act that doth denominate men \u2018wise to do\nevil.\u2019 In Ps. i. 1 _seq._, David shews there are gradations and degrees\nof sin: some walk in the counsel of the ungodly; some by progress and\ncontinuance of sin \u2018stand in the way of sinners;\u2019 some, by a hardness\nof heart and fixedness in wicked purposes, \u2018sit in the seat of the\nscornful.\u2019 To this height doth he labour to bring his proselytes; yet\nhe further designs,\n\n(2.) Secondly, That sin may have its utmost accomplishments in _all\nthe aggravations whereof it may be capable_. He strives to put men\nupon such a course of sinning as may be most scandalous to the gospel,\nmost ensnaring and offensive to others, most hardening and desperate\nto ourselves, most offensive and provoking to God. In this he imitates\nthe counsel of Ahithophel to Absalom, when he advised him to go in\nunto his father\u2019s concubines in the sight of all Israel, that so the\nbreach betwixt him and his father might be widened to an impossibility\nof reconciliation. Thus he labours that sinners should act at such a\nrate of open defiance against heaven, as if they resolved to lie down\nin their iniquity, and were purposed never to think of returning and\nmaking up their peace with God. That sin may be finished in both these\nrespects, he useth these policies:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _After sin is once committed, he renews his motions and\nsolicitations to act it again, and then again, and so onward till they\nbe perfect and habituated to it_. In this case he acts over again\nthe former method by which he first ensnared them, only with such\nalterations as the present case doth necessitate him unto. Before,\nhe urged for the committing of it but once. How little is he to be\ntrusted in these promises! Now, he urgeth them by the very act they\nhave already done, Is it not a pleasant or profitable sin, to thy\nvery experience? hast thou not tasted and seen? hast thou not already\nconsented? Taste and try again, and yet further; withdraw not thy\nhand. A little temptation served before, but a less serves now; for\nby yielding to the first temptation our hearts are secretly inclined\nto the sin, and we carry a greater affection to it than before; for\nthis is the stain and defilement of sin, that when once committed it\nleaves impressions of delight and love behind, which are still the more\naugmented by a further progress and frequent commission, till at last\nby a strong power of fascination it bewitches men that they cannot\nforbear; all the entreaties of friends, all their own promises, all\ntheir resolves and purposes, though never so strong and serious, except\nGod strike in to rescue by an omnipotent hand, can no more restrain\nthem than fetters of straw can hold a giant. God himself owns it as\na natural impossibility, \u2018Can the Ethiopian change his skin? no more\ncan ye do good,\u2019 [Jer. xiii. 23;] and the reason of that impossibility\nis from hence, that they are \u2018accustomed to do evil.\u2019 Such strong and\npowerful inclinations to the same sin again are begot in us by a sin\nalready committed, that sometime one act of sin fills some men with as\nvehement and passionate desires for a further enjoyment, as custom and\ncontinuance doth others. Austin reports that Alypius, when once he gave\nway to the temptation of beholding the gladiators, was bewitched with\nsuch a delight, that he not only desired to come again with others, but\nalso before others. Neither is it any great wonder it should be so,\nwhen, besides the inclinations that are begot in us by any act of sin\nto recommit it, sin puts us out of God\u2019s protection, debilitates and\nweakens our graces, strengthens Satan\u2019s arm, and often procures him\nfurther power and commission against us.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Satan endeavours _to make one sin an engagement to\nanother, and to force men to draw iniquity with cords of vanity_.\nAgur notes a concatenation in sins, \u2018Lest I steal, and take the name\nof God in vain,\u2019 Prov. xxx. 9. Adam sinning in the forbidden fruit,\nand proclaimed guilty by his conscience, runs into another sin for\nthe excuse of the former, \u2018the woman that thou gavest me,\u2019 &c. David\naffords a sad instance of this, the sin with Bathsheba being committed,\nand she with child upon it, David to hide the shame of his offence,\n(1.) Hypocritically pretends great kindness to Uriah. (2.) When that\nserved not, next he makes him drunk, and, it may be, he involved many\nothers in that sin as accessories. (3.) When this course failed, his\nheart conceives a purpose and resolution to murder him. (4.) He cruelly\nmakes him the messenger of his own destruction. (5.) He engageth Joab\nin it. (6.) And the death of many of his soldiers. (7.) By this puts\nthe whole army upon a hazard. (8.) Excuseth the bloody contrivance by\nprovidence. (9.) In all using still the height of dissimulation. Satan\nknows how natural it is for men to hide the shame of their iniquity,\nand accordingly provides occasions and provocations to drive them on to\na kind of necessity.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _By a perverse representation of the state of godly\nand wicked men_, he draws on sin to a higher completement. How often\ndoth he set before us the misery, affliction, contempt, crosses,\nand sadnesses of the one, and the jollity, delights, plenty, peace,\nhonours, and power of the other! It was a temptation that had almost\nbrought David to an atheistical resolve against all religious duty, and\nthat which he observed had prevailed altogether with many professors,\nPs. lxxiii. When they observed \u2018they were not in trouble like other\nmen,\u2019 and that their mouth and tongue had been insolent against God,\nwithout any rebuke or check from him; when in the meantime the godly\nwere \u2018plagued all the day, and chastened every morning:\u2019 some that\nwere, in profession or estimation at least, God\u2019s people, returned to\ntake up these thoughts, and to resolve upon such practices, ver. 10;\nas if God, who sees all these with so much silence, must be supposed\nknowingly to give some countenance to such actions. This, indeed, when\nit is prosecuted upon our hearts in its full strength with those ugly\nsurmises, jealousies, and misapprehensions that are wont to accompany\nit, is a sad step to a desperate neglect of duty and a carelessness in\nsinning, in that it insensibly introduceth atheistical impressions upon\nthe hearts of men, and such are apt to catch hold even upon good men,\nwho are but too ready to say as David, \u2018I have cleansed my hands in\nvain,\u2019 [ver. 13.]\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Satan hath yet another piece of policy for the\nmultiplication and aggravation of sin, which is _the enmity and\nopposition of the law_. Of this the apostle Paul sadly complains\nfrom his own experience: Rom. vii. 8, \u2018Sin taking occasion by the\ncommandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.\u2019 What he\nlaments is this, that such is the perverseness of our natures, that\nthe law, instead of restraining us, doth the more enrage us, so that\naccidentally the law doth multiply sin; for when the restraint of the\nlaw is before us, lust burns not only more inwardly, but when it cannot\nbe kept in and smothered, then it breaks out with greater violence,\n\u2018Let us break their bonds asunder,\u2019 &c., [Ps. ii. 3.] When the law\ncondemns our lusts, they grow surly and desperate: \u2018Let us eat and\ndrink, for to-morrow we die,\u2019 &c., [Isa. xxii. 13.] If any wonder that\nthe law, which was given of purpose to repress sin, and which is of so\ngreat use in its authority to kill it in us, and to hinder temptations,\nshould thus be used by Satan to increase and enrage it, they may\nconsider that it is but still an accidental occasion, and not a cause,\nand sin takes this occasion without any fault of the law. Satan to\nthis end watcheth the time[195] when our hearts are most earnestly set\nupon our lusts, when our desires are most highly engaged, and then by\na subtle art so opposeth the law, letting in its contradictions in way\nand measure suitable, that our hearts conceive a grudge at restraint,\nwhich together with its earnestness to satisfy the flesh, ariseth up\nto a furious madness, and violent striving to maintain a liberty and\nfreedom to do according to the desires of their heart; whereas this\nsame law, if it be applied to the heart when it is more cooled and\nnot so highly engaged upon a design of lust, will break, terrify, and\nrestrain the heart, and put such a damp upon temptations that they\nshall not be able to stand before it. So great a difference is there\nin the various seasons of the application of this law; in which art\nfor the enflaming of the heart to iniquity, Satan shews a wonderful\ndexterity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s keeping all in quiet, which is his second engine for\n keeping his possession, and for that purpose his keeping us from going\n to the light by several subtleties; also of making us rise up against\n the light, and by what ways he doth that._\n\n\nSatan\u2019s next engine for the maintaining his possession, is to _keep\nall in quiet_; which our Saviour notes: Luke xi. 21, \u2018When a strong\nman armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.\u2019 He urgeth\nthis against those that objected to him, that he cast out devils by\nBeelzebub, which calumny he confuteth, by shewing the inconsistency of\nthat with Satan\u2019s principles and design\u2014it being a thing sufficiently\nknown and universally practised, that no man will disturb or dispute\nagainst his own peaceable possession; neither can it be supposed Satan\nwill do it, because he acts by this common rule of keeping down and\nhindering anything that may disquiet. Breach of peace is hazardous to\na possession. An uneasy government occasions mutinies and revolts of\nsubjects; yet we might think that, the wages of sin, the light and\npower of conscience considered, it were no easy task for the devil\nto rule his slaves with so much quiet as it is observed he doth. His\nskill in this particular, and the way of managing his interest for\nsuch an end, we may clearly see in John iii. 20, \u2018Every one that doth\nevil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds\nshould be reproved.\u2019 From which place we may observe\u2014(1.) The great\nthing that doth disquiet Satan\u2019s possession is light. (2.) The reason\nof that disquietment is the discovery that light makes, and the shame\nthat follows that discovery. (3.) The way to prevent that light, and\nthe reproof of it, is to avoid coming to it; and where it cannot be\navoided, to hate it. It is Satan\u2019s business then for keeping all in\npeace\u2014(1.) To keep us from the light; or if that cannot be, then (2.)\nTo make us rise up against it. I shall make inquiry after both these\nprojects of the devil.\n\nTo keep us from coming to the light, he useth a great many subtleties.\nAs,\n\n1. First, _For his own part he forbears to do anything that might\ndiscompose or affright entangled souls_. At other times, and in other\ncases, he loves to torment and affright them, to cause their wounds\nto stink and corrupt; but in this case he takes a contrary course,\nhe keeps off, as much as may be, all reflections of conscience; he\nconceals the evil and danger of sin, he sings them asleep in their\nfolly, \u2018till a dart strike through their liver,\u2019 and hastens them\nto the snare, \u2018as a bird that knoweth not that it is for his life,\u2019\nProv. vii. 23. They that shall consider that the heart of a sinner\nis hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and that the greatest\npart of the affrightment that molests the consciences of such is from\nSatan\u2019s fury and malice, they will easily conceive how much his single\nforbearance to molest may contribute to the peace and ease of those\nthat are \u2018settled upon their lees;\u2019 but besides his forbearance, we\nmay expect that whatever clouds or darkness he can raise to exclude\nthe light, or to muffle the eyes, he will not be negligent in the use\nof that power. Whatever he can positively do, in the raising up the\nconfidence of presumption or security in the minds of men, whatever he\ncan do to make them sottish or careless, that shall not be wanting.\n\n2. Secondly, He shews no less skill and diligence _by secret\ncontrivances to hinder occasions of reproof and discovery_. How much he\ncan practise upon others, that out of pity and compassion to the souls\nof men, are ready to draw a sinner \u2018from the error of his way, and to\nsave a soul from death!\u2019 [James v. 20.] We can scarce imagine what ways\nhe hath to divert and hinder them. By what private discouragements he\ndoth defer them, who can tell? He that could dispute with the angel\nabout the body of Moses to prevent the secret interment of it, Jude\n9; he that could give a stop of one and twenty days to the angel\nthat was to bring the comfortable message to Daniel, chap. x. 13,\nof the hearing of his prayers, may more easily obstruct and oppose\nthe designs of a faithful reprover. Sometime he doth this by visible\nmeans and instruments, stirring up the spirits of wicked men to give\nopposition to such as seek to deliver their souls from the blood of\nmen, by faithful warnings or exhortations. The devil was so careful to\nkeep Jeroboam quiet in his sinful course of idolatry, that he stirs up\nAmaziah to banish Amos from the court, lest his plain dealing should\nstartle or awaken the conscience of the king: Amos vii. 12, 13, \u2018Go,\nflee thee away into the land of Judah, &c.; but prophesy not any more\nat Bethel, for it is the king\u2019s chapel, it is the king\u2019s court.\u2019\n\n3. Thirdly, In order to the keeping out the light from the consciences\nof men, he insinuates himself _as a lying spirit into the mouths of\nsome of his mercenaries_; and they speak \u2018smooth things\u2019 and deceit\nto Satan\u2019s captives, telling them that they are in a good condition,\nChristians good enough, and may go to heaven as well as the precisest.\nIt is a fault in unfaithful ministers, they do the devil this service.\nGod highly complains of it: Jer. vi. 14, \u2018They have healed also the\nhurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when\nthere is no peace;\u2019 Ezek. xiii. 10, \u2018They have seduced my people,\nsaying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and\nothers daubed it with untempered mortar.\u2019 Besides, this stratagem is\nthe more likely to prevail, because it takes the advantage of the\nhumours and inclinations of men, who naturally think the best of\nthemselves, and delight that others should speak what they would have\nthem; so that when men by the devil\u2019s instigation prophesy deceit to\nsinful men, it is most likely they should be heard, seeing they desire\nsuch prophets, \u2018and love to have it so.\u2019\n\n4. Fourthly, Satan keeps off the light, by _catching away the word\nafter it is sown_. This policy of his, Christ expressly discovers:\nMat. xiii. 19, \u2018When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and\nunderstandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away\nthat which was sown in his heart.\u2019 Such opportunities the devil doth\nnarrowly watch. To be sure, he will be present at a sermon or good\ndiscourse, and if he perceive anything spoken that may endanger his\npeaceable possession, how busy is he to withdraw the heart, sometime\nby the sight of the eyes, sometimes by vain thoughts of business,\noccasions, delights, and what not; and if this come not up to his\nend, then he endeavours, after men have heard, to justle all out by\nimpertinent discourses, urgencies of employment, and a thousand such\ndivertisements, that so men may not lay the warning to heart, nor by\nserious meditation to apply it to their consciences.\n\n5. Fifthly, He sometimes _snuffs out the light by persecution_.\nThose hearers, Mat. xiii. 20, 21, that had received the word with\nsome workings of affections and joy, are \u2018presently offended when\npersecution, because of the word, ariseth.\u2019 By this he threatens men\ninto an acquiescency in their present condition, that if they \u2018depart\nfrom iniquity, they shall make themselves a prey,\u2019 [Isa. lix. 15.]\nBonds, imprisonments, and hatreds, he suggests, shall abide them, and\nby this means he scares men from the light.\n\n6. Sixthly, He sometimes _smothers and chokes it with the cares of\nthe world_, as those that received seed among thorns. By earnest\nengagements in business, all that time, strength, and affection which\nshould have been laid out in the prosecution of heavenly things, are\nwholly taken up and spent on outward things. By this means that light\nthat shines into the hearts of men is neglected and put by.\n\n7. Seventhly, He staves off men from coming to the light, by putting\nthem upon _misapprehensions of their estate in judging themselves by\nthe common opinion_. Satan hath so far prevailed with men, that they\nare become confident of this conceit, that men may take a moderate\nliberty in sinning, and yet nevertheless be in a good condition; that\nsin is not so great a matter in God\u2019s esteem, as in the judgment of\nsome rigorous precisian; that he will not be so extreme to mark what\nwe do amiss, as some strict professors are. What can be of greater\nhindrance to that ingenuous search, strict examination, and impartial\njudging or shaming ourselves for our iniquities, which the light of\nScripture would engage us unto, than such a conceit as this! And yet\nthat this opinion is not only common, but ancient, is manifest by\nthose warnings and cautions given by the apostle to the contrary: Gal.\nvi. 7, \u2018Be not deceived; God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth,\nthat shall he also reap;\u2019 Eph. v. 6, \u2018Let no man deceive you with vain\nwords: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the\nchildren of disobedience.\u2019 If it had not been usual for men to live\nin uncleanness, covetousness, and such like offences, which he calls\n\u2018sowing to the flesh,\u2019 and yet in the midst of these to think they\nwere not under the hazard of wrath, or if men had not professedly and\navowedly maintained such an opinion, it had been superfluous for the\napostle to have warned us with so much earnestness, \u2018Be not deceived;\nlet no man deceive you with such vain words,\u2019 [1 Cor. vi. 9.]\n\n8. Eighthly, It is usual for Satan to still and quiet the stirring\nthoughts of sinners _with hopes and assurances of secrecy_. As children\nare quieted and pleased with toys and rattles, so are sinners put off\nand diverted from prosecuting the discoveries that the light would make\nin them, by this confidence, that though they have done amiss, yet\ntheir miscarriages shall not be laid open or manifested before men.\nIt is incredible how much the hopes of concealment doth satisfy and\ndelight those that have some sense of guilt. Sometime men are impudent,\nthat \u2018they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not,\u2019 Isa. iii. 9.\nBut before they arrive at so great an impudency, they usually \u2018seek\ndeep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the\ndark; and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?\u2019 Isa. xxix.\n15. Like those foolish creatures that think themselves sufficiently\nconcealed by hiding their heads in a bush, though all their bodies be\nexposed to open view, Isa. xxviii. 15, those that made \u2018lies their\nrefuge, and under falsehood hid themselves,\u2019 became as confident of\ntheir security as if they had \u2018made a covenant with death, and were at\nan agreement with hell;\u2019 and when they have continued in this course\nfor some time with impunity, the light is so banished that they carry\nit so as if God observed their actions done in the dark as little as\nmen do. \u2018How doth God know?\u2019 say they; \u2018can he judge through the dark\nclouds? thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not,\u2019 Job\nxxii. 13. And hence proceed they to promise themselves a safety from\njudgments: \u2018When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall\nnot come nigh unto us, for we have made lies our refuge,\u2019 &c.\n\n9. Ninthly, Satan keeps them from going to the light by _demurs and\ndelays_. If the light begin to break in upon their consciences, then\nhe tells them that there is time enough afterward. Oh, saith he,\nthou art young, and hast many days before thee; it is time enough to\nrepent when you begin to be old. Or thou art a servant, an apprentice\nunder command, thou wantest fit opportunities and conveniences for\nserious consideration, defer till thou becomest free, and at thine own\ndisposal. That this is one of Satan\u2019s deceits to hinder us from making\nuse of the light, besides what common experience may teach every man,\nmay be clearly gathered from the exhortations of Scripture, which do\nnot only shew us \u2018the way wherein we ought to walk,\u2019 but also press us\nto a present embracement of that counsel: \u2018To-day, to-day, while it\nis called to-day, harden not your hearts;\u2019 \u2018Now is the accepted time,\nnow is the day of salvation;\u2019 \u2018Remember thy Creator in the days of thy\nyouth, before the evil day comes;\u2019 \u2018If ye will enquire, enquire: yea,\nreturn, come,\u2019 Heb. iii. 7; 2 Cor. vi. 2; Eccles. xii. 1; Isa. xxi. 12.\nThis hasty urgency to close with the offered occasions, plainly accuse\nus of delays, and that it is usual with us to adjourn those thoughts to\na fitter opportunity, which we are not willing to comply with for the\npresent.\n\nBy these nine devices he keeps the light from ensnared sinners, or them\nfrom coming to the light. But if all this cannot draw a curtain before\nthe sun, if its bright beams breaks through all, so that it cannot be\navoided, but there will be a manifestation and discovery of \u2018the hidden\nthings of darkness,\u2019 then Satan useth all his art and cunning to stir\nup in the hearts of men their hatred against the light.\n\nThis is his second grand piece of policy to keep all in quiet under his\ncommand, to which purpose,\n\n1. First, He endeavours to draw on a hatred against the light, by\nraising in the minds of men _a prejudice against the person that\nbrings or offers it_. If he that warns or reproves express himself\nanything warmly or cuttingly against his brother\u2019s sins, this the devil\npresently makes use of; and those that are concerned think they have a\njust cause to \u2018stop their ears and harden their necks,\u2019 because they\nconceive that anger, or ill-will, or some such base thing did dictate\nthose, though just, rebukes. The devil turned the heart of Ahab against\nthe faithful warnings of Micaiah upon a deep prejudice that he had\ntaken up against him; for so he expresseth himself to Jehoshaphat, \u2018I\nhate him, for he never prophesieth good unto me,\u2019 1 Kings xxii. 8.\nIn this case men consider not how justly, how truly, how profitably\nanything is spoken; but, as some insects that feed upon sores, they\npass by what is sound and good, and fix upon that which is corrupt and\nputrid, either through the weakness and inobservancy of the reprover,\nor pretended to be such, by the prejudice of the party which doth\naltogether disable him to put a right construction upon anything.\n\n2. Secondly, If this help not, then he seeks to get the advantage _of a\nprovoked, passionate, or otherwise distempered fit_; and then hatred is\neasily procured against anything that comes in its way.\n\n3. Thirdly, Satan endeavours to engage our hatred against the light, by\npresenting our _interest as shaken or endangered by it_. If interest\ncan be drawn in and made a party, it is not difficult to put all the\npassions of a man in arms, to give open defiance to any discovery it\ncan make. That great rage and tumult of kings and people mentioned in\nPsalm ii., combining and taking counsel against the Lord and his laws,\nis upon the quarrel of interest. Their suspicions and jealousies that\nthe setting up of Christ upon his throne would eclipse their power and\ngreatness, makes them, out of a desperate hatred against the light,\nfall into resolves of open rebellion against his laws: \u2018Let us break\nhis bands asunder, and cast away his cords from us.\u2019 This pretence of\ninterest strengthened the accusation of Amaziah against Amos: chap.\nvii. 10, \u2018Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of\nIsrael: the land is not able to bear all his words.\u2019 No wonder, then,\nif Jeroboam, instead of hearkening to the threatening, banish him out\nof the land. We find the like in Asa, a good man; the devil stirs up\nhis hatred against the seer: \u2018He was wroth with him, and put him in the\nprison-house; for he was in a rage against him,\u2019 2 Chron. xvi. 10. The\nground of that rage was this: the king\u2019s interest, in his apprehension,\nwas wrapped up in that league with the king of Syria, ver. 2, 3, so\nthat he could not bear so plain a reproof, which directly laid the\naxe to the root of so great an interest as the safety of the king and\nkingdom, which seemed to depend so much upon that league.\n\n4. Fourthly, Satan stirs up hatred against the light from the\n_unavoidable effects of light, which are discovery and manifestation_:\nEph. v. 13, \u2018All things that are reproved are made manifest; for\nwhatsoever doth make manifest is light.\u2019 Now the issue of this\nmanifestation is shame, which however it be the daughter of sin and\nlight, yet would it naturally destroy the sin that bred it; and\ntherefore repentance is usually expressed by being \u2018ashamed and\nconfounded:\u2019 but that Satan might avoid this, he turns the edge of\nshame against the light, which should have been employed against sin.\nWhen men therefore have sinned, and are as \u2018a thief when he is taken,\u2019\nJer. ii. 26, ready to fall into the hands of shame; for the avoiding of\nthat, they \u2018rebel against the light,\u2019 Job xxiv. 13. The ground of this\nhatred, Christ, in John iii. 20, tells us, is \u2018lest their deeds should\nbe reproved,\u2019 and they forced to bear their shame. To this end they are\nput upon it to hide themselves from shame by lies, pretences, excuses,\nextenuations, or by any fig-leaf that comes first to hand. And as those\nthat live in hotter regions curse the sun because it scorcheth them, so\ndo these curse the light: and instead of taking its help, raise up an\nirreconcilable enmity against it; and so run from it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s third grand policy for maintaining his possession; which\n is his feigned departure: (1.) By ceasing the prosecution\n of his design; and the cases in which he doth it. (2.) By\n abating the eagerness of pursuit; and how he doth that. (3.) By\n exchanging temptations; and his policy therein.\u2014The advantage he seeks\n by seeming to fly.\u2014Of his fourth stratagem for keeping his possession,\n which is his stopping all ways of retreat; and how he doth that._\n\n\nBesides the two former designs, of finishing sin, and keeping all\nin quiet, by which the devil endeavours to maintain his possession,\nhe hath a third grand subtlety, which is this: he keeps his hold by\nfeigning himself dispossessed and cast out. Of this we have a full\naccount: Luke xi. 24, \u2018When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man,\nhe walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he\nsaith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.\u2019 Christ had there\nnoted that it is Satan\u2019s great principle to do nothing by which his\nkingdom may be divided or undermined. Satan will not be divided against\nhimself, and yet very seasonably he tells us, that for an advantage he\nwill seem to quit his interest, and upon design he will sometimes so\ncarry himself that he may be deemed and supposed to be \u2018gone out of a\nman;\u2019 as those that besiege forts or walled towns do sometimes raise\nthe siege and feign a departure, intending thereby to take a sudden\nadvantage of the carelessness of the besieged. In the explanation of\nthis policy, I shall, (1.) Shew how many ways he feigns a departure.\n(2.) Upon what designs he doth it.\n\nThere are three ways whereby Satan seems to forsake his interest:\u2014\n\n1. First, He frequently _ceaseth the prosecution of a design, which\nyet he hath in his eye and desire, when he perceives that there are\nsome things in his way that render it not feasible_; nay, he forbears\nto urge men to their darling sins, upon the same score: and who would\nnot think Satan cast out in such a case? When a man spits out the\nsweet morsel which heretofore he kept under his tongue, and sucked a\nsweetness from it; when men of noted iniquities abstain from them,\nand become smooth and civil, who would not think but that the unclean\nspirit were gone? This way and course he puts in practice in several\ncases.\n\n[1.] First, When he perceives some _extraordinary occasion puts any of\nhis subjects into a good mood or humour of religion_. Wicked men are\nnot ordinarily so highly bent upon evil ways, but that they may be at\nsome times softened and relaxed. Pharaoh, who is most eminently noted\nfor a heart judicially hardened, at the appearance of the plagues upon\nhimself and Egypt, usually relented somewhat, and would confess he had\nsinned, and that fit would continue upon him for some little time. But\nvery frequently it is thus with others; an extraordinary occasion melts\nand thaws down the natural affections of men, as a warm day melts the\nsnow upon the mountains, and then the stream will for a time run high\nand strong, at which time Satan sees it is in vain to urge them. Thus\nmen that receive an eminent kindness and deliverance from God, what is\nmore common than for such men to say, Oh, we will never be so wicked\nas we have been, we will never be drunk more, the world shall see us\nreformed and new men! These are indeed good words, and yet though Satan\nknows that such expressions are not from a good heart,\u2014as that of\nDeut. v. 29 implies, \u2018They have well said, Oh that there were such an\nheart in them!\u2019\u2014he nevertheless thinks it not fit then to press them\nto their usual wickedness at that time; for natural affections raised\nhigh in a profession of religion will withstand temptations for a fit,\nand therefore he forbears till the stream run lower. What a fit of\naffection had the Israelites when their eyes had seen that miraculous\ndeliverance at the Red Sea! What songs of rejoicing had they! what\nresolves never to distrust him again! Ps. cvi. 12, \u2018Then believed they\nhis words, they sang his praise.\u2019 Satan doth not presently urge them\nto murmuring and unbelief, though that was his design, but he stays\ntill the fit was over, and then he could soon tempt them to \u2018forget his\nworks.\u2019 How like a convert did Saul look, after David had convinced him\nof his integrity, and had spared his life in the cave! 1 Sam. xxiv.\n16, and xxvi. 21. He weeps, and acknowledgeth his iniquity, justifies\nDavid, owns his kindness, and seems to acquiesce in his succession to\nthe kingdom. The devil had, no question, a great spite at David, and it\nwas his great design to stir up Saul against him, and yet at that time\nhe could not prevail with him to destroy David, though he might easily\nhave done it; he was then in a good mood, and Satan was forced to give\nway to necessity, and to seem to go out of Saul for the present.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He also ceaseth from his design when he sees he cannot\nfit his temptation with a _suitable opportunity_. What could be more\nthe devil\u2019s design, and Esau\u2019s satisfaction, than to have had Jacob\nslain? Esau professeth it was the design of his heart, and yet he\nresolves to forbear so long as his father Isaac lived: Gen. xxvii. 41,\n\u2018The days of my father\u2019s mourning are at hand; then, but not till then,\nwill I slay my brother Jacob.\u2019 The devil often sows his seed, and yet\nwaiteth and hath long patience, not only in watering and fitting the\nhearts of men for it, but also in expectancy of fit opportunities;\nand in the meantime, he forbears to put men upon that which time and\noccasion cannot fitly bring forth to practice. The prophet, Hosea\nvii. 4, speaks of that people as notoriously wicked, \u2018they are all\nadulterers;\u2019 but withal, he observes that they forbare these enormous\nabominations for want of fit seasons, \u2018their heart was as an oven\nheated by the baker,\u2019 sufficiently enflamed after their wickedness,\nand yet the baker, after he had kneaded the dough, prepared all the\ngroundwork of the temptation, ceased from raising, sleeping all the\nnight till all was leavened; that is, though their hearts were enraged\nfor sin, yet the devil doth wait till occasions present themselves,\nand becomes in the meantime like one asleep. Now while the devil\nthus sleeps, the fire that is secretly in the heart, being not seen,\nmen gain the good opinion of converts with others, and often with\nthemselves, not knowing what spirit they are of, because Satan ceaseth,\nupon the want of occasions, to tempt and provoke them.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Our adversary is content to forbear, when he perceives\nthat _a restraining grace doth lock up the hearts and hands of men_.\nWhen \u2018a stronger than he cometh,\u2019 who can expect less but that he\nshould be more quiet? That God doth restrain men sometime when he doth\nnot change them, needs no proof; that Satan knows of these restraints,\ncannot be denied. Who can give an account of these communings and\ndiscourses that are betwixt God and Satan concerning us? His pleadings\nin reference to Job were as unknown to Job, till God discovered them,\nas his pleadings concerning ourselves are to us. Besides, who can tell\nhow much of God\u2019s restraining grace may lie in this, of God\u2019s limiting\nand straitening Satan\u2019s commission? Now the devil hath not so badly\nimproved his observations, but that he knows it is in vain to tempt\nwhere God doth stop his way and tie up men\u2019s hands. Abimelech was\ncertainly resolved upon wickedness when he took Sarah from Abraham,\nGen. xx. 2, and yet the matter is so carried for some time, how long\nwe know not, as if the devil had been asleep, or forgot to hasten\nAbimelech to his intended wickedness; for when God cautions him, \u2018he\nhad not come near her,\u2019 ver. 4. The ground of all this was neither in\nthe devil\u2019s backwardness nor Abimelech\u2019s modesty, but Satan lets the\nmatter rest, because he knew that \u2018God withheld him, and suffered him\nnot to touch her.\u2019\n\n[4.] Fourthly, When men are under _the awe and fear of such as carry an\nauthority in their countenances and employments for the discouraging\nof sin_, Satan, as hopeless to prevail, doth not solicit to scandalous\niniquities. Much of external sanctity and saintlike behaviour ariseth\nfrom hence. The faces and presence of some men have such a shining\nsplendour, that iniquity blusheth and hideth its head before them.\nSin dare not do what it would; so great a reverence and esteem of\nsuch persons is kept up in the consciences of some, and so great an\nawe and fear is thence derived to others, that they will not or dare\nnot give way to an insolency in evil. The Israelites were generally\na wicked people, yet such an awe they had of \u2018Joshua, and the elders\nthat outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord,\u2019\nJosh. ii. 7, that Satan seemed to be cast out all their days. Who could\nhave thought Joash had been so much under Satan\u2019s power, that had\nobserved his ways all the time of Jehoiada the priest? 2 Chron. xxiv.\n2, \u2018Then he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.\u2019 Satan\nwas content to let him alone, because Jehoiada\u2019s life and authority\ndid overawe him; but after his death Satan returned to his possession,\n\u2018and the king hearkened to the princes of Judah, and served groves and\nidols,\u2019 ver. 17. The like is observed of Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 5.\nThe reverence that he had for Zechariah, who had understanding in the\nvisions of God, discouraged the tempter from soliciting him to those\nevils which afterward he engaged him in, ver. 16. Satan is willing,\nwhen he perceives the awe and authority of good men stands in his way,\nrather to suspend the prosecution of his design, than, by forcing it\nagainst so strong a current, to hazard the shipwreck of it.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, He also makes as if he were cast out when he perceives\n_the consciences of men are scared by threatened or felt judgments_.\nHe forbears to urge them against the pricks when God draws his sword\nand brings forth the glittering spear. Balaam\u2019s ass would not run\nagainst the angel that appeared terribly against him in his way. The\ndevil knows the power of an awakened conscience, and sees it in vain\nto strive against such a stream; and when it will be no better he\nwithdraws. As great a power as the devil had in Ahab, when he was\naffrighted and humbled he gave way, and for that season drave him not\non to his wonted practice of wickedness. He also carried thus to the\nNinevites, when they were awakened by the preaching of Jonah. Then\nwe see them a reforming people, the devil surceased to carry them\ninto their former provocations. How frequently is this seen among\nprofessors, where the word hath a searching power and force upon them!\nSin is so curbed and kept under, that it is like a root of bitterness\nin winter, lying hid under ground, Satan forbearing to act upon it\nor to improve it, till the storms and noise of judgments cease, and\nthen usually it will \u2018spring up and trouble them,\u2019 Heb. xii. 15. If\nSatan hath really lost his hold, he ceaseth not to molest and vex\neven awakened consciences with urgent solicitations to sin; but if he\nperceive that his interest in the hearts of men remains sure to him and\nunshaken, then, in case of affrightment and fear of wrath, it is his\npolicy to conceal himself, and to dissemble a departure.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Satan is also forced to this by the _prevailing power of\nknowledge and principles of light_. Where the gospel in profession and\npreaching displays abroad his bright beams, then whatever shift men\nmake to be wicked in secret, yet \u2018the light is as the shadow of death\nto them,\u2019 and it is even \u2018a shame to speak of these things in public,\u2019\nEph. v. 12. Here Satan cannot rage so freely, but is put to his shifts,\nand is forced to be silent, whilst the power of the gospel cuts off\nhalf his garments. Men begin to reform; some are clean escaped from\nerror, 2 Pet. ii. 18; others abandon their filthy lusts and scandalous\nsins, and so \u2018escape the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge\nof our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,\u2019 ver. 20. Yet under all these\ngreat alterations and appearances of amendment, the devil is but\nseemingly ejected; for in the place mentioned, when the light declines,\nthose that were escaped from error, and those that had fled from sinful\npollutions, were both entangled again and carried to the same pitch,\nand a great deal further, of that sin and error in which they had been\nformerly engaged.\n\nThese are the six cases in which Satan ceaseth the prosecution of his\ndesign, which was his first policy in feigning himself to be cast out;\nbut he further dissembles a flight when he thinks it not fit to cease\nwholly,\n\n_By abating his pursuit_, by slacking his course; and this he doth,\n\n[1.] First, When he tempts still, but yet _less than formerly_. So\ngreat is his cunning and patience, that when he cannot get what he\nwould have, he contents himself with what he can get, rather than lose\nall. He desires that men would give up themselves fully and freely to\nhis service; but if they like not this, he is willing to take them, as\none speaks, as retainers, and to suffer them to take a liberty to come\nand go at pleasure.[196] He hath two main ends in tempting men to sin:\none is to avenge himself upon God, in open defiance and dishonour of\nhis name; the other is the ruin and perdition of souls. If he could,\nhe would have these two ends meet in every temptation; yet he pleaseth\nhimself with the latter when he cannot help it, and in that too he\nsatisfies himself sometimes with as small an interest as may be, so\nthat his possession and interest be but preserved. He knows that one\nsin loved and embraced brings death for its wages. A leak unstopped and\nneglected may sink the ship as well as a great storm; and therefore\nwhen he perceives the consciences of men shy and nice, he is willing\nthey come to him, as Nicodemus came to Christ, by night in private, and\nthat by stealth they do him service.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He sometimes offers men _a composition, and so keeps his\nhold privately, by giving them an indulgence and toleration to comply\nwith religious duties and observations_. Pharaoh condescended that\nIsrael should go and serve the Lord in the wilderness, upon condition\nthat their wives, children, and substance were left behind. So Satan\nsaith to some, \u2018Go and serve the Lord,\u2019 only let your heart be with me;\nleave your affections behind upon the world. That serious warning of\nChrist, \u2018Ye cannot serve two masters; ye cannot serve God and mammon,\u2019\nevidently shews that the devil useth to conceal his interest in the\nhearts of sinners by offering such terms; and that men are so apt to\nthink that Satan is gone out when they have shared the heart betwixt\nGod and him, that they stand in need of a full discovery of that cheat,\nand earnest caution against it. The devil was forced to yield, that\nHerod should do many things at the preaching of John; yet he maintained\nhis possession of his heart, by fixing him in his resolved lust in the\nmatter of Herodias: and this gives just ground of complaint against the\ngenerality of sinners, \u2018Ye return, but not to me, not with your whole\nhearts: have ye fasted to me? have ye mourned to me? they come and sit\nas my people, but their hearts are after their covetousness,\u2019 [Ezek.\nxxxiii. 31.]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Satan hath yet another wile by which he would cheat men\ninto a belief that he is cast out of the heart; and this is a subtle\nway that he hath _to exchange temptations_. How weak and childish are\nsinners that suffer themselves thus to be abused! When they grow sick\nand weary of a sin, if the devil take that from them, and lay in the\nroom of it another as bad, or the same again, only a little changed and\naltered, they please themselves that they have vomited up the first,\nbut consider not that they have received into their embracement another\nas bad or worse. Concerning this exchange, we may note two things:\u2014\n\n_First_, That sometimes he attains his end by exchanging _one heinous\nsin for another as heinous, only not so much out of fashion_: as\nthe customs and times and places give laws and rules for fashions,\naccording to which the decencies or indecencies of garbs and garments\nare determined, so is it sometimes with sin. Men and countries have\ntheir darling sins; times and ages also have their peculiar iniquities,\nwhich, in the judgment of sinners, do clothe them with a fitness and\nsuitableness. Sometimes men grow weary of sins, because they are\neverywhere spoken against; because men point at them with the finger.\nThe devil in this case is ready to change with them. Drunkenness hath\nin some ages and places carried a brand of infamy in its forehead;\nso hath uncleanness and other sins. When sinners cannot practise\nthese with credit and reputation, then they please themselves with an\nalteration. He that was a drunkard is now, it may be, grown ambitious\nand boasting; he that was covetous is become a prodigal or profuse\nwaster; the heart is as vain and sottish as before, only their lusts\nare let out another way, and run in another channel. Sometimes lusts\nare changed also with the change of men\u2019s condition in the world.\nPoverty and plenty, a private and a public station, have their peculiar\nsins. He that of poor is made rich leaves his sins of distrust, envy,\nor deceitful dealing, and follows the bias of his present state to\nother wickednesses equally remarkable, and yet may be so blinded as to\napprehend that Satan is departed from him.\n\n_Secondly_, We may observe that Satan exchangeth sins with men in such\n_a secret private manner, that the change is not easily discovered_;\nand by this shift he casts a greater mist before the eyes of men. Thus\nhe exchangeth open profaneness into secret sins: filthiness of the\nflesh into filthiness of the spirit. Men seem to reform their gross\nimpieties, abstaining from drunkenness, swearing, adulteries; and\nthen, it may be, they are taken up with spiritual pride, and their\nhearts are puffed up with high conceits of themselves, their gifts and\nattainments; or they are entangled with error, and spend their time in\n\u2018doting about questions that engender strife rather than edifying,\u2019 [1\nTim. vi. 4;] or they are taken up with hypocrisies. Thus the Pharisees\nleft their open iniquities, washing the outside of the cup and platter,\nMat. xxiii. 26; and instead of these, endeavoured to varnish and paint\nthemselves over, so that in all this change they were but as graves\nthat appeared not, Luke xi. 44. Or they acquiesce in formality and the\noutwards of religion; like that proud boaster, \u2018Lord, I thank thee I am\nnot as other men are,\u2019 &c., [Luke xviii. 11.] In all these things the\ndevil seems cast out and men reformed, when indeed he may continue his\npossession; only he lurks and hides himself under \u2018the stuff,\u2019 [1 Sam.\nx. 22.] These ways of sinning are but finer poisons, which, though not\nso nauseous to the stomach, nor so quick in their despatch, yet may be\nas surely and certainly deadly; such fly from the iron weapon, and a\nbow of steel strikes them through.\n\nHaving thus explained the three ways by which Satan pretends to depart\nfrom men, I must next shew his design in making such a pretence of\nforsaking his habitation.\n\n[1.] First, That all this is done by him only _upon design_, may be\neasily concluded from several things hinted to us in the fore-cited\nplace of Luke xi. As (1.) He doth not say that the devil is \u2018cast\nout,\u2019 as if there were a force upon him, but that he \u2018goeth out;\u2019\nit is of choice, a voluntary departure. (2.) That his going out in\nthis sense is notwithstanding irksome and troublesome to him. The\nheart of man, as one observes,[197] is a palace in his estimation,\nand dispossession, though upon design, is as a \u2018desert\u2019 to him, that\naffords him little ease or rest. (3.) That his going out is not a\nquitting of his interest; he calls it \u2018_his_ house\u2019 still: \u2018I will\nreturn to _my_ house,\u2019 saith he. (4.) He takes care in going out to\nlock the door, that it may not be taken up with better guests; he keeps\nit \u2018empty\u2019 and tenantable for himself: he tempts still, though not so\nvisibly, and strives to suppress such good thoughts and motions as\nhe fears may quite out him of his possession. (5.) He goes out, _cum\nanimo revertendi_, with a purpose of returning. (6.) His secession\nis so dexterously and advantageously managed, that he finds an easy\nadmittance at his return, and his possession confirmed and enlarged:\n\u2018they enter in and dwell there.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, _The advantages that he designs by this policy are\nthese chiefly_: (1.) By this means men are dangerously confirmed _in\ntheir securities_. Thus the Pharisee blessed himself, \u2018Lord, I thank\nthee,\u2019 &c. They please themselves with this supposition, that the devil\nis cast out; and upon this they cease their war and watchfulness. As\nSaul, when he heard that David had escaped, \u2018went not out to seek after\nhim;\u2019 so these trouble not themselves any further to inquire Satan\u2019s\nhaunts in their hearts. Thus he sits securely within, whilst they\nthink he is fled from them. (2.) By this means also he fits men as\ninstruments _to serve his turn in other works of his_. He must have,\nin some cases, handsome tools to work withal. All men are not fit\nagents in persecution, either to credit it, or to carry it through with\nvigour and zeal; for this end he seems to go out of some, that under\na smoother and profession-like behaviour, when they are stirred up to\npersecute, the rigour might seem just. Thus \u2018devout and honourable\nwomen\u2019 were stirred up to persecute Paul and Barnabas, Acts xiii. 50.\nThe devil had gone out so far, that they had gained the reputation of\ndevout, and then their zeal would easily take fire for persecution,\nand withal put a respect and credit upon it; for who would readily\nsuspect that to be evil or Satan\u2019s design, which is carried on by\nsuch instruments? Besides, if he at any time intends to blemish the\ngood ways of God by the miscarriages of professors, he fetcheth his\narrow out of this quiver usually; if he brings a refined hypocrite to\na scandalous sin, then doth the mouth of wickedness open itself to\nblaspheme \u2018the generation of the just,\u2019 as if none were better. Such\nagents could not be so commonly at hand for such a service, if Satan\ndid not in the ways aforementioned seem to go out of men. (3.) It\nis another part of his design, after a pretended departure, to take\nthe advantage of their security, to return with greater strength\nand force. This Christ particularly notes, \u2018Then taketh he seven\nspirits worse than himself,\u2019 &c. Such, as Peter tells us, being \u2018again\nentangled, are totally overcome, and their latter end is worse with\nthem than their beginning,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 20. How many might I name, if it\nwere convenient, that I have known and observed, exactly answering this\ndescription of the apostle, that have for some years left off their\nwicked ways, and engaged for a profession of religion; and yet at last\n\u2018have returned like the dog to his own vomit again\u2019! The devil, when he\nfights after the Parthian manner\u2014_Terga vertentes metuendi Parthi_\u2014is\nmost to be feared; when he turns his back, he shoots most envenomed\narrows, and whom he so wounds, he commonly wounds them to the death.\n\nThe fourth and last stratagem of Satan for the keeping his possession,\nis _to stop the way, to barricade up all passages, that there may be no\npossibility of escape or retreat_. When he perceives that his former\nways of policy are not sufficient, but that his slaves and servants are\nso far enlightened in the discovery of the danger that they are ready\nto turn back from him, then he bestirs himself to oppose their revolt;\nand as God sometimes \u2018hedgeth up the way\u2019 of sinners with \u2018thorns,\u2019\nthat they should not follow their old lovers, so doth Satan, Hosea ii.\n6; to which purpose,\n\n[1.] First, He endeavours to turn them off such resolutions, by\nthreatening _to reduce them with a strong hand_. Here he boasts and\nvaunts of his power and sinners\u2019 weakness; as Rabshakeh did against\nHezekiah, \u2018What is that confidence wherein thou trustest? have the gods\nof Hamath and Arpad,\u2019 &c., \u2018delivered their land out of my hand?\u2019 [2\nKings xviii. 33, 34.] Have those that have gone before you been able to\ndeliver themselves from me? Have they been able to rescue themselves?\nDid I not force those that were stronger than you? Did I not make David\nnumber the people? Did I not overcome him in the matter of Uriah?\nDid I not compel Peter to deny his Lord, notwithstanding his solemn\nprofession to the contrary? And can you think to break away from me so\neasily? By this means he would weaken their heart, and enfeeble their\nresolutions, that they might sit down under their bondage, as hopeless\never to recover themselves from his snare: but if these affrightments\nhinder not, if, notwithstanding these brags, sinners prepare themselves\nto turn from sin to God; then,\n\n[2.] Secondly, He _improves all he can that distance which sin hath\nmade betwixt God and them_. Sins of ordinary infirmity and common\nincursion do not so break the peace of God\u2019s children, as sins of a\nhigher nature do. Even in the saints themselves, we may observe, after\nnotorious transgression, (1.) That the acquaintance and familiarity\nbetwixt God and them is immediately broken. What a speedy alteration is\nmade! How suddenly are all things changed! God hides himself. The sun\nthat shined but now, and did afford a very comfortable and cherishing\nheat, before we are aware, is now hid in a cloud. Our warmth and\nrefreshments are turned into cold and chillness. There is also a change\non our part, and that suddenly. As in the resurrection, we shall be\nchanged \u2018in the twinkling of an eye;\u2019 so here, in a moment, our joys\nflag and decay, our delights grow dull, our activity is impaired, we\nare bound and frozen up, and it is altogether winter with the soul.\n(2.) It may be noted, that this begets an enstrangement in us, and we\nso carry it as if we had resolved not to renew our league with God; for\nthough we are not altogether so desperate as to make formal resolutions\nof continuing in sin, of casting off God, and bidding an everlasting\nfarewell to our former acquaintance; though we do not say, We will\nnow undo ourselves quite, and harden ourselves in our rebellion; yet\nsin hath left us in such a maze, and filled us with so many damps\nand misgiving thoughts, that we do not think of returning; we are\nat a stand, and like a mighty man astonished that cannot find his\nhands. We perceive we have lost so much, and have run into such great\nunkindnesses, that, like broken merchants, nothing is more irksome and\ntedious than to review our ways, or look into our debt-books. Instead\nof this, we endeavour to divert our thoughts, to cast off care, as\nif we conceived that time would eat it out, and that then of course\nwe might fall into the old channel of freedom and comfort. (3.) When\nwe return at last, oh, with what bashfulness and amazedness do we\nappear at our next supplications! what blushing, what damps, what\napology! Nay, sometimes as the man without the wedding garment, \u2018we are\nspeechless!\u2019 [Mat. xxii. 12.] How rightly doth such a man resemble the\npublican confessing, and the prodigal supplicating. While consulting\nwhat to say for himself, he now begins to feel with what sense and\nfeeling the prophets and holy men of old used to express themselves\nin their confessions, \u2018We blush, we are ashamed, astonished, and\nconfounded.\u2019 This distance sin makes betwixt saints and God sometimes;\nbut betwixt God and the unconverted it is far greater. Now, when either\nan unconverted sinner or a fallen saint puts himself to look to God for\nreconciliation, then doth the devil labour to improve this for their\nhindrance. That he accuseth us to God, is evident by Satan\u2019s standing\nat Joshua\u2019s right hand, Zech. iii. 1. How he accuseth God to us we\nknow. He tells us it is in vain to seek to make up our peace after\nso great provocations; urging that he is \u2018a jealous God,\u2019 \u2018of pure\neyes,\u2019 highly resenting the affronts we have given him, &c. Nay, he\ngoes so high this way, that God is put to it in Scripture, of purpose\nto furnish us with an answer to these objections, to proclaim that he\nis \u2018slow to anger,\u2019 \u2018not easily provoked;\u2019 that if men return from the\nevil of their ways, he will \u2018return to them,\u2019 \u2018accept,\u2019 and \u2018pity\u2019\nthem, &c.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, If this divert them not, but that they still persist\nin their resolves, then he _follows after them with a high hand_;\nsometimes, as Pharaoh did with Israel, he grows severe and imperious\nwith them, and redoubles the tale of their bricks. He forceth them to\nhigher and more frequent iniquities. Sometimes, as the same Pharaoh,\nhe musters up all his chariots and horsemen to pursue after them,\nand in the highest diligence imaginable he brings forth his greatest\npower, besetting them on all sides with temptations and allurements\nof pleasures and delight. Where he perceives his time to be short,\nand his power shaken, he comes down in resolves to try his utmost\nstrength. And hence it is that converts complain, that when they begin\nin earnest to look after God, they are most troubled with temptations.\nBesides this, whatever he can do to make them \u2018drive heavily,\u2019 [Exod.\nxiv. 25,] shall not be wanting. Sometimes he makes attempts upon their\nthoughts and affections, which are as their chariot wheels; and if\nthese can be knocked off any way, it retards them. Sometimes he casts\nstumbling-blocks in their way. If any prejudice may divert them, if\nthreatenings or penalties can hinder; if the frownings of friends or\nanything else can put a stop to their proceedings, he will have them\nready. Sometimes he endeavours to retard them by solicitations of\nacquaintance, offers of former occasions and opportunities of sinning,\nor whatever else may be as a _remora_ to their intentions.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, But if none of these serve, then, as his last shift, he\n_proclaims open war against them, pursues them as enemies and rebels_.\nNow he begins to accuse them for that which they did by his advice and\ntemptation. Now sins that were called little are aggravated. Now that\nday of repentance, which he was wont to say was long, he tells them it\nis quite spent, that the sun of their hope is set. Nothing now doth he\nsuggest but hell, damnation, and wrath; he makes them, as it were, see\nit, hear it, and feel it in everything. That interest in their hearts\nwhich he dissembled before, now he stands upon and asserts, and will\nnot be beat off; designing in all this either to make them weary of\nthese new resolves by this unusual disquietment and hostility, or to\nprecipitate them upon some desperate undertaking, or at least to avenge\nhimself upon them, in venting his malice and rage against them; but of\nthis more afterward.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n _Satan\u2019s deceits against religious services and duties.\u2014The grounds\n of his displeasure against religious duties.\u2014His first design against\n duties is to prevent them.\u2014His several subtleties for that end, by\n external hindrances, by indispositions bodily and spiritual, by\n discouragements; the ways thereof, by dislike; the grounds thereof, by\n sophistical arguings.\u2014His various pleas therein._\n\n\nOur next work is to take notice of the spite and methods of the serpent\nagainst the ways of worship and service. That these are things against\nwhich his heart carries a high fury, and for the overthrow of them\nemploys no small part of his power and subtlety, needs no proof, seeing\nthe experience of all the children of God is an irresistible evidence\nin this matter. I shall therefore first only set forth the grounds of\nhis displeasure and earnest undertakings against them, before I come to\nhis particular ways of deceit, which are these:\u2014\n\n1. First, By this means, if he prevail, _he deprives us of our\nweapons_. This is a stratagem of war which we find the Philistines\npractised against Israel: they took away all their smiths, lest the\nHebrews should make them swords or spears; hence was it that in the\nbattle there was \u2018neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of\nthe people that were with Saul and Jonathan,\u2019 1 Sam. xiii. 19, 22. The\nword of God is expressly called \u2018the sword of the Spirit,\u2019 [Eph. vi.\n17.] Prayer is as a spear, or rather a general piece of armour. If the\ndevil deprive us of these, he robs us of our ammunition; for by reason\nof these the church is compared to \u2018a tower built for an armoury,\nwherein hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men,\u2019 Cant. iv.\n4; and the apostle expressly calls them \u2018weapons of our warfare,\u2019 2\nCor. x. 4, of purpose given us for \u2018the pulling down of strongholds,\u2019\nand the demolishing of those forts and batteries of \u2018high imaginations\u2019\nthat Satan rears up in the hearts of men against their happiness. If\nthese be taken away, our locks are cut, as Samson\u2019s were, our strength\nis departed, and we become weak as other men, [Judges xvi. 17,]\u2014we are\nopen to every incursion and inroad that he pleaseth to make against us.\n\n2. Secondly, If he hinders these, _he intercepts our food and cuts\noff our provisions_. The word is called \u2018milk, sincere milk of the\nword.\u2019 It is that by which we are born, nourished, and increase; it\nis our cordial and comfort. Christ indeed is \u2018the bread of life,\u2019 and\nthe fountain of all our consolations, but the word and prayer are the\nconduit pipes that convey all to us. If these be cut, we \u2018fade as a\nleaf,\u2019 we languish, we consume and waste, we become as a \u2018skin-bottle\nin the smoke,\u2019 \u2018our moisture as the drought in summer,\u2019 our \u2018soul\nfainteth,\u2019 \u2018our heart faileth, and we become as those that go down\nto the pit\u2019; so that if the devil gain his design in this, he hath\nall. Give him this, and give him the kingdom also. This is the most\ncompendious way of doing his work, and that which saves him a labour in\nhis temptations. The strongest holds, that cannot otherwise be taken,\nare easily subdued by famine; and, like fig-trees with their ripe figs\nwhen they are shaken, \u2018even fall into the mouth of the eater,\u2019 Nahum\niii. 12. If our spiritual food fail us, of our own accord we yield up\nourselves to any lust that requires our compliance.\n\n3. Thirdly, Besides these, there is no design whereby Satan can shew\n_more malice and spite against God_. He doth all he can to maintain a\ncompetition with the Almighty. His titles of \u2018the god of the world,\u2019\n\u2018the prince of the power of the air,\u2019 shew what in the pride of his\nheart he aspires to, as well as what by commission God is pleased to\ngrant him. These duties of worship and service are the homage of God\u2019s\nchildren, by which they testify the acknowledgments of his deity. By\nwresting these out of our hands, Satan robs God of that honour, and\nmakes the allegiance of his servants to cease. If he could do more\nagainst God, doubtless he would; but seeing he hath not \u2018an arm like\nGod,\u2019 and so cannot pull him out of heaven, by this means he sets up\nhimself as the god of the world, and enlargeth his territories, and\nstaves off the subjects of the God of heaven from giving him \u2018the\nhonour due to his name;\u2019 and that the devil in these endeavours is\ncarried on by a spite against God, as well as by an earnest desire of\nthe ruin of souls, may be abundantly evidenced by his way of management\nof that opposition that he gives to the duties of service and worship.\nI shall only, to make out this, instance in three things:\u2014(1.) That\nwhere the devil prevails to set up himself as an object of worship,\nthere he doth it in a bold, insolent, presumptuous imitation of God\u2019s\nappointments in the ways of his service. He enjoins covenants, seals,\nsacrifices, prayers, and services to his miserable slaves, as may\nappear by undoubted histories, of which more in due place. (2.) He\nnever acknowledgeth the truth of God\u2019s ways, but with an evil mind and\nupon design to bring them under contempt. His confessions have so much\nof deceit in them that Christ would not accept them; and therefore we\nread that when the devil was sometime forward to give his testimony\nto Christ, as Mark i. 25, \u2018I know thee who thou art, the Holy One\nof God,\u2019 Jesus rebuked him, and commanded him to hold his peace. He\nclearly saw that he confessed him not to honour him, but by such a\nparticular acknowledgment to stir up the rage and fury of the people\nagainst him. To this end Satan, in Acts xvi. 17, many days together\npublicly owns Paul and Silas, \u2018These men are the servants of the most\nhigh God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.\u2019 Though he spake\ntruth, yet had he a malicious aim in it, which he accordingly brought\nabout by this means; and that was to raise up persecution against\nthem, and to give ground to that accusation which they afterwards met\nwithal; ver. 21, \u2018That they taught customs which were not lawful to\nbe received.\u2019 But (3.) his particular spite against God in seeking to\nundermine his service is further manifested in this, that the devil\nis not content to root out the service due to God, but when he hath\ndone that, he delights to abuse those places where the name of God\nwas most celebrated, with greatest profanations. I shall not in this\ninsist upon the conjecture of Tilenus,[198] that _Sylva Dodon\u0153a_, a\nplace highly abused by the devil, and respected for an oracle, was the\nseat or a religious place of Dodanim, mentioned in Gen. x. 4; nor upon\nthat supposal, mentioned also by the same author, that the oracle of\nJupiter Hammon was the place where Cham [Ham] practised that religious\nworship which he learned in his father\u2019s house. We have at hand more\ncertain evidences of the devil\u2019s spite. Such was his abuse of the\ntabernacle by the profane sons of Eli, who profaned that place with\ntheir uncleanness and filthy adulteries. Such was his carriage to the\nark while it was captivated by the Philistines. Of like nature were\nhis attempts against the temple itself. Solomon in his latter days was\ntempted to give an affront to it: he built a high place for Chemosh,\nthe abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, 1 Kings\nxi. 7, in the very sight and face of the temple; but afterward he\nprepared to defile the temple itself. Gilgal and Beth-aven are places\nof such high profanation, that the prophet Hosea, chap. ix. 15, tells\nthem \u2018all their wickedness was in Gilgal,\u2019 none of their abominations\nwere like to those; and in chap. iv. 15, they are dehorted from going\nto Gilgal or Beth-aven; and yet both these places had been famous for\nreligion before.[199] Gilgal was the place of the general circumcision\nof the Israelites that were born in the wilderness; there was their\nfirst solemn passover kept after their entering into the land. Bethel\nwas a place where God as it were kept house, \u2018the house of God.\u2019 Here\nJacob had his vision. But the more famous they had been for duties of\nworship, the devil sought to put higher abuses upon them, so that\nGilgal became \u2018an hatred,\u2019 and Bethel became a Beth-aven, \u2018an house of\nvanity.\u2019\n\n4. Fourthly, Satan is the more animated to undertake a design against\nthe ways of religious service, because _he seldom or never misseth at\nleast something of success_. This attempt is like Saul and Jonathan\u2019s\nbow, that \u2018returned not empty,\u2019 [2 Sam. i. 22.] In other temptations\nsometimes Satan comes off baffled altogether, but in this work, as\nit was said of some Israelites, \u2018he can throw a stone at an hair\u2019s\nbreadth, and not miss,\u2019 Judges xx. 16. He is sure in one thing or\nother to have the better of us. His advantage in this case is from our\nunsuitableness to our service. What we do in the duties of worship,\nrequires a choice frame of spirit. Our hearts should be awed with the\nmost serious apprehensions of divine majesty, filled with reverence,\nanimated with love and delight, quickened by faith, clothed with\nhumility and self-abhorrency, and in all the procedure of duties\nthere must be a steady and firm prosecution under the strictest\nwatchfulness. Of this nature is our work, which at the first view would\nput a man to a stand, and out of amazement force him to say, \u2018Who is\nsufficient for these things? who can stand before such an holy Lord\nGod?\u2019 But when we come to an impartial consideration of our manifold\nweaknesses and insufficiencies in reference to these services, what\nshall we say? we find such a narrowness of spirit, such ignorances,\nsottishness, carelessness of mind, thoughts so confused, tumultuous,\nfickle, slippery, and unconstant, and our hearts generally so deceitful\nand desperately wicked, that it is not possible that Satan should\naltogether labour in vain or catch nothing. This being then a sure\ngain, we may expect it to be under a most constant practice.\n\n5. Fifthly, If he so prevails against us that the services of worship\nbecome _grossly abused or neglected, then doth he put us under the\ngreatest hazards and disadvantages_. Nothing so poisonous as duties\nof worship corrupted; for this is to abuse God to his face. By this,\nnot only are his commands and injunctions slighted, as in other sins,\nbut we carry it so as if we thought him no better than the idols of\nthe heathens, that have \u2018eyes and see not, that have ears and hear\nnot.\u2019 To come without a heart, or with our idols in our heart, is it\nanything of less scorn than to say, \u2018Tush, doth the Most High see?\u2019\nBesides, he hath given such severe cautions and commands in these\nmatters as will easily signify the aggravation of the offence. You see\nhow sharply God speaks of those that came to inquire of the Lord with\n\u2018the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face,\u2019 Ezek. xiv.\n4, 7, \u2018I will answer them according to the multitude of their idols; I\nwill answer them by myself.\u2019 Saul\u2019s miscarriage in offering sacrifice,\n1 Sam. xiii. 13, was that great offence for which God determined to\ntake the kingdom from him. God\u2019s severity against Nadab and Abihu,\nhis stroke upon Uzziah, do all shew the hazard of such profanations.\nBut, above all, that danger which both Old and New Testament speak\nof\u2014the hardening of the heart, blinding the eyes, dulling the ears,\nthat men should not hear nor see nor be converted and saved, but that\nthe word should, instead of those cordial refreshing smells which\nbeget and promote spiritual life in the obedient, breathe forth such\nenvenomed, poisonous exhalations when it is thus abused and profaned,\nthat it becomes \u2018the savour of death unto death\u2019\u2014is most dreadful. No\nwonder, then, if Satan be very busy against these holy things, when,\nif he catch us at an advantage of this nature, it proves so deadly and\ndangerous to us; for what can more please him that makes it his delight\nand employment to destroy?\n\nAll these reasons evince that Satan hath an aching tooth against\nreligious services, and that to weaken, prevent, or overthrow them is\nhis great endeavour. Here then especially may we expect an assault,\naccording to the advice of Sirach: Ecclus. ii. 1, 2, \u2018My son, when\nthou enterest God\u2019s service, stand fast in righteousness and fear, and\nprepare thy soul for temptation.\u2019\n\nWhat are the subtleties of Satan against the holy things of God, I am\nnext to discover. Duties and services are opposed two ways: (1.) _By\nprevention_, when they are hindered. (2.) _By corruption_, when they\nare spoiled. He hath his arts and cunning, which he exerciseth in both\nthese regards:\u2014\n\n1. First, then, Of Satan\u2019s policy for the preventing of religious\nservices. He endeavours by various means to hinder them. As,\n\n(1.) First, _By external hindrances_. In this he hath a very great\nforesight, and accordingly he foresees occasions and opportunities\nat a distance, and by a long reach of contrivance he studies to lay\nblocks and hindrances in the way. Much he doth in the dark for this\nend that we know not. As God hath \u2018secrets of wisdom that are double\nto that which is known,\u2019 Job xi. 6, so also hath Satan many ways and\nactings that are not discerned by us. His contrivances of businesses\nand avocations long aforehand are not so observed by us as they might\nbe. Where he misseth of his end it comes not to light, and often\nwhere he is successful in his preventions we are ready to ascribe it\nto contingencies and the accidental hits of affairs, when indeed the\nhand and policy of Satan is in it. Paul, that was highly studied and\nskilful in Satan\u2019s devices, observing how his purposes of coming to\nthe Thessalonians were often broken and obstructed, he knew where the\nblame lay, and therefore instead of laying the fault upon sickness, or\nimprisonments, or the oppositions of false brethren\u2014which often made\nhim trouble beyond expectation\u2014he directly chargeth all upon Satan:\n1 Thes. ii. 18, \u2018We would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and\nagain, but Satan hindered us.\u2019 At the same rate, understanding the\npurposes of faithful men for the promoting the good of men\u2019s souls, he\noften useth means to stop or hinder them. Some have observed, having a\nwatchful and jealous eye over Satan, that their resolves and endeavours\nof this nature have usually been put to struggle sore in their birth\nwhen their purposes for worldly affairs and matters go smoothly on\nwithout considerable opposition.\n\n(2.) Secondly, He makes use of indispositions to hinder service; and\nhere he works sometimes upon the body, sometimes upon the soul, for\nboth may be indisposed.\n\n[1.] First, Sometimes he takes the advantage of _bodily\nindispositions_. He doth all he can to create and frame these upon us,\nand then pleads them as a discharge to duty. If he can put the body\ninto a fit of drowsiness or distemper, he will do it: and surely he\ncan do more this way than every one will believe\u2014he may agitate and\nstir the humours. Hence some have observed more frequent and stronger\nfits of sleepiness and illness to come upon them on the days and times\nthat require their attendance upon God, than on other days; when they\nshall be lively, active, and free of dulness upon common occasions\u2014at\nsports, songs, interludes\u2014when they shall not have the like command\nof themselves in the exercises of worship. Surely it was more than an\nordinary drowsiness that befell the apostles, Mat. xxvi. 41. He had\ntold them the seriousness of the occasion, that he was \u2018betrayed,\u2019\nthat his \u2018soul was exceeding sorrowful even to the death:\u2019 these were\nconsiderations that might have kept their eyes from slumber. When they\nsleep, he awakens them with a piercing rebuke, \u2018Could ye not watch with\nme one hour?\u2019 and adds to this an admonition of their own danger, and\nthe temptation that was upon them, and yet presently they are asleep\nagain, and after that again. Strange drowsiness! But he gives an\nexcuse for them, which also tells us the cause of it: the \u2018spirit is\nwilling\u2019\u2014their hearts were not altogether unconcerned\u2014\u2018but the flesh,\u2019\nthat is, the body, that was \u2018weak\u2019\u2014that is, subject to be abused by\nSatan, who brought them into a more than ordinary indisposition, as is\nnoted ver. 43, \u2018their eyes were heavy.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, _The soul hath also its indispositions_, which he\nreadily improves against duty to hinder it. As,\n\n_First_, It is capable of _a spiritual sluggishness and dulness_,\nwherein the spiritual senses are so bound up, that it considers not,\nminds not, hath no list nor inclination to acts of service. What a\nstupefaction are our spirits capable of! as David in his adultery seems\nnot to mind nor care what he had done. In like manner are some in a\nlethargy; as the prophet speaks, they \u2018care not to seek after God.\u2019\nBernard hath a description of it: _Contrahitur animus, subtrahitur\ngratia, defervescit novitius fervor, ingravescit torpor fastidiosus_,\nThe spirit is contracted, grace withdrawn, fervour abates, sluggishness\ndraws on, and then duties are neglected.\n\n_Secondly_, The spirit is indisposed by _a throng of worldly affairs,\nand these oft jostle out duty_. Christ tells us they have the same\ninfluence upon men that gluttony and drunkenness have, and these unfit\nmen for action. \u2018Take heed,\u2019 saith Luke xxi. 34, \u2018to yourselves, lest\nat any time your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness,\nand the cares of this life.\u2019 These then may at so high a rate\novercharge the souls of men so as to make them frame excuses: \u2018I have\nbought a farm or oxen,\u2019 and therefore \u2018I cannot attend;\u2019 and by this\nmeans may they grow so neglective that the \u2018day of the Lord may come\nupon them at unawares.\u2019\n\n_Thirdly_, Sometimes the soul is _discomposed through passion_, and\nthen it is indisposed, which opportunity the devil espying, he closeth\nin with it. Sometime he \u2018blows the fire,\u2019 that the heat of anger may\nput them upon a carelessness. Sometimes he pleads their present frame\nas an unfitness for service, and so upon a pretence of reverence to\nthe service, and \u2018leaving the gift at the altar\u2019 till they be in a\nbetter humour, many times the gift is not offered at all, 1 Pet. iii.\n7. The apostle directs husbands to manage their authority over their\nwives with prudence, for the avoiding of brawls and contentions: \u2018Ye\nhusbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour to the\nwife as the weaker vessel;\u2019 the reason of which advice he gives in\nthese words, \u2018that your prayers be not hindered.\u2019 Prayers are hindered\npartly in their success when they prevail not, partly they are hindered\nwhen the duty of prayer is put by and suspended; and this doubtless\nthe apostle aims at, to teach us that contentious quarrellings in a\nfamily hinder the exercise of the duty of prayer. Elisha, 2 Kings iii.,\ndiscomposed himself in his earnest reproof of Jehoram, for with great\nvehemency he had spoken to him: ver. 13, 14, \u2018What have I to do with\nthee? get thee to the prophets of thy father. Were it not that I regard\nthe presence of Jehoshaphat, I would not look toward thee, nor see\nthee.\u2019 But when he set himself to receive the visions of God, he calls\nfor a minstrel, ver. 15, the reason whereof, as P[eter] Martyr and\nothers suppose,[200] was this, that however what he spake to Jehoram\nproceeded from zeal, yet being but a man, and subject to the like\ninfirmities of other men, it had distracted and discomposed his spirit,\nwhich made him unfit and uncapable to entertain the visions of God.\nMusic then being a natural means for the composure and quiet of the\nmind, he takes that course to calm and fit himself for that work.\n\n_Fourthly, Ignorance and prejudice are spiritual indispositions_, which\nare not neglected by the devil. Knowledge is the eye and guide of the\nsoul. If there be darkness there, all acts which depend upon better\ninstruction must cease. The disciples\u2019 ignorance of Scriptures brought\nin their unbelief. Christ notes that as the fountainhead of all their\nbackwardness: Luke xxiv. 25, \u2018O fools, and slow of heart to believe all\nthat the prophets have spoken.\u2019 In like manner, if men are not clear\nor knowing in the ways and necessities of duty and service, the devil\ncan easily prevail with them to forbear and neglect. Prejudice riseth\nup to justify the disregard of duty, and offers reasons which it thinks\ncannot be answered.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Satan endeavours to prevent duty _by discouragements_.\nIf he can make the \u2018knees feeble,\u2019 and the \u2018hands hang down,\u2019 he will\nquickly cause activity and motion to cease. The ways by which he\nendeavours to discourage men from the duties of service are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He sets before them _the toil and burden of duty_. If a man\nsets his face toward heaven, thus he endeavours to scare him off: Is\nnot, saith he, the way of religion a dull, melancholy way? Is it not\na toil\u2014a tedious task? Are not these unreasonable injunctions: \u2018Pray\ncontinually,\u2019 \u2018Pray without ceasing,\u2019 \u2018Preach in season and out of\nseason\u2019? This suggestion, though it be expressly contrary to command,\nyet being so suitable to the idle and sluggish tempers of men, they\nare the more apt to take notice of it, and accordingly they seek ways\nand shifts of accommodating the command to their inclinations. In Amos\nviii. 5, the toil of sabbaths and festival services, as they thought\nit, makes them weary of the duty, \u2018When will the new moon be gone, that\nwe may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?\u2019 These\nmen thought their services tedious and entrenching upon their callings\nand occupations: Mal. i. 13, \u2018They said, Behold, what a weariness is\nit!\u2019 looking upon it as an insufferable burden, nay they proceeded\nso far as to snuff at it. Now when the devil had so far prevailed\nwith them, it was easy to put them upon neglect; which, as the place\ncited speaks, presently followed upon it, they \u2018brought the torn, and\nthe lame, and the sick for a sacrifice.\u2019 Satan first presented these\nservices as a wearisome burden, then they snuffed at them; next they\nthought any service good enough, how mean soever, though to an open\nviolation of the law of worship; and lastly, from a pollution of the\ntable of the Lord they proceeded to a plain contempt of duty, \u2018the\ntable of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat\nis contemptible,\u2019 ver. 12. In the management of this discouragement,\nthe devil hath most success upon those that have not yet tasted the\nsweetness and easiness of the ways of the Lord, \u2018his yoke is indeed\neasy, his burden is light;\u2019 his service is a true freedom to those that\nare acquainted with God, and exercised in his service. But when men are\nfirst beginning to look after God and duty, and are not yet filled and\n\u2018satisfied with the fatness of his house,\u2019 this temptation hath the\ngreater force upon them, and they are apt to be discouraged thereby.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He endeavours to discourage them, from _the want of\nsuccess in the duties of worship_. When they have waited long and\nsought the Lord, then he puts them upon resolves of declining any\nfurther prosecution, as he did with Joram at the siege of Samaria; \u2018Why\nwait I upon the Lord any longer?\u2019 2 Kings vi. 33, said he, after he\nhad expected deliverance a long time without any appearance of help.\nWhen Saul saw that God \u2018answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by\nUrim, nor by prophets,\u2019 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 7, the devil easily persuaded\nhim to leave off the ordinary ways of attendance upon God, and to\nconsult with the witch of Endor. The profane persons mentioned in Mal.\niii. 14, that had cast off all regard to his laws, all respect to his\nordinances, were brought to this pitch of iniquity by the suggestions\nof want of success; they said, \u2018It is vain to serve God: and what\nprofit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked\nmournfully before the Lord of hosts?\u2019 It seems they were like the\npeople spoken of in Isa. lviii. 2, 3: they had fasted and prayed, and\nGod delayed to answer them, which they looked upon as a disobligement\nfrom duty, and that which they could peremptorily insist upon as a\nreason which might justify their neglect. \u2018Wherefore have we fasted,\nsay they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and\nthou takest no knowledge?\u2019 Neither doth this discouragement fall heavy\nonly upon those whose hearts are departed already from God, who might\nbe supposed to be forward to embrace any excuse from his service; but\nwe shall find it bears hard upon the children of God. David was ready\nto give over all, as a man forsaken of God: Ps. xxii. 1, 2, \u2018Why hast\nthou forsaken me? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not;\nand in the night season, and am not silent.\u2019 We may clearly gather from\nhis expressions that this temptation had sorely bruised him, and that\nupon God\u2019s delay of answer, he was ready to charge an unrighteousness\nupon God\u2019s carriage toward him; for in that he adds that he kept his\nground, and did not consent to it\u2014as the words following, \u2018But thou\ncontinuest holy,\u2019 do imply\u2014it shewed what the devil was objecting to\nhim. And elsewhere, in Ps. lxix. 3, when he had cried and was not\nanswered, he began to be \u2018weary, and his eyes failed; nay, his flesh\nand heart failed;\u2019 his spirit sunk, as a man almost vanquished and\novercome with the temptation.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, This our adversary raiseth up discouragements to us\nfrom _the unsuitableness of our hearts to our services_. Herein he\nendeavours to deaden our hearts, to clog our spirits, to hinder and\nmolest us, and then he improves these indispositions and discomposures\nagainst the duty, in which he hath a double advantage; for (1.) He\ndeprives us of that delight in duty which should whet on our desires\nto undertake it, so that we come to the Lord\u2019s table as old Barzillai,\nwithout a taste or relish of what we eat or drink. When we come to\nhear, \u2018the ear that trieth words,\u2019 as the palate tasteth meat, finds\nno savour in what is spoken; and this Satan can easily do by the\ninward deadness or disquiet of the heart, even as the anguish of\ndiseases takes away all pleasures which the choicest dainties afford;\nas Job observes, \u2018When a man is chastened with pain upon his bed,\nhis life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat,\u2019 chap. xxxiii. 20.\nAnd when a man is brought to loathe his duties, as having nothing of\nthat sweetness and satisfaction in them which is everywhere spoken\nof, a small temptation may put him upon neglect of them. (2.) He hath\nplausible and colourable arguments by which he formeth an opinion in\nthe minds of men, that in cases of indisposition they may do better\nto forbear than to proceed. He tells them they ought not to pray or\npresent any service while they are so indisposed, that no prayer is\nacceptable where the Spirit doth not enliven the heart and raise the\naffections; that they do but take his name in vain, and increase their\nsin, and that they should wait till the Spirit fill their sails: and\nto say the truth, it is a great difficulty for a child of God to hold\nhis feet in such slippery places. How many have I known complaining of\nthis, and persuading themselves verily that they might do far better\nto leave off all service than to perform them thus! And scarcely\nhave I restrained them from a compliance with Satan, by telling them\nthat indispositions are no bar to duty, but that duty is the way to\nget our indispositions cured; that duty is absolutely required, and\ndispositions to be endeavoured; and that it is a less offence to keep\nto duty under indispositions, than wholly upon that pretence to neglect\nit; and indeed, where these indispositions are bemoaned and striven\nwith, the services are often more acceptable to God than pleasing to\nourselves. The principle is truly spiritual and excellent, a foundation\nof sapphires and precious stones, upon which, if we patiently wait,\nhe will build a palace of silver; for that service is more spiritual\nthat is bottomed and carried on by a conscientious regard to a command,\nwhen there are no moral motives from sense and comfort concurring, than\nthat which hath more of delight to encourage it, while the power of the\ncommand is less swaying and influential.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Men are oft discouraged from _a sense of unworthiness of\nthe privilege of duty, a kind of excess of humility_, which principally\nrelates to the sacrament of the Lord\u2019s Supper, and prayer. The accuser\nof the brethren tells them that they have nothing to do to take the\nname of God in their mouths; that it is an insufferable presumption.\nHence some, like the woman with the bloody issue, dare not come to\nChrist to ask a cure, while yet they earnestly desire it, and would\nrather, if they could, privately steal it than openly beg it. The\npublican [Luke xviii. 10, _seq._] is presented to us in the parable\nas one that could scarce get over that objection. He is set forth\nstanding at a \u2018distance, not daring to lift up his eyes to heaven;\u2019\nscarce attempting to speak, rather expressing his unworthiness to\npray, than setting upon the duty; his \u2018smiting upon his breast,\u2019 and\nsaying, \u2018God be merciful to me a sinner,\u2019 argued that much of these\ndiscouragements lay upon him. The like we may see in the prodigal, who\nit seems had it long in dispute whether he should go to his father,\nwhose kindness he had so abused; and so long as he could make any other\nshift he yielded to the temptation: at last he came to that resolve, \u2018I\nwill arise and go to my father, and say, I have sinned against heaven,\nand thee, and am not worthy to be called thy son.\u2019 Which shew that\nthe sense of this kept him off till necessity forced him over it. And\nthis is a discouragement the more likely to prevail for a neglect of\nservice, because part of it is necessary, as the beginning of those\nconvictions of our folly: to have such low thoughts of ourselves that\nwe are not worthy to come into his presence, nor to look toward him,\nis very becoming; but to think that we should not come to him because\nour conscience accuseth of unworthiness, is a conclusion of Satan\u2019s\nmaking, and such as God never intended from the premises, but the\ndirect contrary. Come, saith God, though unworthy. The like course doth\nthe devil take to keep men off from the Lord\u2019s table. Oh, saith he, it\nis a very solemn ordinance; he that partaketh of it unworthily, eateth\nand drinketh damnation to himself. How darest thou make such bold\napproaches? While the hearts of men are tender, their consciences quick\nand accusing, the threatening begets a fear, and they are driven off\nlong, and debar themselves unnecessarily from their mercies.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Satan endeavours to hinder duty by bringing them into _a\ndislike and loathing of duty_. This is a course most effectual. Dislike\neasily bringeth forth aversation, and withal doth strongly fix the mind\nin purposes of neglect and refusal. The devil bringeth this about many\nways; as,\n\n[1.] First, _By reproaches and ignominious terms_. It was an old trick\nof the wicked one to raise up nicknames and scoffs against the ways of\nGod\u2019s service, thereby to beget an odium in the hearts of men against\nthem. \u2018The seat of the scornful\u2019 is a chair that Satan had reared up\nfrom the beginning. By this art\u2014when \u2018God was known in Jewry, and\nhis name was great in Israel\u2019\u2014were the heathens kept off from laying\nhold on the covenant of God. He rendered them and the ordinances of\nworship ridiculous to the nations. The opprobrium of circumcision, and\ntheir unreasonable faith, as the heathens thought it, upon things not\nseen, was a proverb in every man\u2019s mouth, _Credat Jud\u0153us Apella\u2014non\nego_.[201] The Jews were slandered with the yearly sacrifice of a\nGrecian. And Apion affirms that Antiochus found such a one in a bed in\nthe temple; and that they worshipped an ass\u2019s head in the temple. Apion\nslandered the Jews with ulcers in their privy parts every seventh day;\nhence he derives _sabbath_, of _sabatosis_, which with the Egyptians\nsignifies an ulcer.[202]\n\nLysimachus slandered the Jews in Egypt as leprous church-robbers; and\nthat their city was hence called _Hierosola_.[203] When the Gentiles\nwere called into the fellowship of the gospel, it was aspersed with the\nlike scoffs and flouts. It was frequently called a sect, a babbling\nand strange and uncouth doctrine, Acts xxviii. 22; besides a great\nmany lies and forgeries that were invented to make it seem odious;\nand by this means it was \u2018everywhere spoken against,\u2019 Acts xvii.\n18, 20. Machiavel, that propounded the policy of full and violent\ncalumniations to render an adversary odious, knowing that how unjust\nsoever they were, yet some impression of jealousy and suspicion would\nremain, had learned it of this old accuser, who had often and long\nexperienced it to be a prevalent course, to bring the services of\nGod under dislike, _Calumniare fortiter; aliquid adh\u0153rebit_. David,\nspeaking of what befell himself in this kind, Ps. lxix. 9-12, that his\nzeal lay under reproach; his weeping and fasting became a proverb; and\nthat in all these he was \u2018the song of the drunkard,\u2019 he expresseth\nsuch apprehensions of the power of this temptation upon the weak,\nthat he doth earnestly beg that Satan might not make it a snare to\nthem: ver. 6, \u2018Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts,\nbe ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded\nfor my sake.\u2019 And further declares it, as a wonderful preservation\nand escape of this danger, that notwithstanding these reproaches, he\nhad not declined his duty: ver. 13, \u2018But as for me, my prayer is unto\nthee, Lord.\u2019 Paul seems to speak his sense of this piece of policy;\nhis imprisonment administered matter of reproach to his profession.\nThough his cause were good, yet he suffered trouble as \u2018an evil-doer,\u2019\n2 Tim. ii. 9. This he knew the devil would improve to a shame and\ndisgrace unto the service of God, and therefore he chargeth Timothy\nto be aware of that temptation: 2 Tim. i. 8, \u2018Be not thou therefore\nashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.\u2019 And ver.\n16, he takes notice of Onesiphorus, that had escaped that snare, and\nwas not \u2018ashamed of his chain.\u2019 And we have the greater reason to fear\nthe danger of this art, when we find that the tempter made use of it\nto turn away the affections of the Capernaumites from Christ himself:\nMat. xiii. 57, when he had preached in their synagogues to the applause\nand astonishment of all his hearers, the devil, fearing the prevalency\nof his doctrine, finds out this shift to bring them to a dislike of\nhim and his preaching: \u2018Is not this the carpenter\u2019s son? And they were\noffended in him.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, Duties are brought under dislike _by the hazards that\nattend them_. The devil leaves it not untold what men shall meet with\nfrom the world if they \u2018run not with them into excess of vanity\u2019 and\nneglect. If bonds, imprisonments, banishments, hatreds, oppositions,\nspoiling of goods, sufferings of all kinds will divert them, he is\nsure to set all these affrightments before them; which though they\ndo not move some from their steadfastness\u2014such as Daniel, whose\nconstancy in duty was not pierced by the fear of lions; and the three\nchildren, who would not decline the ways of the Lord for the terror of\na fiery furnace\u2014yet these considerations prevail with most; as Christ\nnotes, in those that received seed in stony places, whose joy in the\nword was soon blasted, and they offended at the ways of duty, \u2018when\ntribulation and persecution because of the word arose,\u2019 Mat. xiii. 21.\nChrist pronouncing him blessed that should \u2018not be offended in him,\u2019\nbecause of the dangers of his service, shews that the escape of such a\ntemptation is not a common mercy, Mat. xi. 6. And if we shall observe\nPaul\u2019s practice upon his first undertaking of the ministry, when \u2018it\npleased God to call him to preach his Son Christ among the heathen,\u2019\nGal. i. 16, we shall see, (1.) That he was aware of such objections as\nthese; (2.) That flesh and blood are apt to comply with them, and to\ntake notice of them; (3.) And that the best way to avoid them is to\nstop the ears against them, and not to hearken to them or consult with\nthem; (4.) And that he that must do it to purpose, must, without delay,\nimmediately resolve against such hindrances; it being most difficult\nfor men that will be inclining to such motions, and hearkening to what\nthe devil offers, under pretence of self-preservation, to disengage\nthemselves after they have suffered their souls to take the impression.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The meanness of religious appointments, as to the\noutward view, is also made use of to beget a loathing of them_. In this\nthe devil hath this advantage, that however they are all \u2018glorious\nwithin,\u2019 and \u2018as the curtains of Solomon,\u2019 yet are they, as to their\noutward appearance, like \u2018the tents of Kedar,\u2019 without any of that\npomp and splendour which the sons of men affect and admire. Christ\nhimself, when he had veiled his glory by our flesh, was of no exterior\n\u2018form or beauty.\u2019 The ministration of his word, which is \u2018the sceptre\nof his kingdom,\u2019 seems contemptible, and a very \u2018foolishness to men;\u2019\ninsomuch that Paul was forced to make an apology for it, in that it\nwanted those outward braveries of \u2018excellency of speech and wisdom,\u2019\nby shewing it was \u2018glorious in its power,\u2019 and was indeed a \u2018hidden\nwisdom\u2019\u2014though not like that \u2018wisdom which the princes of wisdom\u2019 and\nphilosophy affected\u2014\u2018among such as were perfect,\u2019 1 Cor. ii. 1,4, 6.\nThe sacraments, both of the Old and New Testament, seemed very low and\ncontemptible things to a common eye; neither need we any other evidence\nto shew that men are apt to disrelish them, and to entertain strange\nthoughts of them upon this very account, than this, that some raise\nup batteries against these ordinances upon this ground, that because\nthey seem low and mean to them, therefore they think it improbable\nthat God should have indeed appointed them to be used in the literal\nsense, or that at best they are to be used as the first rudiments of\nChristianity, and not enjoined upon the more grown Christians. Neither\nmay I altogether pass over that remarkable humour that is in some, to\ngive additional ornaments of outward garb and form for the greater\nhonour and lustre of these injunctions of Christ; so that while they\nendeavour to shew their greatest respects to them, they betray their\ninward thoughts to have carried some suspicion of their reality because\nof their plainness; and by this means, whilst they endeavour to put\nan honour upon Christ\u2019s institutions, they really despise them, and\nshew their respects to their own inventions. But that we may be further\nsatisfied that Satan works by this engine, let us consider that of\n1 Cor. i. 23. The Jews were for signs from heaven to give a credit\nand testimony to that doctrine which they would receive. The Greeks,\nwho were then the only people for learning, were for philosophical\nspeculations and disputes. Now, saith the apostle, the doctrine of\nthe gospel, which is the preaching of Christ crucified, because it\ncame not within the compass of what both these expected, therefore the\ndevil so wrought upon this advantage, that both contemned it; \u2018It was\nto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness.\u2019 Of this\nalso he speaks more fully, 2 Cor. xi. 3, where he shews that the minds\nof the Corinthians were ready to be corrupted with error against the\nplain import of the gospel; and that which they took offence at was its\nsimplicity. They looked upon it as contemptible, because not containing\nsuch gorgeous things as might suit a soaring and wanton fancy. Now\nhe resolves all this into a cheat of Satan, taking the advantage of\nthis, as he did upon Eve from the seeming inconsiderableness of the\nprohibition of eating a little fruit, to persuade them that so mean a\nthing as the gospel could not be of God. \u2018I fear,\u2019 saith he, \u2018lest by\nany means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your\nminds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u2019\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _The sins of professors, through the craft of Satan,\nbeget a loathing of these holy things_. If God loathe his own\nappointments, and \u2018cannot bear them,\u2019 because of the iniquities of\nthose that offer them, no wonder if men be tempted to disgraceful\napprehensions of them, when they observe some that pretend a high\ncare and deep respect for them live profanely. The sins of Eli\u2019s sons\nwrought this sad effect upon the people, that men, for their sakes,\nabhorred the offerings of the Lord, 1 Sam. ii. 17. Those that fell off\nto error, and thence to abominable practices, \u2018caused the way of truth\nto be evil spoken of,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 2. The priests that departed out of\nthe way, \u2018caused many to stumble at the law,\u2019 Mal. ii. 8. Nay, so high\ndoth Satan pursue this sometimes, that it becomes an inlet to direct\natheism.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, Satan also works mightily _in the profane dispositions\nof men, and acts that principle to a disregard and weariness of the\nservices of God_. A flagitious wicked life naturally leads to it. Those\nthat \u2018eat up God\u2019s people as bread,\u2019 Ps. xiv. 4, \u2018called not upon\nGod.\u2019 This eats out at last the very exterior and formal observation\nof religious duties. In this Satan bends his force against them, (1.)\nBy heightening the spirits of men to an insolent defiance of God by\na continued prosperity. He draws out the pride and vanity of their\nspirits to a bold contempt: \u2018Who is the Lord that we should serve him?\nWe are lords; we will come no more at thee; our tongues are our own,\u2019\n&c., Jer. ii. 31. Thus they \u2018set their mouths against heaven.\u2019 Eliphaz\ntells us this, as the usual carriage of those that lived in peace and\njollity: Job xxi. 15, \u2018Therefore say they unto God, Depart from us;\nfor we desire not the knowledge of thy ways: who is the Almighty that\nwe should serve him?\u2019 (2.) By hiding from them the necessities of duty.\nJob speaking of the hypocrite, chap. xxvii. 10, describes him by these\nneglects of duty, \u2018Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he\nalways call upon God?\u2019 Of this he gives the reason, ver. 9, \u2018He will\ncall and cry when trouble comes upon him.\u2019 When distresses make duties\nnecessary, then he will use them; in his \u2018affliction he will seek him\nearly,\u2019 Hosea v. 15; as the Israelites did, Ps. lxxviii. 34, \u2018When he\nslew them, then they sought him, and enquired early after God.\u2019 But\nwhen he is not thus pinched\u2014and Satan will endeavour in this case,\nthat he be as far from the rod of God as he can make him\u2014he gives over\nseeking God and loathes it, nay, accounts it as ridiculous so to do;\nthey \u2018mock at his counsel,\u2019 and contemn his advice of waiting upon him.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Satan picks quarrels in men _at the manner of performance\nof duty_. When duty cannot be spoken against, then he endeavours to\ndestroy it by the modes, circumstances, and way of performance: as\n(1.) If those that act in them discover any weakness\u2014as who doth not,\nwhen he hath done his best?\u2014this he endeavours to blemish the duty\nwithal. The bodily presence of Paul was objected against him, as being\n\u2018contemptible,\u2019 and his \u2018speech as weak,\u2019 [2 Cor. x. 10;] but the\ndesign of that objection lay higher, the devil thereby endeavouring\nto render the duties of his ministry as contemptible, and not to be\nregarded. (2.) If the circumstances please not, he teacheth them to\ntake pet with the substance, and, like children, to reject all, because\neverything is not suitable to their wills. (3.) If it be managed in any\nway not grateful to their expectations, if too cuttingly and plain,\nthen they think they be justified to say they hate it, as Ahab did\nMicaiah; if any way too high or abstrusely, then likewise they fling\noff. On this point the devil persuaded many of Christ\u2019s followers\nto desert him, John vi. 66, because he had spoken of himself in\ncomparisons that they judged too high. When he said he was that \u2018bread\nthat came down from heaven,\u2019 ver. 58, they said \u2018that was a saying not\nto be borne;\u2019 and on that occasion \u2018they went back, and walked no more\nwith him.\u2019\n\n[7.] Seventhly, The devil brings a nauseating of the duties of worship,\nby _a wrong representation of them, in the carriage and gestures of\nthose that engage in them_. It seems strange to some that are but as\nidle spectators to observe the postures of saints, seriously lifting\nup their eyes to heaven, or humbly mourning and smiting on their\nbreasts. These the devil would render ridiculous, and as the suspicious\nmanagements of an histrionical or hypocritical devotion; as men at a\ndistance beholding the strange variety of actions and postures of such\nas dance, being out of the sound of their music, shall think them a\ncompany of madmen and frantic people. Such perverse prospects doth\nhe sometimes afford to those that come rather to observe what others\ndo, than to concern themselves in such duties, that, not seeing their\nprivate influences, nor the secret spring that moves them, they judge\nthem foolish, and from thence they contract an inward loathing of the\nduties themselves.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, In order to the hindering or preventing of duty, Satan\nuseth to impose upon men _by fallacious arguings_: and by a piece of\nhis sophistry he endeavours to cheat them out of their services. I\nshall note some of his remarkable dealings in this kind: as,\n\n[1.] First, _He heightens the dignity of God\u2019s children, upon a design\nto spoil their duty_. He tells them they are \u2018partakers of the divine\nnature,\u2019 [2 Pet. i. 4;] that they are \u2018in God and Christ,\u2019 and have\nthe communications of his Spirit, and therefore they need not now\ndrink of the cistern, seeing they enjoy the fountain; and that these\nservices, in their attainments, are as useless as scaffolds are when\nonce the house is built. To prosecute this he takes advantage, (1.)\nof the natural pride of their hearts. He puffs them up with conceits\nof the excellency of their condition\u2014a thing which all men are apt\nto catch at with greediness upon the least imaginary grounds, 1 Cor.\nviii. 7; Col. ii. 18. If a man have but a little knowledge, or have\nattained to any vain speculations, he is presently apt to be vainly\n\u2018puffed up by his fleshly mind.\u2019 The same hazard attends any conceited\nexcellency which a man apprehends he hath reached unto. Those monsters\nof religion, mentioned by Peter and Jude, that made no other use of\nthe \u2018grace of God\u2019 but to \u2018turn it into wantonness,\u2019 Jude 4; yet were\nthey so tumefied with the apprehensions of their privileges, that\nwhilst they designed no other thing than plain licentiousness and a\nwantonness in the lusts of the flesh, yet it seems they encouraged\nthemselves and allured others from a supposed liberty which their\nprivileges gave them; and to this purpose had frequently in their\nmouths \u2018great swelling words of vanity,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 18, even whilst\nthey \u2018walked after their own lusts,\u2019 Jude 16. (2.) To strengthen their\nproud conceits, the devil improves what the Scriptures speak of the\ndifferences of God\u2019s children\u2014that some are spiritual, some are carnal;\nsome weak, others strong; some perfect, some less perfect; some little\nchildren, some young men, some fathers, 1 Cor. ii. 1; Phil. iii. 15;\n1 John ii. 12, 13. The end of all this is to make them apprehend\nthemselves Christians of a higher rank and order, which also makes way\nconsequently for a further inference, viz., that there must needs be\nimmunities and privileges suitable to these heights and attainments.\nTo this purpose (3.) he produceth those scriptures that are designed\nby God to raise up the minds of men to look after the internal work\nand power of his ordinances, and not to centre their minds and hopes\nin the bare formal use of them, without applying their thoughts to God\nand Christ, unto whom they are appointed to lead us. Such as these\nscriptures: Rom. ii. 28, \u2018He is not a Jew which is one outwardly;\nneither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is\na Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in\nthe spirit, and not in the letter.\u2019 And Rom. vi. 7, we should \u2018serve\nin newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.\u2019 2 Cor. v.\n16, \u2018Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though\nwe have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him\nno more.\u2019 Eph. iv. 13, \u2018He gave some apostles, and some prophets,\u2019\n&c., \u2018for the perfecting of the saints, ... till we all come in the\nunity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a\nperfect man.\u2019 By a perverse interpretation of these, and some other\nscriptures of like import, he would persuade them that the great thing\nthat Christ designed by his ordinances was but to \u2018train up the weaker\nChristians by these rudiments,\u2019 as the A B C to children, to a more\nspiritual and immediate way of living upon God; and that these become\naltogether useless when Christians have gotten up to any of these\nimaginary degrees of a supposed perfection. Enough of this may be seen\nin the writings of Saltmarsh, Winstanly, and others, in the late times.\nHow great a trade Satan drove by such misapprehensions not long since\ncannot easily be forgotten; so that God\u2019s worship did almost lie waste,\nand in many places \u2018the way to Zion did mourn.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, He will sometimes confess an _equality of privilege\namong the children of God, and yet plead an inequality of duty_.\nThat God is as good and strong to us, and that we have all an equal\nadvantage by Christ, he will readily acknowledge; but then, when we\nshould propound the diligence of the saints in their services for our\npattern, as of David\u2019s \u2018praying seven times a-day,\u2019 Daniel\u2019s three\ntimes, Anna\u2019s serving God with fastings and prayers night and day,\n&c.,[204] he tells us these were extraordinary services, and as it were\nworks of supererogation, more than the command of God laid upon them.\nSo that we are not tied to such strictness; and we, being naturally apt\nto indulge ourselves in our own ease, are too ready to comply with such\ndelusions. And by degrees men are thus brought to a confident belief\nthat they may be good enough, and do as much as is required, though\nthey slacken their pace, and do not fast, pray, or hear so often as\nothers have done.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Another sophism of his _is to heighten one duty, to\nthe ruin of another_. He strives to make an intestine war among the\nseveral parts of the services we owe to God; and from the excellency\nof one, to raise up an enmity and undervaluing disregard of another.\nThus would he sever as inconsistent those things that God hath joined\ntogether. As among false teachers, some say, \u2018Lo, here is Christ,\u2019 and\nothers, \u2018Lo, he is there;\u2019 so we find Satan dealing with duties. He\nputs some upon such high respects to preaching, that, say they, Christ\nis to be found here most frequently, rather than in prayer or other\nordinances; others are made to have the like esteem for prayer: and\nthey affirm in this is Christ especially to be met withal; others say\nthe like of sacraments or meditation. In all these Satan labours to\nbeget a dislike and neglect of other services. Thus, in what relates\nto the constitution of churches, he endeavours to set up purity of\nchurches, to the destruction of unity, or unity to the ruin of purity.\nA notable example hereof we have in the _Euchyt\u00e6_, a sect of praying\nheretics, which arose in the time of Valentinian and Valens, who,\nupon the pretence of the commands of Christ and Paul for praying\ncontinually, or without ceasing and fainting, owned no other duty as\nnecessary; vilifying preaching and sacraments as things at best useless\nand unprofitable.[205] The like attempts he makes daily upon men, where\nthough he prevail not so far as to bring some necessary duties of\nservice into open contempt, yet he carries them into too much secret\nneglect and disregard, Luke xviii. 1; 1 Thes. xv. 17.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He improves the grace of the gospel to infer an\n_unnecessariness of duty_; and this he doth not only from the advantage\nof a profane and careless spirit in such as presumptuously expect\nheaven, though they mind not the way that leads to it; for with such\nit is usual, as one observes,[206] for Satan to sever the means from\nthe end in things that are good; to make them believe they shall have\npeace, though they walk in the imaginations of their heart; to make\nthem lean upon the Lord for heaven, in the apparent neglect of holiness\nand duty; as in evil things he severs the end from the means, making\nthem confident they shall escape hell and condemnation, though they\nwalk in the path that leads thither. But besides this, he abuseth the\nunderstandings and affections of men by strange and uncouth inferences;\nas that God hath received a satisfaction, and Christ hath done all, so\nthat nothing is left for us to do. The apostle Paul was so much aware\nof this kind of arguing, that when he was to \u2018magnify the grace of\nGod,\u2019 he always took care to fence against such perverse reasonings,\nseverely rebuking and refelling such objections: as in Rom. iii. 7, 8,\nwhere speaking that our \u2018unrighteousness did commend the righteousness\nof God,\u2019 he falls upon that reply, \u2018Why then am I judged as a sinner?\u2019\nwhich he sharply refells, as an inference of slanderous imputation to\nthe gospel, which hath nothing in it to give the least countenance to\nthat conclusion, \u2018Let us do evil, that good may come;\u2019 and adds, that\ndamnation shall justly overtake such as practise accordingly. The like\nwe have, Rom. vi. 1, \u2018Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?\u2019\nwhich he rejected with the greatest abhorrency, \u2018God forbid!\u2019 From both\nwhich places we may plainly gather, that as unsound as such arguings\nare, yet men, through Satan\u2019s subtlety, are too prone, upon such\npretences, to dispute themselves to a careless neglect of duty. This\nmight be enlarged in many other instances, as that of Maximus Tyrius,\nwho disputed all duties unnecessary upon this ground, \u2018That what God\nwill give, cannot be hindered; and what he will not give, cannot be\nobtained; and therefore it were needless to seek after anything.\u2019\nMuch to the same purpose do many argue, if they be predestinated to\nsalvation, they shall be saved, though they do never so little; if\nthey be not predestinated, they shall not be saved, though they do\nnever so much. In all which inferences the devil proceeds upon a false\nfoundation of severing the means and the end, which the decree of\nGod hath joined together; but the main of the design is to hide the\nnecessity of duty from them.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, By urging a necessity or conveniency for _suspending or\nremitting duties_. In temptations to sin, he doth from a little draw\non the sinner to more; but in omissions of duty he would entice us\nfrom much to little, and from little to nothing. Very busy he is with\nus to break or interrupt our constant course of duty. Duties in order\nand practice, are like so many pearls upon one string; if the thread\nbe broken, it may hazard the scattering of all. If we be once put out\nof our way, we are in danger to rove far before we be set in our rank\nagain. To effect this, (1.) he will be sure to straiten or hinder us\nin our opportunities if he can, and then to plead necessity for a\ndispensation. It is true indeed, necessities, when unavoidable\u2014as the\nissue of providence rather than our negligence\u2014may excuse an omission\nof duty, because in such cases, God accepting the will for the deed,\nwill have mercy and not sacrifice. But necessity is most-what[207] a\npretence or cover to the slothfulness of professors, and the devil\nwill do all he can to gratify them in that humour, and to prepare\nexcuses for them from such hindrances or interruptions as business\nor disturbances can make; yet if these be not in readiness, he will\n(2.) endeavour to take off our earnestness by suggesting to us our\nformer diligence, that we at other times have been careful and active;\nor (3.) by setting before us the greater negligence of those that\nare below us. The meaning of both which insinuations is to this one\npurpose, that we may make bold with some omissions, without any great\nhazard of our religious intentions, or scandal and offence to others.\nNow if he can by any of these ways bring us to any abatement of our\nwonted care and exercise, he will then still press for more, and from\nfervency of spirit to a cold moderation; from thence he will labour\nto bring us down to seldom performances; from thence, to nothing. The\nspiritual sluggard that will be overcome to some neglects, shall be\nfound a companion at last to a waster, Prov. xviii. 9, and will be\nbrought to a total neglect of all. The church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 4,\n5, may sadly give proof of this; they left their first love, and from\nthence declined so far that at last God was provoked to \u2018remove the\ncandlestick out of its place.\u2019\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Satan puts tricks upon men in order to the hindering\nof duty, by putting us from a service _presently needful, with the\nproposal of another, in which, at that time, we are not so concerned_.\nIn several duties of Christianity there is a great deal of skill\nrequired to make a right choice, for present or first performance; and\nto have a right judgment to discover the times and seasons of them,\nis matter of necessary study. Our adversary observing our weaknesses\nin this, when no other art will prevail, endeavours to put us upon\nan inconvenient choice, when he cannot make us neglect all. As (1.)\nby engaging us in a less duty, that we may neglect a greater; he is\nwilling that we, as the Pharisees, should \u2018tithe mint and anise,\u2019 upon\ncondition that we \u2018neglect the greater things of the law.\u2019 This was the\nfault of Martha, Luke x. 41, who busied herself in making entertainment\nfor Christ\u2019s welcome, and in the meantime neglected to hear his\npreaching: which, as he notes, was the only necessary duty of that\ntime; \u2018one thing\u2019 is necessary. She is not blamed for doing that which\nwas simply evil in itself\u2014for the thing she did was a duty\u2014but for\nnot making a right choice of duty; for that rebuke, \u2018Mary hath chosen\nthe better part,\u2019 is only a comparative discommendation; as Austin\ninterprets, _Non tu malam, sed illa meliorem_, The thing thou doest is\nnot evil, if it had not put thee upon a neglect of a greater good. (2.)\nHe sometimes puts men upon what is good and necessary, but such as they\ncannot come at without sin. Thus sacrificing in itself was a necessary\nduty; and such was Saul\u2019s condition, that it concerned him at that time\nto make his peace with God, and to inquire his mind. Yet when the devil\nupon that pretence put him upon offering a sacrifice, he put him upon\nno small transgression, 1 Sam. xiii. 13. The like game Satan sometimes\nplays with private Christians, who are persuaded beyond their station\nand capacity in reference to some ordinances of God. (3.) He sometimes\nputs men upon dangerous undertakings in pursuit of their fancy, of\ngaining an advantage for some service; and so are they turned out of\nthe way of present obedience, in grasping at opportunities of duty out\nof their reach. Saul spared the sheep and oxen of the Amalekites for\nsacrifice, 1 Sam. xv. 15, 22, when obedience had been more acceptable\nthan sacrifice. (4.) There is a further cheat in the choice of duty,\nwhen Satan employs them to provide for duties to come, to the neglect\nof duties presently incumbent upon them; whereas we are more concerned\nin that which at present is necessary, than in that which may be so for\nthe future; which is a mistake, like that of caring for the morrow,\nwhile we use not what God puts in our hand for to-day.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n _Satan\u2019s second grand design against duties is to spoil them. (1.)\n _In the manner of undertaking, and how he effects this. (2.) In the\n act or performance, by distracting outwardly and inwardly. His various\n ways therein, by vitiating the duty itself. How he doth that. (3.)\n _After performance, the manner thereof._\n\n\nThe chief of Satan\u2019s ways for the hindering and preventing of duty have\nbeen noted; what he comes short in this design he next labours to make\nup, by spoiling and depraving them: and this he doth endeavour three\nways:\u2014\n\nI. 1. First, By putting us upon services _in such a manner as shall\nrender them unacceptable and displeasing unto God, and unprofitable to\nus_: as by a careless and rash undertaking of service. We are commanded\nto \u2018take heed\u2019 to ourselves \u2018how we hear\u2019 or pray; and to \u2018watch\u2019\nover our hearts, that they be in a fit posture for meeting with God,\nbecause the heart in service is that which God most looks at, and our\nservices are measured accordingly. If then by a heedless undertaking we\nadventure upon them, not keeping our \u2018foot when we go into the house of\nGod,\u2019 Eccles. v. 1, we offer no other than \u2018the sacrifice of fools,\u2019\nand give occasion to God to complain that we do but \u2018draw near to him\nwith our lips, while our hearts are far from him.\u2019\n\n2. Secondly, The like spoil of duty is made when we adventure upon\nit _in our own strength, and not in the strength of Christ_. Satan\nsees the pride of our heart, and how much our gifts may contribute to\nit, and how prone we are to be confident of a right performance of\nwhat we have so often practised before; and therefore doth he more\nindustriously catch at that advantage to make us forget that our\n\u2018strength is in God,\u2019 and that we cannot come to him acceptably but\nby his own power. Christians are often abused this way. When their\nstrength is to seek, duty is oft perversely set before them, that they\nmay act as Samson did when his locks were cut, who thought to \u2018shake\nhimself, and to go out as at other times,\u2019 and so fell into the hands\nof the Philistines, [Judges xvi 20.]\n\n3. Thirdly, If he can substitute _base ends and principles, as motives\nto duty, instead of these that God hath commanded_, he knows the\nservice will become stinking and loathsome to God. Fasting, prayers,\nalms, preaching, or any other duty may be thus tainted, when they\nare performed upon no better grounds than \u2018to be seen of men,\u2019 or\nout of envy, or to satisfy humour, or when from custom, rather than\nconscience. How frequently did the prophets tax the Jews for this,\nthat they fasted to themselves! and brought forth fruit to themselves!\nHow severely did Christ condemn the Pharisees upon the same account!\ntelling them that in hunting the applause of men, by these devotions,\nthey had got all the reward they were like to have.\n\n4. Fourthly, When we do our services _unseasonably_, not only the\ngrace and beauty of them is spoiled; but often are they rendered\nunprofitable. There are times to be observed, not only for the right\nmanagement of common actions, but also for duties. What is Christian\nreproof, if it be not rightly suited to season and opportunity? The\nsame may be said of other services.\n\n5. Fifthly, Services are spoiled, when men set upon them _without\nresolutions of leaving their sins_. While they come with their \u2018idols\nin their heart,\u2019 and \u2018the stumbling-block of their iniquity before\ntheir face, God will not be inquired of by them,\u2019 Ezek. xiv. 3. He\nrequires of those that present their services to him, that at least\nthey should not affront him with direct purposes of continuing in\ntheir rebellions against him; nay, he expects from his servants that\nlook for a blessing in their duties, that they come with their \u2018hearts\nsprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure\nwater,\u2019 Heb. x. 22. If they come to hear the word, they must \u2018lay aside\nall filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness,\u2019 James i. 21; if they\npray, they must \u2018lift up pure hands,\u2019 1 Tim. ii. 8; if they come to\nthe Lord\u2019s Supper, they must eat that feast \u2018with the unleavened bread\nof sincerity and truth,\u2019 1 Cor. v. 8. And albeit, he may accept the\nprayers of those that are so far convinced of their sins\u2014though they\nbe not yet sanctified\u2014that they are willing to lay down their weapons,\nand are touched with a sense of legal repentance; for thus he heard\nAhab, and regarded the humiliation of Nineveh: yet while men cleave to\nthe love of their iniquity, and are not upon any terms of parting with\ntheir sins, God will not look to their services, but abhor them. For\nthus he declares himself, Isa. i. 11, \u2018To what purpose is the multitude\nof your sacrifices? Bring no more vain oblations. I cannot away with\nthem, it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting,\u2014my soul hateth them,\nthey are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them: when you spread\nforth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when you make\nmany prayers, I will not hear.\u2019 The ground of all this is, that their\nheart was no way severed from the purposes of sinning, \u2018Your hands are\nfull of blood,\u2019 ver. 15. Satan knowing this so well, he is willing\nthat they engage in the services of God, if they will keep up their\nallegiance to him, and come with intentions to continue wicked still;\nfor so, while he cannot prevent the actual performance of duty,\u2014which\nyet notwithstanding he had rather do, because he knows not but God may\nby that means some time or other rescue these slaves of Satan out of\nhis hand, \u2014he makes their services nothing worth, and renders them\nabominable to God.\n\n6. Sixthly, In the manner of undertaking duties are spoiled, when men\nhave not _a submissive ingenuity[208] in them, by giving themselves up\nto the direction and disposal of the Almighty_; but rather confine and\nlimit God to their wills and desires. Sometimes men by attempting of\nservices to God, think thereby to engage God to humour them in their\nwills and ways. With such a mind did Ahab consult the prophets about\nhis expedition to Ramoth-Gilead; not so much seeking God\u2019s mind and\ncounsel for direction, as thinking thereby to engage God to confirm\nand comply with his determination. With the same mind did Johanan and\nthe rest of the people consult the Lord concerning their going down to\nEgypt, Jer. xlii. 5. Though they solemnly protested obedience to what\nGod should say, \u2018whether it were good or evil;\u2019 yet when the return\nfrom God suited not with their desires and resolutions, they denied\nit to be the command of God; and found an evasion to free themselves\nof their engagement, Jer. xliii. 2. Such dealings as these being the\nevident undertakings of a hypocritical heart, must needs render all\ndone upon that score to be presumptuous temptings of God; no way\ndeserving the name of service.\n\nII. Secondly, Not only are services thus spoiled in those wrong grounds\nand ways of attempting, or setting about them, but in _the very act\nor performance of them_. While they are upon the wheel\u2014as a potter\u2019s\nvessel in the prophet\u2014they are often marred; and this Satan doth two\nways. (1.) By disturbing our thoughts, which should be attentive and\nfixed upon the service in hand. (2.) By vitiating the duty itself.\n\n1. First, _By distracting or disturbing our thoughts_. This is a usual\npolicy of Satan. Those fowls which came down upon Abraham\u2019s sacrifice\nare supposed by learned expositors to signify those means and ways by\nwhich the devil doth disorder and trouble our thoughts in religious\nservices, Gen. xv. 12. And Christ himself compares the devil stealing\nour thoughts from duty, to the \u2018fowls of the air,\u2019 that gather up\nthe seed as soon as it is sown, Mat. xiii. 4. There are many reasons\nthat may persuade us that this is one of his masterpieces of policy.\nAs (l.) in that the business of distraction is oft easily done. Our\nthoughts do not naturally delight in spiritual things, because of their\ndepravement; neither can they easily brook to be pent in or confined\nso strictly as the nature of such employments doth require; so that\nthere is a kind of preternatural force upon our thoughts, when they\nare religiously employed; which as it is in itself laborious, like\nthe stopping of a stream, or driving Jordan back, so upon the least\nrelaxing of the spring, that must bend our thoughts heavenward, they\nincline to their natural bend and current; as a stone rolled up a hill,\nhath a _renitentia_, a striving against the hand that forceth it, and\nwhen that force slackens it goes downward. How easily then is it for\nSatan to set our thoughts off our work! If we slacken our care never so\nlittle, they recoil and tend to their old bias; and how easy is it for\nhim to take off our hand, when it is so much in his power to inject\nthoughts and motions into our hearts, or to present objects to our\neyes, or sounds to our ears, which by a natural force raiseth up our\napprehension to act, for in such cases _non possumus non cogitare_; we\ncannot restrain the act of thinking, and not without great heedfulness\ncan we restrain the pursuit of those thinkings and imaginations.\n(2.) Satan can also do it insensibly. Our distractions or rovings of\nthoughts creep and steal upon us silently, we no more know of it when\nthey begin than when we begin to sleep, or when we begin to wander in\na journey, where oft we do not take ourselves to be out of the way,\ntill we come to some remarkable turning. (3.) And when he prevails to\ndivide our thoughts from our duty, he always makes great advantage, for\nthus he hinders at least the comfort and profit of ordinances. While\nwe are busied to look to our hearts, much of the duty goeth by, and we\nare but as those that in public assemblies are employed to see to the\norder and silence of others, who can be scarce at leisure to attend for\ntheir own advantage. Besides, much of the sweetness of ordinances are\nabated by the very trouble of our attendance. When we are put to it,\nas Abraham was, to be still driving away those fowls that come down\nupon our sacrifice, the very toil will eat out and eclipse much of the\ncomfort. Thus also he at least provides matter to object against the\nsincerity of the servants of God; and will assuredly find a time to\nset it home upon them to the purpose, that their hearts were wandering\nin their services. Thus he further gets advantage for a temptation to\nleave off their duty, and will not cease to improve such distractions\nas we have heard to an utter overthrow of their services. Nay, if he\nprevail to give us such distractions as wholly takes away our minds and\nserious attentions from the service, then is the service become nothing\nworth, though the outward circumstances of attendance be never so exact\nand saint-like. Who could appear in a more religious dress than those\nin Ezek. xxxiii. 31, who came and sat, and were pleased with divine\nservices, as to all outward discovery, as God\u2019s people; yet was all\nspoiled with this, that their hearts were after their covetousness?\n\nNow this distraction Satan can work two ways.\n\n(1.) First, _By outward disturbances_. He can present objects to the\neyes on purpose to entice our thoughts after them. The closing of\nthe eyes in prayer is used by some of the servants of God to prevent\nSatan\u2019s temptations this way. And we find, in the story of Mr Rothwel,\nthat the devil took notice of this in him, that he \u2018shut his eyes to\navoid distraction in prayer;\u2019[209] which implies a concession in the\ndevil, that by outward objects he useth to endeavour our distraction\nin services. The like he doth by noises and sounds. Neither can we\ndiscover how much of these disturbances, by coughings, hemmings,\ntramplings, &c., which we hear in greater assemblies, are from Satan,\nby stirring up others to such noises. We are sure the damsel that had\nan unclean spirit, Acts xvi., that grieved and troubled Paul, going\nabout these duties with her clamours, was set on by that spirit within\nher, to distract and call off their thoughts from the services which\nthey were about to undertake. Besides the common ways of giving trouble\nto the servants of God in outward disturbances, he sometimes, though\nrarely, doth it in an extraordinary manner; thus he endeavoured to\nhinder Mr Rothwel from praying for a possessed person, by rage and\nblaspheming. The like hindrance we read he gave Luther and others; and\ntruly so strict an attendance in the exercise of our minds, spiritual\nsenses and graces, is required in matters of worship, and so weak are\nour hearts in making a resistance or beating off these assaults, that a\nvery small matter will discompose us, and a smaller discomposure will\nprejudice and blemish the duty.\n\n(2.) Secondly, He distracts or disturbs us also _by inward workings,\nand injections of motions, and representations of things to our minds_:\nand as this is his most general and usual way, so doth he make use of\ngreater variety of contrivance and art in it. As,\n\n[1.] First, _By the troublesome impetuousness and violence of his\ninjections, they come upon us as thick as hail_. No sooner do we put by\none motion but another is in upon us. He hath his quiver full of these\narrows, and our hearts, under any service, swarm with them; we are\nincessantly infested by them and have no rest. At other times, when we\nare upon worldly business, we may observe a great ease and freedom in\nour thoughts; neither doth he so much press upon us; but in these Satan\nis continually knocking at our door, and calling to us, so that it is a\ngreat hazard that some or other of these injections may stick upon our\nthoughts, and lead us out of the way; or if they do not, yet it is a\ngreat molestation or toil to us.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He can so order his dealings with us, that he provokes\nus sometimes _to follow him out of the camp, and seeks to ensnare us by\nimproving our own spiritual resolution and hatred against him_; even as\ncourage, whetted on and enraged, makes a man venture some beyond the\ndue bounds of prudence or safety. To this end he sometimes casts into\nour thoughts hideous, blasphemous, and atheistical suggestions, which\ndo not only amaze us, but oftentimes engage us to dispute against them,\nwhich at such time is all he seeks for; for whereas in such cases we\nshould send away such thoughts with a short answer, \u2018Get thee behind\nme, Satan,\u2019 we by taking up the buckler and sword against them are\ndrawn off from minding our present duty.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, He doth sometimes seek to allure and draw our thoughts\nto the object _by representing what is pleasant and taking_. (1.) He\nwill adventure to suggest good things impertinently and unseasonably,\nas when he puts us upon praying while we should be hearing; or while\nwe are praying, he puts into our hearts things that we have heard in\npreaching. These things, because good in themselves, we are not so\napt to startle at, but give them a more quick welcome. (2.) He also\ncan allure our thoughts by the strangeness of the things suggested.\nSometimes we shall have hints of things which we knew not before, or\nsome fine and excellent notions, so that we can scarce forbear turning\naside after them to gaze at them; and yet when all is done, except we\nwholly neglect the duty for them, they will so vanish, that we can\nscarce remember them when the duty is over. (3.) Sometimes he suits\nour desires and inclinations with the remembrances of things that are\nat other times much in our love and affection; and with these we are\napt to comply, the pleasure of them making us forget our present duty.\nThoughts of estates, honours, relations, delights, recreations, or\nwhatever else we are set upon at other times, will more easily prevail\nfor audience now.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He hath a way to betray and circumvent us _by\nheightening our own jealousies and fears against him_; and here he\noutshoots us in our own bow, and by a kind of overdoing makes us undo\nour desired work. For where he observes us fearful and watchful against\nwandering, he doth alarm us the more: so that (1.) instead of looking\nto the present part of duty, we reflect upon what is past, and make\ninquiries whether we performed that aright, or whether we did not\nwander from the beginning. Thus our suspicions that we have miscarried\nbring us into a miscarriage: by this are we deceived, and put off from\nminding what we are doing at present. Or (2.) an eager desire to fix\nour thoughts on our present service doth amaze and astonish us into\na stupid inactivity, or into a saying or doing we know not what; as\nordinarily it happens to persons, that out of a great fearfulness to\noffend in the presence of some great personages, become unable to\ndo anything right, or to behave themselves tolerably well; or as an\noversteady and earnest fixing the eye weakens the sight, and renders\nthe object less truly discernible to us.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, Sometimes _the exercise of fancy acting or working\naccording to some mistake which we have entertained as to the manner of\nperformance, doth so hold our thoughts doing, that we embrace a cloud\nor shadow when we should have looked after the substance_. I will give\nan instance of this in reference to prayer, which, I have observed,\nhath been a snare and mistake to some, and that is this: because in\nthat duty the Scripture directs us to go to God, and to set him before\nus, therefore have they thought it necessary to frame an idea of God\nin their thoughts, as of a person present to whom they speak. Hence\ntheir thoughts are busied to conceive such a representation; and when\nthe shadow of imagination vanisheth, their thoughts are again busied to\ninquire whether their hearts are upon God. Thus by playing with fancy,\nthey are really less attentive upon their duty.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Satan can lay _impressions of distraction upon men\nbefore they come to religious services_, which shall then work and\nshew their power to disturb and divide our hearts, which is by a\nstrong prepossession of the heart with anything that we fear, or hope,\nor desire, or doth any way trouble us. These will stick to us, and\nkeep us company in our duties, though we strive to keep them back.\nAnd this was the ground of the apostle\u2019s advice to the unmarried\npersons, to continue in single life,\u2014times of persecution and distress\nnearly approaching,\u2014that they might \u2018attend upon the Lord without\ndistraction,\u2019 1 Cor. vii. 37; implying that the thoughtfulness and more\nthan ordinary carefulness which would seize upon the minds of persons\nunder such straits and hazards, would unavoidably follow them in their\nduties, and so distract them.\n\n2. Secondly, The other way, besides this of distraction, by which Satan\nspoils our duties in the act of performance, is _by vitiating duty\nitself_; and this he commonly doth three ways.\n\n(1.) First, _When he puts men upon greater care for the outward garb\nand dress of a service than for the inward work of it_. He endeavours\nto make some devotionaries deal with their duties, as the pharisees did\nwith their cups, washing and adorning the outside, while the inside is\naltogether neglected. Thus the papists generally are for the outward\npomp and beauty of services, being only careful that all things should\nhave their external bravery, as the tombs of the prophets were painted\nand beautified, which yet were full of rottenness. And the generality\nof Christians are more taken up with this than with the service of the\nheart. Paul was so sensible of this snare in the work of preaching,\nwhere ordinarily men cared for \u2018excellency of speech or wisdom,\u2019 1 Cor.\nii. 2, that he determines another course of preaching; not notions, or\nrhetoric, and enticing words, but the doctrine of Christ crucified in\nsincerity and plainness, 1 Cor. ii. 2. It is not indeed the outward\ncost and fineness of ordinances that God regards. \u2018Incense from Sheba,\nand the sweet cane from a far country,\u2019 Jer. vi. 20, are not to any\npurpose where the heart doth not most design a spiritual service; for\nthese are rather a satisfaction to the humours of men than to please\nGod: an offering to themselves rather than to him. And therefore is\nit, that what Jeremiah confessed they did, (chap. vi. 20,) in buying\nincense and the sweet cane, Isaiah (chap, xliii. 24) seems to deny,\n\u2018Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money\u2019\u2014that is, though thou\ndidst it, yet it was to thyself, rather than to me: I accepted it not,\nand so was it all one as if thou hadst not done it.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Duties and services are more apparently vitiated\nby _human additions_; a thing expressly contrary to the second\ncommandment, and yet is there a strange boldness in men this way, which\nsometimes riseth to such a height, that the plain and clear commands\nof God are violated under the specious pretence of decency, order, and\nhumility; and nothing doth more take them than what they devise and\nfind out. Satan knows how displeasing this is to God, and how great\nan inclination there is in men to be forward in their inventions and\nself-devised worship, that he can easily prevail with the incautious.\nThis was the great miscarriage of the Jewish nation all along the\nOld Testament; and of the pharisees, who, though they declined the\nidolatries of their fathers, yet were so fond upon their traditions,\nthat they made their worship vain, as Christ tells them. And this\nhumour also in Paul\u2019s time was insinuating itself into Christians,\nmanaged by a great deal of deceit [Col. ii. 8] and \u2018show of wisdom,\u2019\nver. 23, which accordingly he doth earnestly forewarn them of. There\nare indeed several degrees of corrupting a service or ordinance by\nhuman additions, according to which it is more or less defiled: yet the\nleast presumption this way is an offence and provocation.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Duties are vitiated _in their excess_. Natural worship,\nwhich consists in fear, love, faith, humility, &c., can never be too\nmuch, but instituted worship may. Men may preach too much, and pray\ntoo long\u2014a fault noticed by Christ in the pharisees; they made \u2018long\nprayers\u2019\u2014Even in duties, a man may be righteous overmuch. Timothy was\nso in his great pains and over-abstemious life, to the wasting of his\nstrength\u2014which the apostle takes notice of, and adviseth against it,\n\u2018Drink no longer water,\u2019 &c., [1 Tim. v. 23.] The Corinthians were so,\nwhen out of a high detestation of the miscarriage of the incestuous\nperson, they were backward to forgive him, and to receive him into the\nchurch again. Peter is another instance to us of excess, John xiii. 8.\nFirst, in a modest humility, he refuseth to let Christ \u2018wash his feet;\u2019\nbut after understanding the meaning of it, then he runs to the other\nextreme, and offers not \u2018only his feet, but his hands and his head.\u2019\nWhen the servants of God are conscious of defects in their services,\nas if they would make amends for these by the length and continuance\nof their services, they are easily drawn into an excess every way\ndisadvantageous to themselves and the service.\n\nIII. Thirdly, When Satan\u2019s designs do not take to spoil the duties,\neither by the manner of the attempt or in the act, he then seeks\nto play an after-game, and endeavours to spoil them _by some\nafter-miscarriage of ours in reference to these services_. As,\n\n(1.) First, _When he makes us proud of them_. We can scarce perform any\nservice with a tolerable suitableness, but Satan is at hand to instil\nthoughts of applause, vainglory, and boasting: and we readily begin to\nthink highly of ourselves and performances; as if we were better than\nothers, whom we are apt to censure as low and weak in comparison of\nourselves. Though this be an apparent deceit, yet it is a wonder how\nmuch the minds, even of the best, are apt to be tainted with it; even\nwhere there are considerable endeavours for humility and self-denial,\nthese thoughts are apt to get too much entertainment. Now though we\nrun well, and attain some comfortable strength and watchfulness in\nthe services of God; yet if they be afterward fly-blown with pride,\nor if we think to embalm them with praises, or reserve them as matter\nof ostentation; though they be angels\u2019 food, yet, like the manna of\nthe Israelites when kept too long, they will putrify and breed worms,\nand so be good for nothing, after that we have been at the pains of\ngathering it.\n\n(2.) Secondly, When well-performed services are perverted _to\nsecurity_, then are they also spoiled. We are ready to say of them,\nas the rich man of his abundance, \u2018Soul, take thine ease: thou hast\nmuch laid up for many years,\u2019 [Luke xii. 19.] Satan is willing, for\na further advantage, that we think ourselves secure from him; and as\nafter a full meal we are apt to grow drowsy, so after services we are\napt to think ourselves out of harm\u2019s way. The church after a high feast\nwith Christ, presently falls asleep, and highly miscarries in security\nand neglect, Cant. v. 2. By this means do the best of saints sometimes\nlose the things they have wrought, and throw down what they formerly\nbuilt up.\n\n\nNOTE.\n\n Agreeably to Note at the beginning, there will be found below the more\n specific title page of Part II.\u2014G.\n\n_D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA_:\n\nOR, A\n\nTREATISE\n\nOF\n\nSatans Temptations:\n\nThe Second Part.\n\nCONTAINING\n\nThe manifold Subtilties and Stratagems of Satan, for the corrupting of\nthe minds of Men with Error; and for the destruction of the Peace and\nComfort of the Children of God.\n\nBy _R. G._\n\n_London_, Printed by _J. D._ for _Richard Randel_, and _Peter\nMaplisden_, Booksellers in _New-Castle_ upon _Tine_, 1677.\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n _That it is Satan\u2019s grand design to corrupt the minds of men with\n error\u2014The evidences that it is so\u2014And the reasons of his endeavours\n that way._\n\n\nNext to Satan\u2019s deceits in tempting to sin and against duty, his\ndesign of _corrupting the minds of men by error_ calls for our search;\nand indeed this is one of his principal endeavours, which takes up a\nconsiderable part of his time and diligence. He is not only called in\nScripture an \u2018unclean spirit,\u2019 but also a \u2018lying spirit,\u2019 [1 Kings\nxxii. 22,] and there are none of these cursed qualifications that\nlie idle in him. As by his uncleanness we may easily conjecture his\nattempts upon the will and affections to defile them by lust; so by\nhis lying we may conclude that he will certainly strive to blind the\nunderstanding by error. But a clear discovery of this we may have from\nthese considerations:\u2014\n\nI. 1. First, _From God\u2019s interest in truth, in reference to his great\ndesigns of holiness and mercy in the world_. Truth is a ray and beam\nof him who is the Father of lights.[210] All revealed truths are but\ncopies and transcripts of that essential, archetypal truth. Truth is\nthe rod of his strength, Ps. cx. 2, the sceptre of his kingdom, by\nwhich he doth subdue the hearts of men to his obedience and service in\nconversion. Truth is that rock upon which he hath built his church,\nthe foundations are the prophets and apostles, Eph. ii. 20\u2014that is,\nthe doctrine of the prophets and apostles, in the Scriptures of the\nOld and New Testament. Truth is that great _depositum_ committed to\nthe care of his church, which is therefore called the pillar of truth,\n1 Tim. iii. 15; because as princes or rulers put their proclamations\non pillars for the better information of their subjects, so doth his\nchurch hold out truth to the world. Holiness is maintained by truth,\nour ways are directed by it, and by it are we forewarned of Satan\u2019s\ndevices, John xvii. 17. Now the prince of darkness carrying himself in\nas full an opposition to the God of truth as he can in all his ways,\nGod\u2019s interest in truth will sufficiently discover the devil\u2019s design\nto promote error; for such is his hatred of God, that, though he cannot\ndestroy truth, no more than he can tear the sun out of the firmament,\nyet he will endeavour by corrupting the copy to disgrace the original.\nThough he cannot break Christ\u2019s sceptre, yet by raising error he would\nhinder the increase of his subjects; though he cannot remove the rock\nupon which the church is built, he will endeavour to shake it, or\nto interrupt the building, and to tear down God\u2019s proclamation from\nthe pillar on which he hath set it to be read of all; and if we can\nconceive what a hatred the thief hath to the light, as it contradicts\nand hinders his designs, we may imagine there is nothing against which\nthe devil will use greater contrivances than against the light of\ntruth. He neither can nor will make a league with any, but upon the\nterms that Nahash propounded to the men of Jabesh-Gilead\u2014that is, that\nhe may \u2018put out their right eye,\u2019 and so \u2018lay it for a reproach upon\nthe Israel of God,\u2019 1 Sam. xi. 3. It is the work of the Holy Spirit \u2018to\nlead us into truth,\u2019 and by the rule of contraries it is the devil\u2019s\nwork to lead into error.\n\n2. Secondly, Though the Scripture doth charge the sin and danger of\ndelusion and error upon those men that promote it to the deception of\nthemselves and others, yet doth it chiefly blame Satan for _the great\ncontriver of it, and expressly affirms him to be the grand deceiver_.\nInstruments and engineers he must make use of to do him service in that\nwork, but still it is the devil that is a lying spirit in their mouths;\nit is he that teacheth and prompts them, and therefore may they be\ncalled, as Elymas was by Paul, the children of the devil, Acts xiii.\n10, or, as Cerinthus of old, the first-born of Satan, \u03c0\u03c1\u03c9\u03c4\u03cc\u03c4\u03bf\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\n\u03a3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u1fb6.\n\nThe church of Corinth, among other distempers, laboured under\ndangerous errors, against which when the apostle doth industriously\nset himself, he doth chiefly take notice, (1.) Of the false teachers,\nwho had cunningly wrought them up to an aptitude of declining from\nthe \u2018simplicity of the gospel.\u2019 These he calls false apostles, as\nhaving no commission from God, and Satan\u2019s ministers, 2 Cor. xi. 13,\n15; thereby informing us who it is that sends them out and employs\nthem upon this errand. (2.) He especially accuseth Satan as the great\ncontriver of all this evil. If any shut their eyes against the light,\nhe gives this for the principal cause, that \u2018the god of the world\nblinded their minds,\u2019 2 Cor. iv. 4. If any stumbled at the simplicity\nof the gospel, he presently blames the \u2018subtlety of the old serpent\u2019\nfor it, 2 Cor. xi. 3. When false doctrine was directly taught, and\nvarnished over with the glorious pretexts of truth, still he chargeth\nSatan with it, ver. 14, \u2018No marvel, for Satan himself is transformed\ninto an angel of light;\u2019 where he doth not only give a reason of the\ncorrupting or the adulterating the word of God by false apostles, as\nvintners do their wines by mixtures; a metaphor which he makes use\nof, chap. ii. 17, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1; that they learned it of Satan, \u2018who\nabode not in the truth, but was a liar from the beginning;\u2019 but also,\nhe further points at Satan, to furnish us with a true account of the\nground of that cunning craft which these deceitful workers used,\nwhile they metamorphosed themselves, by an imitation of the way and\nmanner, zeal and diligence of the apostles of Christ, they were taught\nby one who had exactly learned the art of imitation, and who could,\nto all appearance, act to the life the part of an angel of light. And\nto take away all objection or wonder, that so many with such seeming\nearnestness and zeal should give up themselves to deceive by false\ndoctrine, he tells us that this hath been the devil\u2019s work from the\nfirst beguiling of Eve, ver. 3, and that as he then made use of a\nserpent for his instrument, so ever since in all ages he hath made so\noften and so much use of men as his emissaries, that it should now\nneither seem a marvel, nor a great matter to see the devil at this work\nby his agents, \u03bf\u1f50 \u0398\u03b1\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd, \u03bf\u1f50 \u03bc\u03ad\u03b3\u03b1, ver. 14, 15.\n\n3. Thirdly, That this is Satan\u2019s great design, may be further cleared\nfrom _the constant course of his endeavours_. The parable of the tares,\nMat. xiii. 25, shews that Satan is as busy in sowing tares, as the\nmaster of the field is in sowing wheat. That by tares, not errors in\nthe abstract, but men are to be understood, is evident from the parable\nitself; but that which makes men to be tares is sin and error; so\nthat, in a complex sense, we are taught how diligent the devil, who is\nexpressly signified by the enemy, ver. 39, is in that employment: much\nof his time hath been taken up that way. \u2018There were false prophets,\u2019\nsaith Peter, 2 Epist. ii. 1, \u2018and there shall be false teachers; that\nis, so it was of old, and so it will be to the end. The shortest\nabstract of Satan\u2019s acts in this matter would be long and tedious;\njudge of the rest by a few instances.\n\nIn the apostles\u2019 times how quickly had the devil broached false\ndoctrine. That it was necessary to be circumcised, was early taught,\nActs xv. 1. In Col. ii. 8, the vain deceit of philosophy, traditions,\nand the elements of the world, which were the body of Mosaical\nceremonies, are mentioned as dangerous intrusions; and in ver. 18, the\nworshipping of angels, as it seems, was pleaded for, with no small\nhazard to the church. The denial of the resurrection is expressly\ncharged upon some of the Corinthian church, 1 Cor. xv. 12; and that\n\u2018the resurrection is past already,\u2019 2 Tim. ii. 18, is affirmed to have\nbeen the doctrine of Hymeneus, Philetus, and others. But these are\ncomparatively little to that gross error of denying Christ, Jude 4, or\n\u2018that Jesus is the Christ,\u2019 1 John ii. 22, or \u2018Jesus Christ is come in\nthe flesh,\u2019 1 John iv. 3, which are branded for antichristian errors,\nand were boldly asserted by many false prophets that were then \u2018gone\nout into the world;\u2019 and to such a height came they at last, that they\ntaught the lawfulness of \u2018committing fornication, and to eat things\noffered to idols,\u2019 Rev. ii. 20. All these falsehoods took the boldness\nto appear before all the apostles were laid in their graves: and if we\nwill believe what Austin tells us [_De H\u00e6eres._] from Epiphanius and\nEusebius, there were no less than ten sorts of heretical Antichrists\nin the apostle John\u2019s days, the Simonians, Menandrians, Saturnalians,\n&c. This was an incredible increase of false doctrine in so short a\ntime, and in the times and preachings of the apostles themselves,\nwhose power and authority, one would think, might have made Satan\n\u2018fall before them as lightning.\u2019 What progress, then, in this work\nof delusion might be expected when they were all removed out of the\nworld! They left, indeed, behind them sad predictions of the power\nof delusion in after times: \u2018Of yourselves shall men arise, speaking\nperverse things.\u2019 \u2018After my departing shall grievous wolves enter,\u2018\n&c., Acts xx. 30. \u2018The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter\ntimes some shall depart from the faith,\u2019 1 Tim. iv. 1; and Paul, 2\nThes. ii. 3, prophesies of a general apostasy, upon the revealing of\n\u2018the man of sin,\u2019 and the \u2018mystery of iniquity,\u2019 and that these should\nbe \u2018perilous times,\u2019 2 Tim. iii. 1. To the same purpose, John mentions\nthe coming of the great Antichrist as a thing generally known and\nbelieved, 1 John ii. 18. But before all these, Christ also had fully\nforewarned his servants of false Christs, the power and danger of their\ndelusion, and of the sad revolt from the faith which should be before\nhis second coming, Mat. xxiv. 24. And as we have heard, so have we\nseen; all ages since the apostles can witness that Satan hath answered\nthe prophecies that were concerning him. What a strange increase of\nerrors hath been in the world since that time! Iren\u00e6us and Tertullian\nmade catalogues long since; after them Epiphanius and Eusebius reckoned\nabout eighty heresies; Austin, after them, brings the number to\neighty-eight. Now though there be just exceptions against the largeness\nof their catalogues, and that it is believed by many that there are\nseveral branded in their rolls for heretics that merely suffer upon the\naccount of their name and nation, for Barbarism, Scythism, Hellenism\nare mustered in the front; and others also stand there for very small\nmatters, as the _quarto-decimani_, &c., and that some ought altogether\nto be crossed out of their books; yet still it will appear that the\nnumber of errors is great, and that all those hard names have this\ngeneral signification, that the devil hath made a great stir in the\nworld by error and opinion. Aftertimes might also be summoned in to\nspeak their evidence, and our own knowledge and experience might,\nwithout any other help, sufficiently instruct us, if it were needful,\nof the truth of this, that error is one of Satan\u2019s great designs.\n\nII. Secondly, Let us next look into _the reasons which do so strongly\nengage Satan to these endeavours of raising up errors_. If we set these\nbefore us, it will not only confirm us in our belief that this is one\nof his main employments\u2014for if error yield him so many advantages for\nthe ruin of men and the dishonour of God, there can be no doubt of his\nreadiness to promote it. This also may be of use to put us in mind who\nit is that is at work behind the curtain, when we see such things acted\nupon the stage, and consequently may beget a cautious suspicion in our\nminds against his proceedings. The reasons are such as these:\u2014\n\n1. First, _Error is sinful_, so that if Satan should be hindered in\nhis endeavours for any further mischief than the corrupting of any\nparticular person, yet he will reckon that he hath not altogether lost\nhis labour. Some errors, that overturn fundamentals of faith, are as\ndeadly poison, and called expressly \u2018damnable\u2019 by the apostle, 2 Pet.\nii. 1. These heresies are by Paul, Gal. v. 20, recounted among \u2018the\nworks of the flesh,\u2019 of which he positively affirms, that \u2018they that\ndo such things cannot inherit the kingdom of God.\u2019 Those that are of\na lower nature, that do not so extremely hazard the soul, can only\nbe capable of this apology, that they are less evil; yet as they\nare oppositions to truth, propounded in Scripture for our belief and\ndirection, they cease not to be sins, though they may be greater or\nless evils, according to the importance of those truths which they\ndeny, or the consequences that attend them; and if we go yet a step\nlower, to the consideration of those rash and bold assertions about\nthings not clearly revealed, though they may possibly be true, yet the\npositiveness of avouchments and determinations in such cases, where\nwe want sufficient reason to support what we affirm\u2014as that of the\npseudo-Dionysius for the hierarchy of angels, and some adventurous\nassertions concerning God\u2019s secret decrees, and many other things\nof like nature\u2014are by the apostle, Col. ii. 18, most severely taxed\nfor an unwarrantable and unjust presumption, in setting our foot\nupon God\u2019s right; as if such men would by violence thrust themselves\ninto that which God hath reserved for himself\u2014for so much the word\nintruding\u2014\u1f10\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\u2014imports. The cause of this he tells us is the\narrogancy of corrupt reason, the fleshly mind\u2014suitable to that\nexpression, Mat. xvi. 17, \u2018Flesh and blood hath not revealed it.\u2019 The\nbottom of it is pride, which swells men to this height; and the fruit,\nafter all these swelling attempts, is no other than as the apples of\nSodom, dust and vanity, \u2018intruding into those things which he hath not\nseen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.\u2019 If then Satan do but gain\nthis, that by error, though not diffused further than the breast of\nthe infected party, truth is denied, or that the heart be swelled into\npride and arrogancy, or that he hath hope so to prevail, it is enough\nto encourage his attempts.\n\n2. Secondly, But error is a sin _of an increasing nature, and usually\nstops not at one or two falsehoods, but is apt to spawn into many\nothers_\u2014as some of the most noxious creatures have the most numerous\nbroods; for one error hath this mischievous danger in it, that it\ntaints the mind to an instability in every truth; and the bond of\nsteadfastness being once broken, a man hath no certainty where he\nshall stay: as a wanton horse, once turned loose, may wander far. This\nhazard is made a serious warning against error: 2 Pet. iii. 17, \u2018Beware\nlest ye, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your\nown steadfastness.\u2019 One error admitted, makes the heart unsteady;\nand besides this inconvenience, error doth unavoidably branch itself\nnaturally into many more, as inferences and conclusions resulting from\nit, as circles in water multiply themselves. Grant but one absurdity,\nand many will follow upon it, so that it is a miracle to find a single\nerror.[211] These locusts go forth by bands, as the experience of all\nages doth testify, and besides the immediate consequences of an error,\nwhich receive life and being together with itself, as twins of the same\nbirth, we may observe a tendency in errors, to others that are more\nremote, and by the long stretch of multiplied inferences, those things\nare coupled together that are not very contiguous. If the Lutherans\u2014it\nis[212] Dr Prideaux his observation\u2014admit universal grace, the\nHuberians introduce universal election, the Puccians natural faith, the\nNaturalists explode Christ and Scriptures at last as unnecessary. This\nis then a fair mark for the devil to aim at; if he prevails for one\nerror, it is a hundred to one but he prevails for more.\n\n3. Thirdly, Satan hath yet a further reach in promoting error, he knows\n_it is a plague that usually infects all round about_; and therefore\ndoth he the rather labour in this work, because he hopes thereby to\ncorrupt others, and infected persons are commonly the most busy agents,\neven to the \u2018compassing of sea and land to gain proselytes\u2019 to their\nfalse persuasions. This harvest of Satan\u2019s labour is often noted in\nScripture. \u2018They shall deceive many,\u2019 Mat. xxiv. 24; \u2018Many shall follow\ntheir pernicious ways,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 2. How quickly had this leaven\nspread itself in the church of Galatia, even to Paul\u2019s wonder! Gal. i.\n6, \u2018I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into\nthe grace of Christ unto another gospel.\u2019 Instances of the spreading of\nerror are frequent. Pelagianism rose about the year 415, but presently\nspread itself in Palestine, Africa, Greece, Italy, Sicily, France, and\nBritain. Arianism, like fire in straw, in a little time brought its\nflame over the Christian world, and left her wondering at herself that\nshe was so suddenly become Arian. Socinianism had the like prevalency;\nL\u00e6lius privately had sowed the seeds, and after his death, Faustus\nSocinus, his nephew, did so bestir himself, that within ten years after\nhis confident appearing, whole congregations in Sarmatia submitted\nthemselves to his dictates, as Calovius affirms,[213] and within twenty\nor thirty years more several hundreds of churches in Transylvania were\ninfected, and within a few years more the whole synod was brought\nover to subscribe to Socinianism. We have also instances nearer home.\nAfter the Reformation, in the reign of Edward VI., how soon did popery\nreturn in its full strength when Queen Mary came to the crown! which\noccasioned Peter Martyr, when he saw young students flocking to mass,\nto say, \u2018that the tolling of the bell overturned all his doctrine at\nOxford,\u2019 _H\u00e6c una notula omnem meam doctrinam evertit_. And of late we\nhave had the sad experience of the power of error to infect. No error\nso absurd, ridiculous, or blasphemous, but, once broached, it presently\ngained considerable numbers to entertain it.\n\n4. Fourthly, Error is also eminently serviceable to Satan for the\nbringing in _divisions, schisms, rents, hatreds, heart-burnings,\nanimosities, revilings, contentions, tumults, wars, and whatsoever\nbitter fruits, breach of love, and the malignity of hatred can\npossibly produce_. Enough of this might be seen in the church of\nCorinth. The divisions that were amongst themselves were occasioned\nby it, and a great number of evils the apostle suspected to have been\nalready produced from thence, as debates, envyings, wraths, strifes,\nbackbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults, 2 Cor. xii. 20. He\nhimself escaped not from being evilly entreated by those among them\nthat were turned from the simplicity of the gospel. The quarrelsome\nexceptions that they had raised against him he takes notice of. They\ncharged him with levity, in neglecting his promise to come to them,\n2 Cor. i. 17. They called him carnal, one that walked according to\nthe flesh, chap. x. 2: they taunted him as a contemptible fellow,\nver. 10. They undervalued his ministry, which occasioned, not without\ngreat apology, a commendation of himself; nay, they seemed to call him\na false apostle, and were so bold as to challenge him for a proof of\nChrist speaking in him, 2 Cor. xiii. 3.\n\nIf the devil had so much advantage from error that was but in the\nbud, and that in one church only, what may we imagine hath he done by\nit, when it broke out to an open flame in several churches! What work\ndo we see in families when an error creeps in among them! The father\nriseth up against the son, the son against the father, the mother\nagainst the daughter, the daughter against the mother. What sad divided\ncongregations have we seen! what fierceness, prejudices, slanders,\nevil surmises, censurings, and divisions hath this brought forth! what\nbandying of parties against parties, church against church, hath been\nproduced by this engine! How sadly hath this poor island felt the smart\nof it! The bitter contests that have been betwixt presbyterian and\nindependent, betwixt them and the episcopal, makes them look more like\nfactious combinations, than churches of Christ. The present differences\nbetwixt conformists and nonconformists, if we take them where they\nare lowest, they do daily produce such effects as must needs be very\npleasing and grateful to the devil, both parties mutually objecting\nschism, and charging each other with crime and folly. What invectives\nand railings may be heard in all companies, as if they had been at\nthe greatest distances in point of doctrine! But whosoever loseth, to\nbe sure the devil gains by it. Hatreds, strife, variance, emulations,\nlyings, railings, scorn, and contempt, are all against the known\nduty of brotherly kindness, and are undoubted provocations against\nthe God of love and peace. What can we then think of that can be so\nuseful to Satan as error, when these above-mentioned evils are the\ninseparable products of it? The modestest errors that ever were among\ngood men are still accompanied with something of these bitter fruits.\nThe differences about meats and days, when managed with the greatest\nmoderation, made the strong to despise the weak as silly, wilful,\nfactious humorists; and, on the contrary, the weak judged the strong as\nprofane, careless, and bold despisers of divine institutions; for so\nmuch the apostle implies, Rom. xiv. 3, \u2018Let not him that eateth despise\nhim that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that\neateth.\u2019 But should we trace error through the ruins of churches, and\nview the slaughters and bloodshed that it hath occasioned, or consider\nthe wars and desolations that it hath brought forth, we might heap up\nmatter fit for tears and lamentations, and make you cease to wonder\nthat Satan should so much concern himself to promote it.\n\n5. Fifthly, The greatest and most successful stratagem for the\nhindering a reformation, is that of _raising up an army of errors_.\nReformation of abuses, and corruptions in worship or doctrine, we may\nwell suppose the devil will withstand with his utmost might and policy,\nbecause it endeavours to pull that down which cost him so much labour\nand time to set up, and so crosseth his end. They who are called out by\nGod to \u2018jeopard their lives in the high places of the field,\u2019 Judges\nv. 18, undertake a hard task in endeavouring to check the power of the\nmighty, whose interest it is to maintain those defilements which their\npolicy hath introduced, to fix them in the possession of that grandeur\nand command which so highly gratifies their humours, and self-seeking\naspiring minds. But Satan knowing the strength of that power which\nhath raised them up to oppose, with spiritual resolution, the current\nof prevailing iniquity, usually provides himself with this reserve,\nand comes upon their backs with a party of deluded, erroneous men,\nraised up from among themselves, and by this means he hopes either to\ndiscourage the undertakers for reformation, by the difficulty of their\nwork, which must needs drive on heavily when they that should assist\nprove hinderers, or at least to straiten and limit the success; for\nby this means, (1.) He divides the party, and so weakens their hands.\n(2.) He strengthens their enemies, who not only gather heart from\nthese divisions, seeing them so fair a prognostic of their ruin, but\nalso improve them, by retorting them as an argument, that they are\nall out of the way of truth. (3.) The erroneous party in the rear of\nthe reformers do more gall them with their arrows, even bitter words\nof cursed reviling, and more hazard them with their swords and spears\nof opposition, than their adversaries in the front against whom they\nwent forth. In the meanwhile, they that stand up for truth are as corn\nbetwixt two millstones\u2014oppressed with a double conflict, beset before\nand behind.\n\nThis hath been Satan\u2019s method in all ages. And indeed policy itself\ncould not contrive anything that would more certainly obstruct\nreformation than this. When the apostles, who in these last days were\nfirst sent forth, were employed to reform the world, to throw down\nthe ceremonies of the Old Testament and heathen worship, Satan had\npresently raised up men of corrupt minds to hinder their progress.\nWhat work these made for Paul at Corinth, and with the Galatians,\nthe epistles to those churches do testify. The business of these men\nwas to draw disciples after them from the simplicity of the gospel,\nnay, to another gospel; and this they could not do but by setting up\nthemselves, boasting of the Spirit, carrying themselves as the apostles\nof Christ, and contemning those that were really so, insinuating\nthereby into the affections of the seduced, as if they zealously\naffected them, and that Paul was but \u2018weak and contemptible,\u2019 nay,\ntheir very \u2018enemy, for telling them the truth,\u2019 [Gal. iv. 16.] What\nunspeakable hindrance must this be to Paul! What grief of heart, what\nfear and jealousy must this produce! He professeth he was afraid lest\nhe had \u2018bestowed upon them labour in vain,\u2019 Gal. iv. 11; and that he\ndid no less than \u2018travail of them in birth the second time,\u2019 ver.\n19. If one Alexander could do Paul so much evil by \u2018withstanding his\nwords,\u2019 that he complains of him, and cautions Timothy against him, 2\nTim. iv. 24; if one Diotrephes, by \u2018prating against John with malicious\nwords,\u2019 prevailed with the church, that they \u2018received him not, nor the\nbrethren,\u2019 3 John 10, what hurt might a multitude of such be able to do!\n\nIn the primitive times of the church, after the apostles\u2019 days, when\nthose worthies were to contest with the heathen world, the serpent\n\u2018cast out of his mouth water, as a flood, after the woman,\u2019\u2014which most\ninterpret to be a deluge of heresies, and some particularly understand\nit of the Arian heresy,\u2014that he might hinder the progress of the\ngospel; which design of his did so take, that many complaints there\nwere of hindering the conversion of the heathens, by the errors that\nwere among Christians. Epiphanius tells us that pagans refused to come\nnear the Christians, and would not so much as hear them speak, being\naffrighted by the wicked practices and ways of the Priscillianists.\nAustin complains to the same purpose, that loose and lascivious\nheretics administered matter of blaspheming to the idolatrous heathens.\n\nIn after-times, when religion grew so corrupt by popery, that God\nextraordinarily raised up Luther, Calvin, and others in the fifteenth\nand sixteenth centuries, to discover those abominations, and to bring\nback his people from Babylon, the devil gave them no small trouble\nby a growth of errors, so that they were forced to fight against the\npapists before and those Philistines behind; insomuch that reformation\nattained not that height and universality which might rationally have\nbeen expected from such blessed undertakings. This was the conjecture\nof many, particularly of our countryman Dr Prideaux,[214] that if these\nfanatic enthusiasts, which with so great a scandal to the gospel then\nbrake forth, had not retarded and hindered those glorious proceedings,\nthat apocalyptical beast of Rome had been not only weakened and\nwounded, but utterly overthrown and slain. In particular cities, where\nany of the faithful servants of Christ endeavoured to detect the\nerrors of popery, these instruments of Satan were ready to join with\nthe common adversary in reproaches and disturbances. How they opposed\nMusculus at Augusta, and with what fierceness they called him viper,\nfalse prophet, wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing, &c., you may see in those\nthat write his life. How these men hindered the gospel at Limburg\nagainst Junius, at Zurich against Zuinglius, at Augsburg against\nUrbanus Regius, you may also see in their lives.[215] In all which, and\nothers of like nature, you will still find, (1.) That there was never\na reformation begun, but there were erroneous persons to hinder and\ndistract the reformers; (2.) That these men expressed as great hatred\nagainst the reformers, and oftentimes more, than against the papists;\nand were as spitefully bitter in lies, slanders, and scorns against\nthem, as the papists themselves.\n\n6. Sixthly, Satan can also make use of error either to _fix men in\ntheir present mistaken ways and careless course, or as a temptation\nto atheism_. Varieties of opinions and doctrines do amuse and amaze\nmen. While one cries, \u2018Lo, here is Christ,\u2019 and another, \u2018Lo, he is\nhere,\u2019 men are so confounded that they do not know what to choose. It\nis one of the greatest difficulties to single out truth from a crowd of\nspecious, confident pretences, especially seeing truth is modest, and\noftentimes out-noised by clamorous, bold error; yea, sometimes out-vied\nby the pretensions of spirit and revelation in an antiscriptural\nfalsehood. At what a loss is an unskilful traveller where so many\nwaves[216] meet! While one party cries up this, another that, mutually\ncharging one another with error, they whose hearts are anything\nloosened from a sense and reverence of religion, are easily tempted to\ndisbelieve all. Thus error leads to atheism, and lays the foundation\nfor all those slanderous exceptions against Scripture by which godless\nmen usually justify themselves in their religion. Now though all wicked\nmen are not brought to this, because the consciences of some do so\nstrongly retain the sentiments of a deity, that all Satan\u2019s art cannot\nobliterate those characters; yet the consideration of the multitude\nof errors doth rivet them in the persuasion of the truth and goodness\nof that way of religion wherein they had been educated. Papists are\nhardened by this; and though they have no reason to boast of their\nunity among themselves, as they have been often told, and now of late\nby Dr Stillingfleet,[217] who hath manifested that their divisions\namong themselves are as great, and managed with as great animosity,\nas any amongst us; yet are their ears so beaten with the objection\nof sects and schisms elsewhere, that they are generally confirmed to\nstay where they are. Besides, this is a stumbling-block which the\ndevil throws in the way of poor ignorant people. If they are urged to\na serious strictness in religion, they are affrighted from it by the\nconsideration of sects and parties, and the woeful miscarriages of some\nerroneous persons that at first pretended to strictness, imagining that\nstrictness in religion is an unnecessary, dangerous thing, and that\nthe sober, godly Christians are but a company of giddy, unsettled,\nconceited, precise persons, who will in a little time run themselves\ninto madness and distraction, or into despair. And thus out of fear\nof schism or error, they dare not be religious in good earnest; but\ncontent themselves with \u2018drawing near to God with their mouths, and\nconfessing him with their lips, whilst their hearts are far from him,\nand in their works they deny him,\u2019 [Titus i. 16.]\n\nThere is such a propensity in the hearts of men to be staggered by the\nmultitude and boldness of errors, that the apostle Paul expresseth\na sense of it, and seems tenderly careful to avoid that blow, which\nhe knew Satan would readily give through that consideration, by\nthe apology that he makes for God in his holy, wise, providential\npermission of them, 1 Cor. xi. 19, \u2018There must be heresies among you.\u2019\nHis intent is not barely to put them off with this, that heresies are\nunavoidable, but to satisfy them that there is a necessity of them,\nand that they are useful, as God\u2019s furnace and fan, to purify and to\ncleanse, that \u2018they which are approved may be made manifest.\u2019 The\nlike care he hath in 2 Tim. ii. 19, 20, upon the mention of the error\nof Hymeneus and Philetus, where he obviateth the offence that might\narise by reason of their apostasy, partly by removing the fears of the\nupright, in affirming their safety whatever became of other men, seeing\n\u2018the foundation of God standeth sure,\u2019 and partly by declaring it no\nmore suitable or dishonourable for God to permit the rise of errors\nin his church, than for great men to have in their houses not only\n\u2018vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; some to\nhonour, and some to dishonour.\u2019 By these very apologies it appears that\nSatan by this device of error designs to shake men\u2019s faith and to drive\nthem from their religion.\n\n7. Seventhly, Neither can this, _that corrupt doctrines bring forth\ncorrupt practices_, be of any less weight with Satan, or less engaging\nfor the pursuit of this design, than any of the forementioned reasons.\n\nCorrupt doctrines are embraced as the very truth of God by the deluded;\nand one way or other, directly or consequentially, they lead on\npractice, and that with the highest security and confidence, as if they\nwere very truths indeed.\n\nThe devil then hath this great advantage by error, that if he can\nbut corrupt the minds of men, especially in the more weighty and\nfundamental points of religion, then by a great ease and without any\nmore labour he hath gained them to the practice of whatsoever these\ncorrupted principles will lead unto. No course can be taken that with\ngreater expedition and prevalency can introduce profane debaucheries\nthan this. Thus he conquers parties and multitudes, as a victorious\ngeneral takes cities and whole countries, by surrender; whereas his\nparticular temptations to sin are but inconsiderable, less successful\n_picqueerings_[218] in comparison; and when he hath once corrupted\nthe understandings of men, he hath by that means a command over their\nconsciences, and doth not now urge to evil in the notion of a devil or\ntempter, but as an angel of light, or rather as a usurper of divine\nauthority. He requires, he commands these wicked practices as necessary\nduties, or at least gives a liberty therein, as being harmless\nallowances. This difference was of old observed in Satan\u2019s management\nof persecution and error, that in the former he did compel men to deny\nChrist, but by the latter he did teach them. _In persecutione cogit\nhomines negare Christum, nunc docet._\n\nThat the lives and practices of men are so concerned by corrupt\ndoctrines, may appear to any that are but indifferently acquainted\nwith Scripture or history. We are told by the apostle Paul that faith\nand conscience stand so related to each other that they live and die\ntogether, and that when the one is shipwrecked the other is drowned for\ncompany, 1 Tim. i. 19. In Phil. iii. 2, he seems severely harsh against\nthose of the concision; he calls them dogs, \u2018Beware of dogs; beware of\nevil workers.\u2019 The reason of which expression I apprehend lies not so\nmuch in these resemblances, that dogs spoil the flock by devouring,\nor that they are fawning creatures, or that they are industrious in\nprosecution of their prey,\u2014though in all these particulars false\nteachers may be compared to dogs, for they spare not the flock, they\ncompass sea and land to gain disciples, and they entice them with fair\nspeeches,\u2014but rather he intends the similitude to express the profane\nlife and carriage of these seducers, for dogs are filthy creatures, to\na proverb, \u2018The dog to his vomit.\u2019 And common prostitutes, for their\nuncleanness, were called dogs in the Old Testament. So some expound\nDeut. xxiii. 18, \u2018The hire of a whore, or the price of a dog.\u2019 And we\nhave full and clear descriptions of seducers from their wicked and\nabominable practices: 2 Peter ii. 10, \u2018They that walk after the flesh,\nin the lust of uncleanness, and despise government; presumptuous are\nthey, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities: ver.\n14, \u2018Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; an\nheart exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:\u2019 ver. 18,\n\u2018They allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness.\u2019\nJude 4, \u2018There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of\nold ordained to this condemnation; ungodly men, turning the grace of\nGod into lasciviousness:\u2019 ver. 16, \u2018These are murderers, complainers,\nwalking after their own lusts,\u2019 &c. 2 Tim. iii. 2-5, \u2018Men shall be\nlovers of their own selves; covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,\ndisobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,\ntruce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those\nthat are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more\nthan lovers of God; of this sort are they which creep into houses.\u2019\nAll which do set forth heretical persons as the most scandalous wicked\nwretches that we shall meet with; grossly filthy in themselves,\ncorrupted in all the duties of their relations, natural and civil;\ndefiled in all the ways of their converse with men.\n\nNeither are these wicked practices issuing from gross errors to be\nlooked upon as rare, accidental, or extraordinary effects thereof,\nbut as the natural and common fruits of them; for Christ makes this\nto be the very special property and note whereby false prophets may\nbe discovered, Mat. vii. 16, \u2018Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do\nmen gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles?\u2019 &c. These fruits\nwere not their doctrines, but their lives; for to know false prophets\nby false doctrines is no more than to know false doctrine by false\ndoctrine. If any object that many false teachers appeared in the shape\nof seeming holiness and strictness of life, they may be answered from\nChrist\u2019s own words; for there he tells us, to avoid mistakes, that\ntheir first appearance, and it may be the whole lives of some of the\nfirst seedsmen of any error, is under the form of sanctity: \u2018They come\nto you in sheep\u2019s clothing,\u2019 in an outward appearance of innocency and\nplausible pretences; but then he adds, that their fruits afterward will\ndiscover them. A tree at its first planting is not discovered what it\nis, but give it time to grow to its proper fruitfulness, and then you\nmay know of what kind it is; so that we need not affirm that damnable\ndoctrines produce wicked lives in all that entertain them at the very\nfirst. It is enough for discovery if there be a natural consequential\ntendency in such doctrines to practical impieties, or that at last they\nproduce them, though not in all, yet in many.\n\nAnd that this matter hath been always found to be so, all history doth\nconfirm. Such there were in the apostles\u2019 days, as is evident by their\ncomplaints. Such there were in the church of Pergamos: Rev. ii. 14,\n\u2018Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam; who taught Balak to\ncast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel; to eat things\nsacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.\u2019 There were also the\nNicolaitans, of whom Christ declares his abhorrency, ver. 15. In the\nchurch of Thyatira there was the \u2018woman Jezebel, who taught and seduced\nmany\u2019 of that church to the like abominable doctrines and practices,\nver. 20. Besides these, the apostle John was troubled with the\nabominable Gnostics, [and] the filthy Carpocratians, who taught that\nmen must sin and do the will of all the devils, or else they could not\nevade principalities and powers, who would no otherwise be pleased to\nsuffer them to escape to the superior heavens. Of these men and their\nlicentious doctrine doth he speak, 1 John iii. 6, &c., that they that\nare born of God indeed, must not, dare not, cannot give themselves up\nto a liberty in such abominations.\n\nThe same fruits of corrupt doctrine appeared after the apostles\u2019 days.\nWhat was Montanus, but an impure wretch? What were his two companion\nprophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, but infamous adulteresses? The\nPriscillianists, the Manichees, and abundance more, left the stink of\ntheir profaneness behind them, by reason of whom, according to Peter\u2019s\nprophecy, 2 Peter ii. 2, \u2018The way of truth was evil spoken of.\u2019\n\nLater times have also given in full evidence of this truth. How\nshameful and abominable were the lives of John of Leyden and the\nrest of those German enthusiasts! Who reads the story of Hacket and\nCoppinger without detestation of their wicked practices! What better\nhave the Familists and libertines of New and Old England been! Some\nwere turned off to highest ranting, in all profaneness of swearing,\ndrinking, adultery, and the defying of a godly life; and this, under\nthe unreasonable boast of spirit and perfection.[219] The heavens may\nblush and the earth be astonished at these things! But in the meantime\nSatan hugs himself in his success, and encourageth himself to further\nattempts in propagating error, seeing it brings in so great a harvest\nof sin.\n\n8. Eighthly, In this design of false doctrine Satan is never altogether\nout; if he cannot thus defile their lives, yet it is a thousand to one\nbut _he obstructs their graces by it_. What greater hindrance can there\nbe to conversion than error! The word of truth is the means by which\nGod, through his Spirit, doth beget us; it is part of that image of God\nthat is implanted in us: it is God\u2019s voice to the soul to awaken it. It\ncannot then be imagined that God will give the honour of that work to\nany error; neither can truth take place or have its effect upon a soul\nforestalled with a contrary falsehood. Falsehood in possession will\nkeep truth at the door. Neither is conversion only hindered by such\nerrors as directly contradict converting truths, but also by collateral\nnon-fundamental errors; as they fill the minds of men with prejudice\nagainst those that profess another persuasion, so that for their own\nbeloved error\u2019s sake men will not entertain a warning or conviction\nfrom those that dissent from their opinions: they first account them\nenemies, and then they despise their message. It is no small matter in\nSatan\u2019s way to have such an obstruction at hand in the grand concern\nof conversion. Yet this is further serviceable to him, to hinder\nor weaken the graces of the converted already. If he can set God\u2019s\nchildren a-madding upon error, or make them fond of novelties, he will\nby this means exhaust the vigour and strength of their hearts, so that\nthe substantials of religion will be neglected. For as hurtful plants\nengross all the moisture and fatness of the earth where they stand, and\nimpoverish it into an inability for the nourishment of those that are\nof greater worth, so doth error possess itself of the strength of the\nspirit, and in the meantime neglected graces dwindle into emptiness,\nand \u2018fade as a leaf.\u2019 The most curious questions and opinions that\nare, contribute nothing to the establishment of the heart; it is\nonly grace that doth that: Heb. xiii. 9, \u2018The heart is established\nwith grace,\u2019 and not with disputes about meats; nay, they do grace a\nprejudice, in that they make it sick and languishing\u2014for to that sense\nis the original, in 1 Tim. vi. 4, \u2018Doting about questions,\u2019 or growing\ndiseased, because of the earnest prosecution of opinions, \u039d\u03bf\u03c3\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76\n\u03b6\u03b7\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2.\n\n9. Ninthly, Error hath yet another mischief in it, which makes it not a\nlittle desirable to Satan; and that is _the judgment or punishment that\nit brings_. So that it every way answers the devil\u2019s hatred against\nboth soul and body. The blessings of prosperity and peace do attend the\ntriumphal chariot of truth: Ps. lxxxv. 11, 12, \u2018Truth shall spring out\nof the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.\u2019 And then\nit follows, that \u2018the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land\nshall yield her increase.\u2019 But on the contrary, error doth more provoke\nGod than men are aware. How often did God desolate the Israelites, set\na fire in their cities, and gave them into the hands of their enemies,\nbecause of their changing the truth of God into a lie, and worshipping\nand serving the creature more than the Creator! God left not the church\nof Pergamos and Thyatira without severe threatenings for the error of\nthe Nicolaitans: Rev. ii. 16, \u2018Repent, or else I will come unto thee\nquickly.\u2019 Ver. 22, \u2018I will cast them into great tribulation, except\nthey repent of their deeds, and I will kill her children with death.\u2019\nAnd accordingly God fulfilled his threatening upon them, by bringing\nin the Saracens to desolate them, and to possess their land\u2014as he\nalso brought the Goths upon the empire for the Arian heresy. How is\nSatan pleased to labour in a design that will kindle the wrath of the\nAlmighty!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n _Of the advantages which Satan hath, and useth, for the introduction\n of error; as (1.) From his own power of spiritual fascination.\n That there is such a power, proved from Scripture, and from the\n effects of it. (2.) From our imperfection of knowledge;\n the particulars thereof explained. (3.) From the bias of\n the mind. What things do bias it, and the power of them to sway\n the understanding. (4.) From curiosity. (5.) From\n atheistical debauchery of conscience._\n\n\nThat Satan may the better speed in his design, he carefully takes\nnotice of, and diligently improves all advantages. Indeed all his\nstratagems are advantages taken against us; for so the apostle, in his\ncaution to the Corinthians, calls his devices, \u2018lest Satan should get\nan advantage of us,\u2019 2 Cor. ii. 11. But here I only understand those\nthat are more general, which are the grounds and encouragements to his\nparticular machinations against men, and which also direct him in his\nprocedure. These are,\n\n1. First, Satan\u2019s own power of _spiritual fascination_, by which he\ninfatuates the minds of men, and deludes them, as the external senses\nare deceived by enchantments or witchcraft.\n\nThat Satan is a cunning sophister, and can put fallacies upon the\nunderstanding; that by subtle objections or arguments he can obtrude\na falsehood upon the belief of the unskilful and unwary; that he can\nbetray the judgment by the affections, are things of common practice\nwith him. But that which I am now to speak of is of a higher nature,\nand though it may probably take in much of his common method of\nordinary delusion, yet in this it differs, at least that it is more\nefficacious and prevalent; for as his power over the children of\ndisobedience is so great that he can \u2018lead them captive at his will,\u2019\nexcept when he is countermanded by the Almighty, so hath he, by special\ncommission, a power to lead those to error effectually, without missing\nhis end, that have prepared themselves for that spiritual judgment by a\nspecial provocation; and for aught we know, as he hath an extraordinary\npower which he exerts at such times, so may he have an extraordinary\nmethod which he is not permitted to practise daily, nor upon all.\n\nThat such a power as this the devil hath, is believed by those whose\nlearning and experience have made their judgments of great value with\nserious men; and thus some do describe it: It is a delusion with a kind\nof magical enchantment; so Calvin, Gal. iii. 1: a satanical operation\nwhereby the senses of men are deluded; thus Perkins, who after he had\nasserted that Satan can corrupt the fantasy or imagination, he compares\nthis spiritual witchcraft to such diseases of melancholy, that make men\nbelieve that they are, or do, what they are not or do not, as in the\ndisease called _lycanthropia_; and to the enchantments of Jannes and\nJambres, who deluded the senses of Pharaoh. Others more fully, call it\n\u2018a more vehement operation of the great impostor, whereby he obtrudes\nsome noxious error upon the mind, and persuades with such efficacy that\nit is embraced with confidence, defended strenuously, and propagated\nzealously.\u2019[220]\n\nA particular account of the way and manner by which the devil doth\nthis, is a task beyond sober inquiry. It may suffice us to know that\nsuch power he hath, and this I shall confirm from Scripture, and from\nthe effects of such delusion.\n\n(1.) First, There are several scriptures which assert a power in Satan\nto bewitch the minds of men into error, from which I shall draw such\nnotes as may confirm and in part explain this truth in hand.\n\nAnd I shall begin with that of Gal. iii. 1, \u2018O foolish Galatians, who\nhath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth?\u2019 &c. The word\nwhich the apostle here useth for bewitching, as grammarians and critics\nnote,[221] is borrowed from the practice of witches and sorcerers, who\nuse by secret powers to bind the senses, and to effect mischiefs. It\nis true he speaks of false apostles, but he intends Satan as the chief\nworkman; and this he transfers to signify Satan\u2019s power upon the mind,\nin blinding the understanding for the entertainment of error. Neither\ncan anything be objected why this place should not prove a fascinating\npower in Satan, such as we have been speaking of, but this, that it\nmay be supposed to intend no more than an ordinary powerful persuasion\nby arguments. Yet this may be answered, not only from the authority of\nlearned interpreters, who apprehend the apostle and his expression to\nintend more, but also from some concomitant particulars in the text. He\ncalls them \u2018foolish Galatians,\u2019 as we translate it, but the original\ngoes a little higher, to signify a madness; and withal he seems to\nbe surprised with wonder at the power of Satan upon them, which\nhad not only prevailed against the truth, but against such evident\nmanifestations of it as they had when they were so plainly, fully, and\nefficaciously instructed; for \u2018before their eyes Jesus Christ had been\nevidently set forth;\u2019 which expressions and carriage cannot rationally\nbe thought to befit a common ordinary case.[222]\n\nNext to this, let us a little consider that famous scripture in 2\nThes. ii. 9-11, \u2018Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all\npower ... and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions,\nthat they should believe a lie.\u2019 I shall from this place observe a\nfew things, which if put together will clear the truth we speak of:\nAs, first, In this delusion here mentioned, the apostle doth not only\nset down extraordinary outward means, as signs and lying wonders,\nbut also suits these extraordinary means with a suitable concomitant\ninward power; for by \u2018power\u2019 I do not understand, as some, [Piscator\nand Sclater,] a power of shewing signs and doing wonders, as if the\napostle had said, \u1f10\u03bd \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03ad\u03b9\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, with the power of\nsigns and wonders\u2014for the words will not well bear that without some\nunnatural straining; but I understand by it a power, distinct from the\nsigns and wonders, by which he moves their hearts to believe, by an\ninward working upon their minds, striking in with the outward means\nof lying miracles propounded to their senses. And we may the better\nsatisfy ourselves in this interpretation, if we compare it with Rom.\nxv. 19,[223] where not only the power of doing wonders is expressed by\na phrase, proper and different from this of the text in hand, \u2018through\nmighty signs and wonders,\u2019 or in the power of signs and wonders, but\nit is also clearly distinguished from the power of the Spirit of\nGod, in working upon the hearts, to make those wonders efficacious\nand persuasive; so that, as in the Spirit of God we observe a power\nto do wonders, and a power to work upon the heart by these wonders,\nwe may conclude that this wicked spirit hath also, in order to sin\nand delusion, this twofold power. But secondly, I note further, That\nthis power is called a special energy of peculiar force and efficacy\nin its working\u2014\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u2019 \u1f14\u03bd\u03ad\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03a3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u1fb6. The strange inexpressible\nstrength of it seems to stand in need of many words for explanation.\nHe calls it \u2018all power\u2019\u2014\u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03ac\u03c3\u1fc3 \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u2014which as well notes the degree\nand height, as the variety of its operations, and then the energy,\nthe virtue, operativeness, and strength of power. Thirdly, It is also\nto be observed that Satan\u2019s success and exercise of this power of\ndelusion depends upon the commission of God, and that therefore it is\nextraordinary, and not permitted to him but upon special occasions and\nprovocation, \u2018for this cause God shall send,\u2019 &c. Fourthly, The success\nof this power when exercised is certain. They are not only strong\ndelusions, in regard of the power from whence they come, but also in\nregard of the event; those upon whom they come cannot but believe.\nInfatuation and pertinaciousness are the certain fruits of it.[224]\nFifthly, The proof of all is manifest in the quality of the errors\nentertained, for they are palpable gross lies, and yet believed as the\nvery truths of God, and they are in such weighty points as do evidently\ndetermine the soul to ruin, \u2018lies to be damned,\u2019 which two things are\nsufficient proofs of spiritual fascination; it being unimaginable that\nrational men, and especially such as were instructed to a belief of a\ncontrary truth, should so far degenerate from the light of reason as\nto be deluded by gross and apparent lies, and of such high importance,\nexcept their minds had been blinded in some extraordinary way. Some\nfurther confirmation may be added to this truth from 1 Kings xxii.\n21, \u2018And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and\nsaid, I will persuade him.... I will go forth, and I will be a lying\nspirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt\npersuade him, and prevail also.\u2019 I might here take notice of Satan\u2019s\nreadiness in this work, as wanting neither skill nor will, if he were\nbut always furnished with a commission; as also the powerful efficacy\nof spiritual witchcraft, where it pleaseth the Lord to permit to Satan\nthe exercise of his power, \u2018Thou shalt persuade, and prevail also.\u2019 But\nthat which I would observe here, is something relating to the manner\nof his proceeding in these delusions. He attempted to deceive the\nfalse prophets, and by them to delude Ahab; and both, by being a lying\nspirit in the mouth of the prophets, which necessarily, as Peter Martyr\nobserves, implies, (1.) That Satan had a power so strongly to fix upon\ntheir imaginary[225] faculty the species, images, or characters of what\nwas to be suggested, that he could not only make them apprehend what\nhe presented to their minds, but also make them believe that it was a\ndivine inspiration, and consequently true; for these false prophets\ndid not speak hypocritically what they knew to be false, but what they\nconfidently apprehended to be true, as appears by the whole story.\n(2.) He could irritate and inflame their desires to publish these\ntheir persuasions to the king, after the manner of divine prophecies.\n(3.) He had a further power of persuading Ahab that his prophets spake\ntruth.[226]\n\nThat passage of Rom. i. 28, \u2018God gave them over to a reprobate mind,\u2019\ndoth give some account how men are brought by the devil into these\nfalse persuasions. A reprobate mind is a mind injudicious, a mind that\nhath lost its power of discerning\u2014\u039d\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2. It is plain then that\nhe can so besot and blind the mind that it shall not be startled at\nthings of greatest absurdity or inconveniency.\n\nIf any yet further inquire how he can do these things; we must answer,\nthat his particular ways and methods in this case we know not: only\nit may be added, that, Eph. iv. 17, Paul tells us he can make their\n\u2018minds vain, and darken their understandings.\u2019 By mind, \u039d\u03bf\u1f78\u03c2, the seat\nof principles is commonly understood. By understanding, \u0394\u03b9\u03ac\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1, the\nreasoning or discursive faculty, which is the seat of conclusions: so\nthat his power seems to extend to the obliterating of principles, and\ncan also disable them to make right inferences, insomuch that he wants\nnothing that may be necessary to the begetting of strong persuasions of\nany falsehood which he suggests, according to what is intimated, Gal.\nv. 3, \u2018This persuasion cometh not of him that called you\u2019\u2014that is, not\nof God, but of the devil.\n\nFrom all these scriptures then it appears that this spiritual\nfascination is a power in Satan, which he exerts, by special\ncommission, upon those that receive not the truth in the love of it, by\nwhich he can so strongly imprint falsehoods upon their minds, that they\nbecome unable to discern betwixt truth and a lie, and so by darkening\ntheir understanding, they are effectually persuaded to believe an error.\n\n(2.) Secondly, There is yet another proof of this spiritual witchcraft,\nfrom the consideration _of the effects of it upon the deluded, and the\nuncouth, strange, unnatural way of its proceeding_. Let all particulars\nof this kind be put together, and it will not be found possible to give\nany other rational account of some errors than that of extraordinary\ndelusion.\n\n[1.] First, Let us take notice of the _vileness and odiousness of\nsome errors that have prevailed upon men_. Some have been plainly\nsottish, so evidently foolish that it cannot be imagined that men that\nentertained them had at that time the use of reason, or any competent\nunderstanding. This very consideration the prophet Isaiah insists\nupon largely, chap. xliv. 9-21, where he taxeth them smartly for the\nsenseless doltishness of their error in worshipping idols. He tells\nthem the matter of it is the work of nature, a cedar, oak, or ash, that\nthey themselves possibly had planted, and the rain did nourish it,\nver. 14. He tells them also that the form of it was from the art of\nthe workman, the smith, or carpenter: ver. 12, 13, \u2018The smith with the\ntongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and\nworketh it with the strength of his arms.... The carpenter stretcheth\nout his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes,\nand he marketh it out with a compass.\u2019 He further minds them, that\nwithout any reverence they make use of the residue of the materials out\nof which they formed their idol to common services of dressing their\nmeat and warming themselves. \u2018He burneth part thereof in the fire; with\npart thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied; yea,\nwarmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire,\u2019\nver. 16. Then he accuseth them of sottishness, in that the \u2018residue\nthereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down to it,\nand worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for\nthou art my god,\u2019 ver. 17. And from all this he concludes, that seeing\nthis is so directly contrary to common reason and understanding\u2014which\nin the ordinary exercise of it would easily have freed them from such\na dotage; for if they had but \u2018knowledge or understanding to say, I\nhave burnt part of it in the fire; I have baked bread, and shall I\nmake the residue an abomination?\u2019 ver. 19, they could not have been\nso foolish. It must, then, of necessity be a spiritual infatuation.\n\u2018Their eyes were shut that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they\ncannot understand,\u2019 ver. 18. \u2018A deceived heart hath turned him aside,\u2019\nver. 20. Other errors there are that lead to beastly and unnatural\nvillanies, such as directly cross all the sober principles of mankind,\nthe natural principles of modesty, the most general and undoubted\nprinciples of religion and holiness, as when adulteries, swearing,\nranting, going naked, cruelties, murders, outrageous confusions and\nmadness, are clothed with pretences of spirit, revelation, freedom\nin the use of the creature, exercise of love, and having all things\ncommon, &c.: of which sad instances have been given more than once.\nLet any sober man consider how it could come to pass, that men that\nhave reason enough to defend them against such furies, and the\nknowledge of Scripture, which everywhere\u2014with the greatest happiness\nimaginable and highest earnestness\u2014doth prohibit such practices as\nmost abominable, and doth direct to a sober, just, modest, humble,\ninoffensive life, should entertain notwithstanding, such errors as\ntransform men into beasts, monsters, or rather devils, and religion\ninto the grossest impieties; and all this as the perfection and top of\nreligious attainment commanded in the word of God or by his Spirit, and\nwell-pleasing to most holy and pure divine majesty! Let it, I say, be\nleft to the consideration of men how it should be, without some such\nextraordinary cause as hath been mentioned.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Let it be observed also, that some errors bring with\nthem some _extraordinary, strange, unnatural, unusual actions_, and\nput men into such odd garbs, postures, and behaviours, that it is\neasy to see they are acted by a force or power not human. Some have\nbeen carried to do things beyond whatsoever might have been expected\nfrom the age and capacities of the parties; as ecstasies, trances,\nand quakings of little children; their prophesying and speaking\nScripture threatenings after such fits. Some have been acted in a way\nof ecstatical fury; as Montanus, of whom Eusebius witnesseth,[227]\nthat \u2018sometimes he would be seized upon by a kind of malignant\nspirit, and would suddenly break forth into a rage and madness, and\npresently utter rash and bold speeches, strange, unusual voices, with\nprophesyings; insomuch that he was judged by those that saw him to be\nacted by the devil.\u2019 Others have been as in a more sober spiritual\nrapture; an instance whereof I shall give you from Mr Baxter in these\nwords: \u2018I have heard from an ancient godly man that knew Arthington\nand Coppinger, that they were possessed with the spirit of the\nGrundletonians. The same man affirmed that he went but once among them\nhimself, and after prayer they breathed on him as giving him the Holy\nGhost; and he was so strangely transported for three days that he was\nnot the same man, and his family wondered what was the matter with\nhim: he had no confession of sin, but an elevated strain in prayer,\nas if he had been in strange raptures; and after three days he was\nas before, and came no more at them.\u2019[228] Some have been carried\ninto childish and ridiculous actions: such was the behaviour of Jo.\nGilpin in his delusion at Kendal in Westmoreland; as his going to the\nfiddler\u2019s house, playing upon a bass viol in token of spiritual melody;\nhis creeping up the streets upon hands and knees in token of bearing\nhis cross; his making marks on the ground, and beating it, as his\nmortification of sin; and a great many more things of like nature.[229]\n\nSuch things as these are as spiritual marks and characters engraven\nupon errors, by which a diabolical power, moving and acting such\ndeluded creatures, like so many puppets, is evidently discovered.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, When we see not only idiots, and those whose defect of\nunderstanding might put them under the power of an ordinary cheat, thus\nimposed upon, _but men otherwise intelligent, rational, and serious_,\nblinded with follies, taken with apparent dotages, admiring trifles,\nand carried away with things which common reason would teach them\nto abhor, it is more than suspicious that it is not any probability\nof truth or excellency in the error that prevails with them, but a\nspiritual power that doth bewitch them. When we consider that such a\nlearned man as Tertullian begins to admire such a wretch as Montanus;\nor such a one as Arthington led away with Hacket and Coppinger; or such\na man as Kneperdollin seduced by John of Leyden; and especially such\nnumbers of wise and seemingly sober and religious persons, going down\nthe stream after irrational and plainly irreligious errors,\u2014what else\ncan be apprehended to be the cause but a powerful satanical delusion?\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Add we to these the consideration of _the suddenness of\nthe prevalency of such errors against plain and evident truths_, which\nis a circumstance taken notice of by the apostle: Gal. i. 6, \u2018I marvel\nthat ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of\nChrist unto another gospel.\u2019 In which case we may observe it usually\nfalls out that men\u2019s affections prevent their discoveries; at the first\nview they are taken, before they understand what the error is, and they\nare persuaded before they know.\n\n[5.] Fifthly and lastly, That _the earnestness of the prosecution by\nwhich they maintain and propagate the error is a kind of unnatural\nfury, which hurries men with violence into an unyielding stiffness,\nto the stifling of all kind of charity and consideration_. These\nthings put together, I say, makes the matter in hand evident; when\nmen otherwise rational are at first touch highly enamoured with, and\nviolent in the pursuit of errors that are sottish or devilish, we can\nresolve it into nothing less than into that of the apostle, \u2018Who hath\nbewitched you?\u2019 The improvement of this first and great advantage for\nthe introduction of errors is more than can be well expressed; but he\nhath besides other advantages which he noway neglects: among which,\n\n2. Secondly, _Our imperfection in knowledge_ is none of the least. If\nour knowledge had been perfect, it would have been a task too hard for\nthe devil to make us erroneous; for men do not err but so far as they\nare ignorant. To impose upon men against clear and certain knowledge is\nimpossible. Men cannot believe that to be true which they know to be\nfalse. It would be as silly for Satan to make such attempts as for a\njuggler to endeavour the deception of those that know and see the ways\nof his conveyances as well as himself. That our knowledge is imperfect,\nI shall prove and explain in the following particulars:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _The Scripture plainly asserts it_. The greatest number of\nmen which are in an unregenerate estate are expressly called foolish,\nblind, ignorant\u2014men that are in darkness, men that do not know nor\nconsider, that perish through ignorance. Others that, in comparison to\nthese, are called \u2018children of the light,\u2019 and such as \u2018see with open\nface,\u2019 are notwithstanding, when compared to a state of perfection,\nrepresented to be in the non-age of their knowledge, unripe, imperfect.\nThe apostle doth so express it, 1 Cor. xiii. 9, \u2018We know in part,\nwe prophesy in part.\u2019 In the explanation of this, he compares our\nattainments in this world to the understanding, thoughts, and speakings\nof children, ver. 11: concludes, ver. 12, that all our knowledge gives\nus but a dark, imperfect reflection of things: \u2018we see through a glass\ndarkly.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Men that have had the clearest heads, and have been at\nthe greatest pains in their inquiries to find out truths, have brought\nback the clear conviction of their own ignorance_. Austin confesseth\nthat in the Scriptures\u2014which he made his chief study\u2014the things which\nhe knew not were more than the things he understood.[230] Chytr\u00e6us,\nin humble modesty, goes a little further: \u2018My dearest knowledge,\u2019\nsaith he, \u2018is to know that I know nothing;\u2019 and it will be a clear\ndemonstration of that man\u2019s ignorance that boasts of his knowledge; his\nown mouth will prove against him that \u2018he knows nothing as he ought to\nknow,\u2019 [1 Cor. viii. 2.]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, The consideration of _the nature of the things which are\nthe objects upon which we employ our search_ will sufficiently convince\nus that we do comprehend but very little. For though the Scripture hath\nexpressed the main concerns of eternal life so fully that they are as\nclear as light, and need no such stretch of the brain but that the\nmeanest capacities may as certainly understand them as they understood\nanything of common business; as, that Christ died for sinners; that\nwithout faith it is impossible to please God; that without holiness\nno man shall see his face, &c. Yet, as Peter speaks, 2 Pet. iii. 16,\n\u2018There are many things that are hard to be understood,\u2019 \u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03bd\u03cc\u03b7\u03c4\u03ac \u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b1.\nThere are difficulties, depths, and mysteries. Some things, whereof\nwe have but dark touches in Scripture, though enough to let us know\nthat such things there are, and, to humble us for our ignorance, are\nin their own nature sublime, bounded on all sides with rocks and\nprecipices, where our near and bold approaches are prohibited: such\nare those things that concern the decrees of God, the Trinity, &c.\nOther things are dark and uncertain to us, from their very proximity\nto us\u2014as some are pleased to fancy the reason. Such are the nature,\nfaculties, and workings of our own souls within us\u2014which we cannot\ndirectly see, as the eye sees not itself, and do but, as it were, guess\nby dark reflections. Some things in Scripture are accidentally obscure\nto us that were plain to those that heard them first, to whom they\nwere spoken and written; for now to the understanding of a great many\npassages there is necessary the knowledge of the tongues in which they\nwere dictated, of the histories of those times to which they severally\nrelated; as also of the particular customs of the Jewish nation, which\ngave a mould and form to a great many Scripture assertions; all which\nwere easy and familiar to those that knew the exact propriety of such\nlanguages, were acquainted thoroughly with such histories, customs,\nusages, and manner of speakings; and besides all these, the application\nof general rules to particular cases\u2014where a little circumstance may\nmake a great alteration\u2014is full of puzzle and intricacy; insomuch that\nsome have thought that there are several cases of conscience that are\nnot yet fully determined, and that are like so to remain.[231]\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Neither is _the nature of knowledge itself_ without\nan argument to prove the insufficiency of our knowledge. To know is\nproperly to understand things by their causes, or at least by their\neffects, and to make a right result of particulars from a general\nmaxim. Such a kind of knowledge is necessary in religion, for setting\naside some particulars of mysterious height, about which God hath\nset bounds, lest men in presumptuous boldness should adventure to\n\u2018break through unto the Lord to gaze;\u2019 and some things which are the\nprinciples of nature, or their next results, which are, upon that\nscore, beyond all need of inquiry\u2014in all which it is enough to believe\nthat what the Scripture saith is true, without asking a further\naccount; yet in other things the Scripture gives us the grounds,\nreasons, and proofs of what it declares or asserts, as may appear\nby infinite examples; so that to know Christ died, or that we are\njustified by faith, or that Christ shall come to judgment, without a\nknowledge of the grounds and reasons of these things, is indeed but\ngross ignorance. The like may be said of the knowledge of general\nprecepts, without the knowledge of their necessary application.\n\nBut how few are there that do thus know! The greatest part of men\nsatisfy themselves with the bare affirmations of Scripture, and they\nresolve all into this, that the word of God saith so, or that it is the\nwill of God it should be so, without further inquiry.\n\nAnd as for others, though they may know the reasons of many things,\nyet are there a vast number of particulars whose reasons we know\nnot, though the Scripture may contain them; and as for consequences,\nand the application of general rules, their just limitation, and the\nenumeration of the cases wherein they are true or false, it is that\nthat keeps the wits of men upon the rack perpetually.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _The unsuitableness of our capacities to those objects of\nknowledge_ may be particularly considered as a further confirmation of\nour ignorance. The incapacity of the vulgar is generally observed. Some\nwe find so grossly ignorant, that they are incapable to comprehend the\neasiest matters; and this makes their persuasion to some plain truths\nso very difficult, that when they are, as it were, \u2018brayed in a mortar\u2019\nby a multitude of unreasonable[232] arguments, yet their ignorance\n\u2018departs not from them,\u2019 but they will stubbornly hold the conclusion\nof their own fancy, whatever become of the premises. Those that are\nof a higher form, and seem to understand a great many particulars in\nreligion, are ordinarily unable to conjoin all truths into one entire\nproportionable body: they heap up several notions that they hear here\nand there, but know not their consistencies; insomuch that they either\nare like children, who know all the letters of the alphabet, without\nthe skill to frame words or sentences out of them, being unable to\ngive an account how their notions are related one to another, or to\nthe whole; or if they attempt such a thing, they hang inconsistent\nthings on the same thread, and do but _humano capiti cervicem jungere\nequinam_. If these instances, and a great many more of like kind, were\nnot at hand, yet the very condescensions of our great prophet the\nLord Jesus, and of his disciples in their ways of teaching, do evince\nthat the capacities of men are low\u2014that they are \u2018dull of hearing,\nchildren in understanding.\u2019 The course they took was to instruct them\nin a plain, familiar way, by parables and examples. Thus were they\n\u2018fed as babes in Christ,\u2019 according to the apostle\u2019s similitude, with\n\u2018milk, and not with strong meat, because they were not able to bear\nit,\u2019 1 Cor. iii. 1. And yet Christ sometimes complained that this would\nnot do. For so he speaks, John iii. 12, \u2018If I have told you earthly\nthings,\u2019 that is, divine truth in earthly and common similitudes, \u2018and\nye believe not,\u2019 _i.e._, cannot apprehend them, \u2018how shall ye believe\nif I tell you of heavenly things?\u2019 How unable, then, would you be to\nunderstand these truths if I should speak in language and expression\nproperly suited to their natures? A great check to our slowness of\napprehension.\n\nBut possibly some may expect higher matters from those that are exalted\nabove the common rank of men by the repute they have of learning. And\nindeed it cannot be denied but such have very great advantages for the\nwidening of their capacities; yet are they not such as wholly take\naway the distemper, but still so much incapacity may be seen in them\nas will sufficiently justify the charge of imperfection in knowledge\nagainst the most learned. Let us bring in some instances, and it will\nbe evident:\n\n(1.) _The greatest errors that have most disturbed the church in all\nages have had their rise from learned men._ The names of their authors\nare marked upon their foreheads. These known errors are so many, that\nthey fill whole volumes. The result of which consideration will be\nthis, that learned men have often been very dangerously mistaken.\n\n(2.) _The present contentions and disputes of men_, managed on all\nhands with so much earnestness, wherein one party triumphs over\nanother, and all, in their own apprehensions, are victorious. Instead\nof conquests by arguments and answers, each party is but more confirmed\nin its own apprehensions; and yet the one-half is certainly wrong,\nand perhaps in many things both parties are mistaken. This, I say,\nsufficiently shows the incapacities of the learned; for if every\ncapacity were truly correspondent to truth, there would be no more\ndisputes nor differences.\n\n(3.) _The most learned find the business of their own persuasion and\nsatisfaction in many truths, in which common people have no scruple\nnor doubt, very difficult_; because they see more objections to be\nanswered, and more of the weakness of arguments than others do; but\nthis shews their capacities are not so large as some would think.\n\n(4.) Let us once for all consider _that which seems to be the highest\nevidence for knowledge and understanding in the learned, and we shall\nfind, upon just examination, it is no more than an argument of their\nignorance_. What is there wherein they seem more acute and eagle-eyed\nthan in their distinctions, by which they would give us the most minute\ndifferences of things, and appear so exact as if they would divide\nan atom, and give everything its just weight and measure? But let us\nconsider that, though all distinctions are not unprofitable, their\nmultitude is become oppressive and troublesome, and more time must\nbe spent in learning terms and words of art than things; and their\nnicety and subtlety so great, that they rather darken truth, and give\noccasion to bold spirits to undertake the defence of any paradox. Nay,\nif we could sever these clearly from their abuses, yet, seeing it is\ncertain there are more distinctions of terms than things, they will\nevince that our knowledge is more verbal than real, and that often for\na mountain of words we have but a molehill of substantial matter. Nay,\nseeing we make but a sorry shift at best by these artifices to come\nto some rude conceptions of things, which otherwise we cannot in any\ntolerable manner comprehend, it is as great a proof of our imperfection\nin knowledge, as the necessary use of staves and crutches is an\nevidence of lameness. If I should pass from this to the consideration\nof the multitude beyond all number of books that are written, we\nshall find them but so many proclamations of our ignorance; for if\nwe could believe them all to contain so many wholesome precepts of\nnecessary truth, which yet we cannot rationally imagine, this would\nimply that the greatest part wanted these informations; and that common\nignorance is not only a general distemper, but also a distemper hard\nto be cured, that stands in need of such multitudes of instructors and\nsuch varieties of helps. But if we believe that among this infinite\nnumber of volumes there are thousands of lies, millions of unproved\nconjectures, millions of millions of idle, unprofitable fancies, then\ndo we in express terms pronounce them guilty of ignorance, and of\nignorance so much the more dangerous, by how much the more bold it is\nto avouch itself in the light, and to obtrude itself upon the belief of\nothers, who, instead of being better informed by it, shall but increase\ntheir own blindness. Were there nothing to be said but this, that there\nare such a vast multitude of commentators upon the Bible, which do all\npretend to expound and explain it, it would of necessity admit of these\nconclusions:\u2014[1.] That the Bible hath in it things so dark, or at least\nour capacities are so dull, that there is need of great endeavours to\nexplain the one, or assist the other. [2.] That the knowledge of men\nis imperfect; for if all or most men could certainly interpret the\nScripture, there needed not so many volumes, but that one or two might\nhave signified as much as now whole libraries can do.\n\nThe imperfection of our knowledge being thus laid open, it is easy\nto see what advantages the devil may make out of it for the promoting\nof error; for it must now become our wonder, not that any man errs,\nbut that all do not. We find it easy to impose anything upon children;\nit is an easy matter for a trifle to cheat them out of all they have.\nSurely then Satan may do as much by men, who are but \u2018children in\nunderstanding.\u2019 The apostle, Eph. iv. 14, puts us in mind of this\nhazard under that very similitude, \u2018that we henceforth be no more\nchildren, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of\ndoctrine.\u2019 How fitly doth he resemble us to children! Their weaknesses\nare, [1.] Want of discerning; they see not the true worth of things.\n[2.] Credulity; they believe all fair speeches and specious promises:\nand the hazard of both these is in this, that it makes them unconstant,\nuncertain, and fickle; and such are we made by our ignorance, so little\ndo we truly discern, so apt are we to believe every pretence, for the\nsimple believes every word, Prov. xiv. 15; that, as the apostle\u2019s\nmetaphors do tell us, we are easily tossed from one conceit or opinion\nto another, as a ship is by the waves, or a feather in the wind.\n\u03ba\u03bb\u03c5\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b9\u03b6\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c6\u03b5\u03c1\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9.\n\n3. Thirdly, A third advantage which the devil takes against us in his\ndesign of error, is _the bias of the mind_. Were our understandings\npurely free, in a just and even balance toward all things propounded\nto its deliberation and assent, though it were imperfect in its light,\nthe danger were the less; but now, in regard of the bent and sway it\nis under, it is commonly partial, and inclined to one side more than\nto another, and yet the matter were the less, if only one or two noted\nthings had the power of setting up a false light before the mind; but\nthere are many things that are apt to do us this mischief, which have\nthe same effect upon us that bribes have upon persons interested in\njudgment, which not only tempts them to do wrong, but so blinds their\neyes that they know not they do so, or at least not in so great a\nmeasure. The mind is biassed,\n\n(1.) First, _Naturally to error rather than truths_. The corruption\nof our nature is general, and doth not only dispose the will and\naffections to practical iniquities, but doth also incline the\nunderstanding to error and misapprehension. And that seems to be the\nground of Christ\u2019s assertion against the Jews: John v. 43, \u2018I am come\nin my Father\u2019s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come\nin his own name, him ye will receive.\u2019 Which implies that men are\nnaturally more prone to believe an impostor, than one that speaks\nthe most certain and profitable verities; and besides this general\ninclination to vanities and lies, there are, if some think right, some\nerrors that are formally engraven in the nature of fallen man\u2014as that\nopinion to be saved by works.[233] For not only do all men that have\nany apprehensions of a future eternal state resolve that question of\nobtaining salvation into works as the proper cause,\u2014and indeed no\nother could have been imagined, if the Scripture had not revealed the\nredemption by the blood of Jesus\u2014but the Jews in John vi. 28, when they\npropound that question, \u2018What shall we do, that we might work the works\nof God?\u2019 take it for granted, that works of some kind or other are the\ncauses of happiness. Possibly some impression of that notion, while it\nwas a truth, as in the state of innocency it was, may yet remain upon\nour natures, though by the fall the case is altered with us.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The mind is biassed _by bodily temper and complexional\ninclination_. The varieties of complexions introduce varieties of\nhumours and dispositions; and the understanding being necessitated to\nlook through these, as so many coloured glasses, is apt to judge, that\nis, to misjudge, according to the misrepresentation of objects.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Sometimes _habitual acquirements have the same influence\nupon the understanding that natural humours have_. The arts and\nsciences we study, our ways of education and employment, are but so\nmany prejudicate prepossessions that do secretly taint the mind.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, There are also _accidental inclinations_, which, though\nnot customary, have the force of a second nature, because their\nworking is violent and impetuous, and these, which are from a wounded\nconscience or excesses of melancholy, have a bias more than ordinary;\nthey lay violent hands upon the understanding, and with a mighty\ntorrent run it down. So that if an error be offered that is suitable\nto such fears or misapprehensions, it can scarce miss of success. The\nextraordinary turbulences of some other passions, as anger, love, &c.,\nhave the like effect.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, _Vicious habits_ do so much bias the mind, that the\nunderstanding must needs be defiled by them. Nothing can more prepare\nthe mind to a wicked error than a wicked life. An error of indulgence\nbeing so grateful to corruption may readily find favour with the\nunderstandings of those that know not to do good, because they have\naccustomed themselves to do evil.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, There are _external things_ that have no less power on\nthe understanding than any of the foregoing; and these are custom,\neducation, and interest. These stick so close, and work so subtly, that\nthough there are few that are not, in disputable cases, influenced by\nthem, yet none are able or willing to take notice how and by what steps\nthey do engage them to pass sentence against truth. And indeed that\nman must have a singular measure of suspicious watchfulness and clear\nintegrity that is not deceived by them. And the best way to keep clear\nof the mischief that these may do us, is to be severe in our suspicions\non that side to which custom and interest have their tendencies.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, I might note that there is something considerable to\nthis purpose _in the nature of spirits_. Some spirits are unfixed and\nvolatile, and these are soon altered by their own unsteadiness. Others\nare tenacious and unflexible; and if such be first set wrong, it is\nnot an easy thing that will reduce them to truth. Others are soft and\nductile, persuaded by good words as soon as strong arguments. And\nagain, some are of such a rough, sour, contradictious temper, that\nthey will sooner choose to run wrong than comply with the persuasions\nof those that offer truth, even for that reason, because they are\npersuaded to it; so that the truth which, if none had minded them, they\nof themselves would have embraced, they will now refuse when it is\npressed upon them, out of a cross and thwarting humour, because they\nhate nothing more than to do as they are bidden.\n\nTo come a little nearer, let us consider how these things shew their\npower upon the mind to sway and incline it. It is indeed true, that in\nthings that are clearly and strongly propounded to the understanding,\nit cannot but judge according to the evidence of truth, and cannot be\nguided by the will to judge contrary; nay, the will\u2014though in things\npurely speculative it may retain its averseness, as also in things\npractical, while they are considered only as what may be done before\nthe understanding hath come up to its final resolve, determining that\nsuch things must or ought to be done\u2014cannot but follow the light and\ninformation of the understanding, and that according to the proportion\nof its conviction; so that though in some cases a man would have things\notherwise than he believes them to be, yet he cannot believe what he\nwill, neither can he refuse to will what is certainly represented to be\ngood and necessary. _Tantum quisque vult, quantum intelligit se velle\ndebere._ Notwithstanding all this, the forementioned particulars may so\nbias the mind that it shall not act truly and steadily, as we may see\nin these three particulars:\n\n[1.] First, _In things clearly demonstrated to the understanding_,\nthough the will cannot directly oppose, nor prevail to have them judged\nfalse, yet it can indirectly hinder the procedure of the understanding,\nand divert it from fixing its consideration upon the truth, or from\nworking itself into positive determinations for bringing it into\npractice. _Intellectus sequitur voluntatem quoad exercitium, non quoad\nspecificationem._ Thus many that cannot but believe there is a God,\nand that his law is true, being biassed by their lusts, the power of\npleasures or interest, &c., do prevail upon their understandings to\ntake up other objects of consideration; so that they are said to forget\nGod, and to cast his commandments behind their backs, as also not to\nremember their latter end, though they cannot but believe that they\nshall die. Truth may be imprisoned and fettered, where it cannot be\nslain. We read of \u2018holding the truth in unrighteousness,\u2019 Rom. i. 18,\nwhich was this, that those heathens of whom the apostle speaks, by\nreason of their vicious inclinations and practices, though they could\nnot obliterate those notices of equity and religion that were imprinted\non their minds, yet they kept them at under, as captives in a dungeon,\nand suffered them not to rise up in a just practical improvement. Now\nthe wrong that is done to truth this way is not only by rendering\nit unfruitful and useless at present, but hereby the devil hath his\nadvantage in the gaining of time to gather together more forces against\nthat truth, and by frequent onsets of contrary arguings, especially\nupon the advantage of the mind\u2019s indifferency and remissness, begot by\nlong and often diversions, to set another face upon it, and by degrees\nto overturn former persuasions. This was the very case of the heathens\nin the place last cited, who, being first swayed by their impieties,\nbecame unwilling to give way to those dictates of light and justice\nwhich they had; and having thus gratified their lusts, the devil\nfurther prevailing with them to find evasions from the power of those\ntruths, they began to make unsuitable inferences from these premises,\nwhich they could not deny, and so became sottish and vain in their\nreasonings, \u2018changing the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image\nmade like unto corruptible man.\u2019 And by such practices against truth,\nthey at last changed the truth into a lie, ver. 25, and at long-run\nobliterated the knowledge of God out of their minds. This is Satan\u2019s\nold method of overturning truth at last, by diverting the mind from\nreceiving the present powerful impressions of those principles.\n\n[2.] Secondly, But in things doubtful, where there is not a clear\ncertainty what is truth, but contrary opinions strive with such\nequal confidence, that it is difficult to determine which hath the\nconquest, there the mind may be so swayed by its bias that it _may give\napprobation to error; nay, where, upon a fair and indifferent trial,\ntruth hath the greater appearance of strength, and error nothing else\nthan little shadows or appearances of reason to shelter itself under_;\nyet that way may the mind be inclined by the aforesaid things. We have\na more easy and facile belief for what we would have than for what we\nwould not. Though there is nothing more noted by common experience\nthan this, that men are usually drawn aside by humours, inclinations,\ninterests, and education, &c., to judge well of that which an\nunprejudiced person would easily see to be weak, unjust, ridiculous, or\nunreasonable; yet how these considerations and tempers do exert their\nforce upon the understanding to draw it into a compliance, or by what\nsecret art they can heighten probabilities, and lessen objections; or\nby what insensible progress they move, that men thus carried do not\nperceive that they are under such a force, is not so very discernible.\nHow often may we observe men, that are rational enough to discover the\npitiful shifts and poor allegations of others, with such gravity and\nconfidence, where their own interests are concerned, to offer such low\nreasonings and extravagant impertinences, that all that hear them are\nready to laugh at their folly; and yet they themselves entertain no\nless than persuasions of the invincibleness of their arguings. They\nso eagerly desire what they would establish, that they think anything\nis enough to justify it, and are apt to imagine that their shifts and\nexcuses appear as strong to others as to themselves. I have known some\nthat, by the sway of interest, have changed their opinions in religious\nmatters, and have really become otherwise persuaded than they had been\nformerly, and not as some who, for advantage, will knowingly take up\nwhat they cannot believe to be true, and have not been able to say that\nthey have met with new arguments or new answers to objections, but\nI know not how arguments, which they had contemned, and laid by for\nweak, began to look big upon them. The arguments by which their former\npersuasion was upheld grew insensibly feeble in their hands; the one\nrevived, gathered strength, after they had a little cherished them,\nby thinking there might be something in them, though before they knew\nall the particulars, and could not instance in anything which they had\nnot formerly notified and answered; and the other sort of arguments\ngrew weaker and weaker, till at last they parted with all good conceit\nof them; so that such a change was but as the turning of the tables.\nThat which acted behind the curtain, and wrought this change of the\nfancy, could be no other than some of the forementioned things that\nbiassed their mind; for where the arguments, _pro_ and _con_, were the\nsame, the alteration of opinion, where men are not so wicked as to go\ndirectly against their own light, must of necessity be imputed to the\ndifferent positions of external things, and the different humours and\ninclinations begot by them, even as the different stations of men in\nthe prospect of some pictures represent them variously; one way they\ngive the shape of a beautiful face, another way they express the ugly\ndeformity of a devil; or as different reflections of the sunbeams upon\nthe same object clothe it with several colours. The Scripture doth\nalso give us notice of this advantage which the devil takes from the\ninclinations of men to lead them into mistakes. That of Micah ii. 11,\n\u2018If a man, walking in the spirit of falsehood, do lie, saying, I will\nprophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the\nprophet of this people,\u2019 hath this for its foundation, that, let the\nerror be never so gross and palpable, as if a man should prophesy a\nliberty for drunkenness, if it be suitable to the sway of people\u2019s\nhumours, it will readily enough be embraced, \u2018he shall be a prophet to\nthis people,\u2019 that is, such a prophet will easily prevail with such\na people; their vicious inclinations fit them for any impression of\na suitable error. The apostle Paul also found this too true in the\nheresies of his own times; for he tells us that seducers had learned\nthat cunning from the devil to draw men to error by the sway of their\nlusts: 2 Tim. iii. 6, \u2018They creep into houses, and lead captive silly\nwomen laden with sins, and led away with divers lusts;\u2019 as also 2 Tim.\niv. 6, he prophesies of the future use of this stratagem, \u2018After their\nown lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers.\u2019 So that the usual\nprevalency of error was and is from the underground working of lusts,\nhumours, habits, and inclinations, which make men willing to entertain\nan opinion, which can but gratify them with a suitableness or fitness.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Where the forementioned particulars of inclination,\nnatural or acquired humours, custom, education, &c., do neither divert\nthe understanding, nor engage it to close with error; yet often do\nthey discover how powerfully they can bias the mind, in that these\nprevail with men _to modify and mould a truth according to the bent\nor form of their inclinations_; as a bowl which is skilfully aimed\nat a mark, goes nevertheless by a compass which its bias forceth it\nunto, according to the risings or fallings of the ground it meets with\nin the way. Men may arrive at real truth in the main, and yet may\nshape it according to their humours. For instance, let us consider\nthe different modes or forms in which the same truth is represented\nunder the workings of different tempers. A melancholy person conceives\nof all things under such reflections as fear and sadness do usually\ngive. If he consider God, he looks upon him in the notion of greatest\nseverity and justice; if upon the ways of duty, he colours them all in\nblack, and can scarce account anything piety which is not accompanied\nwith sadness and mourning; if he calls his soul to a reckoning, his\nconclusions concerning himself are sad, doleful, or at best suspicious.\nOn the contrary, a hilarious, cheerful temper censures all sadness for\nsullenness, and is apt to accuse those that go mourning in their way\nfor unthankful murmurers and unbelieving complainers; it interprets\nGod\u2019s favourable condescensions to the weak in the greatest latitude,\nand is easily persuaded to those things that are upon the utmost brink\nof liberty, to which others of a more timorous disposition dare not\napproach for fear of offending. This puts a higher excellency upon\nthe duties of praise, as the other upon fasting and mourning. Those\nmen that are morose and severe, they are apt to think that God \u2018is\nsuch an one as themselves;\u2019 and though they acknowledge there is such\na grace as charity, yet under a pretence of strictness they cannot\nbelieve they are bound to exercise it towards any that are under any\nfailing of which they judge themselves to be free; and therefore such\nmen are usually very difficult in all cases wherein condescension is to\nbe used; they are hard to be reconciled, and after the miscarriage of\nany person, are not easily satisfied of their repentance; and in cases\nof dissent from their way and practice of religion, they are commonly\ncensorious, and conclude the worst. They again that are naturally mild\nand gentle, under a pretence of charity and meekness, are apt to become\nremiss in their carriages towards any brother; and because \u2018charity\nthinks not evil,\u2019 they model their acknowledged duty into the form\nof their own disposition, and so think they must \u2018see, and yet not\nperceive;\u2019 and instead of covering the \u2018infirmities\u2019 of a brother, they\nhave a mantle to cast over every transgression. At the same rate also\ndo they frame their conceptions of God, as if he was so merciful that\nhe would scarce reckon any abomination to be above the height of an\nordinary infirmity. These are apt to think that the mercies of God, so\nmuch praised in Scripture, signify little less than an indulgence in\ntransgression far above what precisians are apt to imagine; and that\nit is as easy to obtain forgiveness from God for any offence, as it\nis to say, \u2018The Lord be merciful to me a sinner.\u2019 Those that accustom\nthemselves to the delights of the senses are apt to bend the way of\ntheir religion to that humour; and think that nothing can be solemn\nin worship that is not set out with garnishings that may please the\neye or ear. Nay, it is observable enough that religion borrows some\ntaint or shape from the various studies and sciences of men; in some,\nas in many of the fathers, we may see religion dipped in Platonism\nor Peripateticism. Some introduce the distinctions and definitions\nof philosophy, others compel all scriptures to submit to the laws of\nstrict logical analysis. Thus, according to the various mediums that\nmen look through, are truths discoloured and dressed up in several\nshapes. It is easy from these instances to imagine that Satan must have\na great advantage against us, in point of error, from the bias of the\nmind.\n\n4. Fourthly, _Adventurous curiosity_ is another general advantage by\nwhich he works. This ariseth partly from a desire of knowledge, and\npartly from pride; and both these make way for his design.\n\nA desire after knowledge is natural, and withal very bewitching.\n_Divinum est scire quam-plurima_, To know hath something in it more\nthan ordinary. This is noted in Job xi. 12, \u2018Vain man would be wise,\nthough man be born like a wild ass\u2019s colt.\u2019 Though he be foolish, yet\nhe affects wisdom, and the very delight of knowing doth engage men to\ncurious prying searches, though with much labour and hazard. Of this\ntemper were the Athenians: Acts xvii. 21, \u2018They spent their time in\nnothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing;\u2019 not barely\nin telling news, but in inquiries after new notions and discoveries,\nand this made them willing to hear Paul, as \u2018a setter forth of strange\ngods, and a new doctrine.\u2019\n\nWhen this desire after knowledge is animated with pride, as oft it is,\nfor \u2018knowledge puffeth up,\u2019 then it is more dangerous. When men are\nupon a design to seem higher than others, to be singular, to see more\nthan what all men see, to be admired, to out-talk their neighbours,\nwhat adventures will they not make! How fair do they lie open to any\nconceit that may serve this end!\n\nThat Satan labours to improve this curiosity is without doubt; he\ncarefully affords fuel to this burning, and diligently blows it up\ninto a flame. The first temptation had that ingredient in it, \u2018Ye\nshall be as gods, knowing good and evil,\u2019 [Gen. iii. 5.] And we see it\nwas a great enticement to Eve: that which would make \u2018one wise\u2019 was\ntherefore desirable. The blame of Israel\u2019s first idolatry seems to be\nlaid at this door: Deut. xxxii. 17, \u2018They sacrificed to gods whom they\nknew not,\u2019 to new gods that came newly up; implying that they were\ndrawn aside from their old established way of worship by a curiosity\nto try the new ways of the heathens. And so great a hand hath this\ngenerally in errors, that Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 3, makes this itch after\nnovelty the great ground of that defection from truth which he foresaw\nwas coming, \u2018They shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching\nears,\u2019 _Pruritus aurium est scabies ecclesiarum_. This itch of the\near is the usual forerunner of a scab in the church, because it doth\ndispose men to receive any kind of teacher. God indeed doth sometimes\ntake the advantage of our natural curiosity for our good. By this means\nmany of John\u2019s hearers, who went out into the wilderness to him, as\nto a \u2018strange sight,\u2019 as those words imply, \u2018What went ye out into\nthe wilderness to see?\u2019 [Mat. xi. 7,] were converted. By this means,\nthe gospel afterwards made a large progress, as we see commonly new\nteachers affect most at first; for when men grow acquainted with their\ngifts, their admiration decays, and the success of their labours is\nnot so great many times. The devil also observing the prevalency of\ncuriosity, and that men are more pleased with new notions than with old\ntruths, he endeavours also to plough with this heifer, and oft makes\na great harvest by it. There is yet another advantage more that he\nsometimes useth, and that is,\n\n5. Fifthly, _Atheistical debauchery_. When men by long custom in\nsinning have arrived to habitual carelessness and presumption, then\nthey become practical atheists. Their vicious habits work upon their\nunderstandings to obliterate all principles. When men are gone so far,\nthey are fit engineers for Satan; for while they disbelieve all things,\nthey can, to serve a design or to head a party, take up any opinion,\nand pretend the greatest seriousness in the propagating it, though in\nthe meantime they secretly laugh at the credulity of the vulgar.\n\nThese men let out themselves and all their parts to the devil, and he\nknows how to make use of them, to bring on the delusion and deception\nof others. Many ages have given examples of such. Those seducers\nmentioned in the New Testament were, some of them, of this rank, and\ntherefore called \u2018deceitful workers,\u2019 [2 Cor. xi. 13.] Such as were not\nreally under those persuasions which they thought to fix upon others,\nbut upon design, transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ;\nsuch as served not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, and\nyet by good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple:\nRom. xvi. 18, \u2018Who, through covetousness, with feigned words, made\nmerchandize of men,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 3. Balaam was such, and the woman\nJezebel, that called herself a prophetess, Rev. ii. 20. Such was the\nArchbishop of Spalato,[234] who for advantage could at pleasure take up\nand lay down his religion. Such a one was the false Jew, not so long\nsince discovered in this place, who being a Romish emissary, pretended\nto be a Jew converted; and seeking a pure church, under that vizor,\ndesigning to overthrow, by private insinuations, the faith of the\nsimple, uncautious admirers![235] By such instruments Satan works where\nhe hath opportunity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s improving these advantages for error: 1. By deluding the\n understanding directly: which he doth\u2014_(1.) By countenancing\n error from Scripture. Of his cunning therein. (2.) By specious\n pretences of mysteries; and what these are. Of personal flatteries._\n (3.) By affected expressions. Reason of their prevalency._\n (4.) By bold assertions. The reasons of that policy._\n (5.) By the excellency of the persons appearing for it, either\n for gifts or holiness. His method of managing that design. (6.)\n _By pretended inspiration. (7.) By pretended miracles. His\n cunning herein. (8.) By peace and prosperity in ways of error.\n (9.) By lies against truth, and the professors of it._\n\n\nWhat are the general advantages which Satan hath to forward his design\nof error we have seen. It now remains that we take an account of the\nvarious ways by which he improves those advantages, and those may be\nreferred to two heads: (1.) They are such stratagems as more directly\nwork upon the understanding to delude and blind it. Or, (2.) They are\nsuch as indirectly by the power of the will and affections do influence\nit.\n\n1. First, Those stratagems that more immediately concern the\nunderstanding are the use of such _arguments, which carry in them a\nprobability to confirm an error_, though indeed they are but fallacies,\nsophisms, or paralogisms, of which the apostle speaks, Col. ii. 4,\n\u2018Lest any beguile you,\u2019\u2014that is, lest they impose upon you by \u2018false\nreasonings.\u2019 His usual way of proceeding in this case is:\n\n(1.) First, When he hath to do with men that are brought up with\nprofession and belief of Scripture, he is then careful _to give an\nerror some countenance or pretence from Scripture_. It is not his\ncourse to decry the Scriptures with such men, but to suppose their\ntruth and authority, as the most plausible way to his design; for by\nthis means he doth not only prevent a great many startling objections\nwhich would otherwise rise up against him\u2014seeing men brought up\nwith Scripture cannot easily be brought to call them false\u2014but with\nconsiderable advantage lie doth thereby authorise and justify his\nerror, for nothing can give more boldness or confidence to a mistake\nthan a belief that it is backed with Scripture.\n\nThat this is one of his grand stratagems may be sufficiently evinced\nfrom the infinite number of errors that pretend to Scripture warrant.\nThose that are above or beyond Scripture, which acknowledge no\ndependence upon it, are but few and rare, and indeed among Christians\nerror cannot well thrive without a pretence of Scripture. Men would\nhave enough to do to persuade themselves to such errors, but it would\nbe impossible to make a party or persuade others. Such errors would\npresently be hissed out of the world. Upon this account is it that\natheism skulks and conceals itself, except where generally tolerated\nprofaneness gives it more than ordinary encouragement, which is not to\nbe ascribed to any shame-faced modesty that atheisms can be supposed\nto nourish, but to the general dislike of others, who so stick to the\nauthority of the Bible that they reject all direct contradictions to\nit with great abhorrency. Hence also it is that some erroneous persons\nare forced to contradictions in their practice against their professed\nprinciples, because they find it impossible to propagate their errors\nwithout some pretence or other to Scripture. They that would undermine\nthose sacred records are forced to make use of their authority for\nproof of what they would say. The papists have a quarrel at them, and\nenvy them the title of perfection and perspicuity, upon design to\nintroduce traditions, and to set up the pope\u2019s judicial authority in\nmatters of faith; and when they have said all they can to subject the\nScriptures to the pope\u2019s determination, they are forced at last to be\nbeholden to the Scriptures to prove the pope\u2019s determination. They\nwould prove the Scriptures by the church, and then the church by the\nScriptures, which is a circle they have been often told of, and of\nwhich some of the wiser sort among themselves are ashamed. Others also\nthat will not allow the Scriptures to be a general standing rule are\nyet forced to make it, in some cases, a rule to themselves, and eagerly\nplead it to be so to others. They that pretend to be above ordinances,\nand decry outward teachings as unnecessary or hurtful, yet they teach\noutwardly, because they see they are not able to enlarge the empire\nof error without such teaching. Those very errors that make it their\nchief business to render the Scriptures no better than an old almanack,\nthey yet seek to Scripture to countenance their blasphemous assertions;\nand if they get any scrap or shred of it that may by their unjust\ntorture be wrested to speak any such thing, or anything toward it, they\nthink all their follies are thereby patronised, 2 Pet. iii. 16; and\ncommonly such men either fix upon such places as give warning of the\nnecessary concomitances of the spirit and heart with the outward act\nof service; and from hence, separating what God hath joined together,\nthey set up spiritual sabbaths, spiritual baptism, spiritual worship,\nto cry down and cashier the external acts of such ordinances, or they\npretend kindred to Scripture, as prophesying or foretelling those new\nadministrations which they are about to set up. Let H. Nicholas be an\ninstance of this, who, though he decried the service of the law under\nGod the Father, and the service of the belief under Christ, and in\nthe room of both these would set up another administration under the\nSpirit; yet, that he might be the better believed, he applied several\nscriptures to his purpose, as prophetically foretelling H. Nicholas and\nhis services, and would have men imagine that he was that \u2018angel flying\nin the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel,\u2019 Rev. xiv. 6; and\nthat prophet inquired after by the Jews: John i. 21, \u2018Art thou that\nprophet?\u2019 and that \u2018man ordained to judge the world,\u2019 Acts xvii. 31;\nand that the times of his dispensation were the times of perfection and\nglory spoken of in 1 Cor. xiii. 9, and Heb. vi. 1. The like pretences\nfor new administrations had Saltmarsh and several others.\n\nSatan, fixing his foot upon this design, and taking advantage of men\u2019s\nignorance, curiosity, and pride, &c., it is impossible to tell what\nhe may do. He hath introduced many heresies already, and none knows\nwhat may be behind. Many passages of Scripture are dark to the wisest\nof men, a great many more are so to the common sort of Christians. A\ngreat many wits are employed by him as adventurers for new discoveries,\nand a small pretence is ground enough for a bold undertaker to\nerect a new notion upon; and a new notion in religion is like a new\nfashion in apparel, which bewitcheth the unsteady with an itch to be\nin it before they well understand what it is; so that it is alike\nimpossible to stint the just number of errors, as to adjust the various\npretences from Scripture upon which they may be countenanced. Leaving,\ntherefore, this task to those that can undertake it, I shall only\nnote a particular or two of Satan\u2019s cunning in affixing an error upon\nScripture.\n\n[1.] First, In any grand design of error, he endeavours _to lay the\nfoundation of it as near to truth as he can_; but yet so that, in the\ntendency of it, it may go as far from it as may be, as some rivers,\nwhose first fountains are contiguous, have notwithstanding a direct\ncontrary course in their streams. For instance, in those errors that\ntend to overthrow the doctrine of the gospel concerning Christ and\nordinances\u2014and these are things which the devil hath a great spite\nat\u2014he begins his work with plausible pretences of love and admiration\nof Christ and grace; he proceeds from thence to the pretence of purer\nenjoyments; from thence to a dislike of such preachers and preaching as\nthreaten sin and speak out the wrath of God against iniquity, and these\nare presently called legal preachers, and the doctrine of duty a legal\ncovenant. Having them once at this point, they easily come to immediate\nassistances and special gifts, which they pretend to have above\nothers. Being thus set up, they are for free grace and the enjoyment\nof God in spirit. From thence they come to Christian liberty, and by\ndegrees duties are unnecessary. There is no Christ but within them;\nand being freed from the law, whatever they do is no transgression.\nThis is a path that Satan hath trodden of old, though now and then he\nmay vary in some circumstances, and be forced to stop before he come\nto the utmost of his journey. You may observe this method in the late\nerrors of New England,[236] in the Familists of Germany, and in those\nof Old England; in all which at the long-run men are led as far from\nScripture as darkness is from light. Now this is not only to be seen\nin a progressive multiplication of errors, but often may we perceive\nthe same subtlety of Satan in a simple error, as when he takes up part\nof a truth which should stand in conjunction with another, and sets it\nup alone against its own companion, where we shall have the name and\npretence kept up, but the thing quite destroyed. God requires services\nof men, and prescribes to their use prayer, hearing, sacraments; but\nbecause in these God is dishonoured when men only draw near with their\nlips, he further tell us, \u2018that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,\nneither is that circumcision which is of the flesh,\u2019 &c., [Rom. ii.\n28.] This part are some men so fixed upon, that they think they are\ndischarged of the other, and in practice go quite from these duties;\nand yet still they profess they are for ordinances and the worship of\nGod. Just so are some men for Christ, but then it is but the name,\nnot the thing; they own Christ, they say, but then it is Christ in\nthem, and Christ come in their flesh, but not that Christ that died at\nJerusalem as a sacrifice for the sins of men.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Satan takes great care that an error be, in all the ways\nof its propagation, _clothed with Scripture phrases_; and the less\nthe error can pretend to any plausible ground of Scripture, the more\ndoth he endeavour to adorn it with Scripture language: I understand\nthis chiefly of such errors as are designed for the multitude: so that\nthough Scripture be not used to prove the error, yet are deceivers\ntaught to express their conceptions by it, and to accommodate the\nwords and sentences of it to their purposes; for besides pride and\nconfidence, scriptural eloquence is a necessary ingredient to make a\npowerful deluder. Observe the ringleaders of errors, and you shall find\nthat ordinarily such have at first been studious of the Scriptures;\nand though never able to digest them, yet when they turned their ears\nfrom truth, they have carried their Scripture language, which they had\nbefore brought themselves unto by long custom, away with them, and\nstill retain it, and express their opinions by it.\n\nNow this is a great advantage to Satan. For, _first_, By this means\n_the ignorant multitude are often caught without any more ado_. If\nthey hear Scripture expressions, they are apt to think that all is\ntruth which is spoken by them; and they the rather believe it, because\nthey will imagine such teachers to be well versed in Scripture, and\nconsequently either so honest or so knowing that they neither can\nnor will delude them. _Secondly_, There is a majesty in Scripture\nwhich, in some sense, _doth stick to the very expressions of it_. Men\nmay perceive that generally hearers are more affected with Scripture\neloquence than with play-book language. It hath, as it were, a charm\nin the words, which makes the ear attentive more than a quaint\ndiscourse, starched up in the dress of common rhetoric. One gives us\nan observation to that purpose of his own preaching,[237] and so may\nmany others. While, then, men hear such language, they have a reverence\nto it. And as physicians cover their pills with gold that the patient\nmight more willingly take them, so do men often swallow down error\nwithout due consideration, because conveyed to them in a language which\nthey respect.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Satan\u2019s second care for the advancement of error, after\nhe hath given it all the countenance he can from Scripture, is to gild\nit over with _specious pretences_. He sets it off with all the bravery\nhe can, and then urgeth that as an argument of its truth. Men are apt\nto judge that what doth better their spiritual condition cannot be a\nlie or delusion; and the argument were the more considerable, if the\nadvantages were such as he pretends them to be; but the very noise\nand boast of advantages please the unwary, without a due inquiry into\ntheir reality. The apostle, in Rom. xvi. 18, reduceth all this policy\nof the deceiver to two heads: (1.) Good words, \u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03c2\u2014words that\nset out the profit and advantage of the thing; (2.) And fair speeches,\n\u03b5\u1f50\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03c2\u2014speeches that flatter the condition of the party. His art,\nas to the first of these, is to tell them that the notions offered to\nthem are special discoveries, rare mysteries, which have been hidden\nfrom others; and thence infers, that it must of necessity conduce much\nto their happiness and spiritual perfection to know and embrace them.\nThose that troubled the church in Paul\u2019s days with false doctrines,\nused this sleight of boasting, as appears by that expression in 1 Tim.\nvi. 20, \u2018oppositions of science.\u2019 It seems they called their opinions,\nthough they were but profane and vain babblings, by the name of\n\u2018science\u2019 or \u2018knowledge,\u2019 implying that all others, even the apostles\nthemselves, were in the dark, and came short of their illumination.\nThe like we have in Rev. ii. 24 of that abominable prophetess Jezebel,\nwho recommended her blasphemous, filthy doctrines under the name of\n\u2018depths,\u2019 profundities or hidden knowledge, though the Spirit of\nGod told that church they were not such; but if depths, they were\n\u2018depths of Satan\u2019\u2014as it is added there by way of correction\u2014and not\nof the Spirit of God. We may trace these footsteps of Satan in all\nconsiderably prevailing errors; for what hath been more common than\nto hear men speak of the designs they have been carrying on under the\nspecious titles of Christ\u2019s coming to set up a righteous kingdom, the\nchurch\u2019s coming out of Babylon and out of the wilderness, the dawning\nof the day of the Lord, the day of reformation, \u2018the time of the\nrestitution of all things,\u2019 with abundance of brags of the same kind? I\nshall add no particular instance of this nature, but a few strains of\nH. Nicholas, with whom such high promising vaunts were ordinary. His\nservice of love he compares to the \u2018most holy;\u2019 whereas John\u2019s doctrine\nof repentance was but a preparation to the holy, and the service\nof Christ he allowed to be no more than as the holy of the temple.\nThis his service he calls \u2018the perfection of life, the completion of\nprophecies, the perfect conclusion of the works of God, the throne of\nChrist, the true rest of the chosen of God, the last day, the sure word\nof prophecy, the new Jerusalem,\u2019 and what not.\n\nIf we make further inquiry into the nature of these fair promising\nmysteries, we shall find that Satan most frequently pitcheth upon these\nthree:\u2014\n\n[1.] _First_, He befools men into a belief that the Scriptures do,\nunder the veil of their words and sentences, contain _some hidden\nnotions_ that are of purpose so disguised that they may be locked up\nfrom the generality of men, at least from learned and wise men; and\nthat these rarities cannot be discerned from the usual significations\nof the words and phrases, as we understand other books of the same\nlanguage, but they fancy these sacred writings to be like the writings\nof the Egyptians,[238] by which they absconded[239] their mysteries,\nespecially like that kind of writing, whereby under words of common\nknown sense they intended things which the words themselves could\nnot signify; and that which occasions this imagination is this, that\nwe read frequently of \u2018mysteries\u2019 in [the] Scriptures, and \u2018hidden\nwisdom,\u2019 and the \u2018special revelation\u2019 of them to God\u2019s children, which\nare very great truths, but yet not to be so understood as this delusion\nsupposeth; for these expressions in Scripture intend no more than this,\nthat the design of God to save man by Christ is in itself a \u2018mystery,\u2019\nwhich never would have been found out without a special revelation; and\nthat though this \u2018mystery\u2019 is now revealed by the gospel, yet as to the\napplication of it to the hearts of men in conversion by the operation\nof the Spirit, it is yet a \u2018mystery.\u2019 But none of these intend any\nsuch suggestion, that there are private notions of truth or doctrine\nthat are lying under ground, as it were, in Scripture words, which the\nwords in the common language will not acquaint us withal; nay, the\ncontrary is expressly affirmed when we are told that all is plainly\nlaid open to the very simple, so that from the Scriptures they may as\nwell understand the fundamental principles of religion, as they may\nunderstand any other thing which their language doth express to them.\nHowever, in this Satan takes advantage of men\u2019s pride and curiosity to\nmake them forward in the acceptation of such offers, especially when\nsuch things are represented as the only saving discoveries, which a man\ncannot be ignorant of but with hazard of damnation.\n\n[2.] _Secondly_, In this boast of mystery, Satan sometimes takes\nanother course somewhat differing from the former, and that is to\nput men upon _allegorical reflections and allusions_, by which the\nhistorical passages of Scripture are made, besides the import of\nthe history, resemblances of spiritual truths, which supposeth the\nletter of Scripture to be true, but still as no better than the first\nrudiments to train up beginners withal, yet withal that the spiritual\nmeaning of it raiseth the skilful to a higher form in Christ\u2019s school.\nAt this rate all are turned into allegories. If they fall upon the\nfirst of Genesis, they think they then truly understand it when they\napply the light and darkness, and God\u2019s separating of them, with such\nother passages, to the regeneration of the soul. The like work make\nthey with the sufferings of Christ. But then the crafty adversary at\nlast enticeth them on to let go the history, as if it were nothing\nbut a parable, not really acted, but only fitted to represent notions\nto us. Allegories were a trap which the devil had for the Jews, and\nwherein they wonderfully pleased themselves. How much Origen abused\nhimself and the Scriptures by this humour is known to many; and how the\ndevil hath prevailed generally by it upon giddy people in later times I\nneed not tell you.\n\nThe pretence that Satan hath for this dealing is raised from some\npassages of the New Testament, wherein many things of the Old Testament\nare said to have had a mystical signification of things expressed or\ntransacted then, and some things are expressly called allegories. Hence\npapists determine the Scripture to have, besides the grammatical sense,\nwhich all of us do own, and besides the tropological sense, which is\nnot diverse or distinct from the grammatical, as when from histories\nwe deduce instructions of holy and sober carriage, an allegorical and\nanalogical sense; in which dealing men consider not that the Spirit of\nGod his interpreting a passage or two allegorically, will never justify\nany man\u2019s boldness in presuming to do the like to any other passage of\nScripture; and beside, when any hath tried his skill that way, another\nmay with equal probability carry the same scripture to a different\ninterpretation, and by this means the Scripture shall not only become\nobscure, but altogether uncertain and doubtful, and unable to prove\nanything; so that this doth extremely dishonour Scripture, by making it\nlittle less than ridiculous. Porphyry and Julian made themselves sport\nwith it upon the occasion of Origen\u2019s allegorizing; and no wonder,\nseeing that humour, as one calls it,[240] is no better than a learned\nfoolery. Notwithstanding this, men are sometime transported with a\nstrange delight in turning all into allegories, and picking mysteries\nout of some by-passages and circumstances of Scripture where one would\nleast expect them; which I can ascribe to no second cause more than to\nthe working and power of fancy, which, as it can frame ideas and images\nof things out of that that affords no real likeness or proportion, as\nmen that create to themselves similitudes and pictures in the clouds or\nin the fire, so doth it please itself in its own work; and with a kind\nof natural affection it doth kiss and hug its own baby. It hath been my\nwonder sometimes to see how fond men have been of their own fancies,\nand how extremely they have doted upon a very bauble. I might note you\nexamples of this, even to nauseousness, in all studies, as well as\nin this of religion. Those that affect the sublimities of chemistry\ndo usually by a strange boldness stretch all the sacred mysteries of\nScripture, as of the Trinity, of regeneration, &c., to represent their\nsecrets and processes, as may be seen sufficiently in their writings.\nOne of them I cannot forbear to name, and that is Glauber, who doth so\nplease himself with some idle whims about _sal_ and _sol_, that at last\nhe falls in with Bernardinus Gomesius, whom he cites and approves, who\nin this one word, \u1f03\u03bb\u03c2, which signifies _salt_, finds the Trinity, the\ngeneration of the Son, the two natures of Christ, the calling of the\nJews and Gentiles, the procession of the Spirit, and the communications\nof the Spirit in the law and gospel; and all this he gathers from the\nshapes, strokes, and positions of these three letters\u2014a very subtle\ninvention.[241] Not unlike to this were some of the dotages of the\nJewish Cabala, which they gathered from the different writing of\nsome letters in the sacred text, from the transposing of them, and\nfrom their mystical arithmetic. R. Ellis from the letter _aleph_,\nmentioned six times in Gen. i. 1, collected his notion of the world\u2019s\ncontinuance for six thousand years, because that letter \u05d0 stands for a\nthousand in the Hebrew computation. Another Rabbi, mentioned by Lud.\nCappellus,[242] hath a profound speculation concerning the first letter\nof Genesis, which, as he saith, doth therefore begin with _beth_, and\nnot with _aleph_, to shew the unexceptionable verity of God\u2019s word,\nagainst which no mouth can justly open itself; and this he gathers from\nthe manner of the pronunciation of that letter \u05d1, which is performed by\nthe closure of the lips. It were not possible to imagine that wise men\nshould be thus carried away with childish follies, if there were not\nsome kind of enchantment in fancy, which makes the hit of a conceit,\nthough never so silly, intoxicate them into an apprehension of a rare\ndiscovery. And doubtless this is the very thing that doth so transport\nthe allegorizers and inventors of mysteries, that they are ravished\neither with the discovery of a new nothing or with the rare invention\nof an enigmatical interpretation.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, The devil hath yet another way of coining mysteries, and\nthat is a pretence of _a more full discovery of notions and ways_;\nwhich, as he tells those that are willing to believe him, are but\nglanced at in the Scripture; and this doth not only contain his boast\nof unfolding prophecies, and the dangerous applications of them to\ntimes and places that are no way concerned\u2014which hath more than once\nput men upon dangerous undertakings,\u2014but also his large promise of\nteaching the way of the Lord more perfectly, and of leading men into a\nfull comprehension of those tremendous mysteries, wherein the Scripture\nhath as industriously concealed the reasons, way, and manner of their\nbeing, as it hath fully asserted that they are: such are the decrees of\nGod, the Trinity, &c.; as also of unfolding and teaching at large those\nthings that the Scripture seems only to hint at. In all which points\nwe have instances enough at hand which will shew us how the devil hath\nplayed his game, either by making men bold in things not revealed,\nor by drawing men to dislike solid truths, and by puffing them up\nwith notions, till at last they were prepared for the impression of\nsome grand delusion. All this while I have only explained the first\nhead of Satan\u2019s specious pretences, which consists in the promise of\ndiscoveries and mysteries\u2014\u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03b9, good words.\n\nThe next head of pretences are those that relate to the _persons_\nenamoured with these supposed mysteries\u2014\u03b5\u1f50\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03b9, fair speeches. With\nthese he strokes their heads, and causeth them to hug themselves in\na dream of an imaginary happiness. For if they have the knowledge of\nmysteries which are locked up from other men, they cannot avoid this\nconclusion, that they are the only favourites of heaven, that they\nonly have the Spirit, are only taught of God, &c. Such swelling words\nof vanity have ever accompanied delusion. And indeed we shall find\nthe confidence of such men more strong, and their false embracements\nmore rapturous, than ordinarily the ways of truth do afford, upon\nthis account, that in such cases fancy is elevated, and the delights\nof a raised fancy are excessive and enthusiastical. It is a kind of\nspiritual frenzy, which extends all the faculties to an extraordinary\nactivity, the devil doing all he can to further it by his utmost\ncontributions. Joy, delight, hope, love, are all raised to make a\nhubbub in the heart; whereas, on the contrary, truth is modest,\nhumble, sober, and affords a more silent joy, though more even and\nlasting.\n\nHere might I set error before you in its rant, and give you a taste\nof the high-flown strains of it. Montanus, as vile as he was, had\nthe confidence to call himself \u2018the comforter.\u2019 Novatus and his\nbrother would be no less than Moses and Aaron. The Gnostics called\nthemselves the _Illuminati_. The Swinkfieldians assumed the title of\nthe Confessors of the glory of Christ. The Family of Love had their\n_Evangelium regni_, the gospel of the kingdom. The _Fratricelli_\ndistinguished themselves from others by the term spiritual. Muntser\nasserted, that all of his opinion were God\u2019s elect, and that all the\nchildren of their religion were to be called the children of God, and\nthat all others were ungodly and designed to damnation. H. Nicholas\naffirms, that there was no knowledge of Christ nor Scripture, but in\nhis family. To this purpose most of them speak that forsake the ways of\ntruth; and though these swellings are but wind and vapour, yet those\nheights are very serviceable to the devil\u2019s purposes: who by this means\nconfirms those whom he hath already conquered, and then fits them out\nwith the greater confidence to allure others; and men are apt enough to\nbe drawn by fair shows and confident boastings. But I proceed.\n\n(3.) The third stratagem of Satan for promoting error, is to\n_astonish men with strange language and affected expressions_. It\nwas an old device of Satan to coin an unintelligible gibberish as\nthe proper vehicle of strange enthusiastics\u2019 doctrine, and this he\nartificially suits to his pretended mysteries. Without this, his\nrare discoveries would be too flat and dull to gain upon any man of\ncompetent understanding. For if these dotages were clothed in plain\nwords, they would either appear to be direct nonsense, or ridiculous\nfolly. It concerns him when he hath any feats of delusion in hand, to\nset them off with a canting speech, as jugglers use their hard words\nof _Ailif_, _casyl_, _zaze_, _presto_, _millat_, &c., to put their\nignorant admirers into a belief of some unknown power by which they\ndo their wonders. And this is in some sort necessary. Extraordinary\nmatters are above expression, and such wild expressions put men into\nan expectation of things sublime. This knack Satan hath constantly\nused. Montanus had his strange speeches; and all along, downward to\nour times, we may observe that error hath had this gaudy dress. The\nFamilists especially abound with it. You may read whole books full of\nsuch a kind of speaking, as the book called _Theologia Germanica_, or\nGerman divinity,[243] the books of Jacob Behmen, \u2018The Bright Morning\nStar,\u2019 &c. Neither are the papists free; one of late hath taken the\npains to shew them this and other follies.[244] Among them you may\nfind such talk as this: of being \u2018beclosed in the midhead of God,\nand in his meek-head; of being substantially united to God, of being\none\u2019d to God; as also of the abstractedness of life, of passive\nunions, of the deiform fund of the soul; of a state of introversion;\nof a super-essential life, a state of nothingness,\u2019 &c. Just like the\nravings of H. Nicholas, David George, and others, who confidently\ndiscourse of being \u2018godded with God,\u2019 of being \u2018consubstantiated with\nthe Deity,\u2019 and of God\u2019s \u2018being manned with them.\u2019\n\nI have oft considered what reason might be given for the takingness of\nsuch expressions, and have been forced to satisfy myself with these:\n_First_, Many mistake the knowledge of words for the knowledge of\nthings. And well may poor ignorant men believe they have attained, no\nman knows what, by this device; when among learned men the knowledge\nof words is esteemed so great a pitch of learning, and they nourish a\ngreat many controversies that are only verbal. _Secondly_, Some are\npleased to be accounted understanders by others, and rest in such high\nwords as a badge of knowledge. _Thirdly_, Some are delighted with such\na hard language upon a hope that it will lead them to the knowledge of\nthe things at last; they think strange expressions are a sign of deep\nmysteries. I knew one that set himself to the reading of Jacob Behmen\u2019s\nbooks, though at present he confessed he was scarce able to make\ncommon sense of three lines together, upon a secret enticement that\nhe had from the language, to come to some excellent discovery by much\npains and reading. _Fourthly_, Some that have their fancies heated,\nhave by this means broken, confused impressions of strange things in\ntheir imaginations, and conceive themselves to know things beyond what\ncommon language can express: as if with Paul, rapt up into the third\nheaven, \u2018they hear and see wonders unutterable.\u2019 But what reason soever\nprevails with men to take up such a way of speaking, Satan makes them\nbelieve that it contains a rich mine or treasury, not of common truths,\nbut of extraordinary profundities.[245]\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Instead of argument to confirm an error, sometimes we\nhave only _bold assertions that it is truth, and a confident condemning\nthe contrary as an error_, urging the danger of men\u2019s rejecting it,\nbacked with threatening of hell and damnation; and all this in the\nWords of Scripture. To be sure, they are right, and all other men\nare wrong. This kind of confidence and fierceness hath been still\nthe complexion of any remarkable way of delusion; for that commonly\nconfines their charity to their own party, which is a great token of an\nerror. Not only may you observe in such extraordinary proclamations of\nwrath against those that will not believe them: a practice used by the\nmad fanatics of Munster, who, as our Quakers were wont to do, go up and\ndown the streets, crying, \u2018Wo, wo; repent, repent; come out of Babylon;\nthe heavy wrath of God; the axe is laid to the root of the tree;\u2019 but\nin their more settled teaching they pronounce all to be antichrist, and\nof the carnal church, that do oppose them. Take for this H. Nicholas\nhis words: \u2018all knowledge\u2019 besides his, \u2018is but witchery and blindness,\nand all other teachers and learners are a false Christianity, and\nthe devil\u2019s synagogue; a nest of devils and wicked spirits; a false\nbeing, the antichrist, the kingdom of hell, the majesty of the devil,\u2019\n&c. This piece of art, not only our Quakers, to whom nothing is more\nfamiliar than to say to any opposer, \u2018Thou art damned, thou art in\nthe gall of bitterness, the lake of fire and brimstone is prepared for\nthee,\u2019 &c., but also the papists commonly practise, who shut all out\nof heaven that are not of their church; and when they would affright\nany from protestantism, they make not nice to tell him that there is no\npossibility of salvation but in their way.\n\nThe reasons of this policy are these: (1.) The heart is apt to be\nstartled with threatenings, and moved by commands; especially those\nthat are of a more tender and frightful spirit; and though they know\nnothing by themselves, yet these beget fears which may secretly betray\nreason, and make men leave the right way because of affrightment.\n(2.) The confidence of the assertors of such things hath also its\nprevalency; for men are apt to think that they would not speak so if\nthey were not very certain, and had not real experience of what they\nsaid, and thus are men threaped[246] out of their own persuasions. (3.)\nThe native majesty of Scripture, in a business of so great hazard,\nadds an unexpressible force to such threatenings; and though, being\nmisapplied, they are no more Scripture threatenings, yet, because God\nhath spoken his displeasure in those words, men are apt to revere\nthem\u2014as men cannot avoid to fear a serpent or toad, though they know\nthe sting and poison were taken out, because nature did furnish them\nwith a sting or venom.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, It is a usual trick of Satan to _derive a credit and\nhonour to error, from the excellencies, supposed or real, of the\npersons that more eminently appear for it_. So that it fetcheth no\nsmall strength from the qualities of those that propagate it. The\nvulgar, that do not usually dive deep into the natures of things,\ncontent themselves with the most superficial arguments, and are sooner\nwon to a good conceit of any opinion by the respects they carry to the\nauthor, than by the strongest demonstration.\n\nThe excellencies that usually move them are either their gifts or\ntheir holiness. If the seedsman of an error be learned, or eloquent\nand affectionate in his speaking, men are apt to subscribe to anything\nhe shall say, from a blind devotional[247] admiration of the parts\nwherewith he is endowed. And often, where there is no learning, or\nwhere learning is decried, as savouring too much of man, if there be\nnatural fluency of speech, with a sufficient measure of confidence,\nit raiseth them so much the higher in the esteem of the common sort,\nwho therefore judge him to be immediately taught of God, and divinely\nfurnished with gifts. At this point began the divisions of the church\nof Corinth. They had several officers severally gifted; some were\ntaken with one man\u2019s gift, others with another man\u2019s; some are for\nPaul, as being profound and nervous in his discourses; others for\nApollos, as eloquent; a third sort were for Cephas, as, suppose,\nan affectionate preacher. Thus upon personal respects were they\ndivided into parties: and if these several teachers were of different\nopinions, their adherents embraced them upon an affectionate conceit\nof their excellencies. And generally Satan hath wrought much by such\nconsiderations as these. This he urgeth against Christ himself, when\nhe set up the wisdom and learning of the rulers and pharisees, as an\nargument of truth in their way of rejecting such a Messias: John vii.\n48, \u2018Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him?\u2019\nThere is no insinuation more frequent than this: these are learned,\nexcellent, able men, and therefore what they say or teach is not to be\ndisbelieved; and though this be but _argumentum stultum_, a foolish\nargument, yet some that would be accounted wise do make very great use\nof it. The crack[248] \u2018of learned doctors among the papists\u2019 is one\ntopic of persuasion to popery, and so to other errors, as appears by\nthis, that all errors abound with large declamations of the praises of\ntheir founders and teachers: and the most illiterate errors usually\nmagnify the excellent inspirements and gifts of utterance of their\nleaders.\n\nBut the other excellency of holiness in the teachers of error is more\ngenerally and more advantageously improved by Satan, to persuade men\nthat all is true doctrine which such men profess. Of this delusion\nChrist forewarned us, \u2018They shall come in sheep\u2019s clothing\u2014that is,\nunder the mask of seeming holiness, at least at first; notwithstanding,\n\u2018beware of them,\u2019 Mat. vii. 15. Those complained of by Paul, 2 Cor.\nxi. 15, though they were Satan\u2019s ministers, yet that they and their\ndoctrine might be more plausibly entertained, they were \u2018transformed as\nthe ministers of righteousness.\u2019 This cunning we may espy in heretics\nof all ages. The Scribes and Pharisees used a pretence of sanctity as\na main piece of art to draw others to their way. Their alms, fastings,\nlong prayers, strict observations, &c., were all designed as a net to\ncatch the multitude withal. The lying doctrines of Antichrist were\nforetold by Paul, to have their success from this stratagem; all that\nidolatry and heathenism which he is to introduce must be, and hath\nbeen, through the hypocrisy of a painted holiness, 1 Tim. iv. 2; and\nwhere he intends most to play the dragon, Rev. xiii. 11, he there\nmost artificially counterfeits the innocency and simplicity of the\nlamb. Arch-heretics have been arch-pretenders to sanctity, and such\npretences have great influence upon men; for holiness and truth are\nso near of kin, that they will not readily believe that it can be a\nfalse doctrine which a holy man teacheth. They think that God that hath\ngiven a teacher holiness will not deny him truth. Nay, this is an easy\nand plausible measure which they have for truth and error. To inquire\ninto the intricacies and depths of a disputation is too burdensome\nand difficult for ordinary men, and therefore they satisfy themselves\nwith this consideration, which hath little toil in it, and as little\ncertainty: that surely God will not leave holy men to a delusion. It\nwould be endless to give all the instances that are at hand in this\nmatter. I shall only add a few things of Satan\u2019s method in managing\nthis argument, as,\n\n[1.] First, When he hath a design of common or prevailing delusion, he\nmainly endeavours _to corrupt some person of a more strict, serious,\nand religious carriage, to be the captain and ringleader_; such men\nwere Pelagius, Arius, Socinus, &c. He mainly endeavours to have fit\ninstruments. If he be upon that design of blemishing religion, and to\nbring truth into a disesteem, then, as one observes,[249] he persuades\nsuch into the ministry as he foresees are likely to be idle, careless,\nprofane, and scandalous; or doth endeavour to promote such ministers\ninto more conspicuous places, and provokes them to miscarriage, that so\ntheir example may be an objection against truth, while in the meantime\nhe is willing that the opposers of truth should continue their smooth\ncarriage; and then he puts a two-edged sword into the hands of the\nunstable: Can that be truth where there is so much wickedness? and can\nthis be error where there is so much holiness?\n\n[2.] Secondly, In prosecution of this design he usually puts men upon\nsome more than _ordinary strictness, that the pretence of holiness\nmay be the more augmented_. In this case a course of ordinary\nsanctity is not enough, they must be above the common practice; some\nsingular additions of severity and exactness above what is written,\nare commonly affected to make them the more remarkable. Christ notes\nthis in the Pharisees, concerning all their devotions, and the ways\nof expressing them; their phylacteries spoken of, Mat. xxiii. 5, as\nsome think,[250] were not intended by that text of Deut. vi. 8, but\nonly that they should remember the law, and endeavour not to forget\nit, as they do that tie a thread or such like thing about their finger\nfor a remembrancer; according to Prov. iii. 3, \u2018Bind them about thy\nneck, write them upon the table of thine heart.\u2019 However, if they were\nliterally enjoined, they would have them, as Christ tells them, broader\nthan others, as an evidence of their greater care. The _Cathari_\nboasted of sanctity and good works, and rejected second marriages; the\n_Apostolici_ were so called from a pretended stricter imitation of the\nsingular holiness of the apostles. The _Valesians_ made themselves\neunuchs, according to the letter, \u2018for the kingdom of God.\u2019 The\n_Donatists_ accounted that no true church where any spot or infirmity\nwas found. The _Messalians_, or _Euchyt\u00e6_, were for constant praying,\nthe _Nudipedales_ for going barefoot, &c. The papists urge canonical\nhours, whippings, penances, pilgrimages, voluntary poverty, abstinence\nfrom meats and marriage in their priests and votaries. In a word, all\nnoted sects have something of special singularity, whereby they would\ndifference themselves from others, as a peculiar character of their\ngreater strictness; and for want of better stuff they sometimes take up\naffected gestures, devotional looks, and outward garbs; all which have\nthis note, that what they most stand upon, God hath least, or not at\nall, required at their hands\u2014their voluntary humility, or neglecting of\nthe body being but will-worship, and a self-devised piece of religion.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, When once men are set in the way of exercising\nseverities, Satan endeavours, by working upon their fancies, to _press\nthem on further to a delight and satisfaction in these_[251] ways of\nstrictness, so that the practisers themselves are not only confirmed\nin these usages, and the opinions that are concomitant with them, but\nothers are the more easily drawn to like and profess the same things.\nAny serious temper, under any profession of religion, easily comes to\nbe devout, and readily complies with opportunities of evincing its\ndevotion by strictness. And therefore we shall find among heathens a\ngreat devotional severity, and such as far exceeds all of that kind\nwhich the papists do usually brag of. The Magi abstained from wine, ate\nnot the flesh of living creatures, and professed virginity. The Indian\nBrachmans did the like, and besides used themselves to incredible\nhardship; they laid upon skins, sustained the violence of the sun and\nstorms, and exercised themselves therewith; some spending thirty-seven\nyears in this course, others more. We read strange things of this\nnature concerning the Egyptian priests, and others. The Mohammedans\nare not without their religious orders, which pretend a more holy and\naustere life than others; and though of some, as of the _torlachs_\nand _dervizes_, several private villainies are reported, yet of\nothers, as of the order of _calender_, we are assured from history\nthat they profess virginity, and expose themselves to hardship, and\na stricter devotion in their way; and generally it is said of all\nof them, that they go meanly clad, or half naked; some abstinent in\neating and drinking, professing poverty, renouncing the world. Some can\nendure cutting and slashing, as if they were insensible; some profess\nperpetual silence, though urged with injuries and tortures; others have\nchains about their necks and arms, to shew that they are bound up from\nthe world, &c. If such things may be found among heathens, no wonder\nthat error boasts of them, for in both there is the same reason of\nmen\u2019s pleasing themselves in such hardships, which is from a natural\ndevotion, assisted by Satan\u2019s cunning, and the same design driven on by\nit; for the devil doth confirm heathens and Mohammedans in their false\nworship by the reverence and respect they carry to such practices.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Because religious holiness hath a beauty in it, and\nis very lovely, he doth all he can _to affect men with the highest\nreverence for these pretences of religious strictness_; so that they\nthat will not be at pains to practise them, can bestow an excessive\nrespect and admiration upon those that are grown famous in the use of\nsuch things; and by that means being almost adored, they are without\ndoubt persuaded that all they teach or do is right, and in a doting\nfondness they multiply superstitious errors. Idolatry is supposed to\nhave a great part of its rise from this. While men endeavoured to\nexpress their thankful and admiring remembrances of some excellent\npersons by setting up their pictures, their posterity began to worship\nthem as gods. Pilgrimages were first set on foot by the respects that\nmen gave to places that were made famous by persons and actions of\nmore than ordinary holiness;[252] and because the devil found men so\nvery apt to please themselves in paying such devotional reverences, he\nwrought upon their superstitious humour to multiply to themselves the\noccasions thereof, and by fabulous traditions sent them to places no\notherwise made memorable than by dreams and impostures. Much of this\nyou might see if you would accompany a caravan from Cairo to Mecca and\nMedina, where you would see the zealous pilgrims, with a great many\norisons and prayers, compassing Abraham\u2019s house, kissing a stone which,\nthey are told, fell from heaven; blessing themselves with a relic of\nthe old vesture of Abraham\u2019s house, washing themselves in the pond,\nwhich, as their tradition goes, the angel shewed to Hagar; saluting\nthe mountain of pardon, throwing stones in defiance of the devil, as\ntheir legend tells them Ishmael did; their prayers on the mountain of\nhealth, their visit to the prophet\u2019s tomb at Medina, &c.[253] The like\nmight you observe among the papists, in their pilgrimages to Jerusalem\nand the sepulchre, to the Lady of Loretto\u2019s chapel, and other places.\nBy such devices as these the unobservant people are transported with\na pleasure, insomuch that they not only persuade themselves they are\nvery devout in these reverences, but they also become unalterably fixed\nto these errors that do support these delightful practices, or as\nconsequences do issue from them.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, A more plausible argument for error than the learning\nand holiness of the persons that profess it, is that of _inspiration_,\nin which the devil soars aloft and pretends the highest divine warrant\nfor his falsehoods; for \u2018God is truth,\u2019 and \u2018we know that no lie is of\nthe truth.\u2019 Now to make men believe that God by his Holy Spirit doth\nin any manner dictate such opinions, or certainly reveal such things\nfor truths, is one of the highest artifices that he can pretend to, and\nsuch a confirmation must it be to those that are so persuaded, that all\ndisputes and doubtings must necessarily be silenced.\n\nThat the devil can thus \u2018transform himself into an angel of light,\u2019\nwe are assured from Scripture, which hath particularly cautioned us\nagainst this cheat. The apostasy of the later times, 1 Tim. iv. 1,\nthe apostle foretells should be carried on by the prevalency of this\npretence: \u2018Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing\nspirits.\u2019 That by \u2018spirits\u2019 there, doctrines are intended rather than\ndoctors, is Mr Mede\u2019s interpretation;[254] but it will come all to\none if we consider that the word \u2018spirit\u2019 carries more in it than\neither doctrine or doctor; for to call either the one or the other\n\u2018a spirit\u2019 would be intolerably harsh, if it were not for this, that\nthat \u2018doctor\u2019 is hereby supposed to pretend an infallibility from the\nSpirit of God, or, which is all one, that he received his doctrine by\nsome immediate revelation of the Spirit; so that by \u2018seducing spirits\u2019\nmust be men or doctrines that seduce others to believe them, by the\npretence of the Spirit or inspiration; and that text of 1 John iv. 1\ndoth thus explain it: \u2018Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits\nwhether they are of God,\u2019 which is as much as if he had said, Believe\nnot every man or doctrine that shall pretend he is sent of God and\nhath his Spirit; and the reason there given makes it yet more plain,\nbecause many \u2018false prophets are gone out into the world;\u2019 so that\nthese \u2018spirits\u2019 are \u2018false prophets,\u2019 men that pretend inspiration. And\nthe warning, \u2018Believe not every spirit,\u2019 tells us that Satan doth with\nsuch a dexterity counterfeit the Spirit\u2019s inspirations, that holy and\ngood men are in no small hazard to be deceived thereby. Most full to\nthis purpose is that of 2 Thes. ii. 2, \u2018That ye be not soon shaken in\nmind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as\nfrom us, as that the day of Christ is at hand;\u2019 where the several means\nof seduction are particularly reckoned as distinct from the doctrine\nand doctors, and by \u2018spirit\u2019 can be meant no other than a pretence of\ninspiration or revelation.[255]\n\nIt is evident then that Satan by this artifice useth to put a stamp\nof divine warrant upon his adulterate coin; and if we look into his\npractice, we shall in all ages find him at this work. Among heathens he\nfrequently gained a repute to his superstitious idolatrous worship by\nthis device. The men of greatest note among them feigned a spiritual\ncommerce with the gods. Empedocles endeavoured to make the people\nbelieve that there was a kind of divinity in him, and affecting to be\nesteemed more than a man, cast himself into the burnings of Mongebel,\nthat they might suppose him to have been taken up to the gods.[256]\nPythagoras his fiction of a journey to hell was upon the same account.\nPhilostratus and Cedrenus report no less of Apollonius, than that he\nhad familiar converses with their supposed deities; and the like did\nthey believe of their magi and priests; insomuch that some cunning\npoliticians, observing how the vulgar were under a deep reverence to\nsuch pretences, gave it out that they had received their laws by divine\ninspirations. Numa Pompilius feigned he received his institutions from\nthe nymph \u00c6geria, Lycurgus from Apollo; Minos the lawgiver of Candia\nboasted that Jupiter was his familiar. Mohammed also speaks as high\nthis way as any; his Alcoran must be no less than a law received from\nGod, and to that end he pretends a strange journey to heaven, and\nfrequent converse with the angel Gabriel.\n\nIf we trace Satan in the errors which he hath raised up under the\nprofession of the Scriptures, we may observe the same method. The\nValentinians, Gnostics, Montanists talked as confidently of the Spirit\nas Moses or the prophets could do, and a great deal more; for some\nof them blasphemously called themselves the Paraclete or Comforter.\nAmong the monsters which later ages produced, we still find the same\nstrain: one saith he is Enoch, another styles himself the \u2018great\nprophet,\u2019 another hath raptures, and all immediately inspired. The\npapists have as much of this cheat among them as any other; and some\nof their learned defenders avouch their _lumen propheticum_, and\n_miraculorum gloria_, prophesies and miracles, to be the two eyes, or\nthe sun and moon of their church; nay, by a strange transportment of\nfolly, to the forfeiture of the reputation of learning and reason, they\nhave so multiplied revelations that we have whole volumes of them,\nas the revelations of their St Bridget and others; and by wonderful\ncredulity they have not only advanced apparent dreams and dotages to\nthe honour of inspirations or visions, but upon this sandy foundation\nthey have built a great many of their doctrines, as purgatory,\ntransubstantiation, auricular confession, &c. By such warrants have\nthey instituted festivals and founded several orders. The particulars\nof these things you may see more at large in Dr Stillingfleet and\nothers. And that there might be nothing wanting that might make them\nshamelessly impudent, they are not content to equal their fooleries\nwith the Scriptures of God, as that the rule of their St. Francis\u2014for\nI shall only instance in him, omitting others for brevity sake\u2014was not\ncomposed by the wisdom of man, but by God himself, and inspired by the\nHoly Ghost, but they advance their prophets above the apostles, and\nabove Christ himself. Their St Benedict, if you will believe them, was\nrapt up to the third heavens, where he saw God face to face, and heard\nthe choir of angels; and their St. Francis was a nonsuch for miracles\nand revelations. Neither may we wonder that Satan should be forward in\nurging this cheat, when we consider,\n\n[1.] First, _What a reverence men naturally carry to revelations,\nand how apt they are to be surprised with a hasty credulity_. An old\nprophecy, pretended to be found in a wall, or taken out of an old\nmanuscript, of I know not what uncertain author, is usually more doted\non than the plain and infallible rules of Scripture. This we may\nobserve daily; and foreigners do much blame the English for a facile\nbelief of such things; but it is a general fault of mankind, and we\nfind even wise men forward in their persuasions upon meaner grounds\nthan those that gain credit to old prophecies. For their antiquity and\nstrangeness of discovery, especially at such times wherein the present\nposture of affairs seem to favour such predictions with a probability\nof such events, are more likely to get credit than these artificial\nimitations of the ways and garbs of the old prophets, and the cunning\nlegerdemain of those that pretend to inspirations by seeming ecstasies,\nraptures, and confident declarations, &c.; nevertheless arrant cheats\nhave by these ways deceived no mean men. Alvarus acknowledgeth that he\nhonoured a woman as a saint that had visions and raptures as if really\ninspired\u2014and the same apprehensions had the bishop and friars\u2014who was\nafterward discovered to be a naughty woman.[257] Who shall then think\nit strange that the unobservant multitude should be deluded by such an\nart?\n\n[2.] Secondly, Especially if we consider that _God himself took\nthis course to signify his mind to men_. His prophets were divinely\ninspired, and the Scriptures were not of \u2018any private interpretation,\u2019\n\u1f30\u03b4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03bb\u03cd\u03c3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2. The words that the penmen of Scriptures wrote were not\nthe interpretations of their own private thoughts, \u2018for the prophecy\ncame not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as\nthey were moved by the Holy Ghost,\u2019 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. Now though the\nprophecies of Scripture are sealed, and no more is to be added to them\nupon any pretence whatsoever, yet seeing there are promises left us of\nthe \u2018giving of the Spirit,\u2019 of \u2018being taught and led by the Spirit,\u2019\nit is an easy matter for Satan to beguile men into an expectation of\nprophetic inspirations, and a belief of what is pretended so to be; for\nall men do not or will not understand that these promises of the Spirit\nhave no intendment of new and extraordinary immediate revelations,\nbut only of the efficacious applications of what is already revealed\nin Scripture. This kind of revelation we acknowledge and teach, which\nis far enough from enthusiasm, that is, a pretended revelation of new\ntruths, and we have reason to assert that internal persuasions without\nthe external word are to be avoided as Satan\u2019s cozenages.[258] But\nfor all this, when men\u2019s minds are set agadding, if they meet with\nsuch as magnify their own dreams, and call their fancies visions,\nthe suitableness of this to their humour makes them to reject our\ninterpretations of these promises as false, and to persuade themselves\nthat they are to be understood of such inspirations as the prophets of\nold had; and then they presently conclude they are to believe them,\nlest otherwise they should resist the Holy Ghost.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, But _the advantage which the devil hath to work delusion\nupon by this pretence is a high motive to him to practise upon it_. For\ninspirations, visions, voices, impulses, dreams, and revelations are\nthings wherein wicked impostors may by many ways and artifices play\nthe counterfeits undiscovered. It is easy to prophesy false dreams,\nand to say, thus saith the Lord, when yet they do but lie, and the\nLord never sent them nor commanded them, Jer. xxiii. 31; nay, it is\neasy, by tricks and illusions, to put that honour and credit upon their\ndesigns which they could not by their bare assertions, backed with\nall their art of seeming seriousness. The inventions of men that have\nbeen formerly successful in this deceit being now laid open to our\nknowledge, may make us more wary in our trust. Among the heathens you\nmay find notable ways of deceits of this nature. The story of Hanno\nand Psappho is commonly known; they tamed birds and learned them to\nspeak, \u2018Hanno and Psappho are gods,\u2019 and then set them at liberty, that\nmen hearing such strange voices in the woods from birds, might imagine\nthat these men were declared gods by special discovery. Mohammed\u2019s\ndevice of making a dove to come frequently to his ear, which he did by\ntraining her up to a use of picking corn out of it, served him for an\nevidence among the vulgar beholders, who knew not the true cause of\nit, of his immediate inspiration by the angel Gabriel, who, as he told\nthem, whispered in his ear in the shape of a dove. The like knavery he\npractised for the confirmation of the truth of his Alcoran, by making\na bull, taught before to come at a call or sign, to come to him with a\nchapiter upon his horns. Hector Boetius tells us of a like stratagem\nof a king of Scots, who, to animate his fainting subjects against\nthe Picts that had beaten them, caused a man clothed in the shining\nskins of fishes, and with rotten wood, which, as a glow-worm in the\nnight, represents a faint light, to come among them in the dark, and\nthrough a reed or hollow trunk, that the voice might not appear to be\nhuman, to incite them to a vigorous onset: this they took to be an\nangel bringing them this command from heaven, and accordingly fought\nand prevailed. Crafty Benedict, who was afterward pope under the name\nof Boniface VIII., made simple Celestine V. give over the popedom by\nconveying to him a voice through a reed to this purpose: Celestine,\nCelestine, renounce the papacy, give it over, if thou wouldst be\nsaved, the burden is beyond thy strength, &c. The silly man, taking\nthis for a revelation from heaven, quitted his chair and left it for\nthat crafty fox Benedict. Not very many years since the same trick\nwas played in this country to a man of revelations\u2014Paul Hobson\u2014who\ncalled himself David in spirit. When he had wearied his entertainer\nwith a long stay, he quitted himself of his company, as I was credibly\ninformed, by a policy which he perceived would well suit with the\nman\u2019s conceitedness, for through a reed in the night-time he tells him\nthat he must go into Wales, or some such country, and there preach the\ngospel; the next morning the man avouches a revelation from God to go\nelsewhere, and so departs. These instances shew you how cunningly a\ncheating knave may carry on a pretence of revelation or vision. And\nyet this is not all the advantage which the devil hath in this matter,\nthough it is an advantage which he sometime makes use of when he is\nfitted with suitable instruments. But he works most dangerously when\nhe so acts upon men that they themselves believe they have visions,\nraptures, and revelations, for some are really persuaded that it is\nso with them. Neither is it strange that men should be deluded into\nan apprehension that they hear and see what they do not; in fevers,\nfrenzies, and madness we clearly see it to be so; and who can convince\nsuch persons of their mistakes, when with as high a confidence as may\nbe they contend that they are not deceived? Shall we think it strange\nthat Satan hath ways of conveying false apprehensions upon men\u2019s minds?\nNo, surely. Do we not see that the senses may be cheated, and that\nthe fancies of men may be corrupted? Is it not easy for him to convey\nvoices to the ear, or shapes and representations to the eye? and in\nsuch cases, what can ordinarily hinder a belief that they hear or see\nsuch things? But he needs not always work upon the fancy by the senses.\nIf he hath the advantage of a crazy distempered fancy, as commonly he\nhath in melancholy persons, he can so strongly fix his suggestions upon\nthem, and so effectually set the fancy on work to embrace them, that\nwithout any appearance of madness they will persuade themselves that\nthey have discoveries from God, impulses by his Spirit, scriptures set\nupon their hearts, and what not; and because they feel the workings\nof these things within them, it is impossible to make them so much as\nsuspect that they are deceived. Do but consider the power of any fancy\nin a melancholic person, and you may easily apprehend how Satan works\nin such delusions. Melancholy doth strangely pervert the imagination,\nand will beget in men wonderful misapprehensions, and that sometimes\ndoth bewitch them into peremptory, uncontrollable belief of their\nfancy. It is a vehement, confident humour, what way soever it takes;\nthe imagination thus corrupted hath an enormous strength, so that if it\nfix upon things never so absurd or irrational, it is not reducible by\nthe strongest reasons. If such a man conceits himself dead, or that he\nis transformed to a wolf or cat, or that he is made of glass, as many\nin this distemper have done, there is no persuasion to the contrary\nthat can take place with him. Now if this humour be taken up with\ndivine matters, as usually it doth, for it hath a natural inclination\nto religious things, it still acts with fierceness and confidence,\nand there are many things often concomitant to such actings, that if\nit misconceit inspiration or prophecy, the parties themselves are not\nonly bound up under that persuasion, but even unwary spectators are\ndeluded. For sometime a melancholy imagination is not wholly corrupt,\nbut only in respect of some one or two particulars, whilst in other\nthings it acts regularly, and then neither they nor others, that are\nunacquainted with such cases, are so apt to suspect that they are\nmistaken in these things, while they act rationally and soberly in\nother matters. Sometime they have vehement fits of surprisal\u2014for the\nhumour hath its ebbings and flowings\u2014and this gives them occasion to\napprehend that something doth supernaturally act or raise them, and\nthen when the things they speak are for the matter of them of religious\nconcern and odd notions\u2014for the humour flies high and bounds not itself\nwith ordinary things\u2014and withal uttered in Scripture rhetoric and with\nfervency and urgency of spirit\u2014when these things concur, there is such\nan appearance of inspiration that the parties themselves and others\nrest fully persuaded that it is so.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, _Pretended and counterfeit miracles the devil makes\nmuch use of to countenance error, and this is also one of his\nstrongholds_; for he suggests that God himself bears witness by these\nsigns, wonders, and miracles to such erroneous doctrine as seems to be\nconcerned[259] by them.\n\nThat the devil cannot work a true miracle hath been discoursed before,\nbut that he can perform many strange things, and such as may beget\nadmiration, none denies; and that by such unwonted actions he usually\nendeavours to justify false doctrines, and to set them off with the\nappearance of divine approbation, we are sufficiently forewarned\nin the Scriptures.[260] Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses by false\nmiracles. In Deut. xiii. 1, God speaks of the signs and wonders of\nfalse prophets, who would by that means seek to seduce the people to\nfollow after other gods. Christ also, in Mat. xxiv. 24, foretells that\n\u2018false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shew great signs\nand wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive\nthe very elect,\u2019 and puts a special note of caution upon it: \u2018Behold,\nI have told you before.\u2019 And to the same purpose is that of Paul\nconcerning Antichrist, 2 Thes. ii. 9, where he tells us of powerful\n\u2018signs and wonders by the working of Satan,\u2019 who doth all the while\nonly lie and cheat that he may draw men to error.\n\nIf we make inquiry how Satan hath managed this engine, we shall observe\nnot only his diligence in using it on all occasions to countenance all\nkind of errors both in paganism and Christianity, but also his subtle\ndexterity by cheating men with forgeries and falsehood.\n\nHeathenish idolatry, among other helps for its advancement, wanted not\nthis. The oracles and responses, which were common before the coming\nof Christ, were esteemed as miraculous confirmations of the truth\nof the deities which they worshipped; the movings and speakings of\ntheir statues[261] were arguments that the operative presence of some\ncelestial _Numen_ was affixed to such an image. In some places the\nsolemn sacrifices are never performed without a seeming miracle. As in\nNova Zembla, where the priest\u2019s trances, his running a sword into his\nbelly, his making his head and shoulder fall off his body into a kettle\nof hot water by the drawing of a line, and then his reviving again\nperfect and entire, without maim or hurt, are all strange, astonishing\nthings to the beholders.[262] But besides such things as these, which\nare standing constant wonders, we read of some that have had, as it\nwere, a gift of miracles, that they might be eminently instrumental\nto promote and honour paganism. All histories agree that Simon Magus\ndid so many strange things at Rome\u2014as the causing an image to walk,\nturning stones into bread, transforming himself into several shapes,\nflying in the air, &c.\u2014that he was esteemed a god. Philostratus and\nCedrenus[263] report great things of Apollonius [of Tyana,] as that\nhe could deliver cities from scorpions, serpents, earthquakes, &c.,\nand that many miracles were wrought by him. This man Satan raised up\nin an extraordinary manner to revive the honour of paganism, that it\nmight at least vie with Christianity. And though few ever attained to\nthat height which Apollonius and Simon Magus reached unto, yet have we\nseveral instances of great things done now and then by some singular\npersons upon a special occasion, which Satan improved to his advantage.\nVespasian cured a lame and blind man.[264] Adrianus cured a blind\nwoman; and which is more, after he was dead, by the touch of his body,\na man of Pannonia who was born blind received his sight.[265] Valerius\nMaximus tells of many strange things, and particularly of a vestal\nvirgin that drew water into a sieve. As Livy tells of another, Claudia\nby name, who with her girdle drew the ship to the shore which carried\nthe mother of their gods, when neither strength of men nor oxen could\ndo it.[266]\n\nErrors under profession of Christianity have been supported and\npropagated by the boast of miracles. A clear instance for this we\nhave in popery, that religion being a perpetual boast of wonders. To\nlet pass their great miracle of transubstantiation, which, as one\nhath lately demonstrated, is a bundle of miracles, or contradictions\nrather,[267] because it appears not to the senses of any man, and\nconsequently is not capable of being an argument to prove any of\ntheir opinions. We have abundance of strange things related by them,\nas proofs of some doctrines of theirs in particular, as purgatory,\ninvocation of saints, transubstantiation, &c., and of their profession\nin the general, devils cast out, blind and lame cured, dead raised, and\nwhat not; it would be endless to recite particulars. It would take a\nlong time to tell what their St Francis hath done\u2014how he fetched water\nout of a rock, how he was homaged by fowls and fishes, how he made a\nfountain in Marchia run wine, and how far he exceeded Christ himself in\nwonderful feats. Christ did nothing which St Francis did not do, nay,\nhe did many more things than Christ did: Christ turned water into wine\nbut once, but St Francis did it thrice; Christ was once transfigured,\nbut St Francis twenty times; he and his brethren raised above a\nthousand to life, cast out more than a thousand devils, &c.[268] Their\nDominicus raised three dead men to life. Their Zeverius,[269] while\nhe was alive, did many miracles, and after he was dead his body lay\nfifteen months sweetly smelling, without any taint of corruption. It\nis irksome to repeat their stories; abundance of such stuff might be\nadded out of their own writings, the design of all which is to prove,\nto those that are so prodigal of their faith as to believe them, that\nthey only are the true church, and that by this note among others they\nmay be known to be so.\n\nBut let us turn aside a little to observe Satan\u2019s cunning in this\npretence of miracles; let things be soberly weighed, and we may see\nenough of the cheat. This great boast is, as Austin hath it, resolved\ninto one of these two\u2014either the figments of lying men, or the craft\nof deceitful spirits: _Vel figmenta hominum mendacium, vel portenta\nfallacium spirituum_.\n\nAs to the first of these, it is evident that a great many things that\nhave been taken by the vulgar for mighty wonders, were nothing but\nthe knaveries of impostors, who in this matter have used a threefold\ncunning.\n\n[1.] First, _By mere juggling and forgery in confederacies and private\ncontrivances they have set upon the stage persons before instructed to\nact their parts, or things aforehand prepared, to pretend to be what\nthey were not, that others might seem to do what they did not, and all\nto amaze those that know not the bottom of the matter_. Of this nature\nwas Mohammed\u2019s dove and bull, who were privately trained up to that\nobedience and familiarity which they used to him. The pagan priests\nwere not altogether to seek in this piece of art. Lucian tells us of\none Alexander, who nourished and tamed a serpent, and made the people\nof Pontus believe that it was the god \u00c6sculapius, and doubtless the\nidol priests improved their private artificial contrivances: as of the\nmovings of their images, as that of Venus made by D\u00e6dalus, which by\nthe means of quicksilver enclosed could stir itself;[270] their eating\nand drinking, as in the story of Bel in the Apochryphal adjections to\nthe Book of Daniel; their responses, and several other appearances; as\nof the paper head of Adonis or Osiris, which, as Lucian reports, comes\nswimming down the river every year from Egypt to Byblos, &c.; these\nand such like they improved as evidences of the power, knowledge, and\nreality of their gods. And though in the prevalency of idolatry, where\nthere was no considerable party to oppose, their cheats were not always\ndiscovered, yet we have no reason to imagine that the priests of those\ndays were so honest that they were only deceived by the devil\u2019s craft,\nand did not in a villainous design purposely endeavour the delusion of\nothers. If we had no other grounds for a just suspicion in these cases,\nthe famous instances of the abuse of Paulina at the temple of Isis\nin Rome, in the reign of the emperor Tiberius, by the procurement of\nMondus, who corrupted the priest of Anubis to signify to her the love\nof their god, and under that coverture gratified the lust of Mondus,\nmentioned by Josephus.[271] And that of Tyrannus, priest of Saturn in\nAlexandria, who by the like pretence of the love of Saturn, adulterated\nmost of the fairest dames of the city, mentioned by Ruffinus.[272]\nThese would sufficiently witness that the priests of those times were\napt enough to abuse the people at the rate we have been speaking of.\nIn popery nothing hath been more ordinary. Who knows not the story of\nthe holy maid of Kent and the boy of Bilson? How common is it with them\nto play tricks with women troubled with hysterical distempers; and to\npretend the casting out of devils, when they have only to deal with\na natural disease. Not very many years since they practised upon a\npoor young woman at Durham, and made great boasts of their exorcisms,\nrelics, and holy water against the devil, with whom they would have all\nbelieve she was possessed, when the event discovered that her fits were\nonly the fits of the mother. I myself, and some others in this place,\nhave seen those fits allayed by the fume of tobacco blown into her\nmouth, to the shame and apparent detection of that artifice. I might\nmention the legerdemain of Antonius of Padua, who made his horse adore\nthe host, for the conversion of a heretic; the finding of the images of\nSt Paul and St Dominic in a church at Venice, with this inscription for\nPaul, \u2018By this man you may come to Christ;\u2019 and this for Dominic, \u2018But\nby this man you may do it easilier;\u2019 and the honour put upon Garnet, by\nhis image on straw,[273] found at his execution, in all probability by\nhim that made it and threw it down, or by his confederate: but these\nare enough to shew the honesty of these kind of men.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _They have also a cunning of ascribing effects to\nwrong causes, and by that means they make those things wonders that\nare none_. Mohammed called his fits of falling-sickness ecstasies\nor trances. Austin tells us the heathens were notable at this: the\nburning lamp in the temple of Venus, though only the work of art, was\ninterpreted to be a constant miracle of that deity.[274] The image\nwhich, in another temple, hung in the air, by ignorant gazers was\naccounted a wonder, when indeed the loadstone in the roof and pavement,\nthough unseen, was the cause of it. The Sidonians were confirmed in\ntheir constant annual lamentations of Adonis, by a mock miracle of\nthe redness of the river Adonis at one time of the year constantly;\nthey take it to be blood, when it is nothing else but the colouring\nof the water by the dust of red earth or _minium_, which the winds\nconstantly at that time of the year from mount Libanus do drive into\nthe water.[275] Neither are the papists out in this point. I will only\ninstance in that observation of Dr Jenison, to confirm the doctrine and\npractice of invocation:[276] they take the advantage of sovereign baths\nand waters, and where they espy any fountain good against the stone, or\nother diseases, presently there is the statue or image of some saint\nor other erected by it, by whose virtue the cure and miracle must seem\nto be done; or some chapel is erected to this or that saint, to whom\nprayers before and thanks after washing must be offered.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, where the two former fail, men that devote themselves\nto this kind of service _imitate their father the devil, and fall to\nplain lying and devised fables_. Idolatry was mainly underpropped by\nfabulous stories; and no wonder, when they esteemed it a pious fraud\nto nourish piety towards the gods, in which case, as Polybius saith,\nthough their writers speak monsters, and write childish, absurd,\nand impossible things, yet are they to be pardoned for their good\nintent.[277] Among the papists what less can be expected, when the\nsame principle is entertained among them? Canus, and Lodovicus Vives\nmentioned by him,[278] as also some few others, do exceedingly blame\nthat blind piety of coining lies for religion, and feigning histories\nfor the credit of their opinions; but while they with great freedom\nand ingenuity do tax the fables of their own party, they do plainly\nacknowledge that they are too much guilty of feigning, insomuch that\nnot only the author of the Golden Legend is branded with the characters\nof a brazen face and a leaden heart, but also Gregory\u2019s Dialogues and\nBede\u2019s History are blamed by him, as containing narrations of miracles\ntaken upon trust from the reports of the vulgar.[279] And indeed the\nwonders they talk of are so strange, so unlikely, so ridiculous and\nabsurd some of them, that except a man offer violence to his reason,\nand wilfully shut his eyes against the clear evidences of suspicion, he\ncannot think they are anything else than dreams and fables, no better\nthan \u00c6sop\u2019s. You may meet with several catalogues of them in protestant\nwriters:[280] as their St Swithins making whole a basket of broken eggs\nby the sign of the cross; Patricius his making the stolen sheep to\nbleat in the thief\u2019s belly after he had eaten it; their St Bridget\u2019s\nbacon, which in great charity she gave to a hungry dog, was found again\nin her kettle; Dionysius after he was beheaded carried his head in his\nhand three French miles; St Dunstan took the devil by the nose with his\ntongs till he made him roar; Dominicus made him hold the candle till he\nburnt his fingers; St Lupus imprisoned the devil in a pot all night;\na chapel of the Virgin Mary was translated from Palestine to Loretto;\na consecrated host, being put into a hive of bees to cure them of the\nmurrain, was so devoutly entertained that the bees built a chapel in\nthe hive, with doors, windows, steeple, and bells, erected an altar\nand laid the host upon it, sung their canonical hours, and kept their\nwatches by night, as monks used to do in their cloisters, &c. Who would\never imagine that men of any seriousness could satisfy themselves with\nsuch childish fopperies? These are the usual ways by which men of\ndesign have raised the noise of miracles.\n\nThe other part of Satan\u2019s coming[281] relates to himself and his\nown actions. When his agents can go no further in the trade of\nmiracle-making, he as a spirit doth often make use of his power,\nknowledge, and agility, by which he can indeed do things incredible\nand to be wondered at: _Portenta fallacium spirituum_. It is nothing\nfor him, by his knowledge of affairs at a distance, of the private\nendeavours or expressed resolves of princes, to prognosticate future\nevents. By his power over the bodies of men, he can, with the help of\ninclinations and advantages, do much to bring a man into a trance, or\ntake the opportunity of a fit of an apoplexy, and then, like a cunning\njuggler, pretend, by I know not what nor whom, to raise a man from\ndeath. He knows the secret powers and virtues of things, and by private\napplications of them may easily supply spirits, remove obstructions,\nand so cure lameness, blindness, and many other distempers, and then\ngive the honour of the cure to what person or occasion may best fit\nhis design; so that either by the officious lies of his vassals, or\nthe exerting of his own power on suitable objects at fit times, he\nhath made a great noise of signs and wonders in the world. And this\nstratagem of his hath ever been at hand to gain a repute to false\ndoctrine. And the rather doth he insist upon this,\n\n_First_, Because true miracles are a divine testimony to truth. As\nNicodemus argued, John iii. 2, \u2018No man could do these miracles that\nthou doest except God be with him.\u2019 And there were solemn occasions\nwherein they were necessary; as when God gave public discoveries of\nhis mind before the Scriptures were written; and also when he altered\nthe economy of the Old Testament and settled that of the New. In these\ncases it was necessary that God should confirm his word by miracles.\nBut now, though these ends of miracles are ceased, though God hath so\nsettled and fixed the rule of our obedience and worship that no other\ngospel or rule is to be expected, and consequently no need of new\nmiracles, where the certain account of the old miracles are sufficient\nattestations of old and unalterable truths; nay, though God have\nexpressly told us, Deut. xiii. 1, that no miracle\u2014though it should\ncome to pass, and could not be discovered to be a lie\u2014should prevail\nwith us to forsake the established truths and ways of Scripture, or to\nentertain anything contrary to it; yet doth Satan exercise herein a\nproud imitation of the supreme majesty, and withal doth so dazzle the\nminds of the weaker sort of men\u2014who are more apt to consider the wonder\nthan to suspect the design\u2014that, without due heed given to the cautions\nwhich God hath laid before us in that particular, they are ready to\ninterpret them to be God\u2019s witness to this or that doctrine, to which\nthey seem to be appendant.\n\n_Secondly_, Because Satan hath a more than ordinary advantage to\nfeign miracles; he doth more industriously set himself to pretend\nthem and to urge them for the accomplishment of his ends. It is an\neasy work to prevail with men that are wholly devoted to their own\ninterest, under the mask of religion to say and do anything that may\nfurther their design; and the business of miracles is so imitable by\nart, through the ignorance and heedlessness of men, that with a small\nlabour Satan can do it at pleasure. The secret powers of nature\u2014such\nas that of the loadstone\u2014by a dexterous application brought into act\nin a fitly-contrived subject, will seem miraculous to those that see\nnot the secret springs of those actions. There have been artificial\ncontrivances of motions which, had they been disguised under a\nreligious form, and directed to such an end, might have passed for\ngreater miracles than many which we have mentioned. Such was the\ndove of Archyas, which did fly in the air as if it had been a living\ncreature.[282] Such was the fly of Regiomontanus, and the eagle\npresented to the Emperor Maximilian, which, in the compass of their\nlittle bodies, contained so many springs and wheels as were sufficient\nto give them motion, and to direct their courses as if they had been\nanimated. Albertus Magnus his artificial man, and the silver galley\nand tritons made by a goldsmith at Paris,[283] were rare pieces of\nart\u2014their motions so certain and steady, that they seemed to have life\nand understanding. If art can do all this, how much more may we suppose\ncan Satan do! how easily can he make apparitions, present strange\nsights to the eye and voices to the ear, and, by putting out his power,\ndo a thousand things astonishing and wonderful!\n\n(8.) Eighthly, _Sometimes Satan pleads for error, from the ease,\npeace, or other advantages which men pretend they have received since\nthey engaged in such a way or received such a persuasion_. This is an\nargument from the effect, and frequently used to confirm the minds\nof men in their opinions. Hence they satisfy themselves with these\nreasonings: \u2018I was before always under fears and uncertainties; I never\nwas at peace or rest in my mind. I tried several courses, followed\nseveral parties, but I never had satisfaction or comfort till now,\nand by this I know that I am in a right way.\u2019 Others argue after the\nsame manner from their abundance and outward prosperity: \u2018I met with\nnothing but crosses and losses before, but now God hath blessed me with\nan increase of substance, prospered my trade and undertakings,\u2019 &c.\nThese, though apparently weak and deceitful grounds, are reputed strong\nand conclusive to those that are first resolved upon an error. For men\nare so willing to justify themselves in what they have undertaken,\nthat they greedily catch at anything that hath the least appearance of\nprobability to answer their ends.\n\nThis plea of satisfaction is commonly from one of these two things:\n\n1. First, _From inward peace and contentment of mind_. Satan knows\nthat peace is the thing to which a man sacrificeth all his labours\nand travail. This he seeks, though often in a wrong way, and by wrong\nmeans. He knows also that true peace is only the daughter of truth,\n\u2018the ways whereof are pleasantness, and the paths whereof are peace;\u2019\nneither is he ignorant of the delights which a man hath, by enjoying\nhimself in the sweet repose of a contented mind, that he may charm the\nhearts of the erroneous into a confidence and assurance that they have\ntaken a right course; he doth all he can to further a false peace in\nthem, and to this purpose he commonly useth this method:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He doth all he can to _unsettle them from the foundation\nof truth upon which they were bottomed_. He labours to render things\nsuspicious, doubtful, or uncertain. This some have noted from 2 Thes.\nii. 2, where Satan\u2019s first attempts are to shake their minds, not only\nby disquiet, of which we are next to speak, but by alteration of their\njudgment; for mind is sometimes taken for sentence, opinion, judgment,\nas 1 Cor. ii. 16, \u2018We have the mind of Christ;\u2019 and 1 Cor. i. 10, \u2018In\nthe same mind, and in the same judgment.\u2019[284]\n\n[2.] Secondly, His second approach is to _raise a storm of restless\ndisquiet upon that uncertainty_; and in order to his intended design,\nhe usually fills them with the utmost anxiety of mind, and makes their\nthoughts, like a tempestuous sea, dash one against another. This\npiece of his art is noted in the fore-cited place, that \u2018ye be not\nshaken in mind, or troubled:\u2019 the word signifies a great perplexity,\n\u03b8\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9. And this is a usual method which the false teachers among\nthe Galatians practised; they first troubled them, and then endeavoured\nby the advantage of that trouble to pervert the gospel of Christ, Gal.\ni. 7, and v. 12. To effect both these, he doth amuse them with all the\nobjections that can be raised. If he can say anything of the antiquity\nof the error, the number, wisdom, learning, or authority of those\nthat embrace it, they are sure to hear of these things to the full.\nThe danger of continuing as they were, and the happiness of the new\ndoctrine, are represented with all aggravating circumstances; and these\nso often, that their thoughts have no rest: and if this restlessness\ndoes wound or weaken them, he pursues with a high hand. These ways\nof disturbing the unsettled mind are hinted to us in the aforesaid\nplace\u2014spirit, word, letter, anything that carries a seeming authority\nto unsettle, or power to amaze and distress. And we may here further\nnote, that where the minds of men are discomposed with other fears or\ndisquiets, Satan is ready to improve them to this use, so that commonly\nwhen the word of God begins to work at first upon the consciences of\nmen, to awaken them to the consideration of their sin and danger, the\nadversary is then very busy with them to inveigle them into some error\nor other.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Having thoroughly prepared the mind with restless fears,\nhe then advanceth forward with the _proffers of peace and comfort in\nthe way of error which he proposeth_; and in this case error will\nboast much, \u2018Come to me, and ye shall find rest for your souls.\u2019 How\ngrateful and welcome the confident proffers of ease and satisfaction\nare to a tossed and disquieted mind, any man will easily imagine. It is\nusually thus: men that are tired out will easily embrace anything for\nease. A man in this case may be wrought upon like wax, to receive any\nimpression; he will fasten on anything, true or false, that doth but\npromise comfort.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, The completement of his method is _to please the man in\nthe fruition of the peace promised_; and this he labours to do, not\nonly to fix the man in his delusion, but to make that man brag of ease,\nto be a snare to others. And it is easy for the devil to do this: for,\n_first_, The novelty of a new opinion doth naturally please, especially\nif it give any seeming commendation for discovery or singularity. We\nsee men are fond of their own inventions, and delighted to be lifted\nup above others. _Secondly_, Satan can easily allay the storm which\nhe himself raised: he gives over to molest with anxious thoughts\u2014on\nthe contrary, he suggests thoughts of satisfaction. _Thirdly_, And\nwhatever he can do in a natural way to raise up our passions of joy and\ndelight, he will be sure to do it now, to ravishment and excess if he\ncan; and then he not only makes these men sure\u2014for what argument can\nstand before such a confidence?\u2014but hath an active instrument for the\nallurement of such as cannot discover these methods.\n\n2. Secondly, _Outward prosperity_ is the other common plea for error.\nThough successes, plenty, and abundance of worldly comforts argue of\nthemselves neither love nor hatred, truth nor falsehood\u2014because the\nwise providence of God, for holy ends and reasons often undiscerned by\nus, permits often the tabernacles of robbers to prosper, and permits\nthose that \u2018deal treacherously\u2019 with the truths of God \u2018to be planted,\nto take root, to grow, yea, to bring forth fruit\u2019\u2014nevertheless if in a\nway of error they meet with outward blessings, they are apt to ascribe\nall to their errors, and to say as Israel, Hosea ii. 5, \u2018I will go\nafter my lovers that gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my\nflax, mine oil and my drink,\u2019 without any serious consideration of\nGod\u2019s common bounty, which upon far other accounts, \u2018gives them corn,\nand wine, and oil, and multiplies their silver and gold,\u2019 which they\nprepared for Baal, ver. 8. I shall not need to add anything further for\nthe proof and explanation of this than what we have in Jer. xliv. 17,\n18, where the Jews expressly advance their idolatrous worship as the\nright way, and confirm themselves even to obstinacy in the pursuit of\nit, upon this reason: \u2018We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out\nof our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven ... for then\nhad we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil: but since\nwe left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out\nour drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been\nconsumed by the sword and by the famine.\u2019\n\n(9.) Ninthly, Instead of better arguments, Satan usually makes _lies\nhis refuge_: and these respect either the truth which he would cry\ndown, or the errors which he would set up.\n\nThose lies that are managed against truth are of two sorts: mistakes\nand misrepresentations of its doctrines, or calumnies against the\npersons and actions of those that take part with it.\n\nThose lies that are proper to bespatter a truth withal are such as tend\nto render it unlovely, inconvenient, or dangerous. Satan hath never\nbeen a-wanting to raise up mists and fogs to eclipse the shining beauty\nof truth. Sometime he persuades men that it is a novelty, and contrary\nto the tradition of the fathers; and then, if an error had been once\nupon the stage before, and had again been hissed out of the world, when\nit peeps out again into the world, its former impudency is made an\nargument for its antiquity, and truth is decried as novel. Or if it be\nbut an error of yesterday, and hath only obtained an age or two, then\nthe ghosts of our forefathers are conjured up as witnesses, and the\nplea runs current, What has become of your fathers? or, are you wiser\nthan your fathers? are they all damned? These were insisted on by the\nheathens: the gods of the country and the worship of their fathers,\nthey thought, should not be forsaken for Christianity, which they\njudged was but a novelty in comparison of paganism. Of the same extract\nis that old song of the papists, \u2018Where was your religion before\nLuther?\u2019 and to this purpose they talk of the succession of their\nbishops and popes. And other errors grow a little pert and confident,\nif they can but find a pattern or sample for themselves among the old\nheresies. Sometime he endeavours to bring truth into suspicion, by\nrendering it a dangerous encroachment upon the rights and privileges\nof men, as if it would turn all upside down, and introduce factions\nand confusions. This clamour was raised against the gospel, that it\nwould subvert the doctrine of Moses and the law. Sometimes he clothes\nthe opinions of truth with an ugly dress, and misrepresents it to the\nworld as guilty of strange inferences and absurdities, which only arise\nfrom a wrong stating of the questions; and where it doth really differ\nfrom error, he endeavours to widen the differences to an inconvenient\ndistance, so that if it go a mile from error, Satan will have it to\ngo two: if truth teach justification by faith, error represents it as\ndenying all care of holiness and good works; if truth say bare moral\nvirtues are not sufficient without grace, error presently accuseth\nit as denying any necessary use of morality, or affirming that moral\nvirtues are obstructions and hindrances to salvation. It were easy to\nnote abundance of such instances.\n\nAs for calumnies against the persons and actions of those that are\nassertors of truth, it is well known for an old threadbare design, by\nwhich Satan hath gained not a little. Machiavel borrowed the policy\nfrom him, and formed it into a maxim; for he found by experience that\nwhere strong slanders had set in their teeth, though never so unjustly,\nthe wounds were never thoroughly healed; for some that heard the report\nof the slander never heard the vindication, and those that did were not\nalways so unprejudiced as to free themselves from all suspicion, but\nstill something remained usually upon their spirits for ever after; and\nthat, like a secret venom, poisons all that could be said or done by\nthe persons that wrongfully fell under their prejudice, and did not a\nlittle derogate from the authority and power of the truths which they\ndelivered.\n\nThe friends of truth have always to their cost found it so. Christ\nhimself escaped not the lies and censures of men when he did the\ngreatest miracles; they raised this calumny against him, that \u2018he cast\nout devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils,\u2019 John viii. 48. When he\nshewed the most compassionate condescensions, they called him \u2018a man\ngluttonous, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners;\u2019 and at\nlast, upon a misinterpretation of his speeches, \u2018I will destroy this\ntemple, and in three days I will build it up,\u2019 Mat. xxvi. 61, they\narraigned and condemned him for blasphemy; and his servants have,\naccording to what he foretold, drunk of the same cup: the more eminent\nin service the greater draught. Paul, a chosen vessel, met with much\nof this unjust dealing: he was accused, Acts xxi. 28, as speaking\nagainst the people, the law, and the temple, and, chap. xxiv. 5, called\n\u2018a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition, a profaner of the temple.\u2019\nNeither can we wonder at this, that the greatest innocency or highest\ndegree of holiness is no armour or proof against the sharp arrows of\na lying tongue; when we read this as one of Satan\u2019s great characters,\nthat he is \u2018the accuser of the brethren,\u2019 and that his agents are\nso perfectly instructed in this art that they are also branded with\nthe same mark of \u2018false accusers,\u2019 Jude 10. It is well known how the\nprimitive Christians were used: they were accounted \u2018the filth and\noffscouring of all things;\u2019 there could be nothing that could render\nthem odious or ridiculous but they were aspersed with it; as that\nthey \u2018sacrificed infants, worshipped the sun, and used promiscuous\nuncleanness;\u2019 nay, whatever plague or disaster befell their neighbours,\nthey were sure to carry the blame. And we might trace this stratagem\ndown to our own days. Luther in his time was the common butt for all\nthe poisoned arrows of the papists\u2019 calumny; which so exceeded all\nbounds of sobriety and prudence that they devised a romance of his\ndeath, how he was choked of the devil; that before he died he desired\nhis corpse might be carried into the church and adored with divine\nworship; and that after his death the excessive stench of his carcase\nforced all his friends to forsake him. All this and more to this\npurpose they published while he was alive; whose slanders, worthy only\nof laughter, he refuted by his own pen. The like fury they expressed\nagainst Calvin by their Bolsecus, whom they set on work to fill a book\nwith impudent lies against him. Neither did Beza, Junius, or any other\nof note escape without some slander or other. How unjustly the Arians\nof old accused Athanasius of uncleanness, and of bereaving Arsenius of\nhis arm, is sufficiently known in history.[285]\n\nBut the devil\u2019s malice doth not always run in the dirty channel of\nodious calumnies. He hath sometimes a more cleanly conveyance for his\nlies against holy men. In prosecution of the same design, it is a\nfair colour for error if he can abuse the name and credit of renowned\nchampions of truth, by fathering an error upon them which they never\nowned. By this means he doth not only grace a false doctrine with the\nauthority of an eminent person, whose estimation might be a snare\nto some well-meaning persons, but weakens the truth, by bringing\na faithful assertor of it into suspicion of holding, at least in\nsome points, dangerous opinions; by which many are affrighted from\nentertaining anything that they write or preach. For though they may\nbe confessedly sound in the most weighty doctrines, yet if it be once\nbuzzed abroad that they are in anything unsound, this dead fly spoils\nall the precious ointment. And the matter were yet the less if there\nwere any just cause for such a prejudice; but such is Satan\u2019s art, that\nif a man explains the same truth, but in different words and forms\nof speech than those that others have been used unto; or if he casts\nit into a more convenient mould, that, by laying aside doubtful or\nflexible expressions, it may be more safely guarded from the exceptions\nof the adversaries; especially if he carefully choose his path betwixt\nthe extremes on either hand,\u2014this is enough for Satan to catch at,\nand presently he bestows upon him the names of the very errors which\nhe most strenuously opposeth; nay, sometimes if he mention anything\nabove the reach or acquaintance of those that hear him, it is well if\nhe escapes the charge of heresy, and that he meets not with the lot of\nVirgilius, bishop of Salzburg, who was judged no less than heretical\nfor venting his opinion concerning the antipodes.[286] I know men do\nsuch things in their zeal; but while they do so they are concerned to\nconsider how Satan doth abuse their good meaning to the disservice of\ntruth.\n\nAs Satan\u2019s design in bespattering the actions and doctrines of good\nmen is to bring the truth they profess into a suspicion of falsehood,\nand to advance the contrary errors to the place and credit of truth,\nso doth he use a skill proportionable to his design. And though he\nbe so impudent that he will not blush at the contrivance of the most\ngross and malicious lie, yet withal he is so cunning that he studiously\nendeavours some probable rise for his slanders, and commonly he takes\nthis course:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He doth all he can _to corrupt the professors of truth_.\nIf riches or honours will tempt them to be proud, high-minded,\ncontentious, or extravagant, he plies them with these weapons; if the\npleasures of the flesh and world be more likely to besot them, or\nto make them sensual, earthly, or loose, he incessantly lays those\nbaits before them; if fears and persecutions can affright them out of\nduty, if injuries and provocations may prejudice them into a froward\nor wayward temper, he will certainly urge them by such occasions;\nand when he hath prevailed in any measure, he is sure to aggravate\nevery circumstance to its utmost height, and upon that advantage to\nmake additions of a great many things beyond what they can be justly\naccused of. This old device Paul, in Rom. ii. 24, takes notice of\nconcerning the Jews, whose breach of the law so dishonoured God that\n\u2018the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them.\u2019 The\nJews lived wickedly, and their wicked lives was a current argument\namong the Gentiles to confirm them in paganism; for they judged the\nlaw of God could not approve itself to be better than their own, when\nthe professors of it were so naught. To prevent this mischief, we are\nseriously warned to be carefully strict in all our stations, \u2018that the\nname of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed,\u2019 1 Tim. vi. 1; Titus\nii. 5.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Whatever miscarriages any professor of truth is\nguilty of, Satan takes care that it be presently charged upon all the\nprofession_. If any one offend, it is matter of public blame; much more\nif any company or party shall run into extravagances, or do actions\nstrange and unjustifiable; those that agree with them in the general\nname of their profession, though they differ as far from their wild\nopinions and practices as their enemies do, shall still be upbraided\nwith their follies. We see this practised daily by differing parties;\naccording to what was foretold in 2 Pet. ii. 2, \u2018false prophets\u2019 seduce\na great number of Christians to follow their pernicious ways, and by\nreason of their wild, ungodly behaviour, \u2018the whole way of truth was\nevil spoken of.\u2019\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The least slip or infirmity of the children of truth the\ndevil is ready to bring upon the stage_; and they that will not charge\nthemselves as offenders for very great evils, will yet object, to the\ndisparagement of truth, the smallest mistakes of others: a mote in the\neye of the lovers of truth shall be espied when a beam in the eye of\nfalsehood shall pass for nothing.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _Slanderous aspersions are sometimes raised from a\nsimple mistake of actions, and their grounds or manner of performance,\nand sometimes from a malicious misrepresentation_. The devil seldom\nacts from a simple mistake; but he will either suborn the passionate\nopposers to a wilful perverting of the true management of things,\nor will by a false account of things take the advantage of their\nprejudice, to make men believe that such things have been said or done,\nwhich indeed never were. The Christians in the primitive times were\nreported to be bloody men, and that they did kill men in sacrifice, and\ndid eat their flesh and drink their blood; and this was only occasioned\nby their doctrine and use of the sacrament of the body and blood of\nChrist. They were accused for promiscuous uncleanness with one another,\nand this only because they taught that there was no distinction of male\nand female in respect of justification, and that they were all brethren\nand sisters in Christ. This account Tertullian gives of the calumnies\nof those times, and others have noted the like occasions of other\nabuses of them.[287] They were reported to worship the sun, because\nthey in times of persecution were forced to meet early in the fields,\nand were often seen undispersed at sunrising. They were reported to\nworship Bacchus and Ceres, because of the elements of bread and wine in\nthe Lord\u2019s supper. If they met in private places, and in the night, it\nwas enough to occasion surmises of conspiracy and rebellion: so ready\nis Satan to take occasion where none is given.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, But if none of these are at hand, then _a downright lie\nmust do the turn, according to that of Jer._ xviii. 18, \u2018Come and let\nus devise devices against Jeremiah;\u2019 and when once the lie is coined,\nSatan hath officious instruments to spread it: Jer. xx. 10, \u2018Report,\nsay they, and we will report it.\u2019\n\nThese were the lies raised against truth; but besides this endeavour,\nhe useth the same art of lying to enhance the credit of error. Lying\ninspirations, lying signs and wonders we have spoken of; I shall only\nmention another sort of lying, which is that of forgery, an art which\nerror hath commonly made use of. Sometimes books and writings erroneous\nhave been made to carry the names of men that never knew or saw them.\nThe apostles themselves escaped not these abuses: you read of the\ncounterfeit Gospels of Thomas and Bartholomew, the Acts of Peter and\nAndrew, the Apostolical Constitutions, and a great many more. Later\nwriters have by the like hard usage been forced to father the brats of\nother men\u2019s brains. I might be large in these, but they that please may\nsee more of this in authors that have of purpose discovered the frauds\nof spurious, supposititious books.[288] The design is obvious: error\nwould by this means adorn itself with the excellent names of men of\nrenown, that so it might pass for good doctrine with the unwary.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s second way of improving his advantages, which is by\n working upon the understanding indirectly by the affections.\u2014This\n he doth\u2014(1.) By a silent, insensible introduction of error.\n His method herein. (2.) By entangling the affections with the\n external garb of error, a gorgeous dress, or affected plainness.\n (3.) By fabulous imitations of truth. The design thereof.\n (4.) By accommodating truth to a compliance with parties that\n differ from it. Various instances hereof. (5.) By driving to a\n contrary extreme. (6.) By bribing the affections with rewards,\n or forcing them by fears. (7.) By engaging pride and anger.\n (8.) By adorning error with the ornaments of truth._\n\n\nThe usual arguments by which Satan doth directly blind the\nunderstanding to a persuasion to accept darkness for light, we have now\nconsidered. It remains that some account be given of the second way of\nprevailing upon the understanding, and that is _by swaying it through\nthe power and prevalency of the affections_. In order to this he hath\nmany devices, the principal whereof are these:\u2014\n\n1. First, _By silent and insensible procedure he labours to introduce\nerrors_; and lest men should startle at a sudden and full presentment\nof the whole, he thinks it policy to insinuate into the affections,\nby offering it in parcels. Thus he prevents wonderment and surprisal,\nlest men should boggle and turn away, and doth by degrees familiarise\nthem to that which at first would have been rejected with abhorrency.\nWe read in the parable of the tares that the envious man which sowed\nthem, who was Satan, took his opportunity \u2018while men slept,\u2019 and then\nwent away in the dark; insomuch that the discovery was not made at\nthe sowing, but at their coming up. In pursuance of this policy, we\nfind the principal instruments of Satan have followed the footsteps of\ntheir master; they \u2018creep in unawares,\u2019 Jude 4; they \u2018privily bring in\ndamnable heresies,\u2019 2 Pet. ii. 1; and, as if they were guilty of some\nmodest shamefacedness, they \u2018_creep_ into houses,\u2019 2 Tim. iii. 6. The\nsteps by which the devil creeps into the bosoms of men to plant error\nin the heart are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He endeavours to gain the heart by _the ingenuous, sweet,\nand delightful society of those that are corrupted already_. Error\nhath a peculiar art to woo the good-will before it disclose itself.\nIt first steals the ear and affections to the person, and thence\ninsensibly derives it to the opinion. Truth is masculine, and persuades\nby teaching, but error doth often teach by persuading. It is very\ndifficult to affect the person, and not to bestow upon the error better\nthoughts than it deserves. Those therefore that are cunning in the art\nof seduction, make extraordinary pretences of affectionate kindness,\nand, as the apostle noted concerning the seducers of his time, Gal.\niv. 17, \u2018they zealously affect\u2019 those whom they would delude, \u2018but\nnot well.\u2019 Their art doth also teach them not to be over-hasty in\npropounding their opinions, nor so much as to touch upon them, till\nthey perceive they have gained a firm persuasion of their amity, and of\nthe reality of those kindnesses which they have made show of; but when\nthey have once gained this point of advantage, they take opportunity\nmore freely to propound and press their doctrines. Thus are men at last\nbeguiled \u2018with enticing words.\u2019\n\nIt is also part of the same design that Satan sometimes makes use of\nwomen seducers: For, (1.) They are more apt to be deluded themselves:\n\u2018silly women\u2019 are soon \u2018led captive.\u2019 (2.) Being deceived, they are\nmost earnestly forward in the heat of zeal to propagate their opinions.\n(3.) And by the advantage of their nature they are most engaging;\ntheir affectionate persuasions usually have a peculiar prevalency. The\ndaughters of Moab, through Balaam\u2019s counsel, were made choice of as the\nfittest instruments to seduce Israel to idolatry. Solomon, though a\nwise man, was prevailed with by the importunity of his wives, against\nhis former practice and knowledge, to favour false worship. The woman\nJezebel, Rev. ii. 20, was Satan\u2019s under-agent \u2018to teach and seduce\nGod\u2019s servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to\nidols.\u2019 (4.) Besides, they have a greater influence upon their children\nto leaven them with their own opinions.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Satan also observes _a gradual motion in fixing any\nparticular error_. If he attempt it immediately, without an external\nagent, he first puts men upon the reading or consideration of some dark\npassages that seem to look favourably upon his design; then he starts\nthe notion or objection; then begets a scruple or questioning. Having\nonce proceeded thus far, he follows his design with probable reasons,\ntill he have formed it into an opinion. When it is come to this, a\nlittle more begets a persuasion, that persuasion he ripens into a\nresoluteness and obstinacy, and then at last fires it with zeal for the\ndeluding of others. Having thus laid the foundation by one error, he\nnext endeavours to multiply it, and then brings in the inferences that\nunavoidably follow; for as one wedge makes way for another, so from one\nfalsehood another will easily force itself, and from two or three who\nknows how many? And though the consequences are usually more absurd\nthan the principles, yet are they with a small labour brought into\nfavour where the principles are first confidently believed; so that\nthose errors, which because of their ugly look Satan durst not at first\npropound, lest he should scare men off from their reception, he can now\nwith an undaunted boldness recommend. It cannot be imagined that ever\nmen would at first have entertained opinions of contempt of ordinances\nand libertinism, and therefore we may observe they usually come in the\nrear of other opinions, which by a long tract of art prepare their way.\n\nYet may we note, that though Satan usually is forced to wait the\nleisure of some men\u2019s timorousness and bashfulness, and therefore\ncannot ripen error to a hasty birth as he desires, hence is it that\none man often doth no more for his time, but only brew it, or, it may\nbe, makes only the rude draught of it, and another vents and adorns\nit; for so it was betwixt L\u00e6lius and Faustus Socinus, betwixt David\nGeorge and his successors. And though he be so confined to the first\nprinciples of error which he hath instilled that he cannot at present\nenlarge them beyond their own just consequences; yet there are some\nchoice principles of his which, if he can but fasten upon the mind,\nthey presently open the gap to all kind of errors imaginable. They\nare like the firing a train of gunpowder, which in a moment blows\nup the whole fabric of truth. Such are the delusions of enthusiasm,\ninspirations, and prophetic raptures. Let these be once fixed, and then\nthere is nothing so inhuman, irreligious, mad, or ridiculous, but Satan\ncan with ease persuade men to it, and also under the highest pretences\nof religion and certainty. The experience of all ages hath made any\nfurther proof of this altogether needless.\n\nThis is his way when he acts alone. But if he use instruments, though\nhe is also gradual in his procedure, yet it is in a different method;\nfor there he sometimes proceeds from the abuse of something innocent\nand lawful, by the help of a long tract of time, to introduce the\ngrossest falsehood. Thus may we conceive he brought idolatry to\nits height: first men admired the wisdom or famous acts of their\nprogenitors or benefactors; next they erected pillars or images of such\npersons to perpetuate the names, honour, and memory of them and their\nactions. Another age, being at a greater distance from the things done,\nand consequently greater strangers to the true ends and reasons of such\npractices, which being, as it usually falls out in such cases, abused\nby false reports or misrepresentations of things\u2014for time covers things\nof this nature with so thick a mist that it is difficult to discover\nthe true metal of an original constitution\u2014they in a devout ignorance\ngave the images a greater respect than was at first intended. Then\ndid they slide into a conceit they were not of the ordinary rank of\nmortals, or at least they were exalted to a condition which ordinary\nmortals were not capable of. Thus they supposed them deities, and gave\nthem worship of prayers and sacrifices. Hence they went further, and\nmultiplied gods, and that of several sorts, according to the natures of\nthings that were good or hurtful to them; and then at last consulting\nhow mean their offerings were, and how unlikely to please their\ngodships, they concluded human sacrifices most suitable, especially to\nexpiate greater provocations, and in times of great calamity.\n\nThe burdensome heap of ceremonious superstitions in popery was the\nwork of several ages; they were not brought in all at once. One in a\ndevotional heat fancied such a ceremony as a fit testimony of zeal,\nor a proper incitement of his affections; another deviseth a second,\nand so all along. As the minds of men were best pleased with their\nown inventions, and had so much credit or authority to recommend them\nto others, they increased the sum by new additions, till at last\nthey are become a burden not to be borne; and still as they receded\nfrom the primitive purity, and became more careless and corrupt in\ntheir lives\u2014for from good bishops they declined to but tolerable\narchbishops, till at last they are become incurable Babylonians\u2014so they\ndeparted gradually from the simplicity of the gospel, and abounded in\ncontrivances of ceremonies.[289]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _In corrupting established truths_. Satan\u2019s proceedings\nare not by sudden and observable leaps, but by lingering and slow\nmotions\u2014as flowers and plants grow insensibly, and as men gradually\nwax old and feeble. Violent and hasty alterations he knows would beget\nobservation, dislike, and opposition; neither will he make such\nattempts but where he is sure of a strong prevalent party, which\nby force and power is able to carry all before it. In this case he\nis willing to enforce error by fire and sword. Thus he propagated\nMohammedanism at first, and still continueth to do so by the conquering\narms of the Turks; but where he hath not this advantage, he betakes\nhimself to another course, and studieth to do his work so that he may\nnot be observed. The possibility of such a change, with the manner\nof effecting it, we may observe in many churches that have declined\nfrom the doctrine which they at first received, but most of all in\nthe church at Rome, which at first was a pure church, as the apostle\ntestifieth, but now so changed from the truths upon which they were\nbottomed in their first constitution, as if she had not been the\nsame church. They boast indeed that as they were at first, so they\nare now; but nothing is more evident than the contrary; and the\npossibility of their insensible corruption is as demonstrable as the\nalteration of doctrine in any other church. The manifold ways that\nSatan takes in this matter, in the abuse of Scripture, by raising\nperverse interpretations and unnatural inferences, and the advantages\nof a long succession in authority; of the negligence and ignorance of\nthe common people; of the crafty subtlety of the teachers, especially\nwhen religion began to be abused to secular interest, is described by\nAcontius and others.[290] If we should single out any of their noted\nerrors, and follow up the history of it to its first original, we shall\nfind that whatever strong current it hath now gotten, it was very\nsmall and inconsiderable in the fountain. The invocation of saints,\nthough it be now an established article among them, yet its first rise\nwas from the unwary _prosopop\u0153ias_ of the ancients, and the liberty\nof their oratorical declamatory style. These gave occasion to some\nprivate opinions, these opinions to some private devotional liberty in\npractice, and from private opinions and practices, at last it obtained\nso strong a party that it procured a public injunction. The like method\nwas used for the doctrine of transubstantiation, whose beginning was\nfrom the abuse of such sentences as this in ancient writers, that\n\u2018after consecration it was no more bread and wine, but the body and\nblood of Christ;\u2019 by which expression the authors intended no more\nthan this, that the bread and wine in the sacrament were relatively\naltered, and were more than ordinary bread and wine, because they were\nrepresentatives of the body and blood of Christ: however, this gave\nthem courage to interpret literally and strictly these words of Christ,\n\u2018This is my body;\u2019 and thus by degrees from the opinion of a few it\nbecame the judgment of many, and from the toleration of a private\nopinion of some doctors, and unimposed, it obtained at last a canon to\nmake it authentic public doctrine.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, This insensible proceeding is in nothing more evident\nthan _in the power of custom and education_. Custom doth by degrees\ntake off the startling of conscience; and those opinions or practices\nwhich at first look affright it, are by a little familiarity made\nmore smooth and tolerable. The dissents of men by frequent seeing\nand hearing become tame and gentle; but the force of education is\nincomparably great, for this makes an error to become as it were\nnatural; they suck it in with their milk, and draw it in with their\nair. This general advantage the devil hath over all the children of\nerroneous parents, especially where countries or nations are of the\nsame persuasion; insomuch that Turks have as great belief of their\nAlcoran as we of the Bible, and think as reverently of Mohammed as\nChristians do of Christ. The children of idolatrous pagans have as\ngreat a confidence of the truth of their way of heathenish worship, as\nwe have of God\u2019s ordinances and institutions.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, We may see something of this stratagem of silent\nentanglement _in Satan\u2019s surprisals_; for sometimes he inveigles men at\nunawares, and engageth them in error while they know not what they are\ndoing. Weak heads cannot see the far end of a smooth-faced doctrine,\nand they usually embrace it by wholesale, for some particular that\nstrikes upon their fancy, or gratifies their humour. If they read a\nbook that hath some good things in it, or is affectionate, for the sake\nof these they swallow all the rest, though never so dangerous doctrine,\nwithout further examination. The like advantage he hath from actions\nthat are bad or tolerable, according to the various respects which\nthey have to the ends or consequences that lie before them; for he\nfrequently doth interest men in an erroneous consequence, by concerning\nthem in actions that lead that way; and having thus beguiled them into\nan evil mistake, instead of drawing their foot out of the snare, he\npusheth them forward to maintain their ground, and to justify their\nproceedings. This was the case of some of the Corinthians; when the\nheathens had offered a sacrifice to an idol, part of the sacrifice\nwas reserved, and either sold at the shambles, or used in a feast, to\nwhich the heathens sometimes invited their Christian acquaintance or\nrelations. Those that went, knowing that \u2018an idol was nothing,\u2019 ate\nwhat was set before them without any regard to the idol, and \u2018making\nno question for conscience sake;\u2019 by their example others that \u2018had\nnot that knowledge,\u2019 1 Cor. viii. 7, were emboldened, not only to eat\nagainst their scruples and doubts of conscience,\u2014which is all that\nmany interpreters think to be intended in that place,\u2014but also\u2014as the\nwords make probable\u2014with some positive regard to the idol; so that by\nthe examples of those that sat in the idol\u2019s temple, eating what was\nset before them as common meat, others misinterpreting their actions,\nproceeded to eat with a conscience of the idol, as if the idol had been\nsomething indeed, and deserving a conscientious regard. Not unlike\nto this was that art of Julian, mentioned by Sozomen, whereby he\nendeavoured to twist something of paganism with actions and things that\nwere lawful or necessary.[291] He caused the images of Mars and Mercury\nto be placed by his own, so that the respects that were payed to the\nemperor\u2019s picture, seemed to carry a concomitancy of reverence to those\nidols. He also, in prosecution of the same policy, caused their meats\nand drinks to be sprinkled or mixed with the lustral water, that so\nevery one that used them might be inured to give some regard to his\nidols; and that some, at least, might be engaged to a justification of\nthat and such other practices.\n\nAll these are but instances of Satan\u2019s silent insinuation, by which he\nsecretly steals the affections, and through these taints the judgment.\nNext follows,\n\nA second plot upon the affections, which is an endeavour to entangle\nthem by _the external garb of error_. In this he works by two contrary\nextremes, that he may the better prevail with men\u2019s different\ndispositions.\n\n[1.] First, He sometimes _clothes a false doctrine with the most\npompous, gorgeous, delightful attire_, that, like Solomon\u2019s harlot,\nit may entice those that are pleased with the highest gratifications\nof the senses, \u2018I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with\nfine linen of Egypt,\u2019 &c. Most men that are given up to an animal\nlife cannot be pleased with any religion but such as may most please\nthe senses. They so disrelish the simplicity of the gospel\u2014which is,\nnotwithstanding, its particular mark and honour, 2 Cor. xi. 3\u2014that they\ncannot persuade themselves they do anything in religious worship except\nthey abound in costly ceremonious observances. Thus do some interpret\nthat fear of the heathens, which first put them upon images and outward\nrepresentations of their gods. They were afraid they should not have\nany religion to their own satisfaction, except they proceeded in such a\ncourse as might make their senses sure that they were doing something,\n_primus in orbe deos timor fecit_. The devil, knowing well the force\nof external beauties in religion, prepared the way to idolatry by it.\nThey had their costly temples, some of them admirable for antiquity and\nmagnificence, enriched with gifts and offerings, excellent for matter\nand workmanship, adorned with images, lamps, beds, and tables of gold,\nbeautified by art, and natural pleasantness of situation; they had\nalso their groves in the most pleasant and delightful places, as that\nof the Daphne, besides[292] Antiochia, which was environed with tall\ncypress trees ten miles about, and within adorned with the sumptuous\ntemples of Apollo and Diana\u2019s sanctuary. In these places they had\ntheir music and solemn festivals, which were sometimes extraordinary\nfor cost and continuance. Antiochus at Daphne continued an incredible\nsolemnity, with a vast train and costly preparation, for thirty days\u2019\ntogether; and that nothing might be wanting, they had their annual\nfeasts, sacrifices, rites, the adornments of their priests, their white\ngarments, their coats of divers colours, their mitres, &c.; in a word,\nnothing was lacking that might please the eye or ear. And doubtless\nthe devil found this course very successful to win the affections of\nmen to Gentilism. And if it were not for this consideration, it might\nbe admired that the Jews, who were instructed in the true worship of\nGod, should, notwithstanding, be so prone to idolatry, and so hardly\ndrawn from it; but surely their strong inclinations that way proceeded\nfrom a natural delight that men have in a sensual religion, which,\nby a powerful witchcraft, doth enchant them to an excess of love.\nThe same method the devil takes in popery. The chief enticement lies\nin its glorious external appearance. All their religious places are\ndressed up in the highest bravery, they are beautified with images\nand pictures, with lights and costly adornments; they abound in\nrites, ceremonies, gestures, and observances, and all this is but to\ndazzle the eyes, and to win a reverence in men to their worship; and\naccordingly they practise in these exterior things on purpose to ravish\nmen\u2019s affections; their children are brought up to a confirmed delight\nand resolution for popery, by pleasing them with shows, pictures,\nrepresentations, processions, and grateful observances. If a stranger\nof another religion come among them, then, as their first essay, they\nshew them all their play-things, that their affections may be tickled\nwith the outward pomp and ornament of their way, for they know by\nexperience that a glittering outside and a great deal ado of bodily\nlabour is the all of most men\u2019s religion. If it have but body enough,\nthey never inquire whether it have spirit or life within. A dead\ncarcase in robes, that may put them to the exercise of their postures\nand ceremonious compliments, doth make up a more grateful religion for\na carnal man than a living, spiritual service, that necessarily will\nput them upon inward care and watchfulness in the constant exercise of\nholy spiritual graces, without affording any considerable gratification\nto the senses. Hence is it truly more difficult, and yet inwardly more\nbeautiful and glorious, to pray in faith and humility, even in short\nbreathings after God, than to say a thousand Ave Marias, or to perform\na task of ordinary penance. But as those that have no children of their\nown delight themselves in playing with a monkey or baboon, so those\nthat know not how to worship God in spirit and truth seek to satisfy\nthemselves in the performance of external gesture and ceremony.\n\n[2.] Secondly, On the other hand he sometimes is willing that an\nerror should affect _an excess of plainness and simplicity_. In this\nhe takes advantage of those expressions in Scripture, wherein the\ngospel is commended for its simplicity; and the inventions of men,\nunder the pretences of wisdom, humility, and neglecting of the body,\nare condemned. Upon this ground he runs men upon such an excess of\ndotage, that they never think the things of God are rightly managed\nbut when they are brought down to a contemptible silliness. By this\nmeans he arms conceited ignorant men with exceptions against learning,\nand the necessary decencies of language in preaching; and with them\nthey are the only preachers, and most likely to be inspired, that use\nleast study and preparation for their work. It is indeed very true\nthat the affected fooleries of a bombast style or starched discourse,\nand needless citations of sentences for ostentation, without any\ntrue advantage to the matter in hand, are things very pedantic, and\nexceedingly unsuitable to the gravity of the work of the ministry, and\nrenders it very ungrateful to a pious mind; but this contrary folly\nmakes the solemn ordinances of God so nauseous and contemptible, that\nit often makes way, by Satan\u2019s cunning improvement of the temptation,\nto an atheistical rejection of all worship. In the meantime it is\nwonderful to observe how some persons please themselves with this\nconceit, that their way of worship is plain, and that they speak\nwhat immediately comes into their mind; and though it be nonsense or\ncontradictions, which sufficiently evidenceth that it is nothing of\nkin to the Spirit\u2019s inspirations, which they utter, yet it is argument\nenough to them that their opinions and ways are right, because they\nproceed in a designed neglect of all necessary order, and under\npretence of the simplicity of the gospel they reduce all they do to\nchildish silliness. Neither is this all the mischief which the devil\nraiseth out of this conceit, for the contempt and disuse of the\nsacraments may in great part be ascribed to it. Those erroneous ways\nof worship that are most noted for decrying those institutions of\nChrist, have this for their plea, that the worship which God is best\npleased with is spiritual, and that all bodily services and external\nobservations are things that God stands not upon, such as profit\nlittle, and were no further in use, but to recommend an internal\nspiritual communion with God; so that the more they reject these\nthings, they persuade themselves they have a more true understanding\nof the design of God in religion. Either of these ways Satan makes use\nof for the befooling of men into a humour of pleasing themselves with\nerror. But,\n\n[3.] Thirdly, He hath of old endeavoured _to cloud and enervate the\ndoctrine of the Bible by traditionary fables_. We meet with many\npassages to this purpose. Sometimes he sets up unwritten traditions,\nnot only of equal authority to the written word, but as completions and\nperfections of it. This he practised among the Jews with such success,\nthat the traditions of the elders were of greater force with them than\nthe commands of God, as Christ himself noted of them, Mat. xv. 13. Of\nthese unwritten traditions, which they called \u2018the law by the word of\nmouth,\u2019 feigned by them to be given to Moses when he was in the mount,\nand so delivered from hand to hand, the apostles gave many warnings,\nand signified the hazards that truth stood in by them through the\ncunning of Satan; as Col. ii. 8, \u2018Beware lest any man spoil you through\nthe traditions of men;\u2019 1 Tim. i. 4, \u2018Neither give heed to fables, and\nendless genealogies;\u2019 Titus i. 14, \u2018Not giving heed to Jewish fables,\nand commandments of men;\u2019 2 Tim. iv. 4, \u2018And they shall turn away their\nears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.\u2019\n\nThe papists at this day give the same entertainment to this device\nthat the Jews did of old; they boast as high of their traditions, and\nare every whit as fabulous and foolish in them as they were. Satan in\nhis attempts upon the Gentiles to confirm them in their false worship,\nthough he kept up the substance of this design, yet he was necessitated\nto alter the scene a little, that he might more handsomely accommodate\nit to their condition; and therefore he set up amongst them fabulous\nimitations of the truths and ordinances of the Scripture, insomuch that\nthere is scarce any grand mystery or remarkable history or ordinance\nmentioned in the Scripture but we may find something among the heathens\nin tradition or practice that doth allude to it. What traditionary\nimitations had they of the creation recorded in the book of Genesis!\nThat of Ovid concerning the chaos and first beginning of things is\nknown to every schoolboy. The Ph\u0153nicians in their theology give an odd\naccount of it from their Taautus, to this purpose:[293] \u2018That the\nfirst beginnings of all things were a dark, disordered chaos, and the\nspirit of the dark air; hence proceeded _moth_, that is, mire, from\nthence issued the seeds and generation of all creatures in earth and\nheaven,\u2019 &c. The wickedness of men before the flood\u2014mentioned Gen.\nvi. 1, 2\u2014is fabulously related in an ancient book, falsely ascribed\nto Enoch, wherein the watchmen or angels are reported to take them\nwives of the daughters of men, and that from thence was the race of\ngiants.[294] For the description of paradise, the heathens had the\npoetical fiction of the Elysian fields; as they had the story of\nDeucalion, instead of Noah\u2019s ark and the deluge. The story of Lot\u2019s\nwife was abused by the fiction of Orpheus his wife, suddenly snatched\nfrom him for looking back. The history of Samson was turned into their\nstory of Hercules and his ten labours. From the sun standing still in\nJoshua and Hezekiah\u2019s time, came that fiction of Jupiter\u2019s doubling\nthe night, that he might enjoy Alcmena. In some of these disguises\nof sacred story, they go so near in name and circumstances, that it\nis past doubt they imitated the true history, which they corrupted.\nFor instance, Herodotus relates that Sethon, king of Egypt and priest\nof Vulcan, was helped by his god from heaven against Sennacherib,\nwhich plainly relates to Hezekiah king of Judah, and the wonders that\nGod did for him.[295] So in imitation of Uriah\u2019s letters to Joab for\nhis own destruction, we have in Homer and others the story of Pr\u0153tus\nsending letters to Jobatas by Bellerophon, wherein his death was\ncommanded; the near affinity of the names Joab and Jobatas, shews with\nwhat heifer the devil ploughed. The history of Abraham\u2019s offering\nup Isaac is by Porphyry applied to Saturn, who saith he was by the\nPh\u0153nicians called Israel; he had by Anobreth one only son called\nJeud,\u2014an evident allusion, saith Godwyn, [Antiq., lib. iv. cap. 3,] to\nGen. xxii. 2, where Isaac is in the Hebrew called Jechid, that is, an\nonly-begotten,\u2014him he offered up on an altar purposely prepared. Here\nnot only the matter, but the names, do clearly shew that Abraham\u2019s\nstory is imitated in this. The like imitation I might shew to have\nbeen among the heathen of doctrinal truths, as of the sacred mystery\nof the Trinity. In Peru they worship the father, son, and brother; as\nalso their Tangatauga, which they say was one in three, and three in\none.[296] But their imitation of ordinances is everywhere remarkable,\nso that I need say nothing of their temples, priests, sacrifices, and\nother religious rites; only the devil\u2019s imitation of the sacraments\nof the New Testament deserves particular observation. Instances of an\napish imitation of baptism are everywhere obvious, and that of the\nLord\u2019s supper or Christian communion was frequently resembled in the\nchief Peruvian feasts, where they carried small loaves of bread in\ngreat platters of gold, of which all present received and ate little\npieces, and this as a sign of honour and profession of obedience to\ntheir gods and the ingua.[297] Not unlike to this were those morsels\nof paste which the Mexicans used in their religious feasts, which they\nlaid at their idol\u2019s feet, consecrating them by singing and other\nceremonies, and then they called them the flesh and bones of their\ngod Vitziliputzli, alluding directly to that of our Saviour, \u2018This is\nmy body,\u2019 &c., insomuch that Acosta thought the devil mocked their\ntransubstantiation by it. This was distributed among all, and was eaten\nwith a great deal of reverence, fear, and devotion.[298]\n\nWe may see by those instances that in these fabulous imaginations of\ntruth the devil hath industriously traded, and that which he aimed at\nin this design may easily be conjectured to be,\n\n[1.] _The despiting and discrediting of truth._ He renders it by this\nmeans suspicious of some forgery; as if the Scripture were no better\nthan an uncertain tradition, as if, at the best, it were doubtful\nwhether Scripture or these traditionary fables had better authority.\n\n[2.] He further intends _the entanglement of the affections to error\nby this device_; for he doth, as it were, take the spoils of the\ntabernacle to adorn his Dagon withal; and without doubt the heathens\nwere very much hardened in Gentilism by these traditionary stories.\nHence one observes,[299] the devil imitated the history of the miracle\ndone in favour of Hezekiah, that the Scriptures might lose their credit\nand authority, and that the glory of such a wonder might be transferred\nto their idols; and the consequence of both these is,\n\n[3.] _To deprive the truth of its convincing power upon the consciences\nof men._ The principles of Scripture convince by the evidence of their\ntruth. If that truth be questioned by the substitution of another\ncompetitor, it presently loseth its force, and the commands thereof are\ndisregarded upon a supposition of its uncertainty.\n\n[4.] Another of his ways to betray the understanding by the affections,\nis by _putting men upon an accommodation of truth to a compliance\nwith parties differing from it_. And this hath been so much the more\nsuccessful, because it hath begun, and been carried on, upon the most\nspecious pretences. The avoiding of offences, the smoothing of the way\nof religion for the gaining of the contrary minded, the preservation of\npeace and unity, are pleas very plausible; and really, upon the account\nof these things, the Scripture, both by its precepts and examples,\nhath recommended to us condescensions and brotherly forbearances. The\nJews, who were dissatisfied at the first publication of the liberty\nfrom the yoke of Mosaical ceremonies purchased for us by Christ, were\nindulged in the use of circumcision, and observance of the difference\nof meats for a long time, till they might be the better satisfied in\nthe truth. These pretences the devil makes use of to undermine truth.\nAnd pleasing his agents with the honour of a pious design\u2014and it may be\nat first really so intended by them\u2014he prevails with them, not only for\na present condescension to men of contrary practice, but to cast the\nprinciples of truth into such a fixed mould that they may carry a more\nnear resemblance to those opinions which they do most directly oppose.\nThe appearance of sanctity, peaceableness, prudence, and successfulness\nin such an undertaking, doth exceedingly animate the well-meaning\ndesigners, which Satan, in the meantime, carries them beyond all\nbounds, and so dangerously fixeth an unnatural representation of truth,\nthat it loseth its own splendour, and settles at last upon unsafe\nnotions. Thus by the continuance of such a compliance, error begins to\nrecruit its forces, and is as likely to draw over truth wholly to its\nside\u2014by the argument of resemblance, and the consequences following\nthereupon\u2014as truth is wholly to extirpate and conquer error. And if it\ndo not that, succeeding ages, that minded not the first design, finding\nthings so continued to them, in deep reverence to their predecessors,\nform their prudential condescensions into perverse opinions.\n\nIf we follow the tract of time from the first preaching of the gospel,\nwe may find Satan\u2019s footsteps all along. In the apostles\u2019 times, when\nthe believing Jews were tolerated necessarily till time and experience\nmight fully convince them in their observation of the law of Moses,\nwhich was certainly given of God, and so might very easily occasion an\nopinion of the continuance of it, Acts xv. 1, 5, though the apostles\ndid not at all accommodate the standing precepts of the New Testament\nto carry a perpetual resemblance of that opinion, neither did they\nstill countenance that practice, but did seasonably and fully declare\nagainst it, exhorting Christians \u2018to stand in the liberty wherewith\nChrist hath made them free,\u2019 Gal. v. 1, 2, yet Satan was busy to\ntake advantage of the present forbearances, which the Holy Ghost\nhad directed them unto; insomuch that instead of convincing all the\ndissenters by that lenity, some dissenters waxed bold to persuade the\nChristians \u2018to another gospel.\u2019 But after their days the devil pursued\nthis design with greater scope; for instance, in Constantine\u2019s time,\nwhen the Gentiles flocked into the church with dirty feet and in their\nold rags, they were tolerated in some old customs of Gentilism, and\nupon a design to win them, they made bold to bend the doctrine of the\ngospel toward their former usages; they thought indeed it was best to\nwink at things, and not to bear too hard upon them at first, but that,\ntolerating a lesser evil, they might avoid a greater inconvenience;\nand withal they deemed they had done great service to the church and\nChristian religion, if they could any way divert the heathen from\nworshipping their idols. And to effect this the easilier, they seemed\nto cherish their customs and rites of worship, as consonant in the\ngeneral to the principles of Christianity, only they excepted against\nthe object of their worship as unlawful, so that upon the matter they\ndid no more than change the name. The manifold inconveniences that\nfollowed this kind of dealing, they did not discover at first; but\nbesides the infecting the simplicity of Christian religion with the\ndirt and dregs of paganism, which they might easily have seen, time\nhath since discovered that here the devil secretly laid the chief\nfoundations of popery.\n\nWhosoever shall impartially compare the rites, customs, usages, and\ngarbs of popery, with those of paganism, will to his admiration find\nsuch an exact agreement and consonancy, that he must necessarily\nconclude that either paganism imitated popery, or popery imitated\npaganism; but the latter is true, and that these corruptions in\nreligion by popery came in by a designment of conforming Christianity\nto heathenism, though it may be upon pious intentions at first, is\nno difficult thing to evince; for besides that the rites of paganism\nwere more ancient, and so could not be borrowed from popery, which\ncame long after, the Scripture did foretell a great defection from\ntruth which should be in the \u2018last days,\u2019 and this under a profession\nof religion; and the things particularised are such as shew that the\ndefection should carry an imitation of paganism: for no less seems to\nbe signified by 1 Tim. iv. 1, \u2018The Spirit speaketh expressly, that\nin the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to\nseducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;\u2019 that is\u2014as Mr Mede, whose\ninterpretation I follow,[300] doth prove\u2014doctrines concerning devils\nor demons: as in Heb. vi. 2, we have the phrase of \u2018doctrines of\nbaptisms,\u2019 which must needs signify doctrines concerning baptisms; the\nGentile theology of demons is the thing which Paul prophesies should be\nintroduced into Christianity. How clearly this relates to popery may be\nevident to any that doth not wilfully blind himself by prejudice. Their\ndoctrine of demons was this: they supposed two sorts of gods, supreme\nand inferior; the supreme they supposed did dwell in the heavenly\nlights, sun, moon, and stars, without change of place; these they\njudged were so sublime and pure, that they might not be profaned with\nthe approach of earthly things, and that immediate approaches to them\nwere derogatory to their sovereignty. The inferior order of gods they\nimagined were of a middle sort, betwixt the supreme beings and men,\nas participating of both. These they called mediators and agents, and\nsupposed their business was to carry up men\u2019s prayers to God, and to\nbring down blessings from God upon men. These were in Scripture called\nBaalim, and by the Greeks demons; to this purpose Austin and others\nspeak.[301]\n\nNow these demons they supposed were the souls of dead men, that had\nbeen more than ordinarily famous in their generation. Thus Ninus\nmade an image to his father Belus after he was dead, and caused him\nto be worshipped. Hermes confesseth that \u00c6sculapius, grandfather to\nAsclepius, and Mercury, his own grandfather, were worshipped as gods\nof this order. Abundance of instances I might produce to this purpose;\nbut to go on, these demons, because to them was committed the care of\nterrestrial affairs, as Celsus argues against Origen, and because of\nthe help and advantage that men might receive from them, they supposed\nit gratitude and duty to worship them, and this worship they performed\nat their images, sepulchres, and relics. To this purpose Plutarch tells\nus of Theseus his bones, and Plato of the \u03b8\u1fc6\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 or shrines of their\ndemons.[302]\n\nHow evident is it that the papists in their doctrine and practice about\nthe invocation of saints and angels, have writ after this copy, and\nthat they are the men that have introduced this doctrine of demons,\nthe thing itself declares without further evidence. Had the heathens\ntheir dead heroes for agents betwixt the supreme gods and men? so\nhave the papists their dead saints to offer up their prayers. Did\nthe heathen expect more particular aids from some of these demons in\nseveral cases than from others? so do the papists. Instead of Diana\nfor women in labour, and \u00c6sculapius for the diseased, they have their\nSt Margaret and St Mary for travailing; Sebastian and Roch against\nthe pestilence; Apollonia against the toothache; St Nicholas against\ntempests, &c. Did the heathen pray to these demons for their aid? so\ndo the papists to their saints, as their breviaries, rosaries, and\nLady\u2019s psalters testify. Had the heathen their feasts, their _statas\nferias_ to their demons? so have the papists. Had they their _Februalia\net Proserpinilia_ with torches and lights? so have the papists their\nCandlemas with lights. Did the heathen erect images and pillars, or\nkeep the ashes and shrines of their demons? so do the papists; the\none had processions and adorations, so have the other; and a great\nmany more things there are wherein popery keeps a correspondence with\nheathenism. To this purpose you may read enough in Monsieur de Croy,\n\u2018Of the Three Conformities.\u2019\n\nTo make it yet more clear that the corruptions in religion by popery\ncame in by the design of suiting Christian religion to paganism, I\nshall in a testimony or two shew you that they professedly avouched\nthe design. Gregory the Great writes chidingly to Serenus, bishop of\nMarseilles, who it seems was no forward man in this matter to this\npurpose,[303] \u2018Thou shouldst have considered that thou didst converse\nchiefly with the Gentiles, to whom pictures are instead of reading,\nto the end that no offence be given them under colour of lawful zeal,\nwherewith thou art not cunningly endued.\u2019 And in another epistle to\nMellitus,[304] he adviseth, \u2018That the honours and offerings which the\nheathens gave to their demons should be transferred to the martyrs\nand their relics,\u2019 and gives this reason for it, \u2018It is impossible,\u2019\nsaith he, \u2018to cut off all at once from stubborn minds.\u2019[305] Eusebius\nalso endeavours to persuade to Christianity by this argument, that\nthe Christians\u2019 custom of honouring the memories of the martyrs, and\nsolemnly assembling at their sepulchres, did agree with the custom\nof the Gentiles of doing the like honour to their demons, and having\nmentioned what Hesiod speaks concerning Plato\u2019s opinion, that their\nchampions became demons after death, helpers and protectors of men\u2014for\nwhich cause they were worshipped at their sepulchres as gods; he\nadds to this purpose, that \u2018if these honours had been given to the\nfavourites of God, and champions of true religion, it had been well\nenough;\u2019 and for this shews the example and custom of Christians then\nto go to the tombs of martyrs, there to pray in honour of their blessed\nspirits. And although at first they might be more modest in honouring\nthe martyrs than now they are, according to that of Austin, \u2018These\nobservances at the tombs of martyrs,\u2019 saith he, \u2018are only ornaments of\ntheir memories, not sacrifices to them as to gods.\u2019[306] Yet this soon\nslid into greater abuse, insomuch that Lud. Vives,[307] in his notes\non that chapter, blames those of his own time for worshipping saints\nas gods, and tells us he cannot see the difference betwixt the opinion\nconcerning saints, as generally practised, and that of the heathens\nconcerning their gods. I might add the positive acknowledgment of\nBeatus Rhenanus, Jacobus de Voragine, concerning the burning of candles\nto the Virgin Mary, which custom they confess was borrowed from the\nheathens, with a respect to the frowardness of paganism, and a design\nnot to exasperate them, that they might gain them.\n\nI might also shew that the mischief of this design, of accommodating\ntruth to a compliance with different parties, hath not only shewn\nitself in introducing strange actions and ceremonies, but hath also\ndiscovered itself in leavening men\u2019s judgments in reference to opinion.\nCalvin conjectures[308] that those confident assertions of the powers\nof nature were first occasioned by an over-officious willingness\nto reconcile the doctrine of the Scripture with the opinions of\nphilosophy; and that men being unwilling to run the hazard of the\nscorn which they might meet with in contradicting the general received\nprinciples of philosophers, were willing to form the doctrine of\ntruth relating to human ability accordingly. Abundance of instances\nof this kind may be given. Whence came the doctrine of purgatory, but\nfrom hence? It is but Plato\u2019s philosophy Christianised by the Roman\nsynagogue.[309] He divided all men into three ranks: the virtuous,\nwho are placed by him in the Elysian fields; the desperate ungodly,\nthese he adjudgeth to everlasting fire; and a third sort, betwixt the\nperfectly virtuous and the desperately wicked, he sendeth to Acheron,\nto be purged by punishment. All of this Eusebius makes mention of at\nlarge.[310] That the papists derived their purgatory from hence is\ngenerally affirmed by protestants\u2014nay, not only in these cases, but\nin very many more, corruptions have entered into Christianity by an\nover-eager endeavour to make the doctrine of the Scriptures to run\neven with the sayings and assertions of the schools of philosophers;\na thing complained of old by Tertullian, who plainly affirmed the\nphilosophers to be the patriarchs of the heretics.[311] To which\nagrees that observation of Dr Owen, that those who either apologised\nfor Christians, or refuted the objections of the heathens against\nChristianity, frequently cited the opinions or sentences of the\nphilosophers, and accommodated them to their purpose, that so they\nmight beget in their adversaries more friendly persuasions towards\nthe Christian religion, by evidencing that the mysteries thereof were\nnot absurd, nor dissonant from reason, seeing they might be justified\nby the sayings of their own philosophers. And \u2018here was laid, in this\ndesign and its prosecution, (and surely it pleased its undertakers\nnot a little,) the foundation of that evil which religion hath since\ngroaned under, that men made bold with the tremendous mysteries of\nChristianity, to accommodate them unwarily to the notions of the\nGentiles.\u2019[312] And this the apostle Paul foresaw in that caution he\ngave, Col. ii. 8, \u2018Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy\nand vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of\nthe world, and not after Christ.\u2019 Certainly the snare is neither\nunusual nor weak, where the caution is so serious. It is a thing\nnaturally pleasing, to be the inventor of any new thing, or to make\nnew discoveries in religion, to raise new hypotheses, or to adventure\nin unbeaten paths, for a reconcilement of religion to any notion or\npractice famous for its antiquity, or pretence to beauty and decency.\nMen hug themselves when they can make several things to hit right, and\nan exact suiting of parallels is instead of demonstration. By this\nfoolish delight the devil makes men bold to make essays; and what doth\nanswer their humour passeth current for undoubted truth.\n\n[5.] He doth sometime blind the understanding, _by working up the\naffections to such an earnest opposition to some error, that in a\nforward haste they cast the mind upon a contrary extreme_; so that\nthrough a hasty, violent avoidance of one error, they are cast upon a\ncontrary, and, it may be, as dangerous as that they fly from. And this\nthe devil doth with great ease, having the plausible pretence of zeal\nand care to truth, wherein the affections being highly engaged, the\nmind in a careless confidence doth easily overshoot the truth, which\ncommonly lies in the middle, and thinks it doth well enough if it gives\nthe greatest contradiction to the error now to be abominated. Men in\nthis case, having their eyes only fixed upon what they would avoid,\nconsider not so much whither they are going, as from what they go. So\nthat seeking, as men in a fright, to avoid the pit that is before them,\nthey run backward into another behind them.\n\nThis is such a noted stratagem of Satan, that all men take notice of\nit in the general, though all men do not improve the discovery for\ntheir own particular caution. The wisest of men are often so befooled\nby their violent resistance of an untruth, that they readily overshoot\nthemselves and miss the mark. The fathers, in the heat of dispute,\nsaid many things so inconveniently, that those who come after do see\nand lament these hasty oversights, and have no other way to salve\ntheir credit but by giving this observation in excuse for them. And it\nmay be observed that some errors which have risen from this root at\nfirst have so strongly fixed themselves, that they have grown up to\nthe great annoyance of the truth; while the contrary errors that did\noccasion them are forgotten, and their memories are perished. I shall\nbut instance in one instead of many, and that shall be Arianism. How\nsadly prevalent that hath been in its time, all men know that know\nanything of church history. The Christian world once groaned under\nit. But that which gave the first occasion to Arius to fix himself\nin that error was the doctrine of Alexander, who, discoursing of\nthe unity in the Trinity too nicely, seemed to justify the error of\nSabellius, who had taught, as also Noetus before, that there was but\none person in the Trinity, called by divers names of Father, Son, and\nSpirit, according to different occasions; the Trinity, according to\nhis doctrine, being not of persons, but of names and functions. While\nArius was dissatisfied with this account of the Trinity, he ran to a\ncontrary extreme; and that he might give the highest proof of a Trinity\nof persons, he affirmed that Jesus Christ had a beginning, and that\nthere was a time when he was not, &c. Thus Socrates speaks of the rise\nof that heresy.[313]\n\nWe might further follow the footsteps of this device, and trace it in\nmost opinions; where we might find the humour of running to a contrary\nextreme hath still either set up a contrary error, or at least leavened\nthe truth with harsh and unjustifiable expressions and explanations.\nThe disputes betwixt faith and works have been thus occasioned and\naggravated. Some speak so of faith, as if they slighted works; others\nso urge a necessity of works, as if they intended to make faith\nuseless. Some talk of grace, to an utter contempt of morality; others,\non the contrary, magnify morality to the annihilating of grace. Some\nin their practice acquiesce in the outward performance of ordinances:\nif they pray or receive the sacraments, though never so formally,\nthey are at peace, supposing they have done all that is required;\nothers observing the mistake, and knowing that God looks more to the\nperformance of the soul and spirit than to the act of the body, upon\na pretence of worshipping God in spirit, throw off the observation of\nhis ordinances altogether. Neither is there anything that doth more\ngenerally and apparently undo us in the present dissensions, as many\nhave complained, than men\u2019s violent overdoing and running to contrary\nextremes.\n\n[6.] Satan _makes use of rewards or punishments, on the one hand\nto bribe, or on the other to force the affections, and they being\nstrongly possessed, easily prevail with the understanding to give\nsentence accordingly_. Men are soon persuaded to take that for truth\nwhich they see will be advantageous to them. Some men indeed take\nup with a profession of truth, which yet their hearts approve not;\nbut the advantages they have by their profession, do silence their\ndissatisfactions; these are said to use the profession of truth as\n\u2018a cloak of covetousness,\u2019 2 Thes. ii. 5. But others go further, and\nare really brought to an approbation of that doctrine or way that\nmakes most for their profit, their minds being really corrupted by a\nself-seeking principle. They persuade themselves, where there is any\ncontest about doctrines, that that doctrine is true which is gainful,\nand will accordingly dispute for it. Hence that expression in 1 Tim.\nvi. 5, \u2018supposing that gain is godliness.\u2019\n\nTo this may be added, that the affections are quickly sensible of the\nease and sensual gratifications of any doctrine, and these are usually\nthrown into the same scale to make more weight. Men have naturally a\ngood liking to that doctrine that promiseth fair for ease, liberty,\ngain, and honour; and this hath made it a usual piece of Satan\u2019s\nbusiness in all ages to gild an error with outward advantages, and to\ncorrupt the mind by secret promises of advancement.\n\nOn the other side, he labours as much to prejudice truth, by\nrepresenting it as hazardous and troublesome to the professors of\nit. And this not only affrights some from an open confession of the\ntruth they believe, but also, by the help of the affections, doth\npersuade some to believe that to be an error, which unavoidably brings\npersecution with it. By this engine are the minds of men turned about\nto think well or ill of a doctrine presented to them. This is so well\nknown that I shall forbear a further prosecution of this head, and\ngo to the next course that Satan takes to corrupt the judgment by the\naffections; which he doth,\n\n[7.] _By stirring up some particular passions, which in opinions do\nusually more influence the understanding._ And here I shall only insist\nupon these two, pride and anger, with the peculiar means that Satan\nhath to engage them in his service.\n\nThat pride and anger are the two usual firebrands of contention and\nfountains of error, all ages have acknowledged and bewailed. These two\ncompanions in evil do so darken the mind, that the miserable captive in\nwhom they domineer is carried blindfold, he knows not whither, nor how.\nPride usually begins, and anger follows with all its forces, to justify\nwhat pride hath undertaken. Hence the apostle, in 1 Tim. vi. 4, rakes\nup all the concomitant filth of error, as envy, strife, railings, evil\nsurmisings, and perverse disputings of men, and lays them at the door\nof pride: \u2018He is proud, knowing nothing.\u2019\n\nFor the engaging of these two thieves, that rob the understanding\nof its light, Satan hath many artifices in readiness. Pride, which\nis forward enough of itself, is soon excited by laying before it an\nopportunity of a seeming rare discovery, or of advancing the glory of\nknowledge above the common pitch, of being seen and admired as more\nexcellent than others, &c.: for upon such unworthy grounds have some\ndared to adventure upon strange notions; yet there is nothing that\ndoth more firmly engage it than contention or dispute: for though the\nproper end of disputation be the sifting out of truth, yet such is\nman\u2019s pride, and Satan\u2019s advantage by it, that it seldom attains its\ntrue end in those that are engaged. Bystanders that keep their minds\ncalm and unbiased, may receive more satisfaction than the contenders\nthemselves; and there needs no other evidence of this than the common\nexperience which men have of our frequent contentions; where we\nhave confutations, answers and replies, and yet still all parties\ncontinue in their opinions without conviction. So that they that would\nunfeignedly seek truth, in my mind, take not the best course in their\npursuit, that presently engage themselves in a public dispute; for the\nusual heats that are begot in a contention alienate their minds from\na just impartiality, and the dust they raise blinds their eyes, that\nthey discern not truly. Let us look into this artifice of engaging\npride by disputation, and by it the judgment. First we find that when\na humour of contending is raised, certain truths are neglected, as\nto their improvement and practice; for so much of the strength of\nthe soul is laid out upon disputable questions, that little is left\nfor more weighty matters. Secondly, In disputes men\u2019s credit is so\nconcerned, that it is a most difficult thing to preserve a faithful\nregard to verity, especially where they are managed with affronts\nand contumelies. They that by calm handling might be induced to\nacknowledge a mistake, will scarce come near that point of ingenuity,\nwhen they must be called fool, knave, or ass for their labour. Hence\nordinarily, though they profess otherwise, men seek rather victory than\ntruth. Thirdly, In disputes pride and passion are usually heightened,\nand the stronger the passions are the weaker is the judgment. Eager\naltercations bring a confusion, both upon the matter of which they\ndispute and upon the understanding that should judge. Fourthly, In the\nheat of disputation, when the mind is inflamed, men usually behave\nthemselves like those in a fray, where they snatch and throw anything\nthat comes to hand, and never mind where it hits; they will affirm or\ndeny anything that may seem any way to bring them off. Fifthly, These\nassertions being once affirmed must be maintained, and so errors and\ncontentions increase without end. Disputes fix a man in his persuasion,\nand do, as it were, tie him to the stake, so that right or wrong he\nwill go through with it. Sixthly, Some dispute in jest against their\npresent judgment, and yet at last dispute themselves into a belief of\nwhat they wantonly at first affirmed; as some tell lies so long, that\nat length they believe them to be true. Seventhly, A sadder mischief\noften follows a disputing humour, which is a hazard of the loss of all\ntruth. Men dispute so long till they suspect all things, and after a\nlong trade of scepticism turn atheists.[314]\n\nAfter the same manner doth the devil engage anger in all disputes and\ncontroversies, for it keeps company with pride, wherever there is a\nprovocation. And besides this, anger stirring up injuries and wrongs,\nhath often engaged men, as it were in revenge, to change their opinion,\nand to take up another way or doctrine. Nay, often that simple mixture\nof pride and anger which we call emulation, hath privately tainted the\nintegrity of mind, and prepared it for the next fair opportunity of\nerror. This is noted of Arius, by Theodoret, that when Alexander was\nchosen bishop of Alexandria, he envied him the preferency, and from\nthence sought occasions of contention, which after a little while the\ndevil brought to his hand, as we have heard.[315]\n\nSo great is the power of these two passions over the understanding,\nthat we have cause to wonder at their success. Seldom or never can it\nbe shewn that any ringleader in error was not visibly tainted with\npride, or not apparently soured with discontents and emulation.\n\n[8.] To these ways of blinding the understanding by the affections\nI shall add but one more, which is this: Satan endeavours mainly to\n_adorn an error with truth\u2019s clothing_. He takes its ornaments and\njewels to dress up a false doctrine, that it may look more lovely and\ndutiful; I mean that he designs, where errors are capable of such an\nimitation, to put them into the way, method, garb, and manner which\ntruth doth naturally use. If truth be adorned with zeal, order,\nstrictness, or have advantageous ways of managing itself, error must\nstraightway imitate it in all these things; and though he that looks\nnear may easily discern that it is not the natural complexion of error,\nbut an artificial varnish, and such as doth no more become it than a\ncourt dress doth become a coarse, clownish, country person\u2014for you may\nat first look usually discover the wolf under sheep\u2019s clothing, and\nunder the garb of the apostles of Christ you may see the ministers of\nSatan\u2014yet are the credulous usually affected with these appearances.\nIf they find a professed strictness, a seeming severity, an imitation\nof the ways of truth, or of the fruits thereof, they commonly seek no\nfurther, but judge that to be truth which doth the things that truth\ndoth; and if error can handsomely stand in competition with truth,\nupon a pretence of being as effectual in good works, and doing things\nof themselves lovely and of good report, it doth much gain upon the\ngood liking of those whose consideration leads them not much further\nthan fair appearances. I shall only exemplify this by the art and\npolicy which Julian used to set up paganism, and to ruin Christianity;\nand those who have observed the ways which he took to gain his end,\nwill readily acknowledge he was as well skilled in advancing error\nand suppressing truth as any whosoever, and knew exactly to suit his\ndesigns to men\u2019s inclinations. He observing that Christian religion\nhad some particular things in its practice and way which made its face\nto shine, as that it had persons solemnly set apart by ordination for\nteaching the mysteries of the gospel, and for managing the public\nworship of God; that these persons were to be grave in their carriage,\nand exemplary in a strict holy conversation; that the constitutions\nof religion appointed certain necessary and effectual ways of\ndiscipline, for punishment, and restoring of offenders, and bringing\nthem to repentance; that it took care of the comfortable maintenance\nof those that had given up themselves to the ministry of the word and\nprayer; that it also enjoined a relief of the poor and strangers, &c.:\ntaking notice, I say, of these excellencies in Christianity, and how\nlovely they were in the eyes of their enemies, he appointed the like\nconstitutions for paganism, and ordained that the idol temples should\nbe suited in conveniency and comeliness to Christian churches: that\nthere should be seats and desks for the chief doctors and readers of\nGentilism, who at set times were to exhort the people and pray with\nthem; and that colleges and monasteries should be erected for them,\nand for the relief of the poor and strangers; he commanded discipline\nand penances for the chastisement of offenders; he required that their\npriests should seriously give up themselves to the worship of God, as\nalso their families, that they should not frequent shows and taverns,\nnor practise any infamous trade and art. Thus Sozomen reports him,[316]\nand gives us a copy of his letter to Arsacius, high priest of Galatia,\nto this purpose; and all this he did to bring Gentilism into credit\nwith the vulgar, whom he had observed to be affected to Christianity\nfor its order, strictness, and government.\n\nYet is not this the only instance that may be given in this kind: for\nobserve but any error that by schism sets up for itself in a distinct\nparty, and you shall see that though it departs from the truth of the\nchurch, and from its communion, yet still, as the Israelites did with\nthe Egyptians, it carries away with it these jewels of the church, and\nkeeps to some considerable part of the church\u2019s way, though modified\naccording to its own bent, that it might have a lustre with it, to make\nit taking with others.\n\nThese eight particulars are the most remarkable ways of Satan whereby\nthe affections are gained to a good liking of error, and by them the\njudgment secondarily corrupted to call it truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n _Satan\u2019s attempts against the peace of God\u2019s children\n evidenced\u2014(1.) By his malice; (2.) From the concernment\n of peace to God\u2019s children; what these concerns are, explained.\n (3.) From the advantages which he hath against them by\n disquieting their minds\u20141. Confusion of mind; 2.\n Unfitness for duty, and how; 3. Rejection of duty; 4.\n A stumbling-block to others; 5. Preparation of the mind to\n entertain venomous impressions, and what they are; 6. Bodily\n weakness; 7. Our miseries Satan\u2019s contentment._\n\n\nWe have viewed the ways of Satan by which he tempts to sin, by which\nhe withdraws men from duty and service, by which he corrupts the mind\nthrough error. It only now remains that something be spoken of his\nattempts against the peace and comfort of the children of God.\n\nThat it is also one of Satan\u2019s chief designs to cheat us of our\nspiritual peace, may be fully evinced by a consideration of his malice,\nthe great concern of inward comfort to us, and the many advantages\nwhich he hath against us by the disquiet of our minds.\n\n1. First, Whosoever shall seriously consider the devil\u2019s _implacable\nmalice, will easily believe that he so envies our happiness that he\nwill industriously rise up against all our comforts_. It is his inward\nfret and indignation that man hath any interest in that happiness\nfrom which he irrecoverably fell, and that the Spirit of God should\nproduce in the hearts of his people any spiritual joy or satisfaction\nin the belief and expectation of that felicity; and therefore must\nit be expected that his malice\u2014heightened by the torment of his\nown guilt, which, as some think, are those \u2018chains of darkness\u2019 in\nwhich he is reserved at present \u2018to the judgment of the great day,\u2019\n[2 Peter ii. 4,]\u2014will not, cannot leave this part of our happiness\nunattempted. He endeavours to supplant us of our birthright, of our\nblessing, of our salvation, and the comfortable hopes thereof. From his\ncommon employment in this matter, the Scripture hath given him names,\nimporting an opposition to Christ and his Spirit in the ways they take\nfor our comfort and satisfaction. Christ is our advocate that pleads\nfor us; Satan is \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, a calumniator. The Spirit intercedes for\nus; Satan is \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03b3\u03bf\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u1ff6\u03bd, \u2018the accuser of the brethren, who\naccuseth them before God night and day,\u2019 Rev. xii. 10. The Spirit is\nour comforter; Satan is our disturber, a Beelzebub who is ever raking\nin our wounds, as flies upon sores. The apostle Paul had his eye\nupon this when he was advising the Corinthians to receive again the\npenitent incestuous person; his caution was most serious: 2 Cor. ii.\n11, \u2018Lest Satan get advantage of us,\u2019 lest he deceive and circumvent\nus; for his expression relates to men cunningly deceitful in trade,\nthat do overreach and defraud the unskilful, \u03c0\u03bb\u03b5\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03b7\u03b8\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd; and the\nreason of this caution was the known and commonly experienced subtlety\nof Satan, \u2018for we are not ignorant of his devices,\u2019 implying that he\nwill, and frequently doth lie at catch to take all advantages against\nus. Some indeed restrain these advantages to ver. 10,[317] as if\nPaul only meant that Satan was designing to fix the Corinthians upon\nan opinion, that backsliders into great sins were not to be received\nagain, or that he laid in wait to raise a schism in the church upon the\naccount of this Corinthian. Others[318] restrain this advantage which\nhe waited for to ver. 7, where the apostle expresseth his fear lest the\nexcommunicated person should \u2018be swallowed up of too much sorrow;\u2019 but\nthe caution being not expressly bound up to any one of these, seems to\npoint at them all, and to tell us that Satan drives on many designs\nat once, and that in this man\u2019s case Satan would endeavour to put the\nCorinthians upon a pharisaical rigour, or to rend the church by a\ndivision about him, and to oppress the penitent by bereaving him of his\ndue comfort; so that it appears still that it is one of his designs to\nhinder the comfort and molest the hearts of God\u2019s children.\n\n2. Secondly, Of _such concern is inward spiritual peace to us_, that\nit is but an easy conjecture to conclude from thence that so great an\nadversary will make it his design to rob us of such a jewel; for,\n\n[1.] Spiritual comfort is the _sweet fruit of holiness_, by which\nGod adorns and beautifies the ways of religious service, to render\nthem amiable and pleasant to the undertakers: \u2018Her ways are ways of\npleasantness, and all her paths are peace,\u2019 Prov. iii. 17; and this is\nthe present \u2018rest and refreshment\u2019 of God\u2019s faithful servants under all\ntheir toil, that when they have \u2018tribulation from the world,\u2019 yet they\nhave \u2018peace in him,\u2019 John xvi. 33; and that, being \u2018justified by faith,\nthey have peace with God,\u2019 and sometimes \u2018joy unspeakable and full of\nglory,\u2019 1 Peter i. 8; and this they may the more confidently expect,\nbecause \u2018the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace,\u2019 &c., Gal. v.\n22.\n\n[2.] Spiritual comfort is not only our satisfaction, but our _inward\nstrength and activity; for all holy services doth depend upon it_. By\nthis doth God strengthen our heart and gird up our loins \u2018to run the\nways of his commandments.\u2019 It doth also strengthen the soul to undergo\nafflictions, to glory in tribulations, to triumph in persecutions. The\noutward man is also corroborated by the inward peace of the mind: \u2018A\nmerry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the\nbones,\u2019 Prov. xvii. 22; all which are intended by that expression, Neh.\nviii. 10, \u2018The joy of the Lord is your strength;\u2019 it is strength to the\nbody, to the mind, and that both for service and suffering; the reason\nwhereof the apostle doth hint to us, Phil. iv. 7, \u2018The peace of God,\nwhich passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds\u2019\u2014that\nis, peace doth so guard us as with a garrison, \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u2014for so much\nthe word imports\u2014that our affections, our hearts, being entertained\nwith divine satisfactions, are not easily enticed by baser proffers\nof worldly delights, and our reasonings, our minds, being kept steady\nupon so noble an object, are not so easily perverted to a treacherous\nrecommendation of vanities.\n\n[3.] Joy and peace are propounded to our careful endeavours, for\nattainment and preservation, _as a necessary duty of great importance\nto us_. Rejoicings are not only recommended as seemly for the upright,\nbut enjoined as service, and that in the constant practice: \u2018Rejoice\nevermore;\u2019 \u2018In everything give thanks,\u2019 1 Thes. v. 16, 18; \u2018Rejoice\nin the Lord alway; and again I say, rejoice,\u2019 Phil. iv. 4. In the Old\nTestament, God commanded the observation of several feasts to the\nJews. These, though they had their several respective grounds from\nGod\u2019s appointment, yet the general design of all seems to have been\nthis, that \u2018they might rejoice before the Lord their God,\u2019 Lev. xxiii.\n40; as if God did thereby tell them that it was the comely complexion\nof religion, and that which was very acceptable to himself, that his\nchildren might always serve him in cheerfulness of heart, seeing such\nhave more cause to rejoice than all the world besides. They are then\nmuch mistaken that think mournful eyes and sad hearts be the greatest\nornaments of religion, or that none are serious in the profession of it\nthat have a cheerful countenance and a rejoicing frame of spirit. It is\ntrue, there is a joy that is devilish, and a mirth which is madness, to\nwhich Christ hath denounced a woe: \u2018Woe be to them that laugh now, for\nthey shall mourn and weep,\u2019 [Luke vi. 25]; but this is a joy of another\nnature, a carnal delight in vanity and sin, by which men fatten their\nhearts to ruin; and whatsoever is said against this can be no prejudice\nto spiritual, holy joy in God, his favour and ways.\n\n[4.] Spiritual comfort is also _a badge of our heavenly Father\u2019s\nkindness_. As Joseph, the son of his father\u2019s affections, had a special\ntestimony thereof in his parti-coloured coat, so have God\u2019s favourites\na peculiar token of his good-will to them when he gives them \u2018the\ngarments of praise for the spirit of heaviness,\u2019 [Isa. lxi. 7.] If\nspiritual comfort be so advantageous to us, it will be no wonder to see\nSatan so much rage against it. It would be a satisfaction to him to\ntear these robes off us, to impede so needful a duty, to rob us of so\nmuch strength, and to bereave us of the sweet fruits of our labours.\n\n3. Thirdly, It further appears that Satan\u2019s design is against the\ncomforts of God\u2019s children, _by the many advantages he hath against\nthem, from the trouble and disquiet of their hearts_. I shall reckon up\nthe chief of them; as,\n\n[1.] From the trouble of the spirit _he raiseth confusions and\ndistractions of mind_; for, (1.) It is as natural to trouble to raise\nup a swarm of muddy thoughts as to \u2018a troubled sea to cast up mire and\ndirt;\u2019 and hence is that comparison, Isa. lvii. 20; a thousand fearful\nsurmises, evil cogitations, resolves, and counsels immediately offer\nthemselves. This disorder of thoughts Christ took notice of in his\ndisciples when they were in danger, \u2018Why do thoughts arise in your\nhearts?\u2019 Luke xxiv. 38. And David considered it as matter of great\nanxiety, which called for speedy help: Ps. xciv. 19, \u2018In the multitude\nof my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.\u2019 Sometimes one\nfear is suggested, then presently another; now this doubt perplexeth,\nthen another question is begot by the former; they think to take this\ncourse, then by and by they are off that, and resolve upon another,\nand as quickly change again to a third, and so onward, one thought\nsucceeding another, as vapours from a boiling pot. (2.) Such thoughts\nare vexatious and distracting, the very thoughts themselves, being\nthe poisonous steams of their running sores, are sadly afflictive,\nand not unfitly called _cogitationes oneros\u00e6_, burdensome thoughts.\nBut as they wrap up a man in clouds and darkness, as they puzzle him\nin his resolves, nonplus him in his undertakings, distract him in\nhis counsels, disturb and hinder him in his endeavours, &c., so do\nthey bring the mind into a labyrinth of confusion. What advantage the\ndevil hath against a child of God when his heart is thus divided and\nbroken into shivers, it is easy to imagine. And David seems to be very\nsensible of it when he put up that request, Ps. lxxxvi. 11, \u2018Unite my\nheart to fear thy name.\u2019\n\n[2.] By disquiet of heart the devil _unfits men for duty or service_.\nFitness for duty lies in the orderly temper of body and mind, making a\nman willing to undertake, and able to finish his work with comfortable\nsatisfaction. If either the body or mind be distempered, a man is\nunfit for such an undertaking; both must be in a suitable frame, like\na well-tuned instrument, else there will be no melody. Hence, when\nDavid prepared himself for praises and worship, he tells us his \u2018heart\nwas ready and fixed,\u2019 and then \u2018his tongue was ready also,\u2019 so was his\nhand with psaltery and harp; all these were awakened into a suitable\nposture, Ps. xlv. 1, 2, and cviii. 1, 2. That a man is or hath been\nin a fit order for service may be concluded from\u2014(1.) His alacrity\nto undertake a duty. (2.) His activity in the prosecution. (3.) His\nsatisfaction afterward, right grounds and principles in these things\nbeing still presupposed. This being laid as a foundation, we shall\neasily perceive how the troubles of the spirit do unfit us for duty.\nFor,\n\n_First_, These do take away all _alacrity and forwardness of the mind,\npartly by diverting it from duty_. Sorrows when they prevail do so\nfix the mind upon the present trouble, that it can think of nothing\nbut its burden; they confine the thoughts to the pain and smart, and\nmake a man forget all other things, as David in his trouble \u2018forgot\nto eat his bread,\u2019 [Ps. cii. 4]; and sick persons willingly discourse\nonly of their diseases; partly by indisposing for action. Joy and\nhope are active principles, but sorrow is sullen and sluggish. As the\nmind in trouble is wholly employed in a contemplation of its misery,\nrather than in finding out a way to avoid it, so if it be at leisure\nat any time to entertain thoughts of using means for recovery, yet it\nis so tired out with its burden, so disheartened by its own fears, so\ndiscouraged with opposition and disappointment, that it hath no list\nto undertake anything. By this means the devil brings the soul into\na spiritual catoche,[319] so congealing the spirits, that it is made\nstiff and deprived of motion.\n\n_Second_, Disquiets of heart unfit us for duty, _by hindering our\nactivity in prosecution of duty_. The whole heart, soul, and strength\nshould be engaged in all religious services, but these troubles are as\nclogs and weights to hinder motion. Joy is the dilatation of the soul,\nand widens it for anything which it undertakes; but grief contracts the\nheart, and narrows all the faculties. Hence doth David beg an \u2018enlarged\nheart,\u2019 as the principle of activity: Ps. cxix. 32, \u2018I will run the way\nof thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart;\u2019 for what can\nelse be expected when the mind is so distracted with fear and sorrow,\nbut that it should be uneven, tottering, weak, and confused? so that\nif it do set itself to anything, it acts troublesomely, drives on\nheavily, and doth very little with a great deal ado; and yet, were the\nunfitness the less, if that little which it can do were well done, but\nthe mind is so interrupted in its endeavours that sometimes in prayer\nthe man begins, and then is presently at a stand, and dare not proceed,\nhis words are \u2018swallowed up, he is so troubled that he cannot speak,\u2019\nPs. lxxvii. 4. Sometimes the mind is kept so employed and fixed on\ntrouble, that it cannot attend in hearing or praying, but presently the\nthoughts are called off, and become wandering.\n\n_Third_, Troubles hinder _our satisfaction in duty, and by that means\nunfit us to present duties, and indispose us to future services of that\nkind_. Our satisfaction in duty ariseth, (1.) Sometimes from its own\nlustre and sweetness, the conviction we have of its pleasantness, and\nthe spiritual advantages to be had thereby; these render it alluring\nand attractive, and by such considerations are we invited to their\nperformance, as Isa. ii. 3, \u2018Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of\nthe Lord; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his\npaths.\u2019 Hosea vi. 1, \u2018Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he\nhath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us\nup;\u2019 but trouble of spirit draws a black curtain over the excellencies\nof duty, and presents us with frightful thoughts about it, so that\nwe judge of it according to our fears, and make it frightful to\nourselves, as if it would be to no purpose\u2014rather a mischief than an\nadvantage. (2.) Sometime our satisfaction ariseth from some special\ntoken of favour which our indulgent Father lets fall upon us while we\nare in his work, as when he gives us more than ordinary assistance, or\nputs joy and comfort into our hearts. And this he often doth to make\nus come again, and to engage afresh in the same or other services,\nas having \u2018tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious,\u2019 [1 Pet. ii.\n3,] and that there is a blessedness in waiting for him. As in our\nbodies he so orders it that the concocted juices become a successive\nferment to those that succeed from our daily meat and drink: so from\nduties performed doth he beget and continue spiritual appetite to new\nundertakings. But oh how sadly is all this hindered by the disquiet of\nthe heart! The graces of faith and love are usually obstructed, if not\nin their exercise, yet in their delightful fruits, and if God offer a\nkindness, inward sorrow hinders the perception: as when Moses told the\nIsraelites of their deliverance, \u2018they hearkened not for hard bondage,\u2019\n[Exod. vi. 9.] If a message of peace present itself in a promise, or\nsome consideration of God\u2019s merciful disposition, yet usually this is\nnot credited. Job confesseth so much of himself: Job xix. 16, \u2018If I\nhad called and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had\nhearkened unto my voice.\u2019 David also doth the like: Ps. lxxvii. 2, 3,\n\u2018My soul refuseth to be comforted; I remembered God, and was troubled.\u2019\nMatter of greatest comfort is often so far from giving ease, that it\naugments the trouble. However, the heart is so hurried with its fears,\nand discomposed with grief, that it cannot hearken to, nor consider,\nnor believe any kind offer made to it.\n\nBy all these ways doth the devil, through the disquiet of mind, unfit\nthe Lord\u2019s people for duty; and what a sad advantage this is against us\ncannot easily be told. By this means he may widen the distance betwixt\nGod and us, keep our wounds open, make us a reproach to religion;\nand what not? But (3.) By these disquiets he pusheth us on to reject\nall duties; for when he hath tired us out by wearisome endeavours,\nunder so great indispositions and unfitness, he hath a fair advantage\nto tempt us to lay all aside. Our present posture doth furnish him\nwith arguments, he forgeth his javelins upon our anvil, and they are\ncommonly these three:\u2014\n\n[1.] That duties are _difficult_. And this is easily proved from our\nown experience; while we are broken or bowed down with sorrows, we make\nmany attempts for duty, and are oft beat off with loss; our greatest\ntoil helps us but to very inconsiderable performances; hence, he\ninfers, it is foolishness to attempt that which is above our strength,\nbetter sit still than toil for nothing.\n\n[2.] That they are _unfruitful_; and this is our own complaint, for\ntroubled spirits have commonly great expectations from duties at first,\nand they run to them, as the impotent and sick people to the pool of\nBethesda, with thoughts of immediate ease as soon as they shall step\ninto them; but when they have tried, and waited a while, stretching\nthemselves upon duty, as Elisha\u2019s servant laid the staff upon the\nface of the Shunammite\u2019s son, and yet there is no voice nor hearing,\nno answer from God, no peace, then are they presently dissatisfied,\nreflecting on the promises of God and the counsels of good men, with\nthis, Where is all the pleasantness you speak of? what advantage is it\nthat we have thus run and laboured, when we have got nothing? And then\nit is easy for the devil to add, And why do you wait on the Lord any\nlonger?\n\n[3.] His last and most dangerous argument is, that they are _sinful_.\nUnfitness for duty produceth many distractions, much deadness,\nwandering thoughts, great interruptions, and pitiful performances.\nHence the troubled soul comes off from duty wounded and halting,\nmore distressed when he hath done than when he began; upon these\nconsiderations, that all his service was sin, a mocking of God, a\ntaking his name in vain, nay, a very blasphemous affront to a divine\nmajesty. Upon this the devil starts the question to his heart, Whether\nit be not better to forbear all duty, and to do nothing? Thus doth\nSatan improve the trouble of the mind, and often with the designed\nsuccess. For a dejected spirit doth not only afford the materials of\nthese weapons which the devil frames against it, but is much prepared\nto receive them into its own bowels. The grounds of these arguments\nit grants, and the inferences are commonly consented to, so that\nordinarily duty is neglected, either, 1. Through sottishness of heart;\nor, 2. Through frightful fears; or, 3. Through desperateness; bringing\na man to the very precipice of that atheistical determination, \u2018I have\ncleansed my hands in vain,\u2019 [Ps. lxxiii. 13.]\n\n_Fourth_, Satan makes use of the troubles of God\u2019s children as a\n_stumbling-block to others_. It is no small advantage to him, that he\nhath hereby an occasion to render the ways of God unlovely to those\nthat are beginning to look heavenward; he sets before them the sighs,\ngroans, complaints, and restless outcries of the wounded in spirit, to\nscare them off from all seriousness in religion, and whispers this to\nthem, \u2018Will you choose a life of bitterness and sorrow? can you eat\nashes for bread, and mingle your drink with tears? will you exchange\nthe comforts and contents of life for a melancholy heart and a dejected\ncountenance? how like you to go mourning all the day, and at night to\nbe scared with dreams and terrified with visions? will you choose a\nlife that is worse than death, and a condition which will make you a\nterror to yourselves and a burden to others? can you be in love with\na heart loaden with grief, and perpetual fears almost to distraction,\nwhile you see others in the meantime enjoy themselves in a contented\npeace? Thus he follows young beginners with his suggestions, making\nthem believe that they cannot be serious in religion, but at last they\nwill be brought to this, and that it is a very dangerous thing to be\nreligious overmuch, and the highway to despair; so that if they must\nhave a religion, he readily directs them to use no more of it than\nmay consist with the pleasures of sin and the world, and to make an\neasy business of it, not to let sin lie over-near their heart, lest it\ndisquiet them; nor overmuch to concern themselves with study, reading,\nprayer, or hearing of threatening, awakening sermons, lest it make them\nmad; nor to affect the sublimities of communion with God, exercises of\nfaith and divine love, lest it discompose them and dash their worldly\njollities out of countenance. A counsel that is readily enough embraced\nby those that are almost persuaded to be Christians; and the more to\nconfirm them in it, he sticks not sometime to asperse the poor troubled\nsoul with dissimulation\u2014where that accusation is proper, for the devil\ncares not how inconsistent he be with himself, so that he may but\ngain his end\u2014affirming all his seriousness to be nothing but whining\nhypocrisy. So that whether they judge these troubles to be real or\nfeigned, his conclusion is the same, and he persuades men thereby to\nhold off from all religious strictness, holy diligence, and careful\nwatchfulness.\n\n_Fifth_, A further use which the devil makes of these troubles of\nspirit is, _to prepare the hearts of men thereby to give entertainment\nto his venomous impressions_. Distress of heart usually opens the door\nto Satan, and lays a man naked, without armour or defence, as a fair\nmark for all his poisoned arrows; and it is a hundred to one but some\nof them do hit. I shall choose out some of the most remarkable, and\nthey are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] _After long acquaintance with grief he labours to fix them in it._\nIn some cases custom doth alleviate higher griefs, and men take an odd\nkind of delight in them; _Est qu\u00e6dam etiam dolendi voluptas_. It is\nsome pleasure to complain, and men settle themselves in such a course,\ntheir finger is ever upon their sore, and they go about telling their\nsorrows to all they converse with\u2014though to some this is a necessity,\nfor real sorrows, if they be not too great for vent, will constrain\nthem to speak\u2014yet in some that have been formerly acquainted with\ngrief, it degenerates at last into a formality of complaining; and\nbecause they formerly had cause so to do, they think they must always\ndo so. But besides this, Satan doth endeavour to chain men to their\nmourning upon two higher accounts[320]: 1. By a delusive contentment\nin sorrow, as if our tears paid some part of our debt to God, and made\namends for the injuries done to him. 2. By an obstinate sullenness and\ndesperate resolvedness they harden themselves in sorrow, and say as\nJob, chap. vii. 11, \u2018I will not refrain my mouth, I will speak in the\nanguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am\nI a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?\u2019\n\n[2.] Another impression that men\u2019s hearts are apt to take, is,\n_unthankfulness for the favours formerly bestowed upon them_. Their\npresent troubles blot out the memory of old kindnesses. They conclude\nthey have nothing at all, because they have not peace. Though God\nheretofore hath sent down from on high, and taken them out of the\ngreat waters, or out of the mire and clay where they were ready to\nsink; though he hath sent them many tokens of love, conferred on them\nmany blessings; yet all these are no more to them, so long as their\nsorrows continue, than Haman\u2019s wealth and honour was to him, so long as\nMordecai the Jew sat at the king\u2019s gate. Thus the devil oft prevails\nwith God\u2019s children, to deal with God as some unthankful persons deal\nwith their benefactors; who, if they be not humoured in every request,\ndeny the reality of their love, and despise with great ingratitude all\nthat was done for them before.\n\n[3.] By inward griefs, the heart of the afflicted are prepared to\nentertain _the worst interpretation that the devil can put upon the\nprovidences of God_. The various instances of Scripture, and the\ngracious promises made to those that \u2018walk in darkness and see no\nlight,\u2019 do abundantly forewarn men from making bad conclusions of\nGod\u2019s dealings, and do tell us that God in design, for our trial and\nfor our profit, doth often hide his face \u2018for a moment,\u2019 when yet his\npurpose is to \u2018bind us up with everlasting compassions.\u2019 Now the devil\nlabours to improve the sorrows of the mind to give a quite contrary\nconstruction. If they are afflicted, instead of saying, \u2018Sorrow may\nendure for a night, but joy will come in the morning,\u2019 [Ps. xxx. 5,]\nor that \u2018for a little while God hath hidden himself,\u2019 he puts them to\nsay, \u2018this darkness shall never pass away.\u2019 If the grief be little,\nhe drives them on to a fearful expectation of worse; as he did with\nHezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 13, \u2018I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion,\nso will he break all my bones; from day even to night wilt thou make\nan end of me.\u2019 If God purpose to teach us by inward sorrows our pride\nof heart, carelessness, neglect of dependence upon him, the bitterness\nof sin, or the like, the devil will make us believe, and we are too\nready to subscribe to him, that God proclaims open war against us,\nand resolves never to own us more. So did Job, chap. xix. 6, \u2018Know\nnow that God hath overthrown me, and compassed me with his net;\u2019 how\noften complained he, \u2018thou hast made me as thy mark, thou hast broken\nme asunder, thou hast taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces\u2019! So\nalso Heman, Ps. lxxxviii. 14, \u2018Why castest thou off my soul? why hidest\nthou thy face from me?\u2019\n\n[4.] Upon this occasion the devil is ready to envenom the soul _with\nsinful wishes and execrations against itself_. Eminent saints have\nbeen tempted in their trouble to say too much this way. Job solemnly\ncursed his day: Job iii. 3, \u2018Let the day perish wherein I was born,\nand the night in which it was said, There is a man-child conceived,\u2019\n&c. So also Jeremiah, chap. xx. 14, \u2018Cursed be the day wherein I was\nborn: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be\nthe man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born\nunto thee; and let that man be as the cities which God overthrew, and\nrepented not.\u2019 Strange rashness! what had the day deserved? or wherein\nwas the messenger to be blamed? Violent passions hurried him beyond all\nbounds of reason and moderation. When troubles within are violent, a\nsmall push sets men forward; and when once they begin, they are carried\nheadlong beyond what they first intended.\n\n[5.] On this advantage the devil sometimes emboldens them to _quarrel\nGod himself directly_. When Job and Jeremiah cursed their day, it was\na contumely against God indirectly; but they durst not make bold with\nGod at so high a rate as to quarrel him to his face. Yet even this are\nmen brought to often when their sorrows are long-lasting and deep. The\ndevil suggests, Can God be faithful, and never keep promise for help?\ncan he be merciful, when he turns away his ears from the cry of the\nmiserable? where is his pity, when he multiplies his wounds without\ncause? Though at first these cursed intimations do a little startle\nmen, yet when by frequent inculcating they grow more familiar to the\nheart, the distressed break out in their rage with those exclamations,\nWhere is the faithfulness of God? where are his promises? hath he not\nforgotten to be gracious? are not his mercies clean gone? And at last\nit may be Satan leads them a step higher, that is\u2014\n\n[6.] _To a despairing desperateness._ For when all passages of relief\nare stopped up, and the burden becomes great, men are apt to be drawn\ninto rage and fury when they think their burden is greater than\nthey can bear, and see no hope of ease; in a kind of revenge they\nexpress their anger against the hand that wounded them. The devil is\nofficiously ready with his advice of \u2018Curse God and die,\u2019 [Job. ii. 9,]\nand they, being full of anguish, are quickly made to comply with it.\n\n[7.] When it is at this height, the devil hath but one stage more, and\nthat is the suggesting of _irregular means for ease_. Rage against\nGod doth not quench the inward burning, blasphemies against heaven\neaseth not the pain, the sore runs still and ceaseth not, the trouble\ncontinues, the man cannot endure it longer, all patience and hope is\ngone. What shall he do in this case? The devil offers his service; he\nwill be the physician, and commonly he prescribes one of these two\nthings: (1.) That it is best to endeavour to break through all this\ntrouble into a resolved profaneness; not to stand in awe of laws, not\nto believe that there is a God that governs in the earth, but that this\nis only the bitter fruit of melancholy and unnecessary seriousness, and\ntherefore it is best \u2018to eat, drink, and be merry,\u2019 If a man can thus\nescape out of his trouble, the devil needs no more; but oft he cannot,\nthe wounds of conscience will not be thus healed. Then, (2.) He hath\nanother remedy, which will not fail, as he tells them, that is, to\n\u2018destroy themselves,\u2019 to end their troubles with their lives. How open\nare the breasts of troubled creatures to all these darts! and were it\nnot that God secretly steps in and holds the afflicted with his right\nhand, it is scarce imaginable but that wounded consciences should by\nSatan\u2019s subtle improvement of so fair an advantage be brought to all\nthis misery.\n\n[8.] Satan can afflict the _body by the mind_. For these two are\nso closely bound together that their good and bad estate is shared\nbetwixt them. If the heart be merry the countenance is cheerful, the\nstrength is renewed, the bones do flourish like an herb. If the heart\nbe troubled the health is impaired, the strength is dried up, the\nmarrow of the bones wasted, &c. Grief in the heart is like a moth in\nthe garment, it insensibly consumeth the body and disordereth it. This\nadvantage of weakening the body falls into Satan\u2019s hands by necessary\nconsequence, as the prophet\u2019s ripe figs, that fell into the mouth of\nthe eater. And surely he is well pleased with it, as he is an enemy\nboth to body and soul. But it is a greater satisfaction to him in\nthat as he can make the sorrows of the mind produce the weakness and\nsickness of the body, so can he make the distemper of the body, by a\nreciprocal requital, to augment the trouble of the mind. How little can\na sickly body do! It disables a man for all services; he cannot oft\npray, nor read, nor hear; sickness takes away the sweetness and comfort\nof religious exercises. This gives occasion for them to think the worse\nof themselves. They think the soul is weary of the ways of God, when\nthe body cannot hold out. All failures which weariness and faintness\nproduce are ascribed presently to the bad disposition of the mind, and\nthis is like oil cast upon the flame. Thus the devil makes a double\ngain out of spiritual trouble.\n\n[9.] Let it be also reckoned among the advantages which Satan hath\nagainst men from trouble of spirit, that it is _a contentment to him to\nsee them in their miseries_. It is a sport to him to see them, as Job\nspeaks, take their flesh in their teeth, and cry out in the bitterness\nof their souls, [Job. xiii. 14.] Their groanings are his music. When\nthey wallow in ashes, drown themselves in tears, roar till their throat\nis dry, spread out their hands for help, then he gluts his heart in\nlooking upon their woes. When they fall upon God with their unjust\nsurmises, evil interpretations of providence, questioning his favour,\ndenying his grace, wishing they had never been born, then he claps his\nhands and shouts a victory. The pleasantest sight to him is to see\nGod hiding himself from his child, and that child broken with fears,\ntorn in pieces with griefs, made a brother to dragons, a companion to\nowls, under restless anxieties, perpetual lamentations, feeble and\nsore broken, their strength dried like a potsherd, their throat dry,\ntheir tongue cleaving to their jaws, their bowels boiling, their bones\nburnt with heat, their skin black upon them, their flesh consumed,\ntheir bones sticking out, chastened with strong pain upon their bed.\nThis is one of Satan\u2019s delightful spectacles, and for these ends doth\nhe all he can to bereave them of their comfort, which we may the more\ncertainly persuade ourselves to be true, when we consider the grounds\nforementioned, his malicious nature, the advantages of spiritual peace,\nand the disadvantages of spiritual trouble.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n _Of the various ways by which he hinders peace\u20141. Way by\n discomposures of spirit. These discomposures explained, by shewing,\n (1.) What advantage he takes from our natural temper, and\n what tempers give him this advantage. (2.) By what occasions\n he works upon our natural tempers. (3.) With what success.\n [1.] These occasions suited to natural inclinations, raise\n great disturbance. [2.] They have a tendency to spiritual\n trouble. The thing proved, and the manner how discovered. [3.]\n These disturbances much in his power. General and particular\n considerations about that power._\n\n\nHaving evidenced that one of Satan\u2019s principal designs is against the\npeace and comfort of God\u2019s children, I shall next endeavour a discovery\nof the various ways by which he doth undermine them herein. All inward\ntroubles are not of the same kind in themselves, neither doth Satan\nalways produce the same effects out of all; some being in their own\nnature disquiets, that do not so directly and immediately overthrow the\npeace and joy of believing, and the comforts of assurance of divine\nfavour, as others do. Yet seeing that by all he hath no small advantage\nagainst us as to sin and trouble, and that any of them at the long run\nmay lead us to question our interest in grace and the love of God, and\nmay accordingly afflict us, I shall speak of them all; which that I\nmay do the more distinctly, I shall rank these troubles into several\nheads, under peculiar names\u2014it may be not altogether so proper but\nthat the curious may find matter of exception to them\u2014that by them and\ntheir explanation the differences may the better appear. I distinguish\ntherefore of a fourfold trouble that the devil doth endeavour to\nwork up upon the hearts of men. They are, 1. Discomposures. 2.\nAffrightments. 3. Dejections of sadness. 4. Distresses of horror. Of\nall which I shall speak in their order. And,\n\n1. _Of discomposures of soul._ These are molestations and disturbances\nby which the mind is put out of order and made unquiet. The calm in\nwhich it should enjoy itself, and by which it should be composed to a\nregular and steady acting, being disturbed by a storm of commotion,\nand in which the conscience or the peace of it is not presently\nconcerned. This distinction of the trouble of soul from the trouble\nof conscience is not new. Others have observed it before,[321] and do\nthus explain it: Trouble of soul is larger than trouble of conscience;\nevery troubled conscience is a troubled soul, but every troubled soul\nis not a troubled conscience; for the soul may be troubled from causes\nnatural, civil, and spiritual, according to variety of occasions and\nprovocations, when yet a man\u2019s inward peace with God is firm; and in\nsome cases, as in infants and in men distracted with fevers, &c.,\nthere may be passions and disturbances of soul when the conscience\nis not capable of exercising its office: nay, the soul of Christ was\ntroubled\u2014John xii. 27, \u2018Now is my soul troubled\u2019\u2014when it was not\npossible that sin or despair should have the least footing in him.\n\nFor the opening of these discomposures of soul I shall\u20141. Shew upon\nwhat advantage of natural temper the devil is encouraged to molest men.\n2. By what occasions he doth work upon our natural inclinations. 3. And\nwith what success of disturbance to the soul.\n\n(1.) As to our natural dispositions, Satan, as hath formerly been\nnoted, _takes his usual indications of working from thence_. These\nguide him in his enterprises; his temptations being suited to men\u2019s\ntempers, proceed more smoothly and successfully. Some are of so\nserene and calm a disposition, that he doth not much design their\ndiscomposure; but others there are whose passions are more stirring\u2014fit\nmatter for him to work upon: and these are,\n\n[1.] _The angry disposition._ How great an advantage this gives to\nSatan to disturb the heart, may be easily conceived by considering the\nvarious workings of it in several men, according to their different\nhumours. It is a passion that acts not alike in all; and for the\ndifferences, so far as we need to be concerned, I shall not trouble\nthe schools of philosophers, but content myself with what we have in\nEph. iv. 31, where the apostle expresseth it by three words, not that\nthey differ essentially, declaring thereby the various ways of anger\u2019s\nworking. The first is \u03c0\u03b9\u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03b1, which we translate _bitterness_. This is\na displeasure smothered; for some when they are angry cover it, and\ngive it no vent, partly for that they are sometimes ashamed to mention\nthe ground as trivial or unjust, partly from sullenness of disposition,\nand oft from a natural reservedness; while the flame is thus kept\ndown, it burns inwardly, and men resolve[322] in their minds many\ntroublesome, vexatious thoughts. The second word is \u03b8\u03c5\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2, _wrath_;\nthis is a fierce, impetuous anger. Some are soon moved, but so violent\nthat they are presently transported into rage and frenzy, or are so\npeevishly waspish that they cannot be spoken to. The third is \u1f40\u03c1\u03b3\u1f74,\ntranslated here _anger_, but signifies such a displeasure as is deep,\nentertaining thoughts of revenge and pursuit, settling itself at last\ninto hatred. Any of these is enough to bereave the heart of its rest,\nand to alarm it with disturbances.[323]\n\n[2.] Others have an _envious nature, always maligning and repining at\nother men\u2019s felicity_; an evil eye that cannot look on another\u2019s better\ncondition without vexation. This turns a man into a devil. It is the\ndevil\u2019s proper sin, and the fury that doth unquiet him, and he the\nbetter knows of what avail it would be to help on our trouble.\n\n[3.] Some are _of proud tempers_, always overvaluing themselves, with\nthe scorn and contempt of others. This humour is troublesome to all\nabout them, but all this trouble doth at last redound to themselves.\nThese think all others should observe them, and take notice of their\nsupposed excellencies, which if men do not, then it pines them or stirs\nup their choler to indignation. Solomon, Prov. xxx. 21, mentioning\nthose things that are greatly disquieting in the earth, instanceth\nin \u2018a servant when he reigneth; and the handmaid that is heir to her\nmistress,\u2019 intending thereby the proud, imperious insolency of those\nthat are unexpectedly raised from a low estate to wealth or honour. He\nthat is of \u2018a proud heart stirreth up strife,\u2019 Prov. xxviii. 25; and as\nhe is troublesome to others, so doth he create trouble to himself; for\nhe not only molests himself by the working of his disdainful thoughts,\nwhile he exerciseth his scorn towards others: Prov. xxi. 24, \u2018The\nhaughty scorner deals in proud wrath;\u2019 but this occasions the affronts\nand contempt of others again, which beget new griefs to his restless\nmind.\n\n[4.] Some have a natural _exorbitancy of desire, an evil coveting_;\nthey are passionately carried forth toward what they have not, and have\nno contentment or satisfaction in what they do enjoy. Such humours are\nseldom at ease, their desires are painfully violent; and when they\nobtain what they longed for, they soon grow weary of it, and then\nanother object takes up their wishes, so that these \u2018daughters of the\nhorse-leech are ever crying, Give, give,\u2019 Prov. xxx. 15.\n\n[5.] Others have _a soft effeminate temper, a weakness of soul that\nmakes them unfit to bear any burden, or endure any hardness_. These,\nif they meet with pains or troubles\u2014and who can challenge an exemption\nfrom them?\u2014they are presently impatient, vexing themselves by a vain\nreluctancy to what they cannot avoid; not but that extraordinary\nburdens will make the strongest spirit to stoop, but these cry out for\nthe smallest matters, which a stout mind would bear with some competent\ncheerfulness.\n\n[6.] And there are other dispositions that _are tender to an excess of\nsympathy_, so that they immoderately affect and afflict themselves with\nother men\u2019s sorrows. Though this be a temper more commendable than any\nof the former, yet Satan can take advantage of this, as also of the\nfore-named dispositions, to discompose us, especially by suiting them\nwith fit occasions, which readily work upon these tempers. And this was,\n\n(2.) The second thing to be explained, which shall be performed by a\nbrief enumeration of them, the chief whereof are these:\n\n[1.] _Contempt or disestimation._ When a man\u2019s person, parts, or\nopinion are slighted, his anger, envy, pride, and impatience are\nawakened, and these make him swell and restless within. Even good men\nhave been sadly disturbed this way. Job, as holy a man as he was, and\nwho had enough of greater matters to trouble his mind, yet among other\ngriefs complains of this more than once: Job xii. 4, \u2018I am as one\nmocked of his neighbour: the just upright man is laughed to scorn;\u2019\nchap. xix. 15, \u2018They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me\nfor a stranger. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer. Yea,\nyoung children despised me; I rose up and they spake against me.\u2019 Thus\nhe bemoans himself, and, which is more, speaks of it again with some\nsmartness of indignation: Job xxx. 1, \u2018Now they that are younger than I\nhave me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set\nwith the dogs of my flock.\u2019 David also, who had a stout heart under\ntroubles, complains that he could not bear reproaches: Ps. lxix.,\n\u2018Reproach hath broken mine heart; I am full of heaviness.\u2019 What these\nreproaches were, and how he was staggered with them, he tells us: ver.\n10, \u2018I chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made\nsackcloth my garment; and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in\nthe gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.\u2019 With\nthese he was so stounded that if he had not catched hold on God by\nprayer, as he speaks, ver. 13, he had fallen, \u2018But as for me, my prayer\nis unto thee, O Lord,\u2019 &c.; and he afterward speaks of his support\nunder reproaches as a wonder of divine assistance: Ps. cxix. 51, \u2018The\nproud have had me in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.\u2019\n\n[2.] _Injury_ is another occasion by which the devil works upon our\ntempers to disquiet us. Wrongs of injustice and oppression are hard\nto bear. This is a common ground of trouble. Good men cannot always\nacquit themselves in this case as they ought. Jeremiah, when smitten by\nPashur, and put in the stocks, Jer. xx. 2, 8, falls into a sad passion:\n\u2018I am a derision daily, every one mocketh me. I cried out, I cried\nviolence and spoil,\u2019 imitating the passionate affrightments of those\nthat cry, Murder, murder, &c. No wonder, seeing Solomon gives it as an\naxiom built upon manifold experience, Eccles. vii. 7. Oppression doth\nnot only make a man unquiet, but mad in his unquietness; and not only\nthose that are foolish and hasty, but the most considerate and sedate\npersons: \u2018Oppression makes a wise man mad.\u2019\n\n[3.] Another occasion of men\u2019s discomposure is, _the prosperity of the\nwicked_. Their abundance, their advancements to honours and dignity,\nhath always been a grudge to those whose condition is below them, and\nyet suppose themselves to have better grounds to expect preferment\nthan they. This astonished Job even to trembling: Job xxi. 7, \u2018When I\nremember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh;\u2019 and the\nmatter was but this, \u2018Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea,\nand mighty in power?\u2019 &c. The trouble that seizeth on men\u2019s hearts\non this occasion is called fretting, a vexation that wears out the\nstrength of the soul, as two hard bodies waste by mutual attrition or\nrubbing. And it takes its advantage from our envy chiefly, though other\ndistempers come in to help it forward: Ps. xxxvii. 1, \u2018Fret not thyself\nbecause of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of\niniquity.\u2019 David confesseth that he was apt to fall into this trouble,\nPs. lxxiii. 3, \u2018I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity\nof the wicked.\u2019 Against this disquiet we have frequent cautions, Prov.\nxxiv. 1, 19, and Ps. xlix. 16, \u2018Be not afraid when one is made rich,\nwhen the glory of his house is increased.\u2019 All which shew our proneness\nto this disease.\n\n[4.] _Crosses and afflictions give Satan an opportunity to work upon\nour passions_; as disappointments of expectations, loss of friends, of\nestate, persecutions and sufferings for conscience sake, &c. None of\nthese in their own nature are \u2018joyous, but grievous;\u2019 and what use they\nhave been of to the devil to discompose the minds of the sufferers,\nis evidenced by common experience. The tears, sad countenances, and\ndoleful lamentations of men are true witnesses of the disquiet of\ntheir hearts. Every one being pressed with the sense of his own smart\nis ready to cry out, \u2018Is there any sorrow like my sorrow? I am poor\nand comfortless; my lovers and my friends have forsaken me, and there\nis none to help.\u2019 Some grow faint under their burden, while their\neyes fail in looking for redress, especially when new unexpected\ntroubles overwhelm their hopes: \u2018When I looked for good, then evil\ncame; and when I waited for light, there came darkness,\u2019 Job xxx. 26.\n\u2018Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked\nfor peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and\nbehold trouble,\u2019 Jer. xiv. 19; and here they sink, concluding there\nis no hope. Others that bear up better in a blessed expectation of\nspiritual profit, having that of David in their eye, \u2018Blessed is the\nman whom thou afflictest, and teachest in thy law;\u2019 yet they cannot\nforbear their complaints even to God; Ps. xxv. 17, \u2018The troubles of\nmine heart are enlarged; oh bring thou me out of my distresses; look\nupon mine affliction and my pain.\u2019 Nay,[324] those that have had the\nhighest advantages of heavenly support, whose hearts have been kept in\npeace, counting it all joy that they have fallen into these trials\u2014and\nGod doth more this way for those that suffer for the gospel\u2019s sake\nthan ordinarily for others; yet have not these been under a stoical\nsenselessness of their trouble. Though they were not \u2018distressed,\u2019 they\nwere \u2018troubled on every side;\u2019 though \u2018not in despair,\u2019 yet they were\n\u2018perplexed,\u2019 2 Cor. iv. 8; though their afflictions were light, yet\nwere they afflictions still.\n\n[5.] To these may be added, _the pain or anguish of sickness and bodily\ndistemper_. Though there are various degrees of pain, and that some\nsicknesses are less afflictive than others, yet none of them forbear\nto pierce the mind. The whole man is discomposed. He that is exercised\nwith \u2018strong pains upon his bed,\u2019 cries out in the bitterness of his\nsoul; and he that by insensible degrees languisheth, grows ordinarily\npeevish, and his mind bleeds by an inward wound, so that he \u2018spends\nhis days in sighing,\u2019 and his years in mourning. And others there are\nwho, being before acquainted with bodily pains, grow very impatient in\nsickness, and are able to bear nothing. And besides the present sense\nof pain, the expectation of death puts some into great commotion; the\nfears of it, for it is naturally dreadful, fills them with disquiet\nthoughts; and those that approach to the grave by slow steps, under\nconsumption or languishing sicknesses, they are habituated to sadness,\nand can think of nothing cheerfully\u2014except they have great assurance of\nsalvation, and have well learned to die\u2014because the coffin, grave, and\nwinding-sheet are still presented to them. These, though they be very\nsuitable objects for meditation, and, well improved, of great advantage\nfor preparation to death, yet doth Satan thereby, when it is for his\npurpose, endeavour to keep men under grief, and to bereave them of\ntheir peace.\n\n[6.] Satan takes an advantage of trouble from _the miseries of others_.\nSympathy is a Christian grace; and to bear one another\u2019s burdens, to\nmourn with those that mourn, shews us to be fellow-feeling members\nof the same body; for \u2018if one member suffer, all the members suffer\nwith it,\u2019 [1 Cor. xii. 26.] Yet are some men naturally of so tender a\nconstitution, that Satan overdrives them herein. Every common occasion\nwill wound them. The usual effects of God\u2019s ordinary providence on the\npoor, lame, or sick, are deeply laid to heart by them; and instead of\nbeing not unsensible of other men\u2019s miseries, they are not sensible of\nanything else, neither do they enjoy their own mercies. And here, as\nSatan can every moment present them with objects of pity, ordinary or\nextraordinary, so upon a religious pretence of merciful consideration,\nthey are made cruel to themselves, refusing their own peace, because\nother men are not at ease.\n\n(3.) The third particular promised to be explained for the discovery\nof these discomposures of soul was this, that by _a concurrence of\nthese and such like occasions to such tempers, the hearts of men are\ndisturbed, and their inward peace broken_. This I shall evidence\nof these three things: 1. That these occasions meeting with such\ndispositions, do naturally raise great disturbances in their present\nworking; 2. That they have a tendency to further trouble; 3. That Satan\ndoth design, and hath it ordinarily in his power, to discompose the\nhearts of men hereby.\n\n[1.] That these occasions meeting with such dispositions, do naturally\nraise _great disturbances_. This is evident from what hath been said\nalready; for (1.) _All these dispositions carry as much fire in their\nown bosoms, as is sufficient to burn up the standing corn of any man\u2019s\npeace._ What is anger, but an inward burning, a restless confusion of\nthe spirits? sometime a frenzy, a distraction, a troubled sea full of\nrage, a wild beast let loose. Envy, that is a fretful peevishness, a\nvexatious repining, needing no other tormentors but its own furies,\nrecoiling upon him that bred it, because it cannot wreak its spite upon\nits objects. An envious person is a self-murderer, by the verdict of\nEliphaz: Job v. 2, \u2018Wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth\nthe foolish one.\u2019 This is not barely to be understood of its provoking\nthe judge of all the earth to send down its deserved destruction;\nbut also, if not chiefly, of its own corroding temper, which by\nlong continuance wastes the strength and consumes the body. Pride\nis a perpetual vexation, creating its troubles from its own fancy.\nIrregular covetings keep a man still upon the rack; they make a man\nlike the Tantalus of the poets; they give a man a _caninus appetitus_,\na strong appetite with excessive greediness, and restless pursuit,\nand constant dissatisfactions; he is ever gaping, and never enjoying.\nImpatience is a wearisome conflict with a burden which it can neither\nbear nor yet shake off; where all the fruit of the vain labour amounts\nto no better account than this, that the impatient makes his burden\nthe greater, the bands that tie it on the stronger, and the strength\nthat should bear it the weaker. Lastly, An excess of pity multiplies\n\u2018wounds without cause.\u2019 It hinders a man to be happy so long as\nthere are any that are miserable. He is always, in reference to his\nquiet, at the mercy of other men. The afflicted can torment him at a\ndistance; and, by a kind of magic, make him feel the torments that are\ninflicted upon his image. Who can deny but that men that are ridden\nby such vexatious dispositions must lead an unquiet life, and always\nbe tossed with inward tempests? Especially, (2.) When we consider\n_how fit the fore-mentioned occasions are to draw out these humours\nto their tumultuary extravagances_. A lighted match and gunpowder are\nnot more exactly suited to raise a shaking blast, than those occasions\nand tempers are to breed an inward annoyance. Some of these humours\nare so troublesome, that rather than they will want work, they will\nfight with their own shadows, and, by a perverseness of prejudicated\nfancy, will create their own troubles; and the best of them, which seem\nsometime to take truce and compose themselves to rest, while occasions\nare out of the way; yet they are quickly awakened, like sleeping\ndogs that are roused with the least noise. What work, then, may we\nexpect they will make when they are summoned to give their appearance\nupon a solemn occasion? But (3.) If we should deal by instances, and\nbring upon the stage the effects that have been brought forth by these\nconcurring causes, it will appear that they make disturbances in good\nearnest. Let us either view _the furious fits that have been, like\nsudden flashes, soonest gone_, or their more lasting impressions, and\nwe shall find it true. As to violent fits raised by such occasions and\ndispositions, examples are infinite. What rages, outrages, madnesses,\nand extravagances have men run into! Some, upon provocations, have\nfuriously acted savage cruelties, and for small matters have been\ncarried to the most desperate revenges. Others have been brought to\nsuch violent commotions within themselves, that the frame of nature\nhath been thereby weakened and overthrown. As Sylla, who in a strong\npassion vomited choler till he died. Some in their fury have acted that\nwhich hath been matter of sorrow to them all their days. But, omitting\nthe examples of heathens and wicked men, let us consider the wonderful\ntransports of holy men. Moses, a man eminent beyond comparison in\nmeekness, was so astonished with a sudden surprise of trouble at the\nsight of the golden calf, that he threw down the tables of the law, and\nbrake them. Some indeed observe from thence a significancy of Israel\u2019s\nbreaking the law and forfeiting God\u2019s protection as his peculiar\npeople; but this is more to be ascribed to the designment of divine\nprovidence, that so ordered it, than to the intendment of Moses, who no\ndoubt did not this from a sedate and calm deliberation, as purposing\nby this act to tell Israel so much; but was hurried by his grief, as\nnot considering well what he did, to break them. Asa, a good man, when\nhe was reproved by the prophet, instead of thankful acceptance of the\nreproof, grows angry, falls into a rage, and throws the prophet into\nprison. Elias, discomposed with Jezebel\u2019s persecution, desires that God\nwould take away his life. Jonah, in his anger, falls out with God, and\njustifies it when he hath done. Surely such fits as these proceeded\nfrom great inward combustion. Would wise, sober, holy men have said or\ndone such things if they had not been transported beyond themselves?\nand though in such cases the fits are soon over, yet we observe that\nsome are apt to fall into such fits often, and are so easily irritated,\nthat, like the epileptic person possessed by the devil, upon every\noccasion, they are by him \u2018cast into the fire or into the water,\u2019 [Mat.\nxvii. 15,] and by the frequent return of their distemper are never at\nrest.\n\nAs to others, whose tempers are more apt to retain a troublesome\nimpression, it is very obvious that their discomposures have as much\nin length and breadth as the other had in height. You may view Haman\ntormented under his secret discontent, which his pride and envy formed\nin him, for the want of Mordecai\u2019s obeisance. The king\u2019s favour, a\ngreat estate, high honour, and what else a man could wish to make him\ncontent, are all swallowed up in this gulf, and become nothing to him.\nYou see Amnon, vexed and sick for his sister Tamar, waxing lean from\nday to day. You see Ahab, though a king, who had enough to satisfy\nhis mind, in the same condition for Naboth\u2019s vineyard. If you say\nthese were wicked men, who rid their lusts without a bridle, and used\nthe spur; look then upon better men and you will see too much. Rachel\nso grieves and mourns for want of children, that she professeth her\nlife inconsistent with her disappointment: \u2018Give me children, else\nI die,\u2019 [Gen. xxx. 1.] Hannah upon the same occasion weeps and eats\nnot, and prays in the bitterness of her soul, and the abundance of\nher complaint and grief. Jeremiah, being pressed with discouragements\nfrom the contradiction of evil men, calls himself \u2018a man of strife\nand contention to the whole earth,\u2019 Jer. xv. 10; his sorrows thence\narising, had so imbittered his life, that he puts \u2018a woe\u2019 upon his\nbirth: \u2018Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife.\u2019\nPaul had a noble courage under manifold afflictions; he could glory\nin the cross and rejoice in persecutions; nevertheless the greatness\nof his work, the froward perverseness and unsteadiness of professors,\nwhich put him under fears, jealousies, and new travail, the miseries\nof Christians, and the care he had for the concerns of the gospel\u20142\nCor. xi. 2; Gal. vi. 19\u2014which was a constant load upon his mind, his\nheart,\u2014like old Eli\u2019s, trembling still for the ark of God, made him\ncomplain as one worn out by the troubles of his heart: 2 Cor. xi.\n27, \u2018In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and\nthirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things\nthat are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the\nchurches. Who is weak, and I am not weak?\u2019 &c. For the Jews he had\ngreat heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart; and for the Gentiles\nhe had perpetual fears, Rom. ix. 2. Now though he had a great share\nof divine comforts intermixed, and a more than ordinary assistance of\nthe Spirit to keep him from sinful discomposure of spirit, at least to\nsuch a height as it ordinarily prevails upon others, yet was he very\nsensible of his burden, and doubtless the devil laboured to improve\nthese occasions to weary out his strength. For by these and such\nlike things he frequently vexeth the righteous souls of the faithful\nministers of the gospel from day to day; so that their hearts have\nno rest, and their hands grow often feeble, and they cry out, Oh the\nburden! oh the care! being ready to say, as Jeremiah, chap. xx. 7,\n\u2018O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: I am a derision\ndaily, every one mocketh me.\u2019 Thus say they, Did we ever think to meet\nwith such disappointments, such griefs, from the wilfulness, pride,\nweakness, ignorance, pettishness, inconstancy, negligence, and scandals\nof friends? and such hatred, contradictions, scorns, and injuries from\nenemies? Were we free, what calling would we not rather choose? what\nplace would we not rather go to, where we might spend the remainder of\nour days in some rest and ease? Were it not better to work with our\nhands for a morsel of bread? for so might our sleep be sweet to us at\nnight, and we should not see these sorrows. At this rate are good men\nsometime disturbed, and the anguish of their spirit makes their life a\nburden.\n\n[2.] Yet is not this all the disturbance that the devil works upon our\nhearts by these things, though these are bad enough, but they have\na tendency _to further trouble_. Discomposures of spirit, if they\ncontinue long, turn at last into troubles of conscience. Though there\nis no affinity betwixt simple discomposure of soul and troubles of\nconscience in their own nature\u2014the objects of the former being things\nexternal, no way relating to the soul\u2019s interest in God and salvation,\nwhich are the objects of the latter\u2014yet the effects produced by the\nprevalency of these disturbances are a fit stock for the engrafting\nof doubts and questionings about our spiritual condition. As Saul\u2019s\nfather first troubled himself for the loss of his asses, and sent his\nson to seek them; but when he stayed long, he forgot his trouble, and\ntook up a new grief for his son, whom he feared he had lost in pursuit\nof the asses; so is it sometime with men, who, after they have long\nvexed themselves for injuries or afflictions, &c., upon a serious\nconsideration of the working and power of these passions, leave their\nformer pursuit, and begin to bethink themselves in what a condition\ntheir souls are, that abound with so much murmuring, rage, pride, or\nimpatience, and then the scene is altered, and they begin to fear they\nhave lost their souls, and are now perplexed about their spiritual\nestate. To make this plain I will give some instances, and then add\nsome reasons, which will evidence that it is so, and also how it comes\nto be so.\n\nFor instances, though I might produce a sufficient number to this\npurpose from those that have written of melancholy, yet I shall only\ninsist upon two or three from Scripture.\n\nHezekiah, when God smote him with sickness, at first was discomposed\nupon the apprehension of death, that he should so soon be deprived of\nthe \u2018residue of his years, and behold man no more with the inhabitants\nof the world,\u2019 as he himself expresseth it, Isa. xxxviii. 10; afterward\nhis trouble grew greater, \u2018He chattered as a crane or swallow, and\nmourned as a dove;\u2019 he was in \u2018great bitterness,\u2019 ver. 17; and sadly\noppressed therewith, ver. 14. That which thus distressed him was not\nsimply the fear of death. We cannot imagine so pious a person would\nso very much disquiet himself upon that single account; but by the\nexpressions which he let fall in his complainings, we may understand\nthat some such thoughts as these did shake him: that he apprehended\nGod was angry with him, that the present stroke signified so much to\nhim, all circumstances considered\u2014for he was yet in his strength,\nand Jerusalem in great distress, being at that time besieged by\nSennacherib\u2019s army,[325] and for him to be doomed to death by a sudden\nmessage at such a time, seemed to carry much in it\u2014and that surely\nthere was great provocation on his part; and it seems, upon search, he\ncharged himself so deeply with his sinfulness, that his apprehensions\nwere no less than that, if God should restore him, yet in the sense of\nhis vileness he should never be able to look up; \u2018I shall go softly\nall my years in the bitterness of my soul,\u2019 ver. 15; which expression\nimplies a supposition of his recovery, and a deep sense of iniquity,\nand accordingly when he was recovered, he takes notice chiefly of God\u2019s\nlove to his soul and the pardon of his sin, which evidently discover\nwhere the trouble pinched him: \u2018Thou hast in love to my soul delivered\nit from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind\nthy back,\u2019 ver. 17.\n\nJob\u2019s troubles were very great, and his case extraordinary. Satan\nhad maliciously stripped him of all outward comforts; this he bore\nwith admirable patience: Job i. 21, \u2018Naked came I out of my mother\u2019s\nwomb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord\nhath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\u2019 The devil, seeing\nnow himself defeated, obtains a new commission, wherein Job is wholly\nput into his hand\u2014life only excepted, chap. ii. 9. He sets upon him\nagain, and in his new encounter labours to bring upon him spiritual\ndistresses, and accordingly improves his losses and sufferings to\nthat end, as appears by his endeavours and the success; for as he\ntempted him by his wife to a desperate disregard of God that had so\nafflicted him, \u2018Curse God and die,\u2019 so he tempted him also by his\nfriends to question the state of his soul and his integrity, and all\nfrom the consideration of his outward miseries. To that purpose are\nall their discourses. Eliphaz, chap. iv. 5-7, from his sufferings and\nhis carriage under them, takes occasion to jeer his former piety, as\nbeing no other than feigned, \u2018It is come upon thee, and thou faintest:\nis not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of\nthy ways?\u2014that is, Is all thy religion come to this? and also concludes\nhim to be wicked, \u2018Who ever perished, being innocent? and where were\nthe righteous cut off?\u2019 Bildad, chap. viii. 6, 13, chargeth him with\nhypocrisy upon the same ground, and while he makes his defence, Zophar\nplainly gives him the lie, chap. xi. 3; and at this rate they go their\nround; and all this while Satan, whose design it was to afflict his\nconscience with the sense of divine wrath, secretly strikes in with\nthese accusations, insomuch that though Job stoutly defended his\nintegrity, yet he was wounded with inward distresses, and concluded\nthat these dealings of God against him were no less than God\u2019s severe\nobservance of his iniquity; as is plain from his bemoaning himself in\nchap. x. 2, \u2018I will say unto God, Do not condemn me: shew me wherefore\nthou contendest with me;\u2019 ver. 16, 17, \u2018Thou huntest me as a fierce\nlion, thou renewest thy witnesses against me,\u2019 &c.\n\nDavid was a man that was often exercised with sickness and troubles\nfrom enemies, and in all the instances almost that we meet with in the\npsalms of these his afflictions, we may observe the outward occasions\nof trouble brought him under the suspicion of God\u2019s wrath and his\niniquity; so that he was seldom sick, or persecuted, but this called\non the disquiet of conscience, and brought his sin to remembrance; as\nPs. vi., which was made on the occasion of his sickness, as appears\nfrom ver. 5, wherein he expresseth the vexation of his soul under the\napprehension of God\u2019s anger; all his other griefs running into this\nchannel, as little brooks, losing themselves in a great river, change\ntheir name and nature. He that was at first only concerned for his\nsickness, is now wholly concerned with sorrow and smart under the fear\nand hazard of his soul\u2019s condition; the like we may see in Ps. xxxviii.\nand many places more.\n\nHaving made good the assertion that discomposures of soul upon outward\noccasions, by long continuance and Satan\u2019s management, do often run\nup to spiritual distress of conscience, I shall next, for further\nconfirmation and illustration, shew how it comes to be so.\n\n(1.) Discomposures of spirit _do obstruct, and at last extinguish the\ninward comforts of the soul_; so that if we suppose the discomposed\nperson at first, before he be thus disordered, to have had a good\nmeasure of spiritual joy in God\u2019s favour, and delight in his ways, yet\nthe disturbances,\n\n[1.] _Divert his thoughts from feeding upon these comforts, or from\nthe enjoyment of himself in them._ The soul cannot naturally be highly\nintent upon two different things at once, but whatsoever doth strongly\nengage the thoughts and affections, that carries the whole stream with\nit, be it good or bad, and other things give way at present. When the\nheart is vehemently moved on outward considerations, it lays by the\nthoughts of its sweetness which it hath had in the enjoyment of God;\nthey are so contrary and inconsistent, that either our comforts will\nchase out of our thoughts our discomposures, or our discomposures will\nchase away our comforts. I believe the comforts of Elias, when he lay\ndown under his grief, and desired to die; and of Jeremiah, when he\ncried out of violence, run very low in those fits of discontent, and\ntheir spirits were far from an actual rejoicing in God. But this is not\nthe worst; we may not so easily imagine that upon the going away of the\nfit, the wonted comforts return to their former course. For,\n\n[2.] The mind being distracted with its burden, is _left impotent and\nunable to return to its former exercise_. The warmth which the heart\nhad, being smothered and suspended in its exercise, is not so quickly\nrevived, and the thoughts which were busied with disturbance, like\nthe distempered humours of the body, are not reduced suddenly to that\nevenness of composure as may make them fit for their old employment.\nAnd,\n\n[3.] If God should _offer the influences of joyful support, a\ndiscomposed spirit is not in a capacity to receive them_, no more\nthan it can receive those counsels that by any careful hand are\ninterposed for its relief and settlement. Comforts are not heard in\nthe midst of noise and clamour. The calmness of the soul\u2019s faculties\nare presupposed as a necessary qualification towards its reception of\na message of peace. Phinehas his wife being overcome of grief for the\nark\u2019s captivity and her husband\u2019s death, could not be affected with the\njoyful news of a son, [1 Sam. iv. 19, _seq._] But,\n\n[4.] Sinful discomposures _hinder these gracious and comfortable\noffers; if we could possibly, which we cannot ordinarily, receive\nthem, yet we cannot expect that God will give them_. The Spirit of\nconsolation loves to take up his lodging in a \u2018meek and quiet spirit,\u2019\nand nothing more grieves him than bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour,\nand malice, which made the apostle, Eph. iv. 30, 31, subjoin his\ndirection of \u2018putting these away\u2019 from us, with his advice of \u2018not\ngrieving the Spirit by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption.\u2019\nAnd then,\n\n[5.] _The former stock of comfort, which persons distempered with\ndiscomposures might be supposed to have, will soon be wasted_, for our\ncomforts are not like the oil in the cruse, or meal in the barrel,\nwhich had, as it were, their spring in themselves. We are comforted\nand supported by daily communication of divine aid, so that if the\nspring-head be stopped, the stream will quickly grow dry. It is\nevident then that inward consolations in God will not ripen under\nthese shadows, nor grow under these continual droppings, seeing a\ndiscomposed spirit is not capable to receive more, nor able to keep\nwhat comfort it had at first. We may easily see how it comes to pass\nthat these disturbances may in time bring on spiritual troubles; for\nif our comforts be once lost, trouble of conscience easily follows.\nWhere there is nothing to fortify the heart, the poison of malicious\nsuggestions will unavoidably prevail.\n\n(2.) Discomposures of soul afford the devil _fit matter to work upon_.\nThey furnish him with strong objections against sincerity of holiness,\nby which the peace of conscience, being strongly assaulted, is at\nlast overthrown. The usual weapons by which Satan fights against the\nassurance of God\u2019s children, are the guilt of sins committed and the\nneglect of duty; and the disturbed soul affords enough of both these to\nmake a charge against itself: for,\n\n[1.] _Where there is much discomposure there is much sin._ If in the\nmultitude of words there wants not iniquity, then much more in the\nmultitude of unruly thoughts. A disturbed spirit is like troubled\nwater; all the mud that lay at the bottom is raised up and mixeth\nitself with the thoughts. If any injury or loss do trouble the\nmind, all the thoughts are tinctured with anger, pride, impatience,\nor whatsoever root of bitterness was in the heart before. We view\nthem not singly as the issues of wise providence, but ordinarily we\nconsider them as done by such instruments, and against ourselves, as\nmalicious, spiteful, causeless, ungrateful wrongs; and then we give\ntoo great a liberty to ourselves to rage, to meditate revenge, to\nthreaten, to reproach, and what not. And if our disposition have not\nso strong a natural inclination to these distempers, yet the thoughts\nby discomposure are quickly leavened. It is the comparison used by\nthe apostle, 1 Cor. v. 8, to express the power of malice, which is a\nusual attendant in this service, to infect all the imaginations with a\nsharpness, which makes them swell into exorbitancy and excess; hence\nproceed revilings, quarrellings, &c. When the tongue is thus fermented,\nit is \u2018a fire, a world of iniquity,\u2019 producing more sins than can be\nreckoned, \u2018it defileth the whole body,\u2019 engaging all the faculties in\nheady pursuit, James iii. 6.\n\n[2.] _Discomposures obstruct duties._ This is the inconvenience which\nthe apostle, 1 Pet. iii. 7, tells us doth arise from disturbances\namong relations. If the wife or husband do not carry well, so that\ndiscontents or differences arise, their prayers are hindered. Duties\nthen are obstructed, 1. _In the act_. When the heart is out of frame,\nprayer is out of season, and there is an averseness to it; partly\nbecause all good things are, in such confusions, burdensome to the\nhumour that then prevails, which eats out all desire and delight to\nspiritual things; and partly because they dare not come into God\u2019s\npresence, conscious of their own guilt, and awe of God hindering\nsuch approaches. 2. They obstruct the _right manner of performance_,\nstraitening the heart and contracting the spirit, that if anything be\nattempted it is poorly and weakly performed, 3. And also _the success\nof duty_ is obstructed by discomposure. God will not accept such\nservices, and therefore Christ adviseth to \u2018leave the gift before the\naltar,\u2019 though ready for offering, where the spirit is overcharged\nwith offences or angry thoughts, and \u2018first to go and be reconciled to\nour brother,\u2019 and then to \u2018come and offer the gift,\u2019 it being lost\nlabour to do it before, [Mat. v. 24.] From these sins of omission and\ncommission Satan can, and often doth, frame a dreadful charge against\nthose that are thus concerned, endeavouring to prove by these evidences\nthat they are yet, notwithstanding pretence of conversion, in \u2018the gall\nof bitterness and bond of iniquity,\u2019 [Acts viii. 23,] whereby the peace\nof conscience is much shaken; and the more because also,\n\n[3.] These discomposures of soul give Satan _a fit season for the\nmanagement of his accusation_. Strong accusations do often effect\nnothing when the season is unsuitable. Many a time he hath as much\nto say against the comforts of men, when yet they shake all off, as\nPaul did the viper off his hand, and feel no harm, [Acts xxviii. 3.]\nBut that which prepares the conscience to receive the indictment is a\nparticular disposition which it is wrought into by suspicious credulity\nand fearfulness. These make the heart, as wax to the seal, ready\nto take any impression that Satan will stamp upon it. Now, by long\ndisturbances, he works the heart into this mould very often, and upon\na double account he gains himself a fit opportunity to charge home his\nexceptions. 1. In that he sets upon the conscience with his accusations\nafter the heart hath been long molested and confused with its other\ntroubles; for then the heart is weakened, and unable to make resistance\nas at other times. An assault with a fresh party after a long conflict\ndisorders its forces, and puts all to flight. 2. In that long and\ngreat discomposures of mind bring on a distemper of melancholy; for\nit is notoriously known by common experience that those acid humours\nproducing this distemper, which have their rise from the blood, may\nbe occasioned by their violent passions of mind, the animal spirits\nbecoming inordinate by long discomposures of sadness, envy, terror,\nand fretful cares, and the motion of the blood being retarded, it by\ndegrees departs from its temperament, and is infected with an acidity,\nso that persons no way inclined naturally to melancholy may yet become\nso by the disquiets of their troubled mind.\n\nBoth these ways, but chiefly melancholy, the devil hath his advantage\nfor disturbing the conscience. Melancholy most naturally inclines men\nto be solicitous for their souls\u2019 welfare; but withal disposeth them\nso strongly to suspect the worst\u2014for it is a credulous, suspicious\nhumour in things hurtful\u2014and afflicts so heavily with sadness for what\nit doth respect, that when Satan lays before men of that humour their\nmiscarriages under their discontents, their impatience, unthankfulness,\nanger, rash thoughts, and speeches against God or men, &c., withal\nsuggesting that such a heart cannot be right with God, after serious\nthoughts upon Satan\u2019s frequently repeated charge, they cry out, Guilty,\nguilty; and then begins a new trouble for their unregenerate estate,\nand their supposed lost souls.\n\n[4.] In this case usually Satan hath greater _liberty to accuse, and by\nhis accusations to molest the conscience_, in that men of discomposed\nspirits, by the manifold evils arising thence, provoke God to desert\nthem, and to leave them in Satan\u2019s hand to be brought into an hour of\ntemptation. Satan\u2019s commission is occasioned by our provocations, and\nthe temptations arising from such a commission are usually dreadful.\nThey are solemn temptations, and called so after a singular manner; for\nof these I take those scriptures to be meant, \u2018Watch and pray, that\nye enter not into temptation, Mat. xxvi. 41; \u2018And lead us not into\ntemptation,\u2019 Mat. vi. 13. Such temptations are not common temptations,\nand are of unknown force and hazard to the soul, which way soever they\nare designed, either for sin or terror. For several things do concur in\na solemn temptation. As, 1. Satan doth in a special manner challenge\na man to the combat, or rather he challenges God to give him such a\nman to fight with him, as he did concerning Job. This Christ tells us\nof, Luke xxii. 31, \u2018Simon, Satan hath desired to have you.\u2019 The word\nsignifies a challenging or daring\u2014\u1f10\u03be\u03b1\u03b9\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9; and it seems the devil\nis oft daring God to give us into his hand, when we little know of it.\n2. There is also a special suitableness of occasion and snare to the\ntemper and state of men. Thus he took Peter at an advantage in the\nhigh priest\u2019s hall; and in the case we now speak of he takes advantage\nof men\u2019s provocations and melancholy. 3. There is always a violent\nprosecution, which our Saviour expresseth under the comparison of\nsifting, which is a restless agitation of the corn, bringing that which\nwas at the bottom to the top, and shuffling the top to the bottom, so\nthat the chaff or dirt is always uppermost. 4. And to all this there\nis divine permission, Satan let loose, and we left to our ordinary\nstrength, as is implied in that expression, \u2018He hath desired to have\nyou that he might sift you.\u2019 Now then, if the devil have such ground to\ngive God a challenge concerning such men, and if God do, as he justly\nmay, leave such men, whose bitterness of spirit hath been as \u2018a smoke\nin his nostrils all the day,\u2019 [Isa. lxv. 5,] in Satan\u2019s hand, he will\nso shake them that their consciences shall have no rest. And this he\ncan yet the more easily effect, because,\n\n[5.] Discomposures of spirit have a particular tendency _to incline our\nthoughts to severity and harshness_, so that those who have had long\nand great disturbances upon any outward occasions\u2014of loss, affliction,\nor disappointment, &c.\u2014do naturally think, after a solemn review of\nsuch troubles, harshly of God and of themselves. They are ready to\nconclude that God is surely angry with them in that he doth afflict\nthem, or that they have unsanctified hearts in that their thoughts\nare so fretful and unruly upon every inconsiderable petty occasion.\nIt is so ordinary for men under the weight of their trouble, or under\nthe sense of their sin, to be sadly apprehensive of God\u2019s wrath\nand their soul\u2019s hazard, that it were needless to offer instances:\nlet David\u2019s case be instead of all. That his troubles begot such\nimaginations frequently, may be seen throughout the book of the Psalms.\nWe never read his complaints against persecuting enemies, or for other\nafflictions, but still his heart is afraid that God is calling sin to\nremembrance. In Ps. xxxviii. he is under great distress, and tells how\nlow his thoughts were: he was \u2018troubled,\u2019 greatly \u2018bowed down;\u2019 he\n\u2018went mourning all the day long;\u2019 he expresseth his thoughts to have\nbeen that \u2018God had forsaken him,\u2019 ver. 21: and his hopes, though they\nafterward revived, were almost gone; he cries out of his sins as having\n\u2018gone over his head,\u2019 and become \u2018a burden too heavy for him,\u2019 ver. 4,\nand therefore sets himself to confess them, ver. 18. He trembles at\nGod\u2019s anger, and feels the \u2018arrows of God sticking fast in him,\u2019 ver.\n2. But what occasioned all this? The psalm informs us, God had visited\nhim with sickness, ver. 7. Besides that\u2014for one trouble seldom comes\nalone\u2014his friends were perfidious, ver. 11; his enemies also were busy\nlaying snares for his life, ver. 12. Now his thoughts were to this\npurpose, that surely he had some way or other greatly provoked God by\nhis sins, and therefore he fears wrath in every rebuke, and displeasure\nin every chastisement, ver. 1. The like you may see in Ps. cii., where\nthe prophet upon the occasion of sickness, ver. 3, 23, and the reproach\nof enemies, ver. 8, is under great trouble, and ready to fail except\nspeedy relief prevent, ver. 2: the reason whereof was this, that he\nconcluded these troubles were evident tokens of God\u2019s indignation and\nwrath; \u2018because of thine indignation and thy wrath,\u2019 ver. 10. From\nthese five particulars we may be satisfied that it cannot be otherwise,\nand also how it comes to be so, that sometime trouble of conscience is\nbrought on by other discomposing troubles of the mind. For if these\ntake away the comforts which supported the soul, and afford also\narguments to the devil to prove a wicked heart, and withal \u2018a fit\nseason\u2019 to urge them to a deep impression, God in the meantime standing\n\u2018at a distance,\u2019 and the thoughts naturally inclined to conclude God\u2019s\nwrath from these troubles, how impossible is it that Satan should miss\nof disquieting the conscience by his strong, vehement suggestions of\nwickedness and desertion!\n\nIn our inquiries after Satan\u2019s success in working these discomposures\nof mind, we have discovered, 1. That the disturbances thence arising\nare great; 2. That they have a tendency to trouble of conscience. There\nis but one particular more to be spoken of, relating to his success in\nthis design, and that is,\n\n(3.) These disturbances are _much in Satan\u2019s power_. Ordinarily he can\ndo it at pleasure, except when God restrains him from applying fit\noccasions, or when, notwithstanding these occasions, he extraordinarily\nsuspends the effect, which he frequently doth when men are enraged\nunder suffering upon the account of the gospel and conscience; for\nthen, though they be bound up under affliction and iron, yet the \u2018iron\nenters not into the soul;\u2019 though they are troubled, they are not\ndistressed. These extraordinaries excepted, he can as easily discompose\nthe spirits of men as he can by temptation draw them into other sins;\nwhich may be evidenced by these considerations:\n\n[1.] We may observe that those _whose passionate tempers do usually\ntransport them into greater vehemencies, are never out of trouble_.\nTheir fits frequently return, they are never out of the fire, and this\nis because Satan is still provided of occasions suitable to their\ninclinations.\n\n[2.] Though God, out of his common bounty to mankind, hath allowed him\na comfortable being in the world, yet we find that generally the sons\nof men, under their various occupations and studies, are wearied out\n_with vexations of spirit_. This Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, discovers\nat large in various employments of men, not exempting the pursuit of\nwisdom and knowledge: chap. i. 18, \u2018In much wisdom is much grief;\nand he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow:\u2019 nor pleasures\nnor riches, for by all these he shews that a man is obnoxious to\ndisquiets; so that the general account of man\u2019s life is but this:\nchap. ii. 23, \u2018All his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea,\nhis heart taketh not rest in the night.\u2019 That it is so, is testified\nby common experience past denial; but how it comes to be so, is the\ninquiry. It is either from God, or from Satan working by occasions upon\nour tempers. That it is not from God, is evident; for though sorrow\nbe a part of that curse which man was justly doomed unto, yet hath\nhe appointed ways and means by which it might be so mitigated that\nit might be tolerable without discomposure of spirit; and therefore\nSolomon, designing in his Ecclesiastes to set forth the chief good,\nshews that felicity consists not in the common abuse of outward things,\nbecause that brings only vexation, but in the fear of God leading\nto future happiness, and in the meantime in a thankful, comfortable\nuse of things present without anxiety of mind. Hence doth he fix his\nconclusion, as the result of his experience, and often repeats it:\n\u2018There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink,\nand that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour,\u2019 chap. ii.\n24, iii. 12, 13, and v. 18, 19. Not that Solomon plays the epicure,\ngiving advice \u2018to eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,\u2019 nor that he\nspeaks deridingly to those that seek their felicity in this life, as\nif he should say, \u2018If ye do terminate your desires upon a terrene\nfelicity, there is nothing better than to eat and drink,\u2019 &c. But he\ngives a serious positive advice of enjoying the things of this life\nwith cheerfulness, which he affirms proceeds from the sole bounty of\nGod as his singular gift: \u2018It is the gift of God,\u2019 chap. iii. 13; \u2018it\nis our portion\u2019\u2014that is, our allowance, chap. v. 19, for these two\nexpressions, \u2018our portion,\u2019 and \u2018God\u2019s gift,\u2019 they are of the same\nsignification with Solomon here; and when a man hath power to enjoy\nthis allowance in comfort, it is God that \u2018answereth him in the joy of\nhis heart,\u2019 ver. 20. It is plain, then, that God \u2018sows good seed in his\nfield;\u2019 the springing up, therefore, of these tares of vexation, which\nso generally afflict the sons of men, must be ascribed to this, \u2018the\nenemy hath done it,\u2019 [Mat. xiii. 28.]\n\n[3.] It is also a considerable ground of suspicion that Satan can\ndo much in discomposures of spirit, in that sometimes those whose\ntempers are _most cool and calm, and whose singular dependence upon,\nand communion with God, must needs more strengthen them against these\npassionate vexations, are notwithstanding precipitated into violent\ncommotions_. Moses was naturally meek above the common disposition\nof men, and his very business was converse with God, whose presence\nkept his heart under a blessed awe; yet, upon the people\u2019s murmuring,\nhe was so transported with sullenness and unbelief, at the waters of\nMeribah, Num. xx. 10-12, that \u2018it went ill with him;\u2019 which David\nthus expresseth, Ps. cvi. 33, \u2018They provoked his spirit, so that\nhe spake unadvisedly with his lips.\u2019 Who can suppose less in this\nmatter than that Satan, having him at advantage, hurried him to this\nrashness\u2014specially seeing such vehemencies were not usual with Moses,\nand that his natural temper led him to the contrary? This hath some\naffinity with the next consideration, which is,\n\n[4.] That when _men most foresee the occasions of their trouble, and\ndo most fear the trouble that might thence arise, and most firmly\ndesign to keep their hearts quiet, yet are they oft forced, against\nall care and resolution, upon extravagant heats_. David resolved\nand strenuously endeavoured to possess his soul in serenity and\npatience;\u2014for what could be more than that solemn engagement? Ps.\nxxxix. 1, \u2018I said I will look to my ways;\u2019 and what endeavours could be\nmore severe than to keep himself \u2018as with bit and bridle\u2019? what care\ncould be more hopeful to succeed than to be \u2018dumb with silence\u2019?\u2014yet\nfor all this he could not keep his heart calm nor restrain his tongue:\nver. 3, \u2018My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing the fire\nburned: then spake I with my tongue.\u2019 Who suspects not the hand of\nSatan in this?\n\n[5.] It is also remarkable, that when we have _least reason to give way\nto discomposure, when we have most cause to avoid all provocations,\nyet then we have most occasions set before us_. When we would most\nretire from the noise of the world for private devotion, when we would\nmost carefully prepare ourselves for a solemn ordinance, if we be\nnot very watchful, we shall be diverted by business, disturbed with\nnoises, or some special occasion of vexation shall importune us to\ndisquiet ourselves\u2014when yet we shall observe, if we have not these\nsolemn affairs to wait upon, we shall have fewer of these occasions of\nvexation to attend us. This cannot be attributed to mere contingency of\noccasions, nor yet to our tempers solely; for why they should be most\napt to give us trouble when they are most engaged to calmness, cannot\nwell be accounted for. It is evidently, then, Satan that maliciously\ndirects these occasions\u2014for they have not a malicious ingenuousness to\nprepare themselves, without some other chief mover\u2014at such times as he\nknows would be most to our prejudice.\n\nThese general considerations amount to more than a suspicion, that it\nis much in Satan\u2019s power to give disturbances to the minds of men; yet,\nfor the clearer manifestation of the matter, I shall shew that he can\ndo much to bring about occasions of discomposure, and also to stir up\nthe passions of men upon these occasions.\n\n1. That occasions are much in his hand, I shall easily demonstrate. For,\n\n_First_, There being _so many occasions of vexation to a weak, crazy\nmind, we may well imagine that one or other is still occurring_; and\nwhile they thus offer themselves, Satan needs not be idle for want of\nan opportunity.\n\n_Second_, But if common occasions do not so exactly suit his design,\n_he can prepare occasions_; for such is his foresight and contrivance,\nthat he can put some men\u2014without their privity to his intentions, or\nany evil design of their own\u2014upon such actions as may, through the\nstrength of prejudice, misinterpretation, or evil inclination, be an\noffence to others; and, in like manner, can invite those to be in the\nway of these offences. I am ready to think there was a contrivance of\nSatan\u2014if we well consider all circumstances\u2014to bring David and the\nobject of his lust together; while Bathsheba was bathing, he might use\nhis art in private motions to get David up to the roof of his house.\nBut more especially can the devil prepare occasions that do depend upon\nthe wickedness of his slaves; these are servants under his command, he\ncan \u2018say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes.\u2019\nIf contempt or injury, affronts or scorns, &c., be necessary for his\npresent work against any whom he undertakes to disturb, he can easily\nput his vassals upon that part of the service; and if he have higher\nemployment for them, he ever finds them forward. And hence was it,\nthat when Satan designed to plunder Job, he could quickly perform it,\nbecause he had the Chaldeans and Sabeans ready at a call.\n\n_Third_, If both these should fail him, he can easily awaken in us _the\nmemory of old occasions that have been heretofore a trouble to us_.\nThese being raised out of their graves will renew old disturbances,\nworking afresh the same disquiets which the things themselves gave us\nat first.\n\nIf Satan\u2019s power were bounded here, and that he could do no more\nthan set before men occasions of vexation, yet we might justly, on\nthat single account, call him the troubler of the spirits of men;\nconsidering that naturally the thoughts of men are restless, and\ntheir imaginations ever rolling. If men sequester themselves from\nall business, if they shut themselves up from commerce with men,\nturn Eremites\u2014as Jerome did\u2014on purpose to avoid disquiet, yet their\nthoughts would hurry them from place to place, sometimes to the court,\nsometimes to the market, sometimes to shows and pastimes, sometimes to\nquarrellings; sometimes they view fields, buildings, and countries;\nsometimes they fancy dignities, promotions, and honours; they are ever\nworking upon one object or other, real or supposed, and according\nto the object such will the affections be, high or low, joyful or\nsorrowful; so that if the utmost of what Satan could do were no more\nthan to provide occasions, discomposures would follow naturally. The\nevil dispositions of men would thereby be set a-working, though Satan\nstood by as an idle spectator. The serpent\u2014in our breasts, as Solomon\ntells us, Eccles. x. 11\u2014would \u2018bite without enchantment,\u2019 that is,\nexcept it were charmed. But Satan can do more than tempt objectively,\nwhen he hath provided the fuel he can also bring fire. For,\n\n2. _He can also set our passions on work, and incense them to greater\nfury than otherwise they would arrive at._ We see persons that are\ndistempered with passion may be whetted up to a higher pitch of rage\nby any officious flatterer, that will indulge the humour and aggravate\nthe provocation. Much more then can Satan do it by whispering such\nthings to our minds as he knows will increase the flame; and therefore\nis it, that where the Scripture doth caution us against anger\u2014as the\nproper product of our own corruption, calling it our wrath, Eph. iv.\n26, 27\u2014there also it warns us against the devil, as the incendiary,\nthat endeavours to heighten it. And where it tells us of the disorders\nof the tongue,\u2014which, though a little member, can of itself do great\nmischief, James iii. 6\u2014there it also tells us that the devil brings it\nan additional fire from hell: \u2018It is set on fire of hell.\u2019 And there\nare several ways by which Satan can irritate the passions. As,\n\n[1.] _By presenting the occasions worse than they are, or were ever\nintended, unjustly aggravating all circumstances._ By this means he\nmakes the object of the passions the more displeasing and hateful. This\nmust of necessity provoke to a higher degree.\n\n[2.] _He can in a natural way move, as it were, the wheels, and set the\npassions a-going, if they were of themselves more dull and sluggish_,\nfor he hath a nearer access to our passions than every one is aware\nof. I will make it evident thus: our passions in their workings do\ndepend upon the fluctuations, excursions, and recursions of the blood\nand animal spirits, as naturalists do determine.[326] Now that Satan\ncan make his approaches to the blood, spirits, and humours, and can\nmake alterations upon them, cannot be denied by those that consider\nwhat the Scripture speaks in Job\u2019s case, and in the cases of those that\nwere by possession of the devil made dumb, deaf, or epileptic; for if\nhe could afflict Job with grievous boils, chap. ii. 7, it is plain he\ndisordered and vitiated his blood and humours, which made them apt to\nproduce such boils or ulcers; and if he could produce an epilepsy, it\nis evident that he could infect the _lympha_ with such a sharpness as\nby vellicating the nerves might cause a convulsion; and these were\nmuch more than the disorderly motions of blood, spirits, or humours,\nwhich raise the passions of men. If any object to this, that then,\nconsidering Satan\u2019s malicious diligence, we must expect the passions of\nmen would never be at rest; it is answered, that this power of Satan is\nnot unlimited, but oft God prohibits him such approaches, and without\nhis leave he can do nothing; and also grace in God\u2019s children, working\ncalmness, submission, and patience, doth balance Satan\u2019s contrary\nendeavour. For as hurtful and vexatious occasions, being represented by\nthe sense to the imagination, are apt to move the blood and spirits;\nso, on the contrary, the ballast of patience and other graces doth so\nsettle the mind, that the blood and spirits are kept steady in their\nusual course.\n\n[3.] _When the passions are up, Satan can by his suggestions make\nthem more heady and violent._ He can suggest to the mind motives and\narguments to forward it, and can stir up our natural corruption, with\nall its powers, to strike in with the opportunity. Thus he not only\nkindles the fire, but blows the flame.\n\n[4.] _And he can further fix the mind upon these thoughts, and keep\nthem still upon the hearts of men._ And then they eat in the deeper,\nand like poison diffuse their malignity the further. We see that men,\nwho are at first but in an ordinary fret, if they continue to meditate\nupon their provocation, they increase their vexation; and if they give\nthemselves to vent their passions by their tongues, though they begin\nin some moderation, yet as motion causeth heat, so their own words whet\ntheir rage, according to Eccles. x. 13, \u2018The beginning of the words of\nhis mouth is foolishness, but the latter end of his talk is mischievous\nmadness.\u2019 The same advantage hath Satan against men by holding down\ntheir thoughts to these occasions of discomposure.\n\nIf occasions be so much in Satan\u2019s power, and he have also so great a\nhand over men\u2019s passions, it is too evident that he can do very much\nto discompose the spirits of men that are naturally obnoxious to these\ntroubles, except God restrain him, and grace oppose him. Thus have I\nspoken my thoughts of the first sort of troubles, by which Satan doth\nundermine the peace of men\u2019s hearts.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n _Of the second way to hinder peace.\u2014Affrightments, the general nature\n and burden of them, in several particulars.\u2014What are the ways by\n which he affrights: 1. Atheistical injections. Observations\n of his proceeding in them; 2. Blasphemous thoughts; 3.\n Affrightful suggestions of reprobation. Observations of his\n proceedings in that course; 4. Frightful motions to sin;\n 5. Strong immediate impressions of fear; 6. Affrightful\n scrupulosity of conscience._\n\n\nThe next rank of troubles by which the devil doth endeavour to\nmolest us, I call _affrightments_. It is usual for those that speak\nof temptations, to distinguish them thus: Some are, they say,\nenticements, some are affrightments; but then they extend these\naffrightments further than I intend, comprehending under them all those\ntemptations of sadness and terror, of which I am next to speak. But\nby affrightments, I mean only those perplexities of spirit into which\nSatan casts men, by overacting their fears, or astonishing their minds,\nby injecting unusual and horrid thoughts against their consents.[327]\nSome there are that have thought those temptations, of which the\napostle complains, 2 Cor. xii. 7, \u2018There was given me a thorn in the\nflesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me,\u2019 were of this kind\u2014that\nis, horrid injections frequently repeated, as men deal their blows in\nfighting. Gerson, speaking of these, tells us they sometime come from\nthe sole suggestion of Satan troubling the fancy, and saying, Deny God,\ncurse God; and then adds, such was the thorn in the flesh given to the\napostle.[328] But whether this was the trouble of the apostle, or some\nother thing\u2014for several things are conjectured, and nothing can be\npositively proved\u2014we are sure, from the sad experience of many, that\nsuch troubles he doth often give; which I shall first explain in the\ngeneral, and then give a particular of these frightful injections.\n\n1. To explain the nature and burden of this kind of trouble, I shall\npresent you with a few observations about them. As,\n\n[1.] These astonishing thoughts are purely _injections_, such as _Satan\ncasts into the mind, and not what the mind of itself doth produce_; as\none expresseth it, they are more darting than reflecting. Not but that\nour natural corruption could of itself beget blasphemous or atheistical\nthoughts; but when they have their rise from ourselves solely, they\ndo not so startle us. Having some share at least of our consent going\nalong with them, they appear not so strange. But in this case in hand,\nSatan is the agent, and men are the sufferers, their understandings\nand souls being busied all the while to repel them, with the utmost\nof their reluctances. And to those that do thus strive against them,\nmaking resistance with all their strength, with tears and prayers, they\nare only their afflictions, but not their sins. For the thoughts are\nnot polluted by the simple apprehension of a sinful object, no more\nthan the eye is defiled by beholding loathsome and filthy things; for\nthen should the mind of Christ have been defiled, when Satan propounded\nhimself blasphemously as the object of his worship; his mind as truly\napprehended the meaning of that saying, \u2018fall down and worship me,\u2019 as\nours can do, when he casts such a thing immediately into our thoughts.\nWhich is a consideration to be observed diligently by those that meet\nwith such sad exercise. If they do truly apprehend that they are but\ntheir sufferings, and that God will not charge the sin upon them, they\nwill more easily bear and overcome the trouble.\n\nThese injections are commonly impetuous and sudden, frequently compared\nto lightning; and this is usually made a note of distinction betwixt\nwicked, blasphemous thoughts rising from our natural corruption, and\ndarted in by Satan; the former being more leisurely, orderly, and\nmoderate, according to the usual course of the procedure of human\nthoughts, the latter usually accompanied with a hasty violence, subtly\nand incoherently shooting into our understandings, as lightning into a\nhouse; so that all the strength we have can neither prevent them nor\nexpel them, nor so much as mitigate the violence of them.\n\n[3.] They are also for the most part _incessant and constant troublers\nwhere they once begin_. Though Satan hath variety, in regard of the\nmatter of these amazing injections\u2014for sometimes he affrights one\nman with blasphemous thoughts, another with atheistical thoughts, a\nthird with grievous, unusual temptations to sin, as murder, &c.\u2014yet\nusually he fixeth his foot upon what he first undertakes. And as\ncunning huntsmen do not change their game that they first rouse, that\nthey may sooner speed in catching the prey; so what frightful thought\nSatan begins the trouble with, that he persists in, and is withal so\nvehement in his pursuit, that he gives little intermission. He makes\nthese unwelcome thoughts haunt them like ghosts, whithersoever they\ngo, whatsoever they do; he will give solemn onsets it may be twenty or\nforty times in a day: and at this rate he continues, it may be for some\nconsiderable time, so that they are not quit of the trouble for several\nmonths, or it may be years.\n\n[4.] The matter of these affrightments are things _most contrary\nto the impressions of nature or grace, and therefore most odious\nand troublesome_. When he is upon this design, things that are most\ncontrary to the belief and inclination of men are best for his purpose;\nas men that intend to affright others choose the most ugly vizors,\nthe strangest garbs and postures, and make the most uncouth, inhuman\nnoises; and the more monstrous they appear, the better they succeed in\ntheir purposes. Yet Satan doth not always choose the very worst, for\nthen most of the troubles of this kind would be about the same thing;\nbut he considers the strength of our persuasions, our establishment in\ntruths, the probability or improbability of an after game with us; and\naccordingly sometimes refuseth to trouble us with injections, contrary\nto what we are most firmly rooted in, choosing rather that which,\nthough contrary to our thoughts and resolves, we have not been fixed\nin without a great deal of labour, and which, if there be occasion,\nmight most fitly be charged upon us as our own, so that, whereas other\nsuggestions would be slighted as apparent malice and scarecrows, these\nare most afflicting, as being an assault against such a fort which\ncosts us much to rear, and which we are most afraid to lose, and most\nliable to his accusation after a long continuance, as being the issue\nof our own unsettledness.\n\n[5.] The first and most obvious effects of these injections are\n_the utmost abhorrency of the mind_\u2014which presently startles at the\nappearance of such odious things\u2014_and the trembling of the body,\nsometimes to an agony and fainting_. The invasion of one single\ninjection hath put some into such a heart-breaking affrightment,\nthat they have not recovered themselves in a whole day\u2019s time. This\ntrembling of the body and agony of the mind are the usual consequences\nof anything that is surprising, strange, and fearful; and therefore is\ntrembling of the body made by divines a mark to discover that these\nhideous, blasphemous thoughts are cast in by Satan, and have not their\nrise from our own hearts; for the horror of the mind is usually so\ngreat, when it is spoken to in this language, that it cannot bear\nup under its astonishment and trouble. Yea, those very men that are\notherwise profane, and can with boldness commit great iniquities,\ncannot but shake, and inwardly conceive an unspeakable hatred at these\nmonstrous suggestions.[329]\n\n[6.] _These affrightments are more common than men are usually aware\nof._ They are by some thought to be rare and extraordinary; but this\nmistake ariseth from the concealment of these kind of troubles. Those\nthat are thus afflicted are often ashamed to speak to others what\nthey find in their own hearts; but if all would be so ingenuous as to\ndeclare openly what fearful imaginations are obtruded upon them, it\nwould appear that Satan very frequently endeavours to trouble men this\nway.\n\n[7.] _These are very grievous burdens, and hard to be borne upon many\naccounts._\n\n_First_, Who can well express _the inward torture and molestation\nof the mind_, when it is forced against its own natural bent and\ninclination to harbour such monsters within itself! How would nature\nreluct and abominate the drinking down of noisome puddled water, or the\nswallowing of toads and serpents! And hence was it that persecutors in\ntheir devilish contrivances invented such kind of tortures. And what\nless doth the devil do when he forceth blasphemies upon their thoughts,\nand commits a rape by a malicious violence upon their imaginations?\nDavid, under these temptations, Ps. lxxiii. 21, cries out, \u2018Thus my\nheart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins:\u2019 and it cannot be\notherwise, for the reason already mentioned. Nature abhors to be\nforced to what is most contrary to itself, and so doth grace. Now the\nthings by which Satan works these affrightments are contrary to nature\nor grace, or both together; and as they will strive to the utmost of\ntheir ability to cast out what is so opposite to them, so must the\ndevil to the utmost of his ability, if he would carry his design,\nstrengthen himself in his force, and from hence, as when fire and\nwater are committed together, ariseth a most troublesome conflict;\nand indeed if there were a compliance of our consent, there would be\nno affrightment; neither can this kind of temptation be managed except\nthere be the utmost dissent of the mind. If any think there is no\ngreat ground for these temptations, because some of the particulars by\nwhich he is said to affright men are natural to us, as, for instance,\natheistical thoughts, which are by some called the master-vein of our\noriginal corruption, and by others said to be in the heart of every man\nnaturally, and then consequently not so troublesome as is imagined,\n&c.; I answer, that when divines call these or blasphemous thoughts\nnatural, they do not mean that they are natural impressions engraven\non us by creation,\u2014for they assert the contrary; that it is a natural\nand unextinguishable impression upon every man that there is a God,\n&c., and usually give in this for proof, that the greatest atheists\nin fear and extremity will manifest a secret belief of a deity, by\ncalling out, O God, &c.,[330] or by some other posture, as Caligula by\nhiding himself when it thundered,\u2014but they mean only that our natural\ncorruption may produce these thoughts, and that they are the natural\nissues thereof; and therefore Perkins, in answer to a question of this\nnature, tells us that these two thoughts, \u2018there is a God,\u2019 and \u2018there\nis no God,\u2019 may be, and are both, in the same heart.[331] Now as this\nwill give us the reason why Satan doth make choice of these thoughts\nto trouble us withal, which may also rise from ourselves\u2014which I have\nhinted before, and shall presently again touch upon\u2014so it tells us\nstill that whether these thoughts arise from our own corruption or from\nSatan, our natural impressions are strong against them, and withal that\nthey cannot be so affrightful but when Satan doth manage them, and\nwhen the contrary impressions of nature are awakened to give strong\nresistance, and then that struggling must be as the tearing of our\nbowels, and still the worse in that we are incessantly pursued, Satan\nstill casting back with unwearied labour the same thoughts as they are\nrepulsed and rejected, as soldiers that besiege cities use to cast over\nthe walls their fired grenades.\n\n_Second_, These are also grievous, _as they set the mind upon the rack,\nand stretch it under laborious and doubtful inquiries after the grounds\nor causes of this kind of trouble_, for the heart, astonished with such\ncursed guests against his will, presently reflects upon God and itself\nWhat have I done, and wherefore am I thus disquieted with monsters?\nWhy doth the righteous Lord suffer Satan to break open my heart, and\nfill me with such fearful thoughts? But when men\u2019s inquiries are not\nso high, but detained in a consideration of the nature of the trouble\nand manner of its working, without looking up to the providence of God,\nthen are their troubles increased.\n\n_Third_, As these injections necessitate men, in their own defence, _to\noppose and every way to resist, it is an increase of the burden_. What\npleadings are they put to, what defiances, what endeavours to call off\nthe thoughts! and all to little purpose; while the trouble continues\nthey are forced to lie in their armour, and to be constantly in their\nward.\n\n_Fourth_, And yet are they further troublesome _in the after-game that\nSatan plays by these thoughts_. It is not all of his design to affright\nmen, but he usually hath another temptation to come in the rear of\nthis, and that is to turn these affrightments into accusations, and by\nurging them long upon the hearts of men, to make them believe that they\nare their own thoughts, the issues of their own natural corruption; and\nafter men are by continual assaults weakened, their senses and memory\ndulled, their understanding confounded, &c., they easily conclude\nagainst themselves. The tempter imputes all the horrid blasphemy to\nthem, boldly calls them guilty of all; and because their thoughts have\ndwelt long upon such a subject, and withal knowing that corrupt nature\nof itself will lead men to such horrid blasphemies or villainies\u2014which\nmakes it probable that it might be their own fault, and for this reason\nSatan makes choice of such injections as may in the accusation seem\nmost likely to be true\u2014being strongly charged as guilty, they yield;\nand then begins another trouble more fearful than the former.[332]\nOh, what sad thoughts have they then of themselves, as the most vile\nblasphemous wretches! Sometimes they think that it is impossible that\nother men\u2019s hearts should entertain such intolerable things within them\nas theirs, and that none was ever so bad as they; sometimes they think\nthat if men knew what vile imaginations and monstrous things are in\ntheir minds, they would in very zeal to God and religion stone them, or\nat least exclude them from all commerce with men; sometimes they think\ntheir sin to be the sin against the Holy Ghost; sometimes they think\nGod is engaged in point of honour to shew upon them some remarkable\njudgment, and they verily look for some fearful stroke to confound\nthem, and live under such a frightful expectation. These and many more\nto this purpose are their thoughts, so that these temptations are every\nway troublesome, both in their first and second effects.\n\nThus I have in the general expressed the nature of these affrightments.\nWhat the particular injections are by which he studies to affright men,\nI shall next declare. They are principally six:\n\n1. _Atheistical thoughts._ By injecting these into the mind he doth\nexceedingly affright men, and frequently for that end doth he suggest\nthat there is no God, and that the Scriptures are but delusive\ncontrivances, &c. Concerning these I shall note a few things; as,\n\n[1.] Though there be an observable difference betwixt _atheistical\ninjections and temptations to atheism_, not only in the design\u2014Satan\nchiefly intending seduction in the latter, and affrightment by the\nformer\u2014but also in the manner of proceeding\u2014(for when he designs\nchiefly to tempt to atheism, he first prepares his way by debauching\nthe conscience with vicious or negligent living,\u2014according to Ps. xiv.\n1, that which makes men \u2018say in their hearts there is no God,\u2019 is\nthis, that \u2018they are corrupt, and have done abominable works\u2019\u2014and in\nthis method was famous Junius tempted to atheism: but when he chiefly\nintends to affright, he sets upon men that by a watchful and strict\nconversation cut off from him that advantage)\u2014yet he doth so manage\nhimself that he can turn his course either way, as he finds probability\nof success after trial; for he presseth on upon men most where he finds\nthem most to yield, so that those who were but at first affrighted may\nat last be solemnly persuaded and urged to believe the suggestion to be\ntrue if they give him any encouragement for such a procedure.[333]\n\n[2.] _Contemplative heads and great searchers_ are usually most\ntroubled in this manner, partly because they see more difficulties than\nother men, and are more sensible of human inability to resolve them,\nand partly because God, who will not suffer his children to be tempted\n\u2018above what they are able,\u2019 doth not permit Satan to molest the weaker\nsort of Christians with such dangerous assaults.\n\n[3.] _Persons of eminent and singular holiness may be, and often are,\ntroubled with atheistical thoughts, and have sad conflicts about them_,\nSatan labouring, where he cannot prevail for a positive entertainment\nof atheism, at least to disquiet their minds by haunting them with\nhis injections, if not to weaken their assent to these fundamental\ntruths, in which he sometimes so prevails, that good men have publicly\nprofessed that they have found it a harder matter to believe that there\nis a God than most do imagine.\n\n[4.] _Satan lies at the catch in this design, and usually takes men\nat the advantage, suddenly setting upon them, either in the height of\ntheir meditations and inquiries into fundamental truths_\u2014for when they\nsoar aloft, and puzzle themselves with a difficulty, then is he at\nhand to advise them to cut the knot which they cannot unloose\u2014_or in\nthe depth of their troubles_\u2014for when men cannot reconcile the daily\nafflictions and sufferings which they undergo, with the love and care\nof God toward his children, then it is Satan\u2019s season to tell them that\nthere is no supreme disposer of things. In both these cases the devil\nleaps upon them unawares, like a robber out of a thicket, who, if he\ndo not wound them by the dart of atheistical injection, at least he is\nsure to astonish them, and to confound them with amazement. For,\n\n[5.] _Sometimes he pursues with wonderful violence, and will dispute\nwith admirable subtlety, urging the inequality of providence, the\nseeming contradictions of Scripture, the unsuitableness of ordinances\nto an infinite wisdom and goodness, with many more arguments of\nlike kind_; and this with such unexpected acuteness and seeming\ndemonstration, that the most holy hearts and wisest heads shall not\nreadily know what to answer, but shall be forced to betake themselves\nto their knees, and to beg of God that he would rebuke Satan, and\nuphold them that their faith fail not. Nay, he doth not only dispute,\nbut by urging, and with unspeakable earnestness threaping,[334] the\nconclusion upon men, doth almost force them to a persuasion, so that\nthey are almost carried off their feet whether they will or no; which\nwas the very case of David when the devil pursued him with atheistical\nthoughts on the occasion of the prosperity of wicked men, and his\ndaily troubles: Ps. lxxiii. 2, \u2018My feet were almost gone, my steps had\nwell-nigh slipped.\u2019\n\n[6.] Yet for all this he sometimes _lays aside his sophistical\nsubtlety, and betakes himself to an impudent importunity_; for\nsometimes he insists only on one argument, not changing that which\nhe first took up, nor strengthening his suggestion with variety of\narguments, but by frequent repetition of the same reason persists to\nurge his injected atheism. This gives no discovery of any deep reach\nif he designed to persuade\u2014for it is scarce rational to imagine that\nserious men, who by many arguments are fully persuaded there is a God,\nshould readily lose their hold upon the appearance of one objection\u2014but\nit shews that he purposeth only to molest. And this appears more\nevidently, when he contents himself with weak and trivial arguments,\nwhich the afflicted party can answer fully, and yet cannot for all that\nquit themselves of the trouble; for instance, it is not very many years\nsince a serious and pious person came to me, and complained that he\ncould not be at rest for atheistical thoughts that perpetually haunted\nhim; and upon a particular inquiry into the cause and manner of his\ntrouble, he told me the first rise of it was from his observation, that\nI had interpreted some scriptures otherwise than he had heard some\nothers to have done; but withal he added that he knew the reason of his\nperplexity was but silly, and that which he could easily answer; this\nbeing no just charge against the Scripture, whose sense and truth might\nfor all that be one, and uniform to itself, but only an implication of\nhuman weakness appearing in the different apprehensions of expositors;\nyet notwithstanding he affirmed he could not shake off the trouble,\nand that his thoughts were ever urged with the same thing for a long\ntime together. Nay, such is his impudency in this kind of trouble, that\nthose who know it is the best way not to dispute fundamentals with\nSatan, but with abhorrency to reject him\u2014after the example of Christ,\nwith a \u2018get thee behind me, Satan\u2019\u2014and accordingly do with their\nutmost strength reject them, yet they find that he doth not readily\ndesist.\n\nHow sad is this trouble! how are pious persons affrighted to see the\nface of their thoughts made abominably ugly and deformed by these\nviolent and unavoidable injections! It is not only wearisome to those\nthat know it to be solely Satan\u2019s malice, but it often proves to be an\nastonishing surprisal\u2014like that of a traveller who, while he passeth\non his way without foresight or thought of danger, is suddenly brought\nto the top of a great precipice, where, when he looks down to the vast\ndeep below, his head swims, his heart pants, his knees tremble, and\nthe very fear of the sudden danger so confounds him that he is through\nexcessive dread ready to fall into that which he would avoid; so are\nthese amazed at so great hazards before them. Satan could not by all\nhis art prevail with them to abandon the holy ways of God in exchange\nfor the pleasures of sin, and now they seem to be in danger to lose all\nat once; and yet it is more affrightful by far to those that charge,\nthrough Satan\u2019s cunning, all this atheism upon themselves.\n\n2. Another affrightful injection is that of _blasphemous thoughts_, as\nthat God is not just, not compassionate; that scriptures and ordinances\nare but low and sorry things, &c.\n\nThat Satan doth delight to force such thoughts upon men, is evident,\n\n[1.] _From his nature._ He is a blasphemous spirit, and withal so\nmalicious, that whatsoever is in his cursed mind he will be ready to\nvent upon all occasions.\n\n[2.] _From his practice_; for where he can obtain the rule over men\u2019s\nimaginations, as in some distracted persons, and those that are\ndistempered with fevers, he usually makes them vomit forth oaths,\ncursings, and blasphemies, and this he doth to some that, while they\nhave had the use of their reason, have not been observed to give their\ntongue the liberty of swearing or cursed speaking.\n\n[3.] _From his professed design in the case of Job_, concerning whom he\nboasted to God himself that he would make him curse him to his face,\nand accordingly tempted him by his wife to curse God and die.\n\n[4.] _From the sad experience of those that have suffered under this\nsad affliction_: for many have complained of blasphemous thoughts;\nand those whom he cannot conquer he will thus trouble. Neither need\nwe think it strange that the devil can impress blasphemies upon the\nimaginations of men against their wills, when we consider that he could\nmake Saul, in his fits, to behave himself like an inspired person, and\ncause him to utter things beyond and unsuitable to his disposition,\nafter the rate and manner of those raptures which idolatrous priests\nused to be transported withal. _Bacchatur vates._ [Virgil.][335] This,\nin 1 Sam. xviii. 10, is called Saul\u2019s prophesying, when the \u2018evil\nspirit from the Lord vexed him;\u2019 and is the same with that which is\nspoken concerning Baal\u2019s priests: 1 Kings xviii. 29, \u2018They prophesied\nuntil the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice\u2019\u2014that is, they\nwere exercised with trances and rapturous furies, in which they uttered\nstrange sounds and speeches. How easily, then, may Satan possess the\nfancies of men with blasphemies! so that the unwilling may be troubled\nwith them, and those that are deprived of the benefit of reason, may,\nfrom the power of the impression upon their imagination, vent them with\na kind of unwillingness.\n\nMelancholy persons do very frequently meet with this kind of trouble,\nSatan having a great power upon their imagination, and great\nadvantages, from the darkness of that humour, to make the fear arising\nfrom such thoughts the more astonishing, and to delude them into an\napprehension that they are guilty of all that passeth through their\nthoughts, and also to work this perplexity to more dismal effects.\nIn these kind of men he doth play the tyrant with such injections,\nabusing them to such a height as if they were his vassals and slaves,\nwhose thoughts and tongues were in his and not their own keeping; and\nso strongly doth he possess them with this perplexity sometimes, that\nall the counsels, reasonings, or advice of others cannot in the least\nsatisfy or relieve them; yet, notwithstanding, I have known several\nunder this affliction who, when by physic the state of their bodies\nhath been altered, have found themselves at ease immediately, the\ntrouble gradually and insensibly ceasing of itself.\n\nOthers there are that have great vexation from these thoughts, and\nthese are commonly such as by some long and grievous pain, sickness,\nor other crosses, have their spirits fretted and imbittered; then is\nSatan ready to suggest that God is cruel or regardless of his people;\nand these thoughts are the more dreadful because fretting and murmuring\nspirits have a natural tendency to think harshly of God; so that Satan\nin this case doth with the more boldness obtrude these suggestions upon\nthem, finding so great a forwardness toward such imaginations, and\nalso with greater severity he doth reflect upon them, as being in some\nlikelihood compliant and consenting.\n\nWhen other persons\u2014not so concerned as these two sorts of men above\nmentioned\u2014are assaulted with blasphemous thoughts, the fits are less\npermanent, and, because they easily discover the design and author of\nthem, not highly affrightful, though still troublesome.\n\nThe burden of these injections are much like the former, very sadly\nafflicting. For who can easily bear the noise of Satan while he\nshouts continually into their ears odious calumnies and blasphemous\nindignities against God? David could not hear wicked men blaspheme\nGod but it was \u2018as a sword in his bones,\u2019 exceeding painful. The\nimpressions of nature, that teach us to revere and honour God; the\npower of education, that confirms these impressions; the persuasion\nof faith, that assures us of the reality and infinite excellency\nof a Godhead; and the force of love, that makes us more sensibly\napprehensive of any injury or dishonour done to him whom we love above\nall;\u2014all these do suffer by these violent incursions of Satan, and the\nsufferer finds himself to be pained and tortured in these noble parts.\nHow grievous must it be to a child of God to have his ear chained to\nthese intolerable, ingrateful reproaches!\u2014especially when we consider\nthat the devil will in this case utter the most dreadful blasphemies he\ncan devise, which will still add to the affliction\u2014for even those men\nthat through habit can well bear ordinary petty oaths, will yet startle\nat outrageous prodigious swearing\u2014and therefore whatever covert and\nconsequential blasphemies may be to some men, these impudent, hideous\nabuses of the holy and just God must needs sadly trouble those that\nare forced to hear them. And the more constant the greater trouble.\nWho would not be weary of their lives that must be forced to undergo\nthis vexation still without intermission? And yet the devil can advance\nthe trouble a little higher by the apparatus or artificial[336] dread\nwhich he puts upon the temptation in the manner of the injection; as\nthe roaring of the lion increaseth terror in the beasts of the field,\nwho without that would tremble at his presence; and as the thundering\nand lightning at the giving of the law increased the fear of Israel,\nso when Satan is upon this design, he shakes as it were the house, and\nmakes a noise that the fright may be increased.\n\n3. _Suspicious fears of being excluded out of God\u2019s eternal decree of\nelection is another of his affrightments._ This is when Satan boldly\ntakes upon him to determine God\u2019s secret counsel concerning any man;\nperemptorily asserting that he is none of God\u2019s elect. In which case\nhe often doth only inject the suspicion confidently, without offer of\nproof; or if he use arguments, they never amount to a proof of his\nassertion; neither is it possible they should, for these are among\n\u2018God\u2019s secrets,\u2019 and out of Satan\u2019s reach, though possibly they may\nprove the person to be not converted at present. So that this kind of\ntrouble differs exceedingly from those disquiets of temptation which\nfrequently men suffer about their state of regeneration. And indeed the\nquestion should not be confounded, it being of great concern to men\nwhen their peace is assaulted to be able to observe the difference\nbetwixt these two assertions, \u2018Thou are not elected,\u2019 and \u2018Thou art not\nyet regenerated.\u2019 Seeing\u2014the latter being granted\u2014there yet remains\na hope of the probability or possibility of that man\u2019s conversion\nafterwards. The suspicions of non-conversion are more common, and not\nso dangerous; nay, in unregenerate persons the fears of their being yet\nin that condition, being joined with diligence and care to avoid the\ndanger, are necessary and advantageous; but the former being granted,\nall hopes are, together with that concession, laid off, which must\nneeds make the affrightment intolerable. In this we may observe,\n\n[1.] That Satan, for the better management of this design, doth not\nonly inject these suspicions _in the most dreadful language_\u2014as, \u2018Thou\nart a lost and damned wretch, hopelessly miserable to all eternity; God\nhath not elected thee to life, but prepared for thee, as a vessel of\nwrath, the lake of fire and brimstone for ever,\u2019 &c.\u2014but also he doth\nassert them with the highest peremptoriness imaginable, as if he had\nauthority from God to pronounce a sentence of condemnation against a\nman. This must needs amaze the afflicted unspeakably.\n\n[2.] In this he also _observes his advantages_; for there are some men\nso sadly suited to this design, that Satan comes better to speed upon\nthem than others. Usually he fixeth his eyes,\n\n_First, Upon young persons at their first serious attendances upon, and\nconsiderations of, Scripture truths._ Their hearts are then tender.\nYouth hath a natural tender-heartedness. We find them coupled together\nin Rehoboam\u2019s character: 2 Chron. xiii. 7, \u2018When Rehoboam was young and\ntender-hearted.\u2019 And they are apt to receive strong impressions. When\nthose who were formerly mindless of their spiritual concern begin to be\nserious, they can no sooner fall upon a consideration of those weighty\ndoctrines, that there are sheep and goats, some saved and some damned,\nthat the blessed are few in comparison of the many that take the broad\nway to destruction, and that these were from eternity ordained unto\nlife, and these only, &c.; no sooner, I say, begin they to ponder these\nthings, but Satan is ready with his suspicion, \u2018And what dost thou know\nbut thou art one of these excluded wretches? If but few are saved, a\nthousand to one thou art none of them; for why should God look upon\nthee more than another?\u2019 These are his first essays[337] with young men\nbeginning to be serious, in which afterward he proceeds with greater\nboldness as he seeth occasion.\n\n_Secondly_, He also doth this to persons that are _some way quickened\nto a devotional fear of God and care of their souls, but withal are\nignorant, and not able distinctly to apprehend and orderly to range\nthe doctrines of the Scriptures into a due consistency with one\nanother_. Their careful fears make them inquire into what God hath\nsaid concerning the everlasting state of men; and before they can be\nable to digest the principles of religion, Satan sets some truths\nedgeways against them, which put them into great affrightment; while,\nthrough their ignorance, other truths, appointed and declared for\nthe satisfaction of the minds of those that hunger and thirst after\nrighteousness, cannot come in to their relief. How startling must the\ntruths of God\u2019s election be when they stand forth alone, and are not\naccompanied with the invitations of the gospel, that promise pardon and\nacceptance to all that will come in and submit to Christ! Satan usually\nholds such kind of men to the consideration of those truths that have\nthe most dismal aspect; and while they are stopped there, they can draw\nforth no other conclusions than these, that they are in hazard, and,\nfor aught they know, utterly lost.\n\n_Third_, Satan hath also this plot against those that by some _grievous\niniquity, or long continuance in sin, have highly provoked the Lord_.\nHere he useth arguments from the heinousness of their iniquity: Thou\nart a reprobate, because thou hast committed these great evils, these\nare marks of damnation, &c.; which arguments, though they be of no\nvalue, and no way proving that for which they are brought, yet Satan\ninjecting suspicions, and their own consciences in the meantime justly\naccusing, they so sink under their fear that they suffer Satan to make\nwhat conclusion he will, and then they subscribe to it.\n\n_Fourth_, Above all, _melancholy persons give the devil the greatest\nadvantage to raise affrightments_. That distemper naturally fills\nmen with sad thoughts, and is credulous of the worst evil that can\nbe objected against him that hath it. Of itself, it can create\nthe blackest conceits and saddest surmises, and then believes its\nown fancy. When Satan strikes in with this humour\u2014_finguntque\ncreduntque_\u2014they are the more confirmed in their suspicions; and the\nfright is the greater, because they are as incredulous of what is good,\nif it be told them, as they are apt to believe what is evil, and to\nbelieve it, because they fear it, _dum timet credit_,\u2014though no other\nreason were offered: but much more when Satan, in a prophetic manner,\nforetells their misery, and assures them they must never be happy.\n\n[3.] The suspicions which the devil hath by these advantages _raised\nup, he doth endeavour to increase, and to root them deeply in the\nminds of them upon whom he hath thus begun_. And indeed, by frequent\ninculcating the same thing, with his continued peremptoriness of\nasserting the certainty of their non-election, he at last brings\nup very many to a full persuasion that it is so; and besides other\narts that he may have, or exercise in this particular, he commonly\npractiseth upon men by perverting the true intendment and use of the\ndoctrine of election. That there is such a thing as election, and\nthat of a determinate number, are truths undeniable; and the end of\ntheir discovery in the gospel is the comfort and confirmation of the\nconverted. Here they may see God\u2019s unchangeable love to them\u2014how much\nthey stand engaged for the freeness of grace, and that the foundation\nof God is sure, &c.; for to this purpose doth our Saviour improve these\ndoctrines, John xvii. 6, 7, 9, 12, 15, 16. But nothing of this is\nspoken to discourage any man from his endeavours, neither can any man\nprove that he or any other is excluded out of the decree of election,\nexcept in case of the sin against the Holy Ghost; neither is it\npossible for the devil to prove any such thing against any man; neither\nought any to suppose himself not elect; but on the contrary, if he is\nwilling to forsake sin, and desirous to be reconciled to God, he ought\nto apprehend a probability that he is elected, because the proffer of\nChrist is made to all that will receive him. And therefore should men\nstop their ears against such suggestions, and not dispute that with\nSatan, but rather hearken to the commands, exhortations, and promises\nof Scripture, it being most certain that these \u2018secret things belong\nto God,\u2019 Deut. xxix. 29, and are no man\u2019s rule to walk by, seeing\n\u2018revealed things only belong to us;\u2019 all this the devil perverts, for\nhe endeavours to make election the immediate object of our faith, and\nour rule to walk by, as if it were necessary that every man knew God\u2019s\neternal purpose concerning him before he begin his endeavours. And as\nhe argues some men into a perverse carelessness upon the ground of\nelection, making them to conclude that if they are ordained to life,\nthey shall be saved, though they live wickedly; if they be not, they\nshall be damned, though they endeavour never so much to the contrary;\nso he also argues some, from this doctrine, into terrible fears\nof damnation, because they cannot be assured aforehand that their\nnames are written in heaven. And these dreadful suspicions he doth\nlabour to strengthen by some men\u2019s unwary handling of the doctrine\nof non-election. When some preachers unskilfully urge the dangerous\nsigns of reprobation, or speak severely of God\u2019s decrees, without due\ncaution and promise of mercy to all penitent sinners; or when some,\nunskilful in the methods of comforting the distressed in conscience,\nbecause they are not able to shew the afflicted their condition, or to\nspeak \u2018a word in season\u2019 to quiet their minds, and to direct them what\ncourse to take, do usually refer them to God\u2019s decree, and tell them,\nIf God have decreed them to salvation, they shall be saved; Satan doth\nindustriously hold them there; by this means he leads them from their\npromises and their duty, and keeps them musing and poring upon election\ntill they are bewildered, and cannot find the way out. Thus have\nseveral continued under their affrightments for many years.\n\n[4.] We may observe, That when Satan hath brought them into this snare,\n_he doth tyrannically domineer over them_. He doth deride them under\ntheir trouble, and mock at them when their fear comes upon them. And\nbecause now the very thought or hearing of election is as a dagger to\nthe heart, and a \u2018dreadful sound in their ears,\u2019 he delights to repeat\nit to them; for the very naming of the word becomes as dreadful as the\nsentence of condemnation to a malefactor, being always accompanied with\nthis reflection, Oh how miserable am I that have no part nor portion in\nit! Besides, he doth busy their minds with imaginary representations\nof hell, and sets before them, as in a scheme, the day of judgment,\nthe terrors of the damned, the sentence against the goats on the left\nhand, the intolerable pains of everlasting burnings, and that which is\nthe misery of all these miseries, the eternity of all. Thus he forceth\ntheir meditations, but still with application to themselves; neither\ndoth he suffer them to rest in the night, but they are terrified with\nsad dreams, and the visions of the night do disquiet them.\n\n[5.] _How grievous this affrightment is_, I should next observe; but\nthat is partly expressed in the aforegoing particulars, and may yet\nmore fully appear by a consideration of these three things:\n\n_First, That a man hath nothing dearer to him than his soul._ Alas!\nthat cannot be counterbalanced by the gaining of the whole world, and\nto have no hope or expectancy of its salvation must needs be terribly\naffrightful!\n\n_Second, These suspicions of non-election prevailing, all promises and\ncomforts are urged in vain, and they commonly return them back again to\nthose that offered them with this reply_, \u2018They are true and useful to\nthose unto whom they appertain, but they belong not unto me.\u2019 Nay, all\nmeans are rejected as useless. If such be advised to pray or read, they\nwill in their fit of affrightment refuse all; upon this reason, that\nthey are not elected. And then to what purpose, say they, is prayer,\nor any endeavours? For who can alter his decree? And, indeed, if their\naffrightments continued at a height without intermission, they would\nnever do anything; but this is their help, that some secret underground\nhopes which they espy not, do revive, at least sometimes, and put them\nupon endeavours which, through God\u2019s blessing, become means of better\ninformation.\n\n_Third_, Though Satan\u2019s injections of non-election be altogether\nunproveable, and withal so terrifying, that it might be supposed men\nshould not be forward in their belief of so great an unhappiness; yet\ncan he prevail so far _that the persons above named\u2014especially the\nmelancholy\u2014are made to believe him, and this chiefly by possessing\ntheir imaginations with his frequent confident affirmations_. We see\nit is a common practice to teach birds musical notes and sounds, which\nis only by constant repetition, till a strong impression is made upon\ntheir fancy; and thus may one man impose upon the imagination of\nanother with his songs or sayings; for what we hear often we cannot\nforbear to repeat in our thoughts, being strongly fixed upon our\nfancy. No wonder, then, if Satan, by often repeating, \u2018Thou art not\nelected, thou art damned,\u2019 &c., do form so strong an impression upon\nthe imagination, that poor amazed creatures learn to say after him,\nand then take the echoes of their fancy to be the voice of conscience\ncondemning them. Now, then, if the unhappiness suspected be the\ngreatest beyond all comparison, if these suspicions entertained cut off\nall succours of comfort that may arise from the promises of God and the\nendeavours of man, if Satan can prevail with men to entertain them with\nany persuasion\u2014as we see he can\u2014how dreadfully will these persuasions\nrecoil upon a man! And thus will his thoughts run, \u2018I am persuaded I am\nnot elected; and if not elected, then comforts and prayers are all in\nvain; and if these be in vain, there is no possibility of salvation,\nnor the least hope of a _who knows_, or a _peradventure_; and if that,\noh unspeakably miserable!\u2019 Under these astonishing thoughts doth Satan\nexercise their hearts by suspicions of non-election. But,\n\n4. Sometimes he takes another course to affright men, and that is by\n_injecting motions of some abominable sin or evil into their minds,\nto the commission whereof he seems strongly to solicit_; yet not with\nany full intention or expectation of prevalency, but with a purpose\nto molest and disquiet. And for that end, he commonly chooseth such\nsins as are most vile in their own nature, and most opposite to the\ndispositions of men. Thus he injects thoughts of uncleanness to a\nchaste person; thoughts of injustice and wrong to a just man; thoughts\nof revenge and cruelty to a weak man; thoughts of rejoicing in the loss\nand misery of others to the merciful man. Or else he injects motions\nto such sins wherein formerly men have been overtaken, but have been\nmade bitter by deep repentance; the very thoughts whereof are now\nbecome most loathsome. And sometimes he pursues men with thoughts of\nself-murder, even while there is nothing of discontent or trouble in\ntheir minds to second such a temptation. By this manner of proceeding\nhe creates great affrightments to the hearts of men. For,\n\n[1.] _These are strange surprisals_; and persons under this kind\nof trouble cannot but be amazed to find such thoughts within them,\nwhich are most contrary to their dispositions, or their most serious\nresolves. The chaste person tempted to uncleanness, or the just man to\nrevenge; the humble person urged to the same sin that cost him so dear,\n&c.; they wonder at their own hearts, and while they mistake these\ntemptations, by judging them to be the issues of their own inclination,\nwith astonishment they cry out, Oh, I had thought that I had mortified\nthese lusts, but what a strange heart have I! I see sin is as strong in\nme as ever! And I have cause to fear myself, &c.\n\n[2.] And this is yet a greater trouble, because usually Satan takes\nthem _at some advantage of an offered occasion or opportunity_, then\nhe gives them a sudden push, and with importunity urgeth them to take\nthe time. This often affrights them into trembling, and their fears do\nso weaken their purposes that their hazards are the greater, in that\nthey are astonished into an inactivity. So that in this case the men of\nmight do not readily find their hands.\n\n[3.] Neither are these motions _sudden and transient glances, which\nperish as soon as they are born_, though it be a very frequent thing\nwith Satan to cast in motions into the heart for trial sake, without\nfurther prosecution; but he, in this case, pursues with frequent\nrepetitions, following hard after them, to the increase of the\naffrightment. So that for a long time together men may be afflicted\nwith these messengers of Satan to buffet them; and though they may pray\nearnestly against them that they may be removed, yet they find the\nmotions continue upon them. Which must needs be a hateful annoyance\nto an upright heart, that doth know it to be only Satan\u2019s design to\naffright; much more must it afflict those that do not perceive the\ncontriver and end of such motions, but judge them to be the natural\nworkings of their own evil heart.\n\n5. Satan can also affright men _by immediate impressions of fear\nupon their minds_. He can do much with the imagination, especially\nwhen persons are distempered with melancholy, for such are naturally\nfearful, and any impressions upon them have the deepest, most piercing\noperation. They are always framing to themselves dismal things, and\nabound with black and dark conceits, surmising still the worst, and\nalways incredulous of what is good. Hence it is that sometimes men are\nseized upon by fearfulness and trembling, when yet they cannot give any\ntolerable account of a cause or reason why it should be so with them.\nAnd others are excessively astonished with the shadows of their own\nthoughts upon the meanest pretences imaginable.\n\nThat this is the work of Satan doth appear by unquestionable evidence.\nThis was that \u2018evil spirit\u2019 which God sent between Abimelech and the\nmen of Shechem, Judges ix. 23. God permitted Satan, for the punishment\nof them both, to raise fears and jealousies in the heart of Abimelech\nagainst the men of Shechem, and in the hearts of the men of Shechem\nagainst Abimelech. They were mutually afraid of one another, and\nthese fears wrought so far, that they were, for the prevention of a\nsupposed danger, engaged in treacherous conspiracies, to the real ruin\nof them both. The \u2018evil spirit\u2019 that vexed Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. 14, was\nnothing else but sudden and vehement fits of terror and inward fear,\nwhich the devil raised by the working up of his melancholy. For we may\nobserve these fits were allayed by music; and also we might see by his\ndisposition out of his fits, and by his carriage in them, that inward\nfears were his tormentors; for, 1 Sam. xviii. 9, it is noted that Saul\neyed David, that is, his jealous fears began to work concerning David,\nof whom it is said expressly, ver. 12, \u2018that he was afraid because the\nLord was with him,\u2019 and when the evil spirit came upon him his heart\nwas exercised with these fears, and accordingly he behaved himself\nwhen he cast the javelin at David with a purpose to slay him. Upon any\noccasion, of trouble especially, the devil was at hand to heighten his\naffrightment, insomuch that when the supposed Samuel told him of his\ndeath, 1 Sam. xxviii. 20, he was afraid to such a height that he \u2018fell\nstraightway all along on the earth, and there was no strength in him.\u2019\nNeither must we suppose that Satan in this kind of working is confined\nonly to wicked men; for there is nothing in this manner of affrightment\nwhich is inconsistent with the condition of a child of God, especially\nwhen God gives him up to trial or correction. Nay, many of God\u2019s\nservants suffer under Satan\u2019s hand in this very manner. Let us consider\nthe troubles of Job, and we shall find that though Satan endeavoured\nto destroy his peace by discomposure of spirit, by questioning his\nintegrity, by frightful injections of blasphemous thoughts, yet all\nthese he vanquished with an undaunted courage, the blasphemy he\nrejected with abhorrency, his integrity he resolved he would not\ndeny so long as he lived, his losses he digested easily with a sober\ncomposed mind, blessed God that gives and takes at pleasure; and yet he\ncomplains of his fears, and his frequent surprisals thereby, insomuch\nthat his friends take notice that most of his trouble arose from\nthence: chap. xxii. 10, \u2018A sudden fear troubleth thee;\u2019 and he himself\nconfesseth as much, ix. 34, \u2018Let not his fear terrify me ... but it\nis not so with me.\u2019 So that it appears that Job\u2019s inward distress was\nmostly from strong impressions of affrighting fears.\n\nThese fears impressed upon the mind must needs be an unexpressible\ntrouble. There is nothing that doth more loosen the sinews and joints\nof the soul, to the weakening and utter enfeebling of it in all its\nendeavours, than fears; it scatters the strength in a moment. And\nbesides the present burden, which will bow down the backs of the\nstrongest, these fears have a special kind of envious magnanimity\nin them. For (1.) they come by fits, and have times of more fierce\nand cruel assaults, yet in their intervals they leave the heart in a\ntrembling fainting posture; for the devil gives not over the present\nfit till he hath rent them sore, and left them, as he did the man\u2019s son\nin Mark ix. 26, \u2018as one dead\u2019: so that it is no more to be reckoned\ncompassion and gentleness in Satan toward the afflicted that their fits\nare not constant, than it can be accounted tenderness or kindness in a\ntyrant who, when he hath racked or tormented a man as much as strength\nwill bear without killing out of hand, gives over for a time that the\nparty might be reserved for new torments. (2.) These fits usually\nreturn at such times as the party afflicted seems to promise himself\nsome little ease, being designed to give the greater disappointment in\nintercepting his expected comforts. Sleep and meat are the two great\nrefreshments of the distressed; these times Satan watcheth for his\nnew onsets. Job found it so in both cases; his meal-times were times\nof trouble: chap. iii. 24, \u2018My sighing cometh,\u2019 that is, the fits of\nsighing return, \u2018before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the\nwaters,\u2019 And his sleeping-times were no better: vii. 13, \u2018When I say,\nMy bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou\nscarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that\nmy soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than life.\u2019 (3.) These\nfears do make them feel the weight, not only of real present evils,\nbut of all others which the imagination can represent to them. So that\nthe sight or hearing of any sad thing afflicts them with surmises that\nthis will be their case. Hence are they full of misgiving thoughts.\nSometimes they fear that they shall at last fall off from God into some\nscandalous sin, to the dishonour of God and religion, as that they\nshall be apostates, and turn openly profane; sometimes they fear they\nshall meet with some signal devouring judgment by which they shall one\nday perish, as David said in the like case, \u2018I shall one day perish by\nthe hand of Saul,\u2019 [1 Sam. xxvii. 1.] Thus are they crucified betwixt\ntheir present burden and future expectations of evil.\n\n6. The last, and indeed the meanest, engine for the working of\naffrightment, is _scrupulosity of conscience_. Satan vexeth the\nconscience and distracteth the mind, by raising up _needless,\ngroundless fears concerning a man\u2019s practice_. Where the ignorance\nof men or their timorous dispositions do encourage Satan to this\nenterprise, there he multiplies scruples upon them; so that, though\nthey assent to the doing of anything as good or lawful, yet are they\nconstantly affrighted from it by a suspicious fear that it may be\notherwise.\n\nThis kind of trouble takes in almost all kind of actions. It extends\nto the way of a man\u2019s calling, the way of his management of it, the\nrates he takes and the prices he gives for his commodities; our very\nnatural actions of sleeping, eating, drinking, company, recreation,\nare not unconcerned. In all which the devil affrights the timorous\nconscience that, _it may be_ he hath offended: if he buys or sells,\nhe is disquieted with a _maybe_ that he hath sold too dear, or bought\ntoo cheap; if he eats or sleeps, he fears he hath been excessive, a\nsluggard or a glutton: thus are some men molested in everything they do.\n\nNeither is this kind of affrightment to be despised; for though often\nit is a groundless fear, and so appears to be to discerning Christians,\nyet those that are under this molestation think it bad enough. Though\nit be not as a rack, that afflicts with violent pains, yet it is\nas those kinds of punishments which at first are nothing, but by\ncontinuance do tire men out with little ease, and so at last become\nintolerable. Besides, this is a multiplying trouble; for one scruple\nbegets another, and by continuance of scrupling, the conscience grows\nso weak and unsteady, that everything is scrupled, and the man brought\nto a continual affrightment of doing wrong in every action. Neither\ncan all men make use of the remedy that is prescribed for the cure of\nthis distemper, which is, that when such scruples cannot be removed by\nreason, then either men should forbear the thinking upon such things\nfrom whence scruples are apt to arise, or they should break them down\nby violence, and go over the belly of their scruple to the performance\nof their action. I deny not but that something may be done and\nendeavoured this way; but any may see that it is not easy for every one\nto do either of these: so that this is also a troublesome evil, from\nwhich it is not easy to be discharged.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s third way to hinder peace, by spiritual sadness.\u2014Wherein,\n 1. Of the degrees of spiritual sadness. 2. Of the\n frequency of this trouble, evidenced several ways. Of the difference\n betwixt God and Satan in wounding the conscience. 3. Of the\n solemn occasions of this trouble. 4. The engines by which\n Satan works spiritual sadness. (1.) His sophistry. His\n topics enumerated and explained. [1.] Scriptures perverted.\n [2.] False notions. [3.] Misrepresentations of God.\n [4.] Sins: how he aggravates them. [5.] Lessening their\n graces: how he doth that. (2.) His second engine, fear: how he\n forwards his design that way._\n\n\nBesides the troubles already mentioned under the heads of discomposures\nof spirit and affrightments, there is a third kind of trouble which\nSatan gives to the children of God, and this may, for distinction sake,\nbe called _spiritual sadness_. These spiritual sadnesses _are troubles\nraised in the mind, relating to the conscience and spiritual state or\ncondition of men_. They differ exceedingly from the two former sorts\nof trouble: for, (1.) These troubles wholly concern the conscience in\npoint of regeneration, and men\u2019s suitableness thereunto; whereas simple\ndiscomposures of spirit firstly relate to outward things. (2.) In these\nthe conscience is immediately concerned, but in other troubles the\nconscience is either wholly untouched, or wounded only secondarily, by\ncontinuance and progress of the discomposure of the spirit. (3.) In\nthese troubles, conscience is the great instrument by which the devil\nworks; whereas, in the trouble of affrightments, the devil acted alone,\nthe heart being in the meantime uncompliant and resisting. For the\nopening of this trouble I shall explain\u2014\n\n1. _The several degrees thereof._ It is a trouble of conscience unduly\naggravated by Satan, wherein he confines himself to the operations\nof conscience. But then, as he suggests the troubles of men by the\nvoice of conscience, so he doth all he can to make it irregular in its\nactings, and excessive in that irregularity. So that in this case the\nconscience is evil, and employs itself in that mistake, to inquire\ninto men\u2019s regeneracy or holiness, always being either a neuter or an\nadversary, and the devil helps this forward all he can.\n\nThe apostle, in Heb. x. 22, makes mention of an \u2018evil conscience,\u2019\nand that chiefly as it doth occasion fear, hindering our comfortable\naccess to God. This the conscience doth when it doth not execute its\noffice aright, either in \u2018not excusing\u2019 when it ought, or in \u2018accusing\u2019\nwhen it should not; and these false accusations cause different sorts\nof troubles according to the variety of the matter for which it doth\ncondemn. Hence is it that there are three degrees of trouble of\nconscience below the trouble of despair:\u2014\n\n[1.] The lowest degree is when _a regenerate person doth not positively\ndetermine the case of his soul, whether he be regenerate or not, but\nis only kept in suspense betwixt hope that he is, and fear that he is\nnot, the conscience in the meantime forbearing to witness for him,\nthough it hath just cause to excuse him_. This we may call a doubting\nor questioning conscience; and though it comes far short of these\ndistresses in which some men are plunged upon the account of their\nsouls, yet is it a trouble, for their peace is hereby hindered and\ntheir desires of satisfaction frustrated, which in matters of so great\nconcern, as are these of everlasting life and everlasting misery,\nmust be very disquieting. When the affections are earnest, their\nsatisfaction cannot be delayed without trouble; for \u2018hope deferred\nmakes the heart sick,\u2019 Prov. xiii. 12; not only doth it faint under its\ndoubts, but is by that means so weak in its purposes that it is easily\ndrawn to admit of greater inconveniences, which may lay the foundation\nof more perplexing disturbances.\n\nThat the conscience may be in such a distemper that it will not witness\nfor a man, when yet it cannot witness against him, is the observation\nof those that have treated of the nature of conscience.[338] Sometimes\nit will not make application of God\u2019s promises. Though it will believe\nthat he that forsakes sin is regenerate, that he that truly repents\nshall be pardoned, yet it will not affirm for a man that he forsakes\nsin or repents, though he really do so; or if it cannot deny that, yet\nit will sometimes refuse to make that conclusion which one would think\nwould follow of itself by natural consequence, and so refuseth to judge\nthe person regenerate or pardoned, though it cannot deny but that he\nforsakes sin and repents. The greatness of the blessing, the remainders\nof unbelief, the deep sense of unworthiness, with other considerations,\ndo keep off the heart from making, as I may say, so bold with the\npromises; but all this while the devil is doing his utmost to aggravate\nthese considerations, affrighting the conscience from that just\nabsolution which it ought to give.\n\n[2.] Another degree of trouble arising from an evil conscience, is when\n_the condition of a regenerate person is determined by conscience, but\nfalsely, to be very bad_. I must here, as some others have done,[339]\nfor want of better terms, distinguish betwixt the state of regeneracy\nand a man\u2019s condition in that state, though the words _state_ and\n_condition_ are used promiscuously the one for another. A man may be in\na regenerate state, and yet his condition in that state may be very\nbad and blameworthy, as not walking worthy of so holy a calling; as a\nperson may be a man, and yet unhealthy or languishing. Thus many of\nthe Asian churches were true churches, and yet in a bad condition;\nsome \u2018lukewarm;\u2019 some had \u2018a name to live,\u2019 and yet were comparatively\n\u2018dead,\u2019 because their works were not full or \u2018perfect before God;\u2019\nand others had \u2018left their first love.\u2019 To this purpose is that of\nthe apostle, 2 Cor. xiii. 5, \u2018Know ye not your own selves, how that\nJesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?\u2019\u2014\u03b5\u1f30 \u03bc\u03ae \u03c4\u03b9 \u1f00\u03b4\u03cc\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03af\n\u1f10\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u2014where the word \u2018reprobate\u2019 is not to be taken in the strict,\nsevere sense for one \u2018not elected,\u2019 but for one whose conversation is\nnot so sound and approved as it should be: for this relates not to\ntheir being in Christ, but to their assurance of being in that state,\nwhich the apostle affirms they might know, except the fault lay in\ntheir negligent, careless conversation.\n\nThis kind of trouble then is of this nature: the conscience doth not\naccuse a man to be unregenerate, yet it condemns him for a carriage\nunsuitable to the gospel; and this sometimes when his actions are not\nabsolutely evil, but partly good, partly bad. When the conscience\ncondemns the actions as altogether sinful, because of some mixture of\ninfirmities, in which case we should imitate the apostle, in Rom. vii.,\nwho when by reason of the remainders of sin in him, he could not do the\ngood he would\u2014that is, in such a manner and degree as he desired, nor\navoid the evil which he would so clearly and fully as he wished, some\nimperfections in his best endeavours still cleaving to him; yet his\nconscience took a right course, he was humbled for his imperfections,\nbut withal acquits himself in point of integrity; his conscience\ntestified, ver. 16, that he \u2018consented to the law as good;\u2019 and ver.\n22, that he \u2018delighted in the law of God, after the inward man.\u2019 But in\nthis case of spiritual trouble, the conscience takes all in the worst\nsense; it only fixeth upon the imperfections, and makes them to serve\nfor proofs against the sincerity. Thus if a man in praying be troubled\nwith wandering thoughts, then a distempered conscience condemns that\nprayer as a sinful profanation of the name of God. If the great concern\nof God\u2019s glory run along in such a way as is also advantageous to the\nperson in outward things, then will such a conscience condemn the man\nfor self-seeking, though his main design were truly the honour of God.\nIn all actions where there is infirmity appearing with the most serious\nendeavours, or where God\u2019s glory and man\u2019s good are twisted together,\nthe disordered conscience will be apt to take part with Satan, accusing\nand condemning the action. Yea, very often when the actions are very\ngood, no way justly reprovable, the conscience shall condemn. If he\nhave had peace, he shall be judged for security; if he have faith in\nGod\u2019s promises, it will call it presumption; if he have a zeal for God,\nit will be misinterpreted for carnal rigour; if he have joy, it shall\nbe misjudged to be natural cheerfulness or delusion; in a word, all his\ngraces shall be esteemed no better than moral virtues. At this rate are\nthe children of God put to great trouble, losing, as I may say, the\nthings they have wrought, sadly bemoaning their hardness of heart, or\nwant of faith and love, when in their carriage and complainings, they\ngive very high proofs of all. In this also Satan is busy to nourish\nthe conscience in its jealousies, and doth suggest many objections\nto confirm it in its distemper. The conscience is not always of a\npeevish or perverse humour; for sometimes it will smite a man for a\nmiscarriage,\u2014as it did to David when he cut off the lap of Saul\u2019s\ngarment,\u2014and yet not break his peace: which is a sufficient evidence\nthat it is put, in this case, far out of order; which advantage Satan\nworks upon to disquiet the heart, to make men unthankful for the\nmercies they have received, and to incapacitate them for more. This,\nfor distinction sake, we may call the trouble of a grieved or dejected\nconscience, according to that of Ps. xlii. 5, 11, \u2018Why art thou cast\ndown, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?\u2019 Though such\nmen are under God\u2019s favour, yet they misdeem it, and think God is angry\nwith them; their heart pants, their soul thirsts, their tears are their\nmeat, they are ready to say unto God, \u2018My rock, why hast thou forsaken\nme?\u2019 and though they have some hopes for the future, that God \u2018will\ncommand his loving-kindness,\u2019 and that they \u2018shall yet praise him;\u2019 yet\ntheir present apprehension of their spiritual wants and weaknesses, and\nof the displeasure of God, which they suppose they are under, makes\nthem go mourning all the day.\n\n[3.] The third degree of trouble of conscience is when the conscience\n_peremptorily denies the state of regeneration_. Hereby a man that is\nreally regenerate, is concluded to be yet \u2018in the gall of bitterness,\nand bond of iniquity;\u2019 his former hopes are taxed for self-delusion,\nand his present state to be a state of nature. This trouble is far\ngreater than the two former, because the party is judged to be in\ngreater hazard, and by many degrees more remote from hope. It is the\nfrequent and sad thought of such, that if death should in that estate\ncut off their days, oh, then they were for ever miserable! The fears\nand disquiets of the heart on this account are very grievous, but\nyet they admit of degrees, according to the ignorance of the party,\nthe distemper of the conscience, the strength of the objections, or\nseverity of the prosecution, in regard the conscience is now sadly out\nof order. We may call this degree of grief, for distinction, \u2018a wounded\nspirit;\u2019 which how hard it is to be borne Solomon tells us, Prov.\nxviii. 14, by comparing it with all other kind of troubles, which the\nspirit of a man can make some shift to bear, making this heavier than\nall, and above ordinary strength.\n\nSome make inquiry what may be the difference betwixt a wounded spirit\nin the regenerate and the reprobate? To which it may be answered,\n(1.) That in the party\u2019s apprehension there is no difference at all;\nboth of them may be compassed about with the sorrows of death, and\nsuppose themselves to be in the belly of hell. (2.) Neither is there\nany difference in the degree of the trouble; a child of God may be\nhandled with as much seeming severity, as he whom God intends for a\nfuture Tophet. (3.) Neither is there any such remarkable difference in\nthe working of the spirits of the one and other, that they themselves\nat present, or others that are bystanders, can easily observe. Yet a\nformal difference there is; for grace being in the heart of the one,\nwill in some breathing or pulse discover its life. And though sometimes\nit acts so low or confusedly that God only can distinguish, yet often\nthose that are experienced observers will discover some real breathings\nafter God, and true loathing of sin, and other traces of faith and\nlove, that are not so discernible to the parties themselves. (4.) But\nin God\u2019s design the difference is very great; the wicked lie under his\nlash as malefactors, but the regenerate are as patients under cure,\nor children under discipline. (5.) And accordingly the issue doth\ndetermine, that God\u2019s intention in wounding their spirits were not\nalike to both; the one at last coming out of the furnace as gold, the\nother still remaining as reprobate silver, or being consumed as dross.\nThus have ye seen the nature and degree of spiritual sadness.\n\n2. For the further explanation whereof I shall next shew you that this\nis a usual trouble to the children of God.\n\nWhich, (1.) I might evidence from several _instances of those that\nhave suffered much under it_; as David, whose complaints in this case\nare very frequent, and Heman, who left a memorial of his griefs in Ps.\nlxxxviii. Jonah also, in the belly of the whale, had a sharp fit of it,\nwhen he concluded that he was \u2018cast out of God\u2019s sight,\u2019 and his \u2018soul\nfainted within him,\u2019 Jonah ii. 4, 7. Neither did Hezekiah altogether\nescape it, for though his disquiet began upon another ground, it ran\nhim into spiritual trouble at last. But besides these, innumerable\ninstances occur. One shall scarce converse with any society of\nChristians but he shall meet with some who, with sad complaints, shall\nbemoan the burden of their hearts, and the troubles of their conscience.\n\n(2.) _The provisions which God hath made in his word for such, is\nan evidence that such distempers are frequent._ He that in a city\nshall observe the shops of the apothecaries, and there take notice of\nthe great variety of medicines, pots, and glasses full of mixtures,\nconfections, and cordials, may from thence rationally conclude, that it\nis a frequent thing for men to be sick, though he should not converse\nwith any sick person for his information. Thus may we be satisfied from\nthe declarations, directions, and consolations of Scripture that it is\na common case for the children of God to stand in need of spiritual\nphysicians and spiritual remedies to help them when they are wounded\nand fainting. Solomon\u2019s exclamation, \u2018A wounded spirit who can bear?\u2019\nshews that the spirit is sometimes wounded. The prophet\u2019s direction,\n\u2018He that walks in darkness and sees no light, let him trust in the\nLord,\u2019 [Isa. l. 10,] clearly implies that some there are that walk\nin darkness. God\u2019s creating the \u2018fruit of the lips, Peace, peace;\u2019\nhis promises of restoring \u2018comforts to mourners;\u2019 his commands to\nothers to comfort them; do all inform us that it is a common thing for\nhis children to be under such sadnesses of spirit, that all this is\nnecessary for their relief.\n\n(3.) _The reasons of this trouble_ do also assure us of the frequency\nof it; for of them we may say, as Christ speaks of the poor, [Mat.\nxxvi. 11,] \u2018we have them always with us;\u2019 so that the grounds of\nspiritual sadness considered, it is no wonder to find many men\ncomplaining under this distemper. The reasons are,\n\n[1.] _The malice of Satan_, who hath no greater revenge against a child\nof God, when translated from the power of darkness to the kingdom of\nChrist, than to hinder him of the peace and comfort of that condition.\n\n[2.] _The many advantages which Satan hath against us._ For the\neffecting of this we cannot imagine that one so malicious as he is\nwill suffer his malice to sleep, when so many fair opportunities of\nputting it in practice do offer themselves. For, _first, The questions\nto be determined for settling the peace of the soul are very intricate,\nand often of greater difficulty than doctrinal controversies_. How\nhard is it to conclude what is the _minimum quod sic_, the lowest\ndegrees of true grace! or the _maximum quod sic_, the highest degree\nof sin consistent with true grace! To distinguish betwixt a child\nof God at the lowest, and a hypocrite or temporary believer at the\nhighest, is difficult. In mixed actions, to be able to shew how the\nsoul doth manage its respect to God, when the man hath also a respect\nto himself, especially when it is under any confusion, is not easy.\nAnd in these actions, where the difference from others of like kind\nlies only in the grounds and motives of the undertaking, or where the\nprevailing degree must distinguish the act in reference to different\nobjects that are subordinate to one another\u2014as our loving God above\nthe world or ourselves, our fearing God above men, &c.\u2014it is not\nevery one that can give a satisfactory determination. _Second_,\nAs the intricacies of the doubts to be resolved give the devil an\nadvantage to puzzle us, so is the advantage heightened exceedingly\n_by the great injudiciousness and unskilfulness of the greatest part\nof Christians_. These questions are in their notion difficult; more\ndifficult in their application to particular persons, where the ablest\nChristian may easily be nonplussed; but most difficult to the weak\nChristians. These Satan can baffle with every poor objection, and\nimpose what he will upon them. _Third_, Especially having the advantage\nof _the working guilt of conscience_, which he can readily stir up to\npresent to a man\u2019s remembrance all his failings and miscarriages of\nwhat nature soever. And when guilt rageth in an unskilful heart, it\nmust needs create great disquiet. _Fourth_, But most of all when our\n_natural fears are awakened_; as when a man hath been under any great\nconviction, though he be cured of his trouble, yet it usually leaves\na weakness in the part, as bruises and maims do in any member of the\nbody, which at the change of weather or other accidental hurt will\nrenew their old trouble; and then when fresh guilt begins to press\nhard upon the conscience, not only do the broken bones ache, by the\nreviving of former fears, but the impressions of his old suspicions,\nbad conceit of himself, and jealousies of the deceitfulness of his\nheart, which had then fixed themselves by a deep rooting, do now make\nhim most fearful of entertaining any good thought of himself. So that\nif any consideration tending to his support be offered, he dare not\ncome near it, suspecting his greatest danger to lie on that hand. These\nadvantages considered, we should not think it strange that any child of\nGod is driven to spiritual sadness, as some do, but may rather wonder\nthat this is not the common condition of all Christians.\n\n[3.] Another reason that must be assigned for these troubles is _divine\ndispensation_. Such are his children, some so careless, others proud,\nothers stubborn, many presumptuous, that God is forced to correct them\nby this piece of discipline, and to cure them by casting them into\na fever. Others of his children he thus exerciseth for other ends,\nsometimes to take occasion therefrom of making larger discoveries of\nhis love; sometimes thereby preventing them from falling under some\ngrievous miscarriage, or for the trial and exercises of their graces.\nWe may observe, accordingly, that there are three sorts of men that\nusually have exercises of this kind.\n\n(1.) Those who at their conversion are either _ignorant, melancholy, or\nwere grossly scandalous, are usually brought through with great fear\nand sadness_. And this is so observable, that by the mistake of men it\nis made a general rule that none are converted but they are under great\nand frightful apprehensions of wrath and dismal terrors. This indeed\nis true of some, but these ordinarily are the scandalous, melancholy,\nand ignorant sort\u2014though sometimes God may deal so with others, for who\ncan limit him? Yet are there many whose education hath been good, and\ntheir instruction aforehand great, whose conversion is so gradual and\ninsensible, that they are strangers to these troubles of conscience,\nand profess that if these heights of fear be necessary to conversion,\nthey must be at a loss; neither can they give an account of the time of\ntheir conversion, as others may.\n\n(2.) Those whose conversion was easy, when after their conversion _they\nmiscarry by any great iniquity, they meet with as great a measure of\nterror and fear, and some think far greater, as those whose new birth\nwas more difficult_. David\u2019s greatest troubles of soul came upon him\nafter he began to appear more public in the world; for then he met\nwith many temptations, and great occasions for God\u2019s exercising his\ndiscipline over him. I believe, when he kept his father\u2019s sheep, his\nsongs had more of praises and less of complainings than afterward. It\nis the opinion of some that God\u2019s dealing in this kind of dispensation,\neven when miscarriage is not the cause, is more sharp usually to those\nwhose conversion hath been most easy.\n\n(3.) _There is another sort of men, to whom God vouchsafes but seldom\nand short fits of spiritual joy, as breathing times, betwixt sharp\nfits of soul-trouble, for necessary refreshment and recovery of\nstrength_; but the constant course which God holds with them is to\nexercise them under fears, while he hides his face from them, and\nsuffers Satan to vex them, by urging his objections against their\nholiness and integrity. Heman was one of this rank, and the great\ninstance which God hath given in his word for the support of others\nthat may be in the same case. For he testifies, Ps. lxxxviii., that\nhe suffered the terrors of God almost to distraction, and this from\nhis youth up. It is not fit for us too narrowly to question why God\ndoth thus to his children, seeing his \u2018judgments are unsearchable,\u2019\nand his \u2018ways past finding out;\u2019 but we may be sure that God sees this\ndealing to be most fit for those that are exercised therewith. It may\nbe to keep pride from them, or to prevent them from falling into some\ngreater inconvenience or sin, unto which he takes notice of a more than\nordinary proneness in their disposition; or for the benefit of others,\nwho may thereby take notice what \u2018an evil and bitter thing it is\u2019 to\nsin against God, and what a malicious adversary they have to deal with.\nWhoso shall consider these reasons of spiritual sadness, must needs\nconfess, that seeing the advantages which men give to a malicious\ndevil to vex their consciences are so many and great, and the weakness\nof God\u2019s children so hazardous, for the prevention whereof, a wise,\ncareful Father will necessarily be engaged to exercise his discipline,\nit cannot be expected but that spiritual troubles should be very\nfrequent among the servants of God.\n\n_Quest._ Here it is requisite that I give satisfaction to this query.\nSeeing that God doth sometime wound the consciences of his children,\nand that Satan also wounds them, what are the differences betwixt God\nand Satan in inflicting these wounds?\n\n_Ans._ For the right understanding of this question I shall propound\ntwo things:\n\n(1.) That it is a truth that _God doth sometimes wound the consciences\nof his children_; and this,\n\n[1.] _Before conversion_: but in order to it, as preparatory to that\nchange, men are then in their sins, walking in the vanity of their\nminds. To translate them from this estate he awakens the conscience,\nshews them their iniquities, and the danger of them, that at present\nthey are \u2018in their blood,\u2019 \u2018children of wrath, as well as others,\u2019 and\nthat without Christ they are miserable. The effect of this must needs\nbe serious consideration, deep thoughts of heart, with some trouble;\nonly as to the measure and degree there is great difference. God doth\nnot in the particular application of these things to the conscience tie\nup himself exactly to the same manner and measure of proceeding, though\nhe keep still to his general method. Hence is it that some, in regard\nof God\u2019s gentle, leisurely dealing, and the frequent interposure of\nencouragements, are, if compared with the case of others, said to be\nallured and \u2018drawn with cords of love.\u2019 But others have a remarkable\nmeasure of trouble, sharp fits of fear and anguish; and those most\ncommonly are such whose conversion is more quick, and the change\nvisible from one extreme to another, as Paul, when converted in the\nmidst of his persecuting rage, or those whose ignorance or melancholy\nmakes their hopes and comforts inaccessible for the present. These\ntroubles God owns to be the work of his Spirit. The same Spirit, which\nis a \u2018Spirit of adoption\u2019 to the converted, is a \u2018spirit of bondage\u2019\nto these, Rom. viii. 16. And accordingly we find it was so to the\nconverts in Acts ii., who being \u2018pricked in their hearts\u2019 by Peter\u2019s\nsermon, \u2018cried out, Men and brethren, what shall we do?\u2019 The like did\nthe jailor. And the promise which God makes of calling the Jews, Zech.\nxii. 10, doth express God\u2019s purpose of dealing with them in this very\nmethod: \u2018They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and shall\nmourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son, and shall be in\nbitterness for him; ... in that day shall be a great mourning.\u2019\n\n[2.] God also sometimes wounds the conscience of his children _after\nconversion_; and this he doth to convince and humble them for some\nmiscarriage which they become guilty of.[340] As when they grow secure,\ncarnally confident of the continuance of their peace\u2014when they are\ncarelessly negligent of duty and the exercises of their graces\u2014when\nthey fall into gross and scandalous sins, or wilfully desert the ways\nof truth, and in many more cases of like kind. When his children make\nthemselves thus obnoxious to divine displeasure, then God hides his\nface from them, takes away his Spirit, signifies his anger to their\nconsciences, threatens them with the danger of that condition, from\nwhence follows grief and fear in the hearts of his people. In this\nmanner God expressed his displeasure to David, as his complaints in Ps.\nli. do testify: \u2018Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which\nthou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins. Cast me not\naway from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore\nunto me the joy of thy salvation,\u2019 &c.\n\n(2.) Notwithstanding all this, there is _a great difference betwixt God\nand Satan in this matter_, which mainly appears in two things:\u2014\n\n[1.] _God doth limit himself in all the trouble which he gives his\nchildren, to his great end of doing them good, and healing them_, and\nconsequently stints himself in the measure and manner of his work to\nsuch a proportion as his wisdom sees will exactly suit with his end.\nSo that his anger is not like the brawlings of malicious persons that\nknow no bounds. He will not \u2018always chide;\u2019 his debates are in measure,\nand this \u2018lest the spirit should fail before him,\u2019 Isa. lvii. 16. So\nthat when he wounds the conscience before conversion, it is but to\nbring them to Christ, and to prevent their taking such courses as might\nthrough delusion make them take up their stand short of him. So much\nof mourning and fear as is requisite for the true effecting of this,\nhe appoints for them, and no more. When he wounds after conversion,\nit is but to let them feel that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin\nagainst him, that their \u2018godly sorrow may work repentance\u2019 suitable\nto the offence, and that they may be sufficiently cautioned for the\ntime to come to \u2018sin no more, lest a worse thing befall them.\u2019 He\nthat afflicts not willingly, will put no more grief upon them than is\nnecessary to bring them to this. But Satan, when he is admitted\u2014and\nGod doth often permit him in subservience to his design, to wound the\nconscience\u2014he proceeds according to the boundless fury of his malice,\nand plainly manifests that his desire is to destroy and to tread them\ndown that they may never rise again. This though he cannot effect, for\nGod will not suffer him to proceed further than the bringing about\nhis holy and gracious purpose, yet it hinders not but that still his\nenvious thoughts boil up in his breast, and he acts according to his\nown inclination. For it is with Satan as it is with wicked men. If\nGod employ them for the chastisement of his children, they consider\nnot who sets them on work, nor what measures probably God would have\nthem observe, but they propose to themselves more work than ever God\ncut out for them; as Assyria, when employed against Jerusalem, Isa.\nx. 7, had designs more large and cruel than was in God\u2019s commission.\nGod had stinted him in his holy purpose; yet the \u2018Assyrian meant\nnot so, neither did his heart think so; but it was in his heart to\ndestroy and cut off nations not a few.\u2019 So that when God is \u2018a little\ndispleased,\u2019 as he speaks, Zech. i. 15, they do all that lies in them\nto help forward the affliction. Thus doth the devil endeavour to make\nall things worse to God\u2019s children than ever God intended. Here is one\ndifference betwixt God and Satan, in the wounding of consciences. But,\n\n[2.] They are yet further differenced, in that all that God doth in\nthis work is still _according to truth_. For if he signify to the\nunconverted that they are in a state of nature, liable to the damnation\nof hell, unless they accept of Christ for salvation upon his terms,\nthis is no more than what is true. God doth not misrepresent their\ncase to them at that time. Again, if he express his displeasure to\nany of his converted children that have grieved his Spirit by their\nfollies, by setting before them the threatenings of his word, or the\nexamples of his wrath, he doth but truly tell them that he is angry\nwith them, and that _de jure_, according to the rigour of the law and\nthe demerit of their offence he might justly cast them off; but he doth\nnot positively say that, _de eventu_, it shall infallibly be so with\nthem. But Satan, in both these cases, goes a great way further. He\nplainly affirms to those that are in the way to conversion, that God\nwill not pardon their iniquities, that there is no hope for them, that\nChrist will not accept them, that he never intended the benefit of his\nsufferings for them. And when the converted do provoke God, he sticks\nnot to say the breach cannot be healed, and that they are not yet\nconverted. All which are most false assertions. And though God can make\nuse of Satan\u2019s malice, when he abuseth his children with his falsehoods\nto their great fear, to carry on his own ends by it, and to give a\ngreater impression to what he truly witnesseth against them; yet is\nnot God the proper author of Satan\u2019s lying, for he doth it of his own\nwicked inclination. The effect of these desperate false conclusions,\nwhich is the putting his children into a fear in order to his end, may\nbe ascribed to God; but the falsehood of these conclusions are formally\nSatan\u2019s work and not God\u2019s; for he makes use of so much of Satan\u2019s\nwrath as may be to his praise, and the \u2018remainder of his wrath he doth\nrestrain,\u2019 [Ps. lxxvi. 10.]\n\nI have discovered the nature and degrees of these spiritual troubles,\nand that it is a common thing for the children of God to fall under\nthem. For the further opening of them I shall next discover,\n\n3. The usual solemn occasions that do, as it were, invite Satan to give\nhis onset against God\u2019s children; and they are principally these six:\u2014\n\n[1.] _The time of conversion._ He delights to set on them when they are\nin the straits of a new birth, for then the conscience is awakened,\nthe danger of sin truly represented, fear and sorrow, in some degree,\nnecessary and unavoidable. At this time he can easily overdrive them.\nWhere the convictions are deep and sharp, ready to weigh them down,\na few grains more cast into the scale will make the trouble, as Job\nspeaks, \u2018heavier than the sand,\u2019 [chap. vi. 3;] and where they are\nmore easy or gentle, yet the soul being unsettled, the thoughts in\ncommotion, they are disposed to receive a strong impression, and\nto be turned, as wax to the seal, into a mould of hopelessness and\ndesperation. That this is one of Satan\u2019s special occasions, we need\nno other evidence for satisfaction than the common experience of\nconverts. Many of them do hardly escape the danger, and after their\ndifficult conquest of the troubles of their heart\u2014which at that time\nare extraordinarily enlarged\u2014do witness that they are assaulted with\ndesperate fears that their sins were unpardonable, and sad conclusions\nagainst any expectation of favour from the Lord their God. These\nthoughts we are sure the Spirit of God will not bear witness unto,\nbecause false, and therefore we must leave them at Satan\u2019s door.\n\n[2.] Another occasion which Satan makes use of, is the time of\n_solemn repentance for some great sin committed after conversion_.\nSometimes God\u2019s children fall, to the breaking of their bones. What\ngreat iniquities they may commit through the force of temptation, I\nneed not mention. The adultery and murder of David; the incest of\nthe Corinthian; Peter\u2019s denial of Christ, with other sad instances\nin the records of the Scriptures, do speak enough of that. These\nsins\u2014considering their heinousness, the scandal of religion, the\ndishonour of God, the grieving of his Spirit, the condition of the\nparty offending against love, knowledge, and the various helps\nwhich God affords them to the contrary, with other aggravating\ncircumstances\u2014being very displeasing to God, their consciences at\nleast, either compelled to examination by God immediately, or mediately\nby some great affliction, or voluntarily awakening to a serious\nconsideration of what hath been done, by the working of its own light,\nassisted thereunto by quickening grace, 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32,\u2014call them to\na strict account. Thence follow fear, shame, self-indignation, bitter\nweeping, deep humiliation. Then comes Satan; he rakes their wounds, and\nby his aggravations makes them smart the more. He pours in corrosives\ninstead of oil, and all to make them believe that their \u2018spot is not\nthe spot of God\u2019s children,\u2019 [Deut. xxxii. 5;] that their backslidings\ncannot be healed. An occasion it is, as suitable to his malice as he\ncould wish; for ordinarily God doth severely testify his anger to them,\nand doth not easily admit them again to the sense of his favour. At\nwhich time the adversary is very busy to work up their hearts to an\nexcess of fear and sorrow. This was the course which he took with the\nincestuous Corinthian, taking advantage of his great transgressions to\n\u2018overwhelm him with too much sorrow,\u2019 2 Cor. ii. 7, 11.\n\n[3.] Satan watcheth _the discomposures of the spirits of God\u2019s\nchildren, under some grievous cross or affliction_. This occasion also\nfalls fit for his design of wounding the conscience. When the hand of\nthe Lord is lifted up against them, and their thoughts disordered by\nthe stroke, suggesting at that time God\u2019s anger to them and their sins,\nhe can easily frame an argument from these grounds, that they are not\nreconciled to God, and that they are dealt withal as enemies. David\nseldom met with outward trouble, but he at the same time had a conflict\nwith Satan about his spiritual condition or state, as his frequent\ndeprecations of divine wrath at such times do testify; \u2018Lord, rebuke me\nnot in thy wrath,\u2019 &c. There is indeed but a step betwixt discomposure\nof spirit and spiritual troubles, as hath been proved before.\n\n[4.] _When Satan hath prepared the hearts of God\u2019s children by\natheistical or blasphemous thoughts, he takes that occasion to deny\ntheir grace and interest in Christ_, and the argument at that time\nseems unanswerable. Can Christ lodge in a heart so full of horrid\nblasphemies against him? Is it possible it should be washed and\nsanctified, when it produceth such filthy, cursed thoughts? All the\ntroubles of affrightment, of which before, are improvable to this\npurpose.\n\n[5.] Another spiritual occasion for spiritual trouble is _melancholy_.\nFew persons distempered therewith do escape Satan\u2019s hands. At one time\nor other he casts his net over them, and seeks to stab them with his\nweapon. Melancholy indeed affords so many advantages to him, and those\nso answerable to his design, that it is no wonder if he make much of\nit. For, 1. Melancholy affects both head and heart; it affords both\nfear and sadness, and deformed, misshapen, delirious imaginations to\nwork upon, than which nothing can be more for his purpose.[341] For\nwhere the heart trembles and the head is darkened, there every object\nis misrepresented. The ideas of the brain are monstrous appearances,\nreflected from opaque and dark spirits, so that Satan hath no more to\ndo but to suggest the new matter of fear. For that question, Whether\nthe man be converted, &c., being once started, to a mind already\ndistempered with fear, must of itself, it being a business of so high\na nature, without Satan\u2019s further pursuit, summon the utmost powers\nof sadness and misreprehension[342] to raise a storm. 2. Besides,\nthe impressions of melancholy are always strong. It is strong in its\nfears, or else men would never be tempted to destroy themselves; it is\nstrong in its mistakes, or else they could never persuade themselves\nof the truth of foolish, absurd, and impossible fancies; as that of\nNebuchadnezzar, who by a delusive apprehension, believing himself to\nbe a beast, forsook the company of men, and betook to the fields to\neat grass with oxen. The imaginations of the melancholic are never\nidle, and yet straitened or confined to a few things; and then the\nbrain, being weakened as to a true and regular apprehension, it\nframes nothing but bugbears, and yet with the highest confidence of\ncertainty. 3. These impressions are usually lasting, not vanishing as\nan early dew, but they continue for months and years. 4. And yet they\nhave only so much understanding left them as serves to nourish their\nfears. If their understanding had been quite gone, their fears would\nvanish with them, as the flame is extinguished for want of air; but\nthey have only knowledge to let them see their misery, and sense to\nmake them apprehensive of their pain.[343] And therefore will they\npray with floods of tears, unexpressible groanings, deepest sighing,\nand trembling joints, to be delivered from their fears. 5. They are\nalso apt after ease of their troubles to have frequent returns. What\ndisposition, all these things being considered, can be more exactly\nshaped to serve Satan\u2019s turn? If he would have men to believe the\nworst of themselves, he hath such imaginations to work upon as are\nalready misshapen into a deformity of evil surmising. Would he terrify\nby fears or distress by sadness? he hath that already, and it is but\naltering the object, which oftentimes needs not\u2014for naturally the\nserious melancholic employs all his griefs upon his supposed miserable\nestate of soul, and then he hath spiritual distress. Would he continue\nthem long under their sorrows, or take them upon all occasions at his\npleasure, or act them to a greater height than ordinary? still the\nmelancholic temper suits him. This is sufficient for caution, that we\ntake special care of our bodies, for the preventing or abating of that\nhumour by all lawful means, if we would not have the devil to abuse us\nat his will.\n\n[6.] _Sickness or death-bed_ is another solemn occasion which the devil\nseldom misseth with his will. Death is a serious thing; it represents\nthe soul and eternity to the life. While they are at a distance, men\nlook slightly upon these; but when they approach near to them, men\nusually have such a sight of them as they never had before. We may\ntruly call sickness and death-bed an hour of temptation, which Satan\nwill make use of with the more mischievous industry, because he hath\nbut \u2018a short time\u2019 for it. That is the last conflict, and if he miss\nthat, we are beyond his reach for ever. So that in this case Satan\nencourageth himself to the battle with a _now or never_. And hence we\nfind that it is usual for the dying servants of God to undergo most\nsharp encounters. Then to tell them, when the soul is about to loose\nfrom the body, that they are yet \u2018in their blood\u2019 \u2018without God and\nhope,\u2019 is enough to affright them into the extremest agonies, for\nthey see no time before them answerable to so great a work, if it be\nyet to do. And withal they are under vast discouragements from the\nweariness and pains of sickness, their understandings and faculties\nbeing also dull and stupified, so that if at this last plunge God\nshould not extraordinarily appear to rebuke Satan and to pluck them out\nof these great waters, as he often doth, by the fuller interposition\nof the light of his face, and the larger testimony of his Spirit,\nafter their long and comfortable profession of their faith and holy\nwalking, their light would be \u2018put out in darkness,\u2019 and they would\n\u2018lie down in sorrow.\u2019 Yet this I must note, that as desirous as Satan\nis to improve this occasion, he is often remarkably disappointed,\nand that wherein he, it may be, and we would least expect, I mean in\nregard of those who, through a timorous disposition or melancholy,\nor upon other accounts, are, as I may so say, \u2018all their lifetime\nsubject to bondage.\u2019 Those men who are usually exercised with frequent\nfits of spiritual trouble, when they come to sickness, death-bed, and\nsome other singular occasions of trouble, though we might suspect\ntheir fears would then be working, if ever, yet God, out of gracious\nindulgence to them, considering their mould and fashion, or because he\nwould prevent their extreme fainting, &c., doth meet them with larger\ntestimonies of his favour, higher joys, more confident satisfactions\nin his love, than ever they received at any time before, and this,\nto their wonder, their high admiration, making the times which they\nwere wont to fear most, to be times of greatest consolation. This\nobservation I have grounded not upon one or two instances, but could\nproduce a cloud of witnesses for it. Enough it is to check our forward\nfears of a future evil day, and to heal us of a sighing distemper,\nwhile we afflict ourselves with such thoughts as these: If I have so\nmany fears in health, how shall I be able to go through the valley of\nthe shadow of death?\n\n4. I have one thing more to add for these discoveries of these\nspiritual troubles, and that is to shew you _the engines by which Satan\nworks them_, and they are these two, sophistry and fears.\n\nI. _As to his sophistry_, by which he argues the children of God into a\nwrong apprehension of themselves, it is very great. He hath a wonderful\ndexterity in framing arguments against their peace; he hath variety\nof shrewd objections and subtle answers to the usual replies by which\nthey seek to beat him off. There is not a fallacy by which a cunning\nsophister would seek to entangle his adversary in disputation, but\nSatan would make use of it; as I might particularly shew you, if it\nwere proper for a common auditory. Though he hath so much impudence\nas not to blush at the most silly, contemptible reason that can be\noffered, notwithstanding he hath also so much wit as to urge, though\nnever true, yet always probable arguments. How much he can prevail\nupon the beliefs of men, in cases relating to their souls, may be\nconjectured by the success he hath upon the understandings of men, when\nhe argues them into error, and makes them believe a lie. We usually\nsay, and that truly, that Satan cannot in any case force us properly to\nconsent; yet considering the advantages which he takes, and the ways\nhe hath to prepare the hearts of men for his impressions, and then his\nvery great subtlety in disputing, we may say that he can so order the\nmatter that he will seldom miss of his aim. It would be an endless work\nto gather up all the arguments that Satan hath made use of to prove\nthe condition or state of God\u2019s children to be bad. But that I may not\naltogether disappoint your expectations in that thing, I shall present\nto your view Satan\u2019s usual topics, the commonplaces or heads unto which\nall his arguments may be reduced. And they are,\n\n[1.] _Scripture abused and perverted._ His way is not only to suggest\nthat they are unregenerate, or under an evil frame of heart, but to\noffer proof that these accusations are true. And because he hath to\ndo with them that profess a belief of Scriptures as the oracles of\nGod, he will fetch his proofs from thence, telling them that he will\nevidence what he saith from Scripture. Thus sometimes he assaults the\nweaker, unskilful sort of Christians, Thou art not a child of God;\nfor they that are so are enlightened, translated from darkness, they\nare the children of the light; but thou art a poor, ignorant, dark,\nblind creature, and therefore no child of God. Sometimes he labours\nto conclude the like from the infirmities of God\u2019s children, abusing\nto this purpose that of 1 John iii. 9, \u2018He that is born of God doth\nnot commit sin,\u2019 and \u2018he cannot sin, because he is born of God,\u2019 Thus\nhe urgeth it, Can anything be more plainly and fully asserted? Is not\nthis scripture? Canst thou deny this? Then he pursues, But thou sinnest\noften; that is thine own complaint against thyself, thy conscience also\nbearing witness to the truth of this accusation; therefore thou canst\nbe no child of God. Sometimes he plays upon words that are used in\ndivers senses\u2014a fit engine for the devil to work by\u2014for what is true in\none sense will be false in another; and his arguing is from that which\nis true to that which is false. I remember one that was long racked\nwith that of Rev. xxi. 8, \u2018The fearful and unbelieving,\u2019 &c., \u2018shall\nhave their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.\u2019 From\nwhence the party thus argued: The proposition is true, because it is\nscripture, and I cannot deny the assumption. \u2018Fearful I am, because I\nam doubtful of salvation; and unbelieving I am, for I cannot believe\nthat I am regenerate, or in a state of grace, and therefore I cannot\navoid the conclusion.\u2019 To the same purpose he disputes against some\nfrom 1 John iv. 18, \u2018There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth\nout fear; but thou art full of fears, therefore thou lovest not God.\u2019\nSometimes he makes use of those scriptures that make the prevailing\ndegree of our love and respects to God above the world and the things\nof this life, to be the characters of true grace; as that of John, \u2018If\nany man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;\u2019 and that\nof Christ, \u2018If a man love anything more than me, he is not worthy of\nme: he that forsakes not all for me cannot be my disciple,\u2019 &c. Then\nhe urgeth upon them their love of the world, and unwillingness to part\nwith their estates; and so brings the conclusion upon them. Instances\nmight be infinite; but by these you may judge of the rest. Let us now\ncast our eye upon his subtlety in managing his arguments against men.\n1. He grounds his arguments on Scripture, because that hath authority\nwith it, and the very troubled conscience hath a reverence to it. 2. He\nalways suits his scriptures, which he thus cites, to that wherein the\nconscience is most tender. If there be anything that affords matter of\nsuspicion or fear, he will be sure to choose such an arrow out of the\nquiver of Scripture as will directly hit the mark. 3. Though in the\ncitation of Scripture he always urgeth a sense which the Holy Ghost\nnever intended, yet there will be always something in those scriptures\nwhich he makes use of, which, in words at least, seem to favour his\nconclusion; as appears in the instances now given. For when he would\nconclude a man not to be a child of God because of his ignorance,\nsomething of his argument is true: it may be the man is sensible that\nhis knowledge is but little, compared with the measures which some\nothers have; or that he is at a loss or confused in many doctrinal\npoints of religion; or hath but little experience in many practical\ncases, &c. This as it is true, so it is his trouble; and whilst he\nis poring upon his defect, Satan claps an arrest upon him of a far\ngreater debt than God chargeth upon him, and from scriptures that speak\nof a total ignorance of the fundamentals of religion, as that there\nis a God, that Christ Jesus is God and man, the Redeemer of mankind\nby a satisfaction to divine justice, &c., or of a wilful ignorance\nof the worth of the proffer of the gospel, or its reality, which is\ndiscovered in the refusal of the terms thereof, he concludes him to be\nin a state of darkness; whereas the ignorance which the man complains\nof is not the ignorance which those scriptures intend. So in the next\ninstance, the sins which a child of God complains of are those of daily\nincursion, which he labours and strives against; but that committing\nsin mentioned in the text hath respect to the Gnostics, who taught a\nliberty in sinning, and fancied a righteousness consistent with the\navowed practice of iniquity. Hence doth John, 1 Epist. iii. 7, directly\nface their opinion in these terms, \u2018Little children, let no man deceive\nyou; he that doth righteousness is righteous;\u2019 and, \u2018He that is born\nof God\u2019 neither doth nor can avouch a liberty of sinning, it being\ncontrary to the principles of the new nature. So that the miscarriages\nof infirmity which the child of God laments in himself are not the\nsame with that of the text, upon which Satan grounds the accusation.\nThe like may be said of the third instance, from Rev. xxi. 18. The\nthreatening there is against such a fear to lose the comforts of the\nworld, that they dare not believe the gospel to be true, and accept it\naccordingly; which is nothing to those fears and doubtings that may\nbe in a child of God, in reference to his happiness. Thus in all the\nrest the fallacy lies in misapplying the Scripture, to suit them to\nthat wherein the conscience is tender, under a sense which was never\nintended by them; yet in another sense, the thing charged upon the\nconscience is true. (4.) Yet is Satan so subtle, that when he disputes\nby such fallacious arguments, he chiefly endeavours to draw off the\ndefendant\u2019s eye and consideration from that part of the argument\nwherein its weakness lies, which in this case is always in the abuse of\nthe scripture to a wrong sense. This he doth, partly from the advantage\nwhich he hath from the reverence that they carry to Scripture; they\nbelieve it to be true, and are not willing to suspect the sense; and\nmany are so weak that if they should, Satan is so cunning that he can\neasily baffle them in any distinction that they can make. And partly\nfrom the sense they have of that whereof they are accused, they feel\nthemselves so sore in that place, and for that very end doth Satan\ndirect his scripture to hit it, that they readily take it for granted\nthat the hinge of the controversy turns upon it, and that the whole\ndispute rests upon it. Now Satan having these fair advantages, by a\nfurther improvement of them hides the weakness of his argument. For,\n[1.] He takes that sense of the Scripture, in which he misapplies it,\nfor granted, and that with great confidence, making as if there were\nno doubt there. [2.] He turns always that part of the argument to them\nwhich they can least answer, pressing them eagerly with the matter of\ncharge, which they are as ready to confess as he is to accuse them of,\nand aggravating it very busily. And because the unskilful have no other\ndirection for the finding the knot of the controversy than Satan\u2019s\nbustle\u2014though he, like the lapwing, makes the greatest noise when he\nis furthest from his nest, on purpose to draw them into a greater\nmistake\u2014they look no further; and then, not being able to answer, they\nare soon cast, and striking in with the conclusion against themselves,\nthey multiply their sorrows, and cry out of themselves as miserable.\n\n[2.] Another piece of his sophistry is, the improving certain _false\nnotions, which Christians of the weaker sort have received, as proofs\nof their unregeneracy or bad condition_. As there are vulgar errors\nconcerning natural things, so there are popular errors concerning\nspiritual things. These mistakes in a great part have their original\nfrom the fancies or misapprehensions of unskilful men. Some indeed\nhave, it may be, been preached and taught as truths, others have risen\nwithout a teacher from mere ignorance, being the conclusions and\nsurmises which weak heads have framed to themselves, from the sayings\nor practices of men, which have not been either so cleared from the\ndanger of mistake, or not so distinctly apprehended as was necessary.\nThese false inferences, once set on foot, are traditionally handed\ndown to others, and in time they gain among the simple the opinion of\nundoubted truths. Now, wherever Satan finds any of these that are fit\nfor his purpose\u2014for to be sure whatever mistake we entertain, he will\nat one time or other cast it in our way\u2014he will make it the foundation\nof an argument against him that hath received it, and that with very\ngreat advantage. For a falsehood in the premises will usually produce\na falsehood in the conclusion. And these falsehoods being taken for\ngranted, the devil is not put to the trouble to prove them. If then\nhe can but exactly fit them to something in the party which he cannot\ndeny, he forthwith carries the cause, and condemns him by his own\nconcessions, as out of his own mouth.\n\nIt is scarce possible to number the false notions which are already\nentertained among Christians relating to grace and conversion, much\nless those that may afterward arise. But I shall mention some that\nSatan frequently makes use of as grounds of objection.\n\n_First_, It is a common apprehension among the weaker sort, that\nconversion _is always accompanied with great fear and terror_. This is\ntrue in some, as hath been said, and though none of the preachers of\nthe gospel have asserted the universality of these greater measures\nof trouble, yet the people, taking notice that many speak of their\ndeep humiliations in conversion, and that several authors have set\nforth the greatness of distress that some have been cast into on that\noccasion\u2014though without any intention of fixing this into a general\nrule\u2014have from thence supposed that all the converted are brought to\ntheir comforts through the flames of hell. Upon this mistake the devil\ndisquiets those that have not felt these extreme agonies of sorrow in\nthemselves, and tells them that it is a sure sign that they are not\nyet converted. Though it is easy for a man that sees the falsehood\nof the notion to answer the argument, yet he that believes it to be\ntrue cannot tell what to say, because he finds he never was under such\ntroubles, and now he begins to be troubled because he was not troubled\nbefore, or, as he supposeth, not troubled enough.\n\n_Second_, Another false notion is, that a convert can _give an account\nof the time and manner of his conversion_. This is true in some, as in\nPaul and some others, whose change hath been sudden and remarkable,\nthough in many this is far otherwise; who can better give account\nthat they are converted, than by what steps, degrees, and methods\nthey were brought to it. But if any of these receive the notion, they\nwill presently find that Satan will turn the edge of it against them,\nand will tell them that they are not converted, because they cannot\nnominate the time when, nor the manner how, such a change was wrought.\n\n_Third_, Some take it for granted that conversion is accompanied with\na _remarkable measure of gifts for prayer and exhortation_; and then\nthe devil objects it to them, that they are not converted, because\nthey cannot pray as others, or speak of the things of God so readily,\nfluently, and affectionately as some others can. Thus the poor, weak\nChristian is baffled for want of abilities to express himself to God\nand men.\n\n_Fourth_, False notions about _the nature of faith are a sad\nstumbling-block to some_. Many suppose that saving faith is a certain\nbelief that our sins are pardoned, and that we shall be saved, making\nfaith and assurance all one. This mistake is the deeper rooted in\nthe minds of men because some have directly taught so, and those men\nof estimation, whose words are entertained with great reverence by\nwell-meaning Christians. For whom notwithstanding this may be pleaded\nin excuse, that they have rather described faith in its height than\nin its lowest measures. However it be, those that have no other\nunderstanding of the nature of faith can never answer Satan\u2019s argument,\nif he takes them at any time at the advantage of fear or doubting: for\nthen he will dispute thus, Faith is a belief that sins are pardoned,\nbut thou dost not believe this, therefore thou hast no faith. Oh, what\nnumbers of poor doubting Christians have been distressed with this\nargument!\n\n_Fifth_, Some take it for a truth that _growth of grace is always\nvisible, and the progress remarkable_. And then because they can make\nno such discovery of themselves, the devil concludes their grace to be\ncounterfeit and hypocritical.\n\n_Sixth_, Of like nature are some _mistaken signs of true grace, as that\ntrue grace fears God only for his goodness_. And then if there be any\napprehension of divine displeasure impressed upon the heart, though\nupon the necessary occasion of miscarriage, they, through the devil\u2019s\ninstigation, conclude that they are under \u2018a spirit of bondage,\u2019 and\ntheir supposed grace not true, or not genuine at least, according to\nthat disposition which the New Testament will furnish a man withal.\nIt is also another mistaken sign of grace, that it doth direct a man\nto love God singly for himself, without the least regard to his own\nsalvation; for that, they think, is but self-love. Now, when a child\nof God doth not see his love to God so distinct, but that his own\nsalvation is twisted with it, Satan gets advantage of him, and forceth\nhim to cast away his love as adulterate and selfish. Like to this\nmistake, but of a higher strain, is that of some, that where grace is\ntrue, it is so carried forth to honour God, that the man that hath it\ncan desire God may be honoured though he should be damned. God doth\nnot put us to such questions as these, but upon supposition that this\nis true, the grace of most men will be shaken by the objection that\nSatan will make from thence; he can and will presently put the mistaken\nto it, Canst thou say thou art willing to go to hell, that God may be\nglorified? If not, where is thy grace? From such mistakes as these\nhe disputes against the holiness of the children of God; and it is\nimpossible but that he should carry the cause against those who grant\nthese things to be true. Satan can undeniably shew them that their\nhearts will not answer such a description of a convert or gracious\nheart as these false notions will make. So long then as they hold these\nnotions they have no relief against Satan\u2019s conclusions; no comfort\ncan be administered till they be convinced that they have embraced\nmistakes for truths. And how difficult that will be in this case,\nwhere the confidence of the notion is great, and the suspicion strong,\nthat the defect is only in the heart, hath been determined by frequent\nexperience already.\n\n[3.] The third piece of Satan\u2019s sophistry from whence he raiseth false\nconclusions, is his _misrepresentation of God_. In this he directly\ncrosseth the design of the Scriptures, where God in his nature and\ndealings is so set forth, that the weakest, the most afflicted and\ntossed, may receive encouragement of acceptance, and of his fatherly\ncare over them in their saddest trials. Yet withal, lest men should\nturn his grace into wantonness, and embolden themselves in sin because\nof his clemency, the Scriptures sometimes give us lively descriptions\nof his anger against those that wickedly presume upon his goodness,\nand continue so to do. Both these descriptions of God should be taken\ntogether, as affording the only true representation of him. He is\nso gentle to the humbled sensible sinner, that \u2018he will not break\ntheir bruised reed, nor quench their smoking flax,\u2019 [Mat. xii. 20.]\nAnd so careful of health that, for their recovery, he will not leave\nthem altogether unpunished, nor suffer them to ruin themselves by a\nsurfeit upon worldly comforts; yet with \u2018the froward he will shew\nhimself froward,\u2019 Ps. xviii. 26. And \u2018as for such as turn aside unto\ntheir crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of\niniquity,\u2019 Ps. cxxv. 5. He will \u2018put out the candle of the wicked,\u2019\nfor he sets them in \u2018slippery places, &c., so that they are cast down\ninto destruction, and brought into desolation as in a moment; they are\nconsumed with terrors,\u2019 [Ps. lxxiii. 19.] Now Satan will sometimes\nargue against the children of God, and endeavour to break their hopes\nby turning that part of the description of God against them, which is\nintended for the dismounting of the confidence of the wicked, and the\nbringing down of high looks. By this means he wrests the description of\nGod to a contrary end, and misrepresents God to a trembling afflicted\nsoul. This he doth,\n\n_First_, By misrepresenting _his nature_. Here he reads a solemn\nlecture of the holiness and justice of God, but always with reflection\nupon the vileness and unworthiness of the person against whom he\nintends his dart. And thus he argues: Lift up thine eyes to the\nheavens, behold the brightness of God\u2019s glory: consider his unspotted\nholiness, his infinite justice. The heavens are not clean in his\nsight; how much more abominable and filthy then art thou! His eyes\nare pure, he cannot wink at nor approve of the least sin; how canst\nthou then imagine, except thou be intolerably impudent, that he hath\ntaken such an unclean wretch into his favour? He is a jealous God,\nand will by no means acquit the guilty; canst thou then with any show\nof reason conclude thyself to be his child? He beholds the wicked\nafar off; he shuts out their prayer; he laughs at their calamity; he\nmocks when their fear comes; and therefore thou hast no cause to think\nthat he will hear thy cry, though thou shouldst make many prayers. It\ncannot be supposed that he will incline his ear. It is his express\ndetermination, that if any man regard iniquity in his heart, the Lord\nwill not hear his prayer. This, and a great deal more will he say.\nAnd while Satan speaks but at this rate, we may call him modest,\nbecause his allegations are in themselves true, if they were applied\nrightly. Sometimes he will go further, and plainly belie God, speaking\nincredible falsehoods of him: but because these properly appertain to\na higher sort of troubles, of which I am next to speak, I shall not\nhere mention them. However, if he stops here, he saith enough against\nany servant of God that carries a high sense of his unworthiness. For\nbeing thus brought to the view of these astonishing attributes, he\nis dashed out of countenance, and can think no other, but that it is\nvery unlikely that so unworthy a sinner should have any interest in so\nholy a God. Thus the devil affrights him off, turning the wrong side\nof the description of God to him; and in the meantime hiding that part\nof it that speaks Gods wonderful condescensions, infinite compassions,\nunspeakable readiness to accept the humble, broken-hearted, weary,\nheavy-laden sinner, that is prostrate at his footstool for pardon. All\nwhich are on purpose declared in the description of God\u2019s nature, to\nobviate this temptation, and to encourage the weak.\n\n_Second_, He misrepresents God _in his providence_. If God chastise\nhis children by any affliction, Satan perversely wrests it to a bad\nconstruction, especially if the affliction be sharp, or seem to be\nabove their strength, or frequent, and most of all if it seem to\ncross their hopes and prayers; for then he argues, These are not the\nchastisements of sons. God indeed will visit their transgressions\nwith rods, but his dealing with thee is plainly of another nature,\nfor he \u2018breaketh thee with his tempests,\u2019 And whereas he corrects his\nsons that serve him in measure, thou art bowed down with thy trouble\nto distress and despair: but he will lay no more upon his sons than\nthey are able to bear. He will not always chide his servants; but\nthou art afflicted every morning. And besides, if thou wert pure and\nupright, surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation\nof thy righteousness prosperous: for to his sons he saith, \u2018Call upon\nme in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee; and thou shalt glorify\nme,\u2019 Ps. l. 15. Hence comes the complaint of many, that they are not\nregenerated, because they think God deals not with them as with others.\nOh, say they, we know God chastiseth \u2018every son whom he receiveth;\u2019 but\nour case is every way different from theirs, our troubles are plagues,\nnot rods; our cry is not heard, our prayers disregarded, our strength\nfaileth us, our hearts fret against the Lord, so that not only the\nnature and quality of our affections, but the frame of our heart under\nthem, in not enduring the burden,\u2014which is the great character of the\nchastisement of sons, Heb. xii. 7,\u2014plainly evinceth that we are under\nGod\u2019s hatred, and are not his children. This objection, though it might\nseem easy to be answered by those that are not at present concerned,\nyet it will prove a difficult business to those that are under the\nsmart of afflictions. How much a holy and wise man may be gravelled by\nit, you may see in Ps. lxxii., where the prophet is put to a grievous\nplunge upon this very objection; ver. 14, \u2018All the day long have I been\nplagued, and chastised every morning.\u2019\n\nAnd yet in all this Satan doth but play the sophister, working upon the\nadvantages which the nature of the affliction and the temper of men\u2019s\nhearts do afford him. For, 1. Afflictions are a great depth, one of the\nsecrets of God, so that it is hard to know what God intends by them. 2.\nThe end of the Lord is not discovered at first, but at some distance,\nwhen the fruits thereof begin to appear. 3. The mind of the afflicted\ncannot always proceed regularly in making a judgment of God\u2019s design\nupon them: especially at first, when it is stounded by the assault,\nand all things in confusion; faith is to seek, patience awanting, and\nlove staggering. After it hath recollected itself, and attained any\ncalmness to fit it for a review of the ways of God and of the heart,\nit is better enabled to fix some grounds of hope: Lam. iii. 19-21,\n\u2018This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope,\u2019 4. Afflictions\nhave a light and a dark side, and their appearances are according to\nour posture in which we view them: as some pictures, which if we look\nupon them one way, they appear to be angels, if another way, they seem\ndevils. 5. Some men in affliction do only busy themselves in looking\nupon the dark side of affliction. Their disposition, either through\nnatural timorousness or strong impressions of temptation, is only to\nmeditate terrors, and to surmise evils. These men out of the cross can\ndraw nothing but the wormwood and the gall, while others, that have\nanother prospect of them, observe mixtures of mercy and gentleness,\nand do melt into submission and thankfulness. These, considered\ntogether, are a great advantage to Satan in disputing against the peace\nof God\u2019s afflicted children, and it often falls out, that as he doth\nmisrepresent God\u2019s design, so do they, urged by temptation, upon that\naccount misjudge themselves.\n\n_Third_, He also misrepresents God _in the works of his Spirit_. If God\nwithdraw his countenance, or by his Spirit signifies his displeasure\nto the consciences of any, if he permit Satan to molest them with\nspiritual temptations, presently Satan takes occasion to put his false\nand malignant interpretation upon all; he tells them that God\u2019s hiding\nhis face is his casting them off; that the threatenings signified to\ntheir conscience are plain declarations that their present state is\nwrath and darkness; that Satan\u2019s molestations by temptations shew them\nto be yet under his power; that the removal of their former peace,\njoy, and sensible delight which they had in the ways of God is beyond\ncontradiction an evidence that God hath no delight in them, nor they\nin him; that their faith was but that of temporaries, their joy but\nthat of hypocrites, which is only for a moment. How often have I\nheard Christians complaining thus: We cannot be in a state of grace;\nour consciences lie under the sense of God\u2019s displeasure, they give\ntestimony against us, and we know that testimony is true, for we feel\nit. It is true, time was when we thought we had a delight in hearing,\npraying, meditating, but now all is a burden to us, we can relish\nnothing, we can profit nothing, we can remember nothing. Time was when\nwe thought we had assurance, and our hearts rejoiced in us; sometimes\nwe have thought our hearts had as much of peace and comfort as they\ncould hold, now all is vanished, and we are under sad fears; if God\nhad had a favour to us, would he have dealt thus with us? Thus are\nthey cheated into a belief that they never had any grace; they take\nall for granted that is urged against them; they cannot consider God\u2019s\ndesign in hiding his face, nor yet can they see how grace acts in them\nunder these complainings; how they express their love to God in their\ndesires and pantings after him, in their bewailing of his absence, in\nabhorring and condemning themselves, &c.; but their present feeling\u2014and\nan argument from sense is very strong\u2014bears down all before it.\n\nThus doth Satan frame his arguments from misrepresentations of God,\nwhich, though a right view of God would easily answer them, yet how\ndifficult it is for a person in an hour of temptation to dispel, by\na right apprehension of the ways of the holy God, doth abundantly\nappear from Ps. lxxvii., where the case of Asaph, or whoever else he\nwas, doth inform us\u20141. That it is usual for Satan, for the disquieting\nof the hearts of God\u2019s children, to offer a false prospect of God.\n2. That this overwhelms their hearts with grief, ver. 3. 3. That the\nmore they persist in the prosecution of this method, under the mists\nof prejudice, they see the less, being apt to misconstrue everything\nin God to their disadvantage, ver. 3, \u2018I remembered God, and was\ntroubled.\u2019 4. The reason of all that trouble lies in this, that they\ncan only conclude wrath and desertion from God\u2019s carriage toward\nthem. 5. That till they look upon God in another method, and take up\nbetter thoughts of him and his providences, even while they carry the\nappearance of severity, they can expect no ease to their complainings.\nFor before the prophet quitted himself of his trouble, he was forced\nto acknowledge his mistake, ver. 10, in the misconstruction he made of\nhis dealings, and to betake himself to a resolve of entertaining better\nthoughts of God, ver. 7. His interrogation, \u2018Will the Lord cast off\nfor ever?\u2019 &c., shews indeed what he did once think, being misled by\nSatan, but withal that he would never do so again. \u2018Will the Lord cast\noff for ever?\u2019 is not here the voice of a despairing man, but of one\nthat, through better information, hath rectified his judgment, and now\nis resolved strongly to hold the contrary to what he thought before: as\nif he should say, It is not possible that it should be so; he will not\ncast off for ever, and I will never entertain such perverse thoughts\nof God any more. 6. But before they can come to this, it will cost\nthem some pains and serious thoughts. It is not easy to break these\nfetters, to answer this argument, but they that will do so must appeal\nfrom their present sense to a consideration of the issues of these\ndealings upon other persons, or upon themselves at other times; for the\nprophet, ver. 5, \u2018considered the days of old, and the years of ancient\ntimes;\u2019 and ver. 6, he also made use of his own experience, calling to\nremembrance that after such dealings as these, God by his return of\nfavour gave him \u2018songs in the night.\u2019\n\n[4.] Another common head from whence this great disputant doth fetch\nhis arguments against the good condition and state of God\u2019s servants,\nis their _sin and miscarriages_. Here I shall observe two or three\nthings in the general concerning this, before I shew how he draws his\nfalse conclusions from thence. As,\n\n_First_, That with a kind of _feigned ingenuity_[344] he will grant a\ndifference betwixt sin and sin\u2014betwixt sins reigning and not reigning,\nsins mortified and not mortified; betwixt the sins of the converted and\nthe unconverted; and upon this supposition he usually proceeds. He doth\nnot always, except in case of great sins, argue want of regeneration\nfrom one sin; for that argument, This is a sin, therefore thou art not\na convert, would be easily answered by one that knows the saints have\ntheir imperfections; but he thus deals with men: These sins whereof\nthou art guilty are reigning sins, such as are inconsistent with a\nconverted estate, and therefore thou art yet unregenerated.\n\n_Second_, He produceth usually, for the backing of his arguments, such\nscriptures as _do truly represent the state of men unsanctified_;\nbut then his labour is to make the parties to appear suitable to the\ndescription of the unregenerate. And to that purpose he aggravates all\ntheir failings to them; he makes severe inquiries after all their sins,\nand if he can charge them with any notorious crime, he lays load upon\nthat, still concluding that a regenerate person doth not sin at such a\nrate as they do.\n\n_Third_, This is always a _very difficult case_; it is not easy to\nanswer the objections that he will urge from hence; for, (1.) If\nthere be the real guilt of any grievous or remarkable scandal which\nhe objects, the accused party, though never so knowing, or formerly\nnever so holy, will be hardly put to it to determine anything in favour\nof his estate. [1.] The fact cannot be denied. [2.] The Scripture\nnominates particularly such offences as render a man unfit for the\nkingdom of God. [3.] Whether in such cases grace be not wholly lost, is\na question in which all are not agreed. [4.] However, it will be very\ndoubtful whether such had ever any grace. The Scripture hath given no\nnote of difference to distinguish betwixt a regenerate and unregenerate\nperson in the acts of murder, adultery, fornication, &c. It doth not\nsay the regenerate commits an act of gross iniquity in this manner, the\nunregenerate in that, and that there is a visible distinction betwixt\nthe one and the other, relating to these very acts. And whatever may be\nsupposed to be the inward workings of grace in the soul, while it is\nreduced to so narrow a compass as a spark of fire raked up in ashes,\nyet the weight of present guilt upon the soul, when it is charged\nhome, will always poise it toward the worst apprehensions that can be\nmade concerning its state. Former acts of holiness will be disowned\nunder the notion of hypocrisy; or if yet owned to be true, they will\nbe apt to think that true grace may be utterly lost. Present acts of\ngrace they can see none, so that only the after-acts of repentance can\ndiscover that there is yet a being and life of grace in them, and till\nthen they can never answer Satan\u2019s argument from great sins. But, (2.)\nIn the usual infirmities of God\u2019s children the case is not so easy. For\nthe Scriptures give instances of some whose conversations could not be\ntaxed with any notorious evils; who, though they were not \u2018far from\nthe kingdom of God,\u2019 yet were not \u2018of the kingdom of God,\u2019 [Mark xii.\n34:] a freedom then from great sins is not pleadable as an undoubted\nmark of grace. And if others that are not converted may have no greater\ninfirmities than some that are, the difference betwixt the one and the\nother must depend upon the secret powers of grace giving check to these\ninfirmities and striving to mortify them; and this will be an intricate\nquestion. The apostle, Rom. vii. 15, notes indeed three differences\nbetwixt the regenerate and unregenerate in this case of sins of\ninfirmity. [1.] Hatred of the sin before the commission of it: \u2018What I\nhate, that do I.\u2019 [2.] Reluctancy in the act: \u2018What I would, that do I\nnot.\u2019 [3.] Disallowance after the act: \u2018That which I do, I allow not.\u2019\nYet seeing natural light will afford some appearances of disallowance\nand reluctancy, it will still admit of further debate whether the\nprinciples, motives, degrees, and success of these strivings be such as\nmay discover the being and power of real grace.\n\nWhile Satan doth insist upon arguments from the sins of believers for\nthe proof of an unconverted estate, he only aims to make good this\npoint, that their sins are reigning sins, and consequently that they\ncannot be in so good a condition as they are willing to think. And to\nmake their sins to carry that appearance, his constant course is to\naggravate them all he can. This is his design, and the means by which\nhe would effect it. His great art in this case is to heighten the sins\nof the regenerate. This he doth many ways. As,\n\n(1.) _From the nature of the sin committed, and the manner of its\ncommission_; and this he chiefly labours, because his arguments from\nhence are more probable, especially considering what he fixeth upon\nusually is that which may most favour his conclusion: as, [1.] If any\nhave fallen into a great sin which a child of God doth but rarely\ncommit, then he argues against him thus: They that are in Christ do\nmortify the flesh with the affections and lusts, they cast away the\nworks of darkness; and these works of the flesh are manifest, Gal. v.\n19, \u2018Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,\nwitchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,\u2019 &c. \u2018Because of these things\ncometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.\u2019 \u2018Be not\ntherefore partakers with them;\u2019 \u2018have no fellowship with the unfruitful\nworks of darkness,\u2019 Eph. v. 6, 11. But thou hast not put these away,\nnor mortified them, as thy present sin doth testify, therefore thou art\nno child of God. [2.] If any do more than once or twice relapse into\nthe same sin, suppose it be not so highly scandalous as the former,\nthen he pleads from thence that they are backsliders in heart, that\nthey have broken their covenant with God, that they are in bondage to\nsin. Here he urgeth, it may be, that of 2 Pet. ii. 19, 20, \u2018Of whom\na man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.... The dog\nis returned to his vomit.\u2019 [3.] Or if any have by any offence more\nremarkably gone against their knowledge or violated their conscience,\nthen he tells them that they sin wilfully, that they reject the counsel\nof the Lord, that they are the servants of sin; \u2018for his servants ye\nare to whom ye obey,\u2019 Rom. vi. 16; \u2018and that where there is grace,\nthough they may fall, yet it is still against their wills,\u2019 &c. [4.] If\nhe have not so clear ground to manage any of the former charges against\nthem, then he argues from the frequency of their various miscarriages.\nHere he sets their sins in order before them, rakes them all together,\nthat he may oppress them by a multitude, when he cannot prevail by an\naccusation from one or two acts; and his pleading here is, Thou art\nnothing but sin, thy thoughts are evil continually, thy words are vain\nand unprofitable, thy actions foolish and wicked, and this in all thy\nemployments, in all relations, at all times. What duty is there that\nis not neglected or defiled? what sin that is not some way or other\ncommitted? &c. Can such a heart as thine be the temple of the Holy\nGhost? For the temple of the Lord is holy, and his people are washed\nand cleansed, &c.\n\nThese are all of them strong objections, and frequently made use of by\nSatan, as the complaints of the servants of God do testify, who are\nmade thus to except against themselves: If our sins were but the usual\nfailings of the converted, we might comfort ourselves, but they are\ngreat, they are backslidings, they are against conscience, they are\nmany; what can we judge but that we have hitherto deceived ourselves,\nand that the work of conversion is yet to do? The objections that are\nfrom great sins, or from recidivation[345] or wilful violation of\nconscience, do usually prevail for some time against the best that are\nchargeable with them; they cannot determine that they are converted,\nthough they might be so, so long as they cannot deny the matter of\nfact upon which the accusation is grounded. Till their true repentance\ngive them some light of better information, they are in the dark, and\ncannot answer the argument. Jonah being imprisoned in the whale\u2019s belly\nfor his stubborn rebellion, at first concluded himself a castaway:\nchap. ii. 4, \u2018Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight.\u2019 Neither could\nhe think better of himself till, upon his repentance, he recovered\nhis faith and hope of pardon: \u2018Yet will I look again toward thy holy\ntemple.\u2019 Yea, those objections that are raised from the multitude and\nfrequency of lesser failings, though they may be answered by a child of\nGod while his heart is not overshadowed with the mists and clouds of\ntemptation, yet when he is confused with violent commotions within, his\nheart will fail him, and till he can bring himself to some composure\nof spirit, he hath not the boldness to assert his integrity. David was\ngravelled with this objection: Ps. xl. 12, \u2018Innumerable evils have\ncompassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that\nI am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs on my head,\ntherefore my heart faileth me.\u2019\n\n(2.) He aggravates the sinfulness of our condition from _the frequency\nand violence of his own temptations_. It is a usual thing for him\nto give young converts incessant onsets of temptation to sin. Most\ncommonly he works upon their natural constitution; he blows the coals\nthat are not yet quite extinguished, and that have greater forwardness,\nfrom their own inclination, to kindle again, as lust and passion. The\nfirst motions of the one, though it go no further than those offers\nand risings up in the heart, and is there damped and kept down by\nthe opposing principle of grace; and the occasional outbreakings of\nthe other, which he provokes by a diligent preparation of occasion\nfrom without, and violent incitations from within, furnish him with\nsufficient matter for his intended accusations; and sometimes\u2014being,\nas it were, wholly negligent of the advantages which our tempers give\nhim, or not being able to find any such forwardness to these evils in\nour constitution as may more eminently serve his ends\u2014he satisfies\nhimself to molest us with earnest motions to any sins indifferently;\nand all this to make us believe that sin is not crucified in us, which\nsome are more apt to believe, because they observe their temptations\nto these sins to importune them more, and with greater vehemency,\nthan they were wont to do before; and this doth yet the more astonish\nthem, because they had high expectations that, after their conversion,\nSatan would fall before them, and their temptations abate; that their\nnatures should be altered, and their natural inclinations to these sins\nwholly cease; but now, finding the contrary, they are ready to cry\nout\u2014especially when Satan violently buffets them with this objection\u2014We\nare yet in our sins, and under the dominion thereof; neither can it be\nthat we are converted, because we find sin more active and stirring\nthan formerly; it is not then surely mortified in us, but lively and\nstrong. Though in this case it be very plain that temptations are only\nstrong, and sin weak, and that grace is faithfully acting its part\nagainst the flesh, arguing, not that grace is so very weak, but that\nSatan is more busy than ordinary. The sins are not more than formerly,\nbut the light that discovers them more is greater, and the conscience\nthat resents the temptation is more tender. Yet all this doth not at\nfirst give ease to the fears that are now raised up in the mind. They\nfind sin working in them; their expectations of attaining a greater\nconquest on a sudden, and with greater ease, are disappointed, and\nthe desire of having much makes a man think himself poor; and withal\nthey commonly labour under so much ignorance or perverse credulity,\nthat they conclude they consent to everything which they are tempted\nto, insomuch that it is long before these clouds do vanish, and the\nafflicted brought to a right understanding of themselves.\n\n(3.) From some _remarkable appearances of God doth Satan aggravate\nour sinful condition_. If God shew any notable act of power, he\nmakes the beams of that act reflect upon our unworthiness with a\ndazzling light. When Peter saw the power of Christ in sending a great\nmultitude of fishes into his net, having laboured all night before\nand caught nothing, it gave so deep an impression to the conviction\nof his vileness, that he was ready to put Christ from him, as being\naltogether unfit for his blessed society: \u2018Depart,\u2019 saith he, \u2018from\nme, for I am a sinful man,\u2019 [Luke v. 8.] If God discover the glorious\nsplendour of his holiness, it is enough to make the holiest saints,\nsuch as Job and Isaiah, to cry out they are undone, being \u2018men of\nunclean lips,\u2019 Isa. vi. 5; and to \u2018abhor themselves in dust and ashes,\u2019\nJob xlii. 6. The like may be said of any discovery of the rest of the\nglorious attributes of God. Of all which Satan makes this advantage,\nthat the parties tempted should have so deep a consideration of their\nunworthiness as might induce them to believe\u2014as if it were by a voice\nfrom heaven\u2014that God prohibits them any approaches to him, and that\nthey have nothing to do to take God\u2019s name within their mouths. And\nthough these remarkable discoveries of God, either by his acts of power\nand providence, or by immediate impressions upon the soul, in the\nheight of contemplation, have ordinarily great effects upon the hearts\nof his children, but not of long continuance; yet where they strike in\nwith other arguments, by which they were already staggered as to their\ninterest in God, they mightily strengthen them, and are taken for no\nless than God\u2019s own determination of the question against them.\n\nBut this is not all the use that Satan makes of them; for from hence he\nsometimes hath the opportunity to raise new accusations against them,\nand to tax them with particular crimes, which, in a particular manner,\nseem to prove them unregenerate. For what would seem to be a clearer\ncharacter of a man dead in trespasses and sins than a hard heart, that\ncan neither be sensible of judgments nor mercies? This he sometimes\nchargeth upon the children of God, from the great disproportion that\nthey find in themselves betwixt the little sense that they seem to\nhave\u2014and that which is disproportionable, they reckon to be nothing\u2014and\nthe vast greatness of God\u2019s mercy or holiness. I have observed some\nto complain of utter unthankfulness and insensibleness of heart\u2014from\nthence concluding confidently against themselves\u2014because, when God\nhath remarkably appeared for them in deliverances from dangers, or\nin unexpected kindnesses, they could not render a thankfulness that\ncarried any proportion to the mercy. While they were in the highest\nadmiration of the kindness, saying, \u2018What shall I render to the Lord?\u2019\nthey were quite out of the sight of their own sense and feeling, and\nthought they returned nothing at all, because they returned nothing\nequivalent to what they had received. Others I have known, who, from\nthe confusion and amazement of their spirit, when they have been\noverwhelmed with troubles, have positively determined themselves to\nbe senseless, stupid, past feeling, hardened to destruction; when, in\nboth cases, any might have seen the working of their hearts to be an\napparent[346] contradiction to what Satan charged them withal. For\nthey were not unapprehensive either of mercies or judgments; but, on\nthe contrary, had only a greater sense of them than they were able to\nmanage.\n\n(4.) To make full measure, Satan doth sometimes aggravate the\nmiscarriages of those whom he intends to accuse, _by comparing their\nlives and actions with the holy lives of some eminent servants of God,\nespecially such as they have only heard of and not known personally_.\nFor so they have only their virtues represented, without their\nfailings. Here Satan takes a liberty of declaiming against them: and\nthough he could never spare a saint a good word out of respect, yet\nthat others might be put out of heart and hope, he will commend the\nholiness, strictness, care, constancy of dead saints to the skies. And\nthen he queries, Art thou such a one? Canst thou say thou art anything\nlike them, for a heavenly heart, a holy life, a contempt of the\nworld, a zeal for God, for good works, for patient suffering? &c. All\nthis while not a word of their weaknesses. These, saith he, were the\nservants of the Most High: their examples thou shouldst follow, if thou\nexpectest their crown. Had they any more holiness than they needed? And\nif thou hast not so much, thou art nothing. What can humility, modesty,\nand sense of guilt speak in such a case? They go away mourning, their\nfears increase upon them, and what God hath set before them, in the\nexamples of his servants, for the increase of their diligence, they\ntake to be as a witness against them, to prove them unconverted.\n\n(5.) The last part of Satan\u2019s sophistry is to lessen their _graces,\nthat so he may altogether deny them_. In this he proceeds upon such\nscriptures as do assert the fruits of the Spirit, and urgeth for his\nfoundation that none are the children of God but such as \u2018are led by\nthe Spirit,\u2019 [Rom. viii. 14;] and that he that hath \u2018not the Spirit of\nChrist is none of his,\u2019 [Rom. viii. 9.] The necessity of faith, love,\npatience, humility, with the fruits of these and other graces, he\npresseth; but still in order to a demonstration, as he pretends, that\nsuch are not to be found in those whose gracious state he calls into\nquestion, and consequently that they are not the children of God.\n\nThe rule by which he manageth himself in this dispute is this: The\nmore graces are heightened in the notions, that must give an account\nof their nature and beings, the more difficult it will be to find out\ntheir reality in the practice of them. His design then hath these two\nparts: 1. He heightens grace in the notion, or abstract, all he can;\n2. He lessens it in the concrete, or practice, as much as is possible,\nthat it may appear a very nullity, a shadow and not a substance. I\nshall speak a little of both.\n\n(1.) As to the first part of his design, he hath many ways by which\nhe _aggravates grace in the notion_. We may be sure, if it lie in his\nway, he will not stick to give false definitions of grace, and to\ntell men that it is what indeed it is not. He is a liar, and in any\ncase whatsoever he will lie for his advantage, if he have hope his\nlie may pass for current; but he cannot always use a palpable cheat in\nthis matter, where the nature of any grace is positively determined\nin Scripture, except it be with the ignorant, or where the nature of\ngrace is made a business of controversy among men. I will not make\nconjectures what Satan may possibly say in belying the nature of grace,\nto make it seem to be quite another thing than it is; but shall rather\nshew you the more usual plausible ways of deceit which herein he\nexerciseth; and they are these that follow:\u2014\n\n_First_, As the same graces have different _degrees in several persons,\nand these different degrees have operations suitable_: some acts being\nstronger, some weaker, some more perfected and ripened, others more\nimperfect and immature; so when Satan comes to describe grace, he sets\nit forth in its _highest excellencies and most glorious attainments_.\nYou shall never observe him to speak of graces at their lowest pitch,\nexcept where he is carrying on a design for presumption, and then he\ntells men that any wishing or woulding is grace; and every formal\n\u2018Lord forgive me\u2019 is true repentance; but, on the contrary, he offers\nthe highest reach of it that any saint on earth ever arrived at, as\nessentially necessary to constitute its being; and tells them if they\nhave not that, they have nothing. Let us see it in the particulars.\n\n[1.] Grace sometimes hath its _extraordinaries_, as I may call them. We\nhave both precept and example of that nature in Scripture, which are\npropounded, not as the common standard by which the being and reality\nof grace is to be measured, but as patterns for imitation, to provoke\nus to emulation, and to quicken us in pressing forward. Of this nature\nI reckon to be the example of Moses, desiring to be blotted \u2018out of\nGod\u2019s book,\u2019 [Exod. xxxii. 32,] whatever he meant by it, in his love\nto the people; and the like of the apostle Paul, wishing himself to be\n\u2018accursed from Christ for his brethren\u2019s sake,\u2019 [Rom. ix. 3.] Of this\nnature also we have many precepts; as, \u2018rejoice evermore,\u2019 [1 Thes. v.\n16,] of \u2018waiting and longing for the appearance of Christ,\u2019 [2 Thes.\niii. 5,] of \u2018rejoicing when we fall into divers temptations,\u2019 [James i.\n2,] and many more to this purpose, all which are heights of grace that\ndo rarely appear among the servants of God at any time.\n\n[2.] Grace hath sometimes its _special assistances_. This is when\nthe occasion is extraordinary; but the grace befitting that occasion\nis promised in ordinary, and ordinarily received. When God calls any\nto such occasions, though compared with that measure of grace which\nusually is acted by the children of God upon ordinary occasions, it is\na special assistance of the Spirit. Of this nature is that boldness\nwhich the servants of Christ receive, to confess Christ before men\nin times of persecution, and to die for the truth, with constancy,\ncourage, and joy.\n\n[3.] There are also singular _eminences of grace_, which some diligent,\ncareful, and choice servants of God attain unto, far above what the\nordinary sort arrive at. Enoch had his conversation so much in heaven,\nthat he was said to \u2018walk with God,\u2019 [Gen. v. 24.] David\u2019s soul was\noften full of delight in God. Some in the height of assurance rejoice\nin God with \u2018joy unspeakable, and full of glory,\u2019 [1 Pet. i. 8.] Moses\nwas eminent in meekness, Job in patience, the apostle Paul in zeal for\npromoting the gospel, &c. Now Satan, when he comes to question the\ngraces of men, he presents them with these measures; and if they fall\nshort, as ordinarily they do, he concludes them altogether graceless.\n\n_Second_, Satan also can do much to heighten the _ordinary work and\nusual fruits of every grace_. His art herein lies in two things. [1.]\nHe gives us a description of grace as it is _in itself_, abstracted\nfrom the weakness, dulness, distraction, and infirmities, that are\nconcomitant with it, as it comes forth to practice. He brings to our\nview grace in its glory, and without the spots by which our weakness\nand Satan\u2019s temptation do much disfigure it. [2.] He presents us with\ngrace in its _whole body_, completed with all its members, faith, love,\nhope, patience, meekness, gentleness, &c. From both these he sets\nbefore those whom he intends to discourage a complete copy of an exact\nholy Christian; as if every true Christian were to be found in the\nconstant practice of all these graces at all times, on all occasions,\nand that without weakness or infirmity. Whereas indeed a true Christian\nmay be found sometimes evidently practising one grace, and weak, or at\npresent defective, in another. And sometimes the best of his graces is\nso interrupted with temptation, so clogged with infirmity, that its\nworkings are scarce discernible.\n\n_Third_, He hath a policy in heightening those _attainments and\nworkings of soul_, in things relating to God and religion, which are to\nbe found in _temporary believers_; which, because they sometimes appear\nin the unconverted as well as in the converted, though all unconverted\nmen have them not, are therefore called common graces. This he doth\nthat he may from thence take occasion to disprove the real graces of\nthe servants of God; of whom \u2018better things, and things that accompany\nsalvation,\u2019 that is, special saving graces, are to be expected, Heb.\nvi. 9. His way herein is, [1.] To shew the utmost _bravery of these\ncommon graces_; how much men may have, how far they may go, and yet\nat last come to nothing. For gifts, they may have powerful eloquence,\nprophecy, understanding of mysteries, faith of miracles. For good\nworks, they may give their estates to relieve the poor. In moral\nvirtues they may be excellent, their illumination may be great; they\nmay taste the \u2018good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,\u2019\nHeb. vi. 4. Their conversation may be \u2018without offence,\u2019 and their\nconscience honest, as Paul\u2019s was before his conversion. [2.] With these\nheights of common grace, he compares _the lowest degree of special\ngrace_. And because the principles, motives, and ends which constitute\nthe difference betwixt these two, are, as it were, underground,\nmore remote from sense and observation, and oftentimes darkened by\ntemptation; he takes the boldness to deny the truth of grace, upon\nthe account of the small, inconsiderable appearance that it makes,\nconfidently affirming that special grace must of necessity make a far\ngreater outward show than these common graces. In what manner, and to\nwhat end, Satan doth heighten grace in the abstract, we have seen. It\nremains that we discover\u2014\n\n(2.) How he doth _lessen grace in the concrete_. This is the centre of\nhis design. He would not extol grace so much, but that he hopes thereby\nto \u2018condemn the generation of the just,\u2019 and to make it appear that\nthere are few or none that are truly gracious. When he comes to apply\nall this to the condition of any child of God, he deals treacherously:\nand his cunning consists of three parts:\u2014\n\n[1.] He compares _the present state of any one with whom he deals, to\nthe highest attainments and excellencies of grace_; allowing nothing\nto be grace, but what will answer these descriptions he had already\ngiven. Here the tempter doth apparently make use of a \u2018false balance,\nand a bag of deceitful weights.\u2019 For thus he puts them to it: Thou\nsayest thou hast grace, but thou dost altogether deceive thyself, for\nindeed thou hast none at all. Compare thyself with others that were\nin Scripture noted as undoubtedly gracious, and thou wilt see that\nin the balance thou art lighter than vanity. Abraham had faith, but\nhe believed above hope. Moses and Paul had love, but they manifested\nit by preferring their brethren\u2019s happiness before their own. David\nwas a saint, but he had a heart ravished with God. The martyrs spoken\nof in Heb. xi., they could do wonders; they were above fears of men,\nabove the love of the world; they loved not their lives to the death:\nhow joyfully took they the spoiling of their goods! how courageously\ndid they suffer the sharpest torments! Besides, saith he, all the\nchildren of God are described as sanctified throughout, abounding with\nall fruits of righteousness; their faith is working; their love still\nlaborious; their hope produceth constant patience: what art thou to\nthese? That in thee which thou callest faith, or love, or patience,\n&c., it is not fit to be named with these. Thy fears may tell thee that\nthou hast no faith, and so may thy works; thy murmurings under God\u2019s\nhand is evidence sufficient that thou hast no patience. The little\nthat thou dost for God, or especially wouldest do, if it were not for\nthy own advantage, may convince thee that thou hast no love to him;\nthy weariness of services and duties, thy confessed unprofitableness\nunder all, do proclaim thou hast no delight in God nor in his ways.\nHe further adds, for the confirmation of all this: Consider how far\ntemporaries may go, that shall never go to heaven. Thou art far short\nof them; thy gifts, thy works, thy virtues, thy illumination, thy\nconversation, thy conscientiousness, are nothing like theirs: how is\nit possible then that such a one as thou, a pitiful, contemptible\ncreature, shouldest have anything of true grace in thee? Thus he makes\nthe application of all the discovery of grace which he presented to\nthem. Though he needs not urge all these things to every one, any one\nof these particulars frequently serves the turn. When a trembling heart\ncompares itself with these instances, it turns its back, yields the\nargument, and is ashamed of its former hopes, as those are of their\nformer confidence who flee from battle. Hence then do we hear of these\nvarious complaints: one saith, Alas! I have no grace, because I live\nnot as other saints have done, in all exactness. Another saith, I have\nno faith, because I cannot believe about[347] reason, and contrary\nto sense, as Abraham did. A third cries out, he hath no love to God,\nbecause he cannot find his soul ravished with desire after him. Another\nthinks, he hath a hard heart, because he cannot weep for sin. Another\nconcludes against himself, because he finds not a present cheerful\nresolve, while he is not under any question for religion, to suffer\ntorments for Christ. Some fear themselves, because temporaries in some\nparticulars have much out-gone them. You see how complaints may upon\nthis score be multiplied without end; and yet all this is but fallacy.\nSatan tells them what grace is at the highest, but not a word of what\nit is at lowest; and so unskilful is a tossed, weak Christian, that he\nin examining his condition looks after the highest degrees of grace, as\naffording clearer evidence, and not after the sincerity of it, which\nis the safest way for trial, where graces are weak. In a word, this\nkind of arguing is no better than that of children, who cannot conclude\nthemselves to be men, because their present stature is little, and they\nare not as tall as the adult.\n\n[2.] Another part of his cunning in lessening the real graces of\nGod\u2019s children, is to take them at an advantage, _when their graces\nare weakest, and themselves most out of order_. He that will choose\nto measure a man\u2019s stature while he is upon his knees, seems not to\ndesign to give a faithful account of his height. No more doth Satan,\nwho, when he will make comparisons, always takes the servants of God\nat the worst. And indeed many advantages do the children of God give\nhim, insomuch that it is no wonder that he doth so oft baffle them,\nbut rather a wonder that they at any time return to their comforts.\n_First_, Sometimes he takes them to task while they are yet young\nand tender, when they are but newly converted, before their graces\nare grown up, or have had time to put forth any considerable fruit.\n_Second_, Or when their graces are tired out by long or grievous\nassaults of temptation, for then they are not what they are at other\ntimes. _Third_, When their hearts are discomposed or muddied with fear,\nfor then their sight is bad, and they can so little judge of things\nthat differ, that Satan can impose almost anything upon them. _Fourth_,\nSometimes he comes upon them when some grace acts his part but poorly,\nas not having its perfect work, and is scarce able to get through,\nsticking, as it were, in the birth. _Fifth_, Or when the progress of\ngrace is small and imperceptible. _Sixth_, Or while in the absence of\nthe sun, which produceth flowers and fragrancy, and is the time of the\nsinging of birds, Cant. ii. 11, 12, it is forced to cast off its summer\nfruits of joy and sensible delights, and only produceth winter fruits\nof lamenting after God, longing and panting after him, justifying of\nGod in his dealings and condemning itself, all this while \u2018sowing in\ntears\u2019 for a more pleasing crop. _Seventh_, Or while expectations\nare more than enjoyments: the man it may be promised himself large\nincomes of greater measures of comforts, ease, or strength, under\nsome particular ordinances or helps which he hath lately attained to,\nand not finding things presently to answer what he hoped for, is now\nsuspicious of his case, and thinks he hath attained nothing, because\nhe hath not what he would. _Eighth_, Sometimes Satan shews them his\nface in this glass when it is foulest, through the spots of some\nmiscarriage. _Ninth_, Or he takes advantage of some natural defects,\nas want of tears, which might be more usual in former times, but are\nnow dried up; or from the ebbings and uncertainty of his affections,\nwhich are never sure rules of trials. _Tenth_, Or in such acts that are\nof a mixed nature in the principles and motives, where it may seem to\nbe uncertain to which the act must be ascribed as to the true parent.\nThe heart of a gracious person being challenged upon any of these\npoints, and under so great a disadvantage, being called out to give a\nproof of himself, especially in the view of grace set forth in all its\nexcellency and glory, shall have little to plead, but will rather own\nthe accusation. And the rather because,\n\n[3.] It is another part of Satan\u2019s cunning to urge them, whilst they\nare thus at a stand, _with a possibility, nay, a probability of their\nmistaking themselves, by passing too favourable an opinion formerly\nof their actions_. To confirm them in this apprehension, _first_, He\nlays before them the consideration of the deceitfulness of the heart,\nJer. xvii. 6, which, being so above all things, and desperately wicked\nbeyond ordinary discovery, makes a fair way for the entertainment\nof a suspicion of self-delusion in all the former hopes which a man\nhath had of himself. Satan will plainly speak it: Thou hast had some\nthoughts and workings of mind towards God, but seeing they carry so\ngreat a disproportion to rule and example, and come so far short of\ncommon graces, it is more than probable that such poor, weak, confused\nappearances are nothing. How knowest thou that thine adherence to and\npractice of the command and services of God are any more than from\nthe power of education, the prevalency of custom, or the impressions\nof moral suasion? How dost thou know that thy desires after God,\nand thy delight in him, are any more than the products of natural\nprinciples, influenced by an historical faith of Scripture doctrine?\nIt is oftentimes enough for Satan to hint this. A suspicious heart,\nas it were greedy of its own misery, catcheth at all things that make\nagainst it; and hence complains that it hath no grace, because it sees\nnot any visible fruits, or makes not a sufficient appearance at all\ntimes when opposed or resisted; or because it wants sensible progress,\nor gives not the summer fruits of praises, rejoicings, and delights\nin God; or because it seems not to meet with remarkable improvements\nin ordinances; or because it cannot produce tears and raise the\naffections; and because the party doth not know but his heart might\ndeceive him in all that he hath done. Which the devil yet further\nendeavoureth to confirm, _second_, By a consideration of the seeming\nholiness and graces of such as believed themselves to be the children\nof God, and were generally by others reputed so to be, who yet, after\na glorious profession, turned apostates. This being so great and\nundeniable an instance of the heart\u2019s deceitfulness, makes the poor\ntempted party conclude that he is certainly no true convert.\n\nThus have we seen Satan\u2019s sophistry in the management of those five\ngrand topics from whence he draws his false conclusions against the\nchildren of God, pretending to prove that they are not converted; or at\nleast if they be in a state of grace, that they in that state are in a\nvery bad, unsuitable condition to it. For if his arguments fall short\nof the first, they seldom miss the latter mark. This was his first\nengine. Now follows,\n\nII. The other engine by which he fixeth these conclusions, which,\nthough it be not argumentative, yet it serves to sharpen all his\nfallacies against the comforts of God\u2019s children\u2014this is _fear_, which,\ntogether with his objections, he sends into the mind. That Satan can\nraise a storm and commotion in the heart by fear, hath been proved\nbefore. I shall now only in a few things shew how he doth forward his\ndesign by astonishing the heart with his frightful thunderings.\n\n[1.] _His objections being accompanied with affrightments, they pass\nfor strong undeniable arguments, and their fallacy is not so easily\ndetected._ Fear, as well as anger, darkens reason, and disables the\nunderstanding to make a true, faithful search into things, or to give a\nright judgment. As darkness deceives the senses, and makes every bush\naffrightful to the passenger, or as muddied waters hinder the sight, so\ndo fears in the heart disable a man to discover the silliest cheat that\nSatan can put upon it.\n\n[2.] They are also very _credulous_. When fear is up, any suggestion\ntakes place. As suspicious incredulity is an effect of joy,\u2014the\ndisciples at first hearing that Christ was risen, \u2018for joy believed\nit not\u2019\u2014so suspicious credulity is the effect of fear. And we shall\nobserve several things in the servants of God that shew a strange\ninclination, as it were a natural aptitude, to believe the evil of\ntheir spiritual estate which Satan suggests to them. As, _first_, There\nis a great forwardness and precipitancy in the heart to close with evil\nthoughts raised up in us. When jealousies of God\u2019s love are injected,\nthere is a violent hastiness forthwith\u2014all calm deliberation being\nlaid aside\u2014to entertain a belief of it. This is more than once noted\nin the Psalms. In this case, David acknowledgeth this hasty humour, \u2018I\nsaid in my haste,\u2019 Ps. xxxi. 22, and cxvi. 11. This hasty forwardness\nto determine things that are against us without due examination,\nAsaph calls a great weakness: \u2018This is my infirmity,\u2019 Ps. lxxvii.\n10. _Second_, There is observable in those that are under spiritual\ntroubles, a great kind of delight, if I may so call it, to hear\nthreatenings rather than promises, and such discourses as set forth the\nmisery of a natural state, rather than such as speak of the happiness\nof the converted; because these things, in their apprehension, are\nmore suitable to their condition, and more needful for them, in\norder to a greater measure of humiliation, which they suppose to be\nnecessary. However, thus they add fuel to the flame. _Third_, They\nhave an aptitude to hide themselves from comfort, and with a wonderful\nnimbleness of wit and reasoning, to evade and answer any argument\nbrought for their comfort, as if they had been volunteers in Satan\u2019s\nservice to fight against themselves. _Fourth_, They have also so great\na blasting upon their understanding, that Satan\u2019s tempting them to\ndoubt of their good estate is to them a sufficient reason to doubt\nof it; and that is ground enough for them to deny it, because Satan\nquestions it.\n\n[3.] These fears make all Satan\u2019s suggestions _strike the deeper_; they\npoint all his arrows and make them pierce, as it were, \u2018the joints and\nmarrow;\u2019 they poison and envenom them, to the great increase of the\ntorment and hindrance of the cure; they bind the objections upon them,\nand confirm them in a certain belief that they are all true.\n\nWe have now viewed Satan\u2019s engines and batteries against the servants\nof the Lord, for the destruction of their joy and peace, by spiritual\ntroubles; but these are but the beginnings of sorrows, if compared with\nthose distresses of soul which he sometimes brings upon them. Of which\nnext.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n _Of his fourth way to hinder peace, by spiritual distresses. 1.\n The nature of these distresses; the ingredients and degrees of them.\n Whether all distresses of soul arise from melancholy. 2.\n Satan\u2019s method in working them; the occasions he makes use of, the\n arguments he urgeth, the strengthening of them by fears. 3.\n Their weight and burden explained in several particulars.\u2014Some\n concluding cautions._\n\n\nThe last sort of troubles by which Satan overthrows the peace of the\nsoul, are _spiritual distresses_. These are more grievous agonies of\nsoul, under deepest apprehensions of divine wrath, and dreadful fears\nof everlasting damnation, differing in nature and degree from the\nformer sorts of troubles; though in these Satan observes much-what the\nsame general method which he used in spiritual troubles last mentioned.\nFor which cause, and also that these are not so common as the other, I\nshall speak of them with greater brevity. Herein I shall shew\u20141. Their\nnature; 2. Satan\u2019s method in working them: 3. Their weight and burden.\n\n1. The nature of spiritual distresses will be best discovered by a\nconsideration of those ingredients of which they are made up, and of\nthe different degrees thereof.\n\n(1.) As to the ingredients, there are several things that do concur for\nthe begetting of these violent distresses. As,\n\n[1.] There is usually a _complication of several kinds of troubles_.\nSometimes there are outward troubles and inward discomposures of spirit\narising from thence; sometimes affrightments of blasphemous thoughts\nlong continued, and usually spiritual troubles, in which their state or\ncondition have been called to question, have gone before. Heman, who is\nas famous an instance in this case as any we meet withal in Scripture,\nin Ps. lxxxviii., seems not obscurely to tell us so much; his \u2018soul\nwas full of troubles,\u2019 ver. 3; and in ver. 7 he complains that God had\nafflicted him \u2018with all his waves.\u2019 And that these were not all of the\nsame kind, though all concurred to the same end, he himself explains,\nver. 8, 18, where he bemoans himself for the unkindness of his friends:\n\u2018Thou hast put away mine acquaintance; lover and friend hast thou put\nfar from me.\u2019\n\n[2.] These troubles drive at _a further end than any of the former_;\nfor their design was only against the present quietness and peace\nof God\u2019s children, but these design the ruin of their hopes for the\nfuture. They are troubled, not for that they are not converted, but for\nthat they expect never to be converted. This is a trouble of a high\nnature, making them believe that they are eternally reprobated, cut off\nfrom God for ever, and under an impossibility of salvation.\n\n[3.] These troubles have _the consent and belief of the party_. In\nsome other troubles Satan disquieted the Lord\u2019s servants by imposing\nupon them his own cursed suggestions, violently bearing in upon them\ntemptations to sin and blasphemy, or objections against their state of\nregeneration, while in the meantime they opposed and refused to give\nconsent; but in these Satan prevails with them to believe that their\ncase is really such as their fears represent it to be.\n\n[4.] They are troubles of _a far higher degree than the former_; the\ndeepest sorrows, the sharpest fears, the greatest agonies. Heman, Ps.\nlxxxviii. 15, 16, calls them \u2018terrors even to distraction:\u2019 \u2018While I\nsuffer thy terrors, I am distracted; thy fierce wrath goeth over me,\nthy terrors have cut me off.\u2018\n\n[5.] There is also God\u2019s deserting of them in a greater measure than\nordinary, by withdrawing his aids and comforts. And, as Mr Perkins\nnotes, \u2018If the withdrawing of grace be joined with the feeling of God\u2019s\nanger, thence ariseth the bitterest conflict that the soul of a poor\ncreature undergoes.\u2019[348]\n\n(2.) As to the different degrees of spiritual distresses, we must\nobserve\u2014That according to the concurrence of all or fewer of these\ningredients, for they do not always meet together, though most\nfrequently they do; and according to the higher or lower degrees in\nwhich these are urged upon the conscience, or apprehended and believed\nby the troubled party, _these agonies are more or less; and accordingly\nwe may distinguish them variously_. As,\n\n[1.] Some are desperate terrors _of cursed reprobates under\ndesperation_. These terrors in them are, in the greatest extremity,\nthe very pit of misery, of the same nature with those of the damned\nin hell, \u2018where the worm that never dies,\u2019 is nothing else but the\ndreadful vexation and torment of an accusing conscience.[349] They are\ncommonly accompanied with blaspheming of God, and an utter rejection\nof all means for remedy; and though they sometimes turn to a kind of\nsecure desperation,\u2014by which, when they see it will be no better, they\nharden themselves in their misery, and seek to divert their thoughts\u2014as\nCain did, betaking himself to the building of cities; and Esau, when\nhe had sold his birthright, despised it, and gave himself up to the\npursuit of a worldly interest;\u2014yet sometimes these terrors end in\nself-murder, as in Judas, who being smitten with dread of conscience,\nwent and hanged himself. We have many sad instances of these desperate\nterrors. Cain is the first we read of; and though the account the\nScriptures give of him be but short, yet it is sufficient to let us see\nwhat his condition was\u2014Gen. iv. 11-16. First, He was cursed from the\nearth. Of this part of his curse there were two branches: 1. That his\nlabour and toil in tillage should be great and greatly unsuccessful;\nfor thus God himself explains it, ver. 12, \u2018When thou tillest the\nground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength,\u2019 The\nearth was cursed with barrenness before to Adam, but now to Cain it\nhath a double curse. 2. That he should be a man of uncertain abode in\nany place: \u2018A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth;\u2019 not\nbeing able to stay long in a place by reason of the terrors of his\nconscience. His own interpretation of it, ver. 14, shews that herein\nlay a great part of his misery: \u2018Thou hast driven me out this day from\nthe face of the earth.\u2019 By which it appears that he was to be as one\nthat was chased out of all society, and as one that thought himself\nsafe in no place. Secondly, He was \u2018hid from the face of God\u2019\u2014that\nis, he was doomed to carry the inward feeling of God\u2019s wrath, without\nany expectation of mercy. Thirdly, His mind being terrified under the\napprehension of that wrath, he cries out that his \u2018sin was greater\nthan it could be pardoned,\u2019 or that his \u2018punishment was greater than\nhe could bear; \u2018for the word in the original signifies both sin and\npunishment, \u05e2\u05d5\u05df. Take it which way you will, it expresseth\na deep horror of heart. If in the former sense, then it signifies a\nconviction of the greatness of his sin to desperation; if in the latter\nsense, then it is no less than a blasphemous reflection upon God, as\nunjustly cruel. Fourthly, This horror was so great, that he was afraid\nof all he met with, suspecting everything to be armed with divine\nvengeance against him: \u2018Every one that findeth me shall slay me,\u2019 Or if\nthat speech was a desire that any one that found him might kill him,\nas some interpret,[350] it shews that he preferred death before that\nlife of misery. It seems, then, that God smote him with such terror\nand consternation of mind, and with such affrightful trembling of\nbody, for his bloody fact, that he was weary of himself, and afraid of\nall men, and could not stay long in a place. By these tokens, or some\nother way, God sets his mark upon him, as upon a cursed miscreant, to\nbe noted and abhorred of all. Such another instance was Lamech, of\nwhom the same chapter speaks: 1. The sting of conscience was so great,\nthat he is forced to confess his fault\u2014the interpretations of those\nthat take it interrogatively, \u2018Have I slain?\u2019 or, \u2018If I have, what\nis that to you?\u2019 &c., are upon many accounts improper, much more are\nthose so that take it negatively\u2014which, whether it were the abomination\nof polygamy, as some think, by which example he had destroyed more\nthan Cain did; or if it were murder in a proper sense, as the words\nand context plainly carry it, it is not very material to our purpose.\nHowever, God smote him with horror, that he might be a witness against\nhimself. 2. He accuseth himself for a more grievous sinner and more\ndesperate wretch by far than Cain: \u2018If Cain,\u2019 ver. 24, \u2018shall be\navenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.\u2019 Which is as\nmuch as to say, that there was as much difference betwixt his sin and\nCain\u2019s, as betwixt seven and seventy-seven. 3. It seems also, by his\ndiscourse to his wives, that he was grievously perplexed with inward\nfears, suspecting, it may be, his very wives as well as others might\nhave private combinations against him; for the prevention whereof, he\ntells them by Cain\u2019s example of God\u2019s avenging him. These two early\nexamples of desperation the beginning of the world affords; and there\nhave been many more since, as Esau and Judas. Of late years we have\nthe memorable instance of Francis Spira, one of the clearest and most\nremarkable examples of spiritual horror that the latter ages of the\nworld were ever acquainted with. Yet I shall not dare to be confident\nof his reprobation, as of Cain\u2019s and Judas\u2019s; because the Scripture\nhath determined their case, but we have no such certain authority to\ndetermine his.\n\n[2.] _There are also distresses from melancholy_; which may be further\ndifferenced according to the intenseness or remissness of the distemper\nupon which they depend. For sometimes the imagination is so exceedingly\ndepraved, the fears of heart so great, and the sorrows so deep, that\nthe melancholy person, crying out of himself that he is damned, under\nthe curse of God, &c., appears to be wholly besides himself, and his\nanguish to be nothing else but a delirious, irrational disturbance.\nThere are too many sad instances of this. Some I have known that for\nmany years together have laboured under such apprehensions of hell and\ndamnation, that they have at last proceeded to curse and blaspheme\nGod in a most dreadful manner, so that they have been a terror to\nall their friends and acquaintance. And though sometimes they would\nfall into fits of obstinate silence, yet being urged to speak, they\nwould amaze all that were about them with the confident averment of\ntheir damnation, with horrible outcries of their supposed misery and\ntorments, and with terrible rage against heaven. Some in this distemper\nwill fancy themselves to be in hell already, and will discourse as if\nthey saw the devils about them and felt their torture. Such as these\ngive plain discovery by their whole carriage under their trouble,\nand some concomitant false imaginations about other things\u2014as when\nthey fancy themselves to be in prison or sentenced to death, and that\ntorments or fire are provided for them by the magistrate, &c.\u2014that\nit is only melancholy perverting their understanding that is the\ncause of all their sorrow. Others there are who are not altogether\nirrational, because in most other things their understanding is right;\nyet being driven into melancholy upon the occasion of crosses or other\noutward afflictions, they at last fix all their thoughts upon their\nsouls; and now their fancy becoming irregular in part, the whole of\nthe irregularity appears only in that wherein they chiefly concern\nthemselves. Hence they misjudge themselves, and condemn themselves to\neverlasting destruction; sometimes without any apparent cause; and\nsometimes they accuse themselves of such things as they never did. They\nfear and cry out they are damned, but they cannot give a particular\nreason why they should entertain these fears, neither can they shew\nany cause why they should refuse the comforts of the promises that\nare offered; but they say they know or are persuaded it is so, upon\nno better account than this, It is so, because it is so. Or if they\ngive reasons of their imagination, they are commonly either feigned or\nfrivolous; and yet in all other matters they are rational, and speak or\nact like men in their right minds. Of both these kinds of desperation I\nshall speak nothing further. It is enough to have noted that such there\nare, because the cure of the former is impossible, and the cure of the\nlatter doth wholly depend upon physic.\n\n_Quest._ Some may possibly question, Whether all extraordinary agonies\nof soul, upon the apprehension of eternal damnation, be not the fruits\nof melancholy? And if not, then what may the difference be betwixt\nthose that proceed from melancholy, and those that are properly the\nterrors of conscience?\n\n_Ans._ As to the first part of the question, I answer, _First, That all\nspiritual distresses are not to be ascribed to melancholy_. For,\n\n[1.] There are some melancholy persons who are never more free from\nspiritual troubles\u2014though frequently accustomed to them at other\ntimes\u2014than when, upon the occasion of some special trouble, or sickness\nthreatening death, there is _greatest cause to fear such onsets upon\nthe increase of melancholy_. Some such I have known.\n\n[2.] Sometimes these distresses come _suddenly, their conscience\nsmiting them in the very act of sin_; and these persons sometimes\nsuch as are not of a melancholic constitution. Spira was suddenly\nthunderstruck with terrors of conscience upon his recantation of some\ntruths which he held; and so were some of the martyrs.\n\n[3.] Sometimes terrors that have continued long, and have been very\nfierce, _are removed in a moment_. Now it is not rational to say that\nmelancholy only occasioned all such troubles, wherein bodies that are\nnot naturally of that complexion\u2014and some such have been surprised\nwith terrors of conscience; if we will take a liberty to suppose an\naccidental melancholy we must of necessity allow some time; and,\nusually, some precedaneous[351] occasion to mould them into such a\ndistemper. Neither do the fears of melancholy cease on a sudden, but\nabate gradually, according to the gradual abatement of the humour.\nTo say that Cain\u2019s or Judas\u2019s despair were the invasions of strong\nmelancholy, is not only beyond all proof, but also probability. Neither\nis it likely that David, whose ruddy countenance and inclination to\nmusic are tokens of a sanguine complexion, was always melancholic under\nhis frequent complaints of spiritual trouble.\n\n[4.] They that read the story of Spira, and observe _his rational\nserious replies_ to the discourses that were offered him for his\ncomfort and his carriage all along, will have no cause to conclude\nhis trouble to be only melancholy; neither did the sober judicious\nbystanders ascribe his distress to any such cause.\n\n[5.] _The agony of Christ upon the cross_, under the sense of divine\nwrath for our sins, though it were without desperation, is an\nundeniable proof that there may be deep sense of God\u2019s displeasure upon\nthe soul of man, which cannot be ascribed to melancholy.\n\nSecond, I answer, That it is not to be denied but that God _may make\nuse of that humour as his instrument, for the increase and continuance\nof terrors upon the consciences of those whom he thinks fit to punish,\nfor any provocation, with spiritual desertion_, as he made use of that\ndistemper to punish Saul and Nebuchadnezzar. I speak not here of those\ndistresses which are nothing else but melancholy, such as those before\nmentioned, of which physicians have given us frequent histories,[352]\nthough in this case the secret ways of God\u2019s providences are to be\nadored with humble silence; but of those terrors of conscience which\nhave a mixture of melancholy to help them forward, yet so as that the\njudgment and reason are not thereby perverted. Spira, when his case was\nhastily concluded by an injudicious friend to be a strong melancholy,\nmade this reply, Well, be it so, seeing you will needs have it so;\nfor thus also is God\u2019s wrath manifested against me. Which shews, [1.]\nThat he believed God doth sometimes manifest his wrath against man by\nmelancholy. And [2.] That he denied this to be his condition; for he\nstill concluded that God sent the terrors of his wrath immediately upon\nhis conscience, as the sentence of his just condemnation for denying\nChrist. Now when God doth make use of melancholy, as his instrument\nin Satan\u2019s hand, to make the soul of man more apprehensive of his sin\nand God\u2019s wrath\u2014though he doth not always make use of this means, as\nhath been said\u2014while he still preserves the understanding from false\nimaginations, the distress is still rational, and we have no cause\nto make any great difference betwixt these troubles that have such a\nmixture of melancholy, and such as have not. Neither must we say that\nthen it is in the power of the physician to remove or mitigate such\nspiritual distresses. For if God see it fit to make use of melancholy\nfor such a purpose, he can suspend the power of physic, so that it\nshall not do its work till God hath performed all his purpose. And\nthe unsuccessfulness of remedies in this distemper, while it seems to\nbe wonderfully stubborn in resisting all that can be done for cure,\nis more to be ascribed, in some cases, to God\u2019s design, than every\nphysician doth imagine.\n\nAs to the latter part of the question, _How the terrors of melancholy\nand those of conscience are to be distinguished?_ I shall only\nsay this; that, as I said, we are not much concerned to make any\ndistinction where the distressed party acts rationally. It is true\nsomething may be observed from these mixtures of melancholy; and thence\nmay some indications be taken by the friends of the distressed, which\nmay be of use to the afflicted party. Physic in this case is not to\nbe neglected, because, though God may permit that distemper in order\nto the terror of the conscience, we are not of God\u2019s counsel, to know\nhow high he would have it to go, nor how long to continue; but it is\nour duty, with submission to him, to use all means for help. However,\nseeing the physician is the only proper judge of the bodily distemper,\nit were improper to speak of the signs of melancholy in these mixed\ncases, to those that cannot make use of them. And as for these\ndistresses of melancholy that are irrational, they are of themselves\nso notorious, that I need not give any account of them. There is\nusually a constitution inclining that way, and often the parents or\nfriends of the party have been handled in the same manner before; or\nif their natural temper do not lead them that way, there is usually\nsome cross, trouble, disappointment, or the like outward affliction,\nthat hath first pressed them heavily, and by degrees hath wrought them\ninto melancholy, and then afterward they come to concern themselves for\ntheir souls; as that woman in Plater\u2019s observations, who being long\ngrieved with jealousy upon grounds too just, at last fell into grievous\ndespair, crying out that God would not pardon her, that she was damned,\nthat she felt hell already and the torments of it, &c.[353] Or there\nare some concomitant deliriums, imaginations apparently absurd or\nfalse, &c., all which give plain discoveries of irrational distresses.\nAnd if there remained any doubt concerning them, the consideration of\nall circumstances together, by such as are sober and judicious, would\neasily afford a satisfaction.\n\n(3.) Having now confined the discourse to the spiritual distresses\nof God\u2019s children, that are not so oppressed with melancholy as to\nbe misled with false imaginations, I must next, concerning these\ndistresses, offer another observable distinction, which is this: _That\nthey are either made up of all the five forementioned ingredients, or\nonly of some of them, and so may be called total or partial_, though in\neach of these there may be great differences of degrees.\n\n[1.] _Sometimes then the children of God may be brought into total\ndistresses of conscience, even with desperation, and, that which is\nmore hideous, with blasphemy_, if Mr Perkins his observation hold true,\nwho tells us, \u2018that they may be so overcharged with sorrow as to cry\nout they are damned, and to blaspheme God:\u2019[354] and we have no reason\nto contradict it, when we observe how far David went in his haste\nmore than once. And whatever may be the private differences betwixt\nthese and the reprobates in their agonies\u2014as differences there are,\nboth in God\u2019s design, and their hearts, though not visible\u2014yet if we\ncompare the fears, troubles, and speeches of the one and the other\ntogether, there appears little or no difference which bystanders can\ncertainly fix upon. If it seems harsh to any that so horrid a thing as\ndespair should be charged upon the elect of God, in the worst of their\ndistresses, it will readily be answered: _First, That if we suppose\nnot this, we must suppose that which is worse_. If we like not to say\nthat God\u2019s children may fall into despair, we must conclude, very\nuncharitably, that they that fall into despair are not God\u2019s children.\n_Second_, It is easy to imagine a difference _betwixt partial and\ntotal despair, betwixt imaginary and real_. The children of God, under\nstrong perturbation of spirit, may imagine themselves to do what they\ndo not, and so may bear false witness against themselves\u2014professing\nthat all their hope of salvation is lost, when yet the root of their\nhope may still remain in their hearts undiscovered. The habit may be\nthere when all visible acts of it are at present suspended, or so\ndisguised in a crowd of confused expressions that they cannot be known;\nor, if they have real distrust of their salvation, yet every fit of\nreal diffidence is not utter desperateness; neither will it denominate\na man to be totally desperate, any more than every error, even about\nfundamentals, will denominate a man a heretic.[355] For as it must be\na pertinacious error in fundamentals that makes a heretic, so it must\nbe a pertinacious diffidence that makes a man truly desperate. _Third_,\nBut _sometimes the children of God have only partial distresses_. That\nis, they may have a great measure of some of the ingredients, without\nmixture of the rest. Particularly, they may have a great measure of\nthe sense of divine wrath and desertion, without desperation. The\npossibility of this is evident, beyond exception, in the example of\nour blessed Saviour, when he cried out, \u2018My God, my God, why hast\nthou forsaken me?\u2019 [Mat. xxvii. 46.] None can ascribe desperation to\nhim without blasphemy; and if they should, the very words, \u2018_My_ God,\n_my_ God\u2019\u2014expressing his full and certain hope\u2014do expressly contradict\nthem. Such an instance of spiritual distress without desperation I take\nHeman to be. How high his troubles were is abundantly testified in Ps.\nlxxxviii.; and yet that his hope was not lost appears not only by his\nprayer for relief in the general\u2014for hope is not utterly destroyed\nwhere the appointed means for help are carefully used\u2014but by the\nparticular avouchment of his hope in God, in the first verses of that\npsalm, \u2018O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before\nthee.\u2019\n\n(4.) The last difference of spiritual distresses which I shall observe\nis this, that some are more _transient fits and flashes of terror under\na present temptation, which endure not long; others are more fixed\nand permanent_. The less durable distresses may be violent and sharp\nwhile they hold. Temptations of diffidence may strongly possess a\nchild of God, and at first may not be repelled; and then before their\nfaith can recover itself, they vent their present sad apprehensions of\ntheir estate, as Jonah did, chap. ii. 4, \u2018I said, I am cast out of thy\nsight,\u2019 Many such fits David had, and in them complained at this rate,\n\u2018Why hast thou forsaken me? why castest thou off my soul?\u2019 Ps. xxxi.\n22, \u2018I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.\u2019 Ps.\ncxvi. 11, \u2018I said in my haste, All men are liars;\u2019 which was a great\nheight of distrust, and too boldly reflecting upon God\u2019s faithfulness,\nconsidering the special promises that God had made to him. Such sharp\nfits were those of Bainham and Bilney, martyrs, whose consciences were\nso sorely wounded for recanting the truth which they professed, that\nthey seemed to feel a very hell within them.\n\nThe more fixed distresses, as they are of longer continuance, so they\nare often accompanied with the very worst symptoms; for when in these\nagonies, no sun nor star of comfort appears to them for many days, all\nhope that they shall be saved seems to be taken away, [Acts xxvii.\n20;] and being tired out with complaints and importunities, without\nany answer, they at last reject the use of means. Some have lain many\nyears\u2014as the paralytic man at the pool of Bethesda\u2014without cure; some\nfrom their youth up, as Heman complains. Some carry their distresses\nto their death-bed, and it may be are not eased till their souls are\nready to depart out of their bodies, and then they often end suddenly\nand comfortably. Some I could tell you of, who on their death-bed,\nafter grievous terrors, and many outcries concerning their miseries\nof \u2018blackness and darkness for ever,\u2019 lay long silent; and then on a\nsudden brake out into raptures of joy and adoring admiration of the\ngoodness of God, using that speech of the apostle, Rom. xi. 33, \u2018Oh\nthe depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how\nunsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!\u2019 Others\ngo out of the world in darkness, without any appearance of comfort.\nSuch an instance was Mr Chambers, as the story of his death testifies,\nmentioned by Mr Perkins, in his treatise \u2018Of Desertions,\u2019 of whom this\naccount is given: that in great agonies he cried out, \u2018he was damned,\u2019\nand so died. The case of such is surely very sad to themselves, and\nappears no less to others; yet we must take heed of judging rashly\nconcerning such. Nay, if their former course of life hath been\nuniformly good\u2014for who will reject a fine web of cloth, as one speaks,\nfor a little coarse list[356] at the end\u2014especially if there be any\nobscure appearance of hope\u2014as that expression of Mr Chambers, \u2018Oh\nthat I had but one drop of faith!\u2019 is by Mr Perkins supposed to be\u2014we\nought to judge the best of them. We have seen the nature of spiritual\ndistresses in the ingredients and differences thereof. We are now to\nconsider,\n\n2. Satan\u2019s method in procuring them: which consists, (1.) In the\noccasions which he lays hold on for that end. (2.) In the arguments\nwhich he useth. (3.) In the working up of their fears, by which he\nconfirms men in them.\n\n(1.) _As to the occasions_, he follows much _the same course which hath\nbeen described before in spiritual troubles_; so that I need not say\nmuch, only I shall note two things:\u2014\n\n[1.] That it makes much for Satan\u2019s purpose, if the party against\nwhom he designs _have fallen into some grievous sins_. Sins of common\nmagnitude do not lay a foundation suitable to the superstructure\nwhich he intends. He cannot plausibly argue reprobation or damnation\nfrom every ordinary sin; but if he finds them guilty of something\nextraordinary, then he falls to work with his accusations. The most\nusual sins which he takes advantage from, are, as Mr Perkins observes,\nthose against the third, sixth, and seventh command; sometimes those\nagainst the ninth. Murder, adultery, perjury, and the wilful denial\nof truth against conscience, are the crimes upon which he grounds his\ncharge, but most usually the last. Upon this, the distressed Spira, and\nsome of the martyrs. As for the other, the more private they are, Satan\nhath oft the more advantage against them, because God\u2019s secret and\njust judgment will by this means \u2018bring to light the hidden things of\ndarkness,\u2019 [1 Cor. iv. 5,] and force their consciences to accuse them\nof that which no man could lay to their charge, that he might manifest\nhimself to be \u2018the searcher of the hearts, and trier of the reins,\u2019\n[Rev. ii. 23.] Thus have many been forced to disclose private murders,\nsecret adulteries, and to vomit up, though with much pain and torture,\nthat which they have by perjury or guile extorted from others.\n\n[2.] Where Satan hath not these particular advantages, he doth\nendeavour to prepare men for distresses, _by other troubles long\ncontinued_. All men that are brought to despair of their happiness,\nmust not be supposed to be greater sinners than others. Some are\ndistressed with fears of eternal damnation, that are in a good measure\nable to make Job\u2019s protestation in these cases, chap. xxxi. 9, &c.,\nthat their \u2018heart hath not been deceived by a woman;\u2019 that they have\nnot laid wait at their neighbour\u2019s door; that they have not lift up\ntheir hand against the fatherless, when they saw their help in the\ngate; that their land doth not cry against them, nor the furrows\nthereof complain; that when they saw the sun when it shined, or\nthe moon walking in brightness, their heart hath not been secretly\nenticed, nor their mouth kissed their hand; that they rejoiced not in\nthe destruction of him that hated them, nor lift up themselves when\nevil found him, &c. Notwithstanding all which, their fears are upon\nand prevail against them. But then before Satan can bring them to\nconsent to such dismal conclusions against themselves, they must be\nextraordinarily fitted to take the impression; either tired out under\ngreat afflictions, or long exercised with fears about their spiritual\nestates, without intermixture of comfort or ease, or their faculties\nbroken and weakened by melancholy. Any of these give him an advantage\nequivalent to that of great sins. For though he cannot say to these,\nYour sins are so enormous, that they are, considered themselves\ntogether with their circumstances, sad signs of reprobation; yet he\nwill plead that God\u2019s carriage towards them doth plainly discover that\nhe hath wholly cast them off, and left them to themselves, without hope\nof mercy.\n\n(2.) _As for the arguments which he useth_, they are much-what from\nthe same topics which he maketh choice of in bringing on spiritual\ntroubles. Only as he aims at the proof of a great deal more against\nGod\u2019s children, than that they are not converted; so accordingly he\nscrews up his mediums for proof to a higher pin. His arguments are,\n\n[1.] _From scriptures wrested or misapplied._ His choice of scriptures\nfor this purpose, is of such places as either seem to speak most sadly\nthe dangerous and fearful estate of men, according to the first view\nand literal representation of them, through the unskilfulness of those\nthat are to be concerned; or of such places as do really signify the\nmiserable unhappiness of some persons, who through their own fault have\nbeen cut off from all hope, and the possibility of the like to some\nothers for the future. So that, in framing arguments from Scripture,\nthe devil useth a twofold cunning. _First_, There are some scriptures\nwhich have the word _damnation_ in them, applied to some particular\nacts and miscarriages of men, when yet their intendment is not such\nas the word seems to sound, or as he would make them to believe. Now\nwhen he catcheth a child of God in such acts as are there specified,\nif he finds that his ignorance or timorousness is such as may render\nthe temptation feasible, he presently applies damnation to them, by\nthe authority of those texts. For instance, that text of Rom. xiv. 23,\nhath been frequently abused to that end, \u2018He that doubteth, is damned\nif he eat.\u2019 The word \u2018damned\u2019 there, strikes deep with a weak, troubled\nChristian that is not skilful in the word of righteousness. For whether\nSatan apply it to sacramental eating, as sometimes he doth to the\nignorant, though contrary to the purpose of the text, or to doubting\nin the general, he makes this conclusion out of it: \u2018Thou doubtest, or\nthou hast eaten the sacrament doubtingly, therefore there is no hope\nfor thee; thou art damned.\u2019 Whereas all this while, the devil doth but\nplay the sophister in the abuse of the signification of words. For\nthat scripture evidently relates to the difference that then was in\nthe church, about eating those meats that were unclean by Moses\u2019s law;\nin which case the apostle doth positively declare, that the difference\nbetwixt clean and unclean meats is taken away; so that a Christian\nmight with all freedom imaginable eat those meats that were formerly\nunclean, with this proviso, that he were \u2018fully persuaded in his own\nmind,\u2019 [Rom. xiv. 5.] The necessity of which satisfaction, he proves\nfrom this, that otherwise he should offend his own conscience, which\nin that case must needs condemn him, and that is the damnation that is\nthere spoken of; as is more evident by comparing this verse with the\nnext foregoing, \u2018Happy is he that condemneth not himself.\u2019 But he that\ndoubteth, doth condemn himself, because \u2018he eats not of faith,\u2019\u2014that\nis, from full persuasion of the lawfulness of the thing. This scripture\nthen hath nothing at all in it to the purpose for which Satan brings\nit. It doth not speak of any final sentence of condemnation passed\nupon a man for such an act; all and the utmost that it saith, is only\nthis, that it is a sin to go against the persuasion of conscience, and\nconsequently it puts no man further off salvation than any other sin\nmay do; for which, upon repentance, the sinner may be pardoned.\n\nAnother text which Satan hath frequently abused, to the very great\nprejudice of many, is that of 1 Cor. xi. 29, \u2018He that eateth and\ndrinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.\u2019 With\nthis scripture he insults over the humble, fearful Christian, who is\nsensible of his unworthiness of so great a privilege. Sometimes he\nkeeps him off long from the sacrament of the Lord\u2019s supper, upon this\nvery score that such an unworthy wretch ought not to make such near\nand familiar approaches to Christ. And if at last he is persuaded\nto partake of this ordinance, then, taking advantage of the party\u2019s\nconsciousness of his great vileness, and the very low thoughts which\nhe entertains of himself, he endeavours to persuade him that now he\nhath destroyed himself for ever, and run upon his own irrecoverable\ndamnation. Thus he pleads it, Can anything be more plain than that thou\nhast eaten and drunken unworthily? Thy own conscience tells thee so;\nand can anything be more positively asserted than this, that he that\ndoth so, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself? What then canst\nthou think of thyself, but that thou art a damned wretch? Neither do I\nspeak barely what may be supposed Satan would say in this matter, but\nwhat may be proved by many instances he hath said and urged upon the\nconsciences of the weak, who have from hence concluded, to the great\ndistress of their souls, that by unworthy receiving of the sacrament\nthey have sealed up their own condemnation; and all this by abusing\nand perverting the sense of this text. For the unworthy receiving doth\nrelate to the miscarriages which he had taxed before, and it implies\na careless, profane eating; such as might plainly express the small\nor unworthy esteem that they had in their hearts for that ordinance.\nAnd the damnation there threatened is not final and irrevocable\ndamnation, but temporal judgment; as the apostle himself doth explain\nit in the next verses; \u2018For this cause many are sickly.... And if\nwe would judge ourselves we should not be judged.\u2019 That is, as he\nfurther explains it, we should not be thus chastened or afflicted; and\nthe word translated \u2018damnation\u2019 doth signify judgment\u2014\u03ba\u03c1\u1fd6\u03bc\u03b1. At the\nfurthest, if we should take it for the condemnation of hell, all that\nis threatened would be no more than this: that such have deserved,\nand God in justice might inflict the condemnation of hell for such an\noffence; which is not only true of this sin but of all others, which\nstill do admit of the exception of repentance. All this while this is\nnothing to the poor humbled sinner, that judgeth himself unworthy in\nhis most serious examination and greatest diligence. Satan here plays\nupon the unexactness of the translation, and the ignorance of the party\nin criticisms; for it is not every one that can readily answer such\ncaptious arguments.\n\n[2.] But he hath another piece of cunning, which is this: _He doth by a\nsingular kind of art, threap upon men some scripture that really speaks\nof eternal condemnation, without any sufficient evidence in matter of\nfact for the due application of them, only because they cannot prove\nthe contrary_. His proceeding herein is to this purpose. First, After\nhe hath prepared his way, by forming their minds to a fearful suspicion\nof their estate, he sets before them such scriptures as these: God\nhardened the heart of Pharaoh: he hath prepared \u2018vessels of wrath,\nfitted for destruction.\u2019 Christ prayed not \u2018for the world:\u2019 and that\nconcerning the Jews, \u2018He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their\nhearts.\u2019 Secondly, He confidently affirms that they are such. Thirdly,\nHe puts them to prove the contrary, and herein he sends them to the\nsearch of God\u2019s eternal decrees; in which art Satan, like an _ignis\nfatuus_, leads them out of the way. And though he cannot possibly\ndetermine what he affirms, he shifts off the positive proof from\nhimself, and leaves it upon them to make out, that they are not thus\ndetermined of by God\u2019s unchangeable purpose. And because the tempted,\nunder so great a cloud, have no such persuasion of their present graces\nas may enable them to make sure their election by the fruits of their\nvocation, they are beaten off from their hold, and are brought to\nbelieve that the argument is unanswerable. Because they cannot say they\nare converted, they conclude they must be damned, overlooking the true\nanswer that they might make, by keeping close to the possibility or\nprobability that they may be converted, and so escape the damnation of\nhell. This general hope being of such high concern to the distressed,\nfor it is the first thing that must relieve them till better evidence\ncome in, it is Satan\u2019s great policy to cheat them of it, which he often\ndoth by this method now declared.\n\n(2.) Satan doth mainly endeavour _to misrepresent God to troubled\nsouls, and from thence he draweth out arguments against them_. In the\nformer case of spiritual troubles, he misrepresents God, in that he\nrepresents only some attributes of his, not only distinct from, but\nin opposition to others, by which he labours to conceal the sweet and\nbeautiful harmony that is among them; and also to make one attribute\nan argument against the comfortable supporting considerations which\nanother would afford. He insists upon God\u2019s justice without respect\nof mercy, upon his holiness without any regard of his gracious\ncondescensions to the infirmities of the weak. But when it is his\nbusiness to bring any under spiritual distresses, he then misrepresents\nGod at a higher rate, and sticks not to asperse him with abominable\nfalsehoods. There are two lies which he commonly urgeth at this time:\u2014\n\n[1.] He represents God as _a cruel tyrant, of a rigorous, unmerciful\ndisposition, that delights himself in the ruin and misery of men_. To\nthis purpose he rakes together the harshest passages of the Scripture,\nthat speak of God\u2019s just severity against the wilful obstinate\nsinners, that stubbornly contemn his offers of grace. God indeed hath\ncleared himself of this aspersion, by solemn oath, Ezek. xxxiii. 11,\n\u2018As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of\nthe wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.\u2019 Yet the\ntempted will sooner believe Satan\u2019s suggestion than God\u2019s oath; partly\nbecause the sense of their vileness doth secretly sway them to think\nthere is reason that he should be so; partly because their fears\nincline them to suspect the worst; and partly the uneasy tossings of\ntheir mind long continued reviveth the natural frowardness of the\nspirit against God. Which, how apt it is, when fretted with vexation,\nto entertain harsh thoughts of God, may be seen in the answer of the\nslothful servant to his lord, who returned his talent back again\nunimproved, with a reflection importing that his master was such as\nnone could please; so severe that he was discouraged from making any\nattempt of serving him acceptably: Mat. xxv. 24, he said, \u2018Lord, I\nknew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown,\nand gathering where thou hast not strawed.\u2019\n\n[2.] He belies God further, by representing him as _designing the\nruin and misery of the tempted person in particular_. He would make\nhim believe that God had a particular spleen, as it were, against him\nabove other men, and that in all his dealings with, or concerning\nhim, he is but as a \u2018bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret\nplaces,\u2019 [Lam. iii. 10,] ready to take any advantage to cut him off.\nAnd accordingly he gives no other interpretation of all the ways of\nGod but such as make them look like tokens of final rejection of those\nthat are concerned in them. If there be upon them outward afflictions,\nhe tells them these are but the forerunners of hell; if they lie under\ninward sense of wrath, he calls that the first-fruits of everlasting\nvengeance; if any particular threatening be impressed upon their\nconsciences by the Spirit of God, in order to their humiliation and\nrepentance, he represents it as God\u2019s final sentence and absolute\ndetermination against them. If for caution God see it fit to set before\nthem the examples of his wrath, as it is very frequent for him to do,\nlest we \u2018should fall after the same example of unbelief,\u2019 1 Pet. ii.\n6; 1 Cor. x. 6, Satan perverts this to that which God never intended,\nfor he boldly asserts that these examples prognosticate their misery,\nand that God signifies by them a prediction of certain unavoidable\nunhappiness.\n\nThis must be observed here, that these misrepresentations of God are\nnone of Satan\u2019s primary arguments; he useth them only as fresh reserves\nto second others. For where he finds any wing of his battalions ready\nto be beaten, he comes up with these supplies to relieve them. For\nindeed these considerations of God\u2019s severity in the general, or\nof his special resolve against any in particular, are not of force\nsufficient to attack a soul that is within the trenches of present\npeace; they are not of themselves proper mediums to produce such a\nconclusion. Though we suppose God severe, except we should imagine him\nto be a hater of mankind universally, we cannot thence infer the final\nruin of this or that individual person. And besides that these are\nunjustifiable falsehoods, they cannot make the final damnation of any\none so much as probable till the heart be first weakened in its hopes\nby fears or doubtings, raised up in it upon other grounds. Then indeed\nmen are staggered, either by the deep sense of their unworthiness,\nor some sad continuing calamity, and the seeming neglect of their\nprayers. If Satan then tell them of God\u2019s severity, or that, all his\nprovidences considered, he hath set them up as a \u2018mark for the arrows\nof his indignation,\u2019 they are ready to believe his report, it being so\nsuitable to their present sense and feeling.\n\n[3.] Satan also fetcheth arguments from _the sins of God\u2019s children,\nbut his great art in this is by unjust aggravations to make them\nlook like those offences which by special exception in Scripture are\nexcluded from pardon_. The apostle, 1 John v. 16, tells us of a \u2018sin\nthat is unto death;\u2019 that is, a sin which, if a man commits, he cannot\nescape eternal death, and therefore he would not have such a sinner\nprayed for. That the popish distinction of venial and mortal sins is\nnot here intended, some of the papists themselves do confess.[357]\nWhat he means by that sin he doth not tell us, it being a thing known\nsufficiently from other scriptures. The note of unpardonableness is\nindeed affixed to sins under several denominations; the sin against\nthe Holy Ghost Christ pronounceth unpardonable, Mat. xii. 31. Total\napostasy from the truth of the gospel hath no less said of it by the\napostle when he calls it \u2018a drawing back to perdition,\u2019 Heb. x. 39.\nWhether these be all one, or whether there is any other species of sin\nirremissible besides that against the Holy Ghost, it is not to our\npurpose to make inquiry. Whatever they are in themselves, Satan in this\nmatter makes use of the texts that speak of them distinctly, as we\nshall presently see. But, besides these, the Scriptures speak of some\nthat were \u2018given up to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind,\u2019 Rom.\ni. 26, 28. And of others that were given up \u2018to hardness of heart,\u2019\nMat. xiii. 14; Acts xxviii. 26. Now whosoever they are of whom these\nthings may be justly affirmed, they are certainly miserable, hopeless\nwretches. Here then is Satan\u2019s cunning, if he can make any child of God\nbelieve that he hath done any such act, or acts of sin, as may bring\nhim within the compass of these scriptures, then he insults over them,\nand tells them over and over again that they are cut off for ever.\n\nTo this purpose he aggravates all their sins. And,\n\n_First_, If he find them guilty of _any great iniquity, he fixeth upon\nthat, and labours all he can to make it look most desperately, that so\nhe may call it the sin against the Holy Ghost_; and in this he hath a\nmighty advantage, that most men are in the dark about that sin, all\nmen being not yet agreed whether it be a distinct species of sin, or a\nhigher degree of wilfulness relating to any particular sin. Upon this\nscore Satan can lay the charge of this sin upon those that apostatize\nfrom the truth, and through weakness have recanted it. Thus he dealt\nwith Spira, with Bilney, with Bainham, and several others. There is so\nnear a resemblance in these sins of denying truths to what is said of\nthe unpardonable sin, that these men, though they were scholars and\nmen of good abilities, yet they were not able to answer the argument\nthat the devil urged against them, but it prevailed to distress them.\nUpon others also hath Satan the advantage to fix this accusation; for\nlet the species of the sin be what it will, if they have anything of\nthat notion, that the sin against the Holy Ghost is a presumptuous act\nof sin under temptation, they will call any notorious crime the sin\nagainst the Holy Ghost, because of the more remarkable aggravating\ncircumstances that have accompanied such a fact.\n\n_Second, He aggravates the sins of God\u2019s children from the wilfulness\nof their sinning._ It is a thing often too true that a child of God may\nbe carried by a violent impetus, or strong inclination of affection,\nto some particular iniquity, where the forwardness of desires that\nway, by a sudden haste, do stifle those reluctancies of mind which\nmay be expected from one endowed with the Spirit of God, whose power\nupon them doth ordinarily sway them \u2018to lust against the flesh.\u2019 But\nit is more ordinary to find a temptation to prevail, notwithstanding\nthat an enlightened mind doth make some resistance; which, because\nit is too feeble, is easily borne down by the strong importunities of\nSatan, working upon the inclinations of the flesh. Both these cases\nare improved against them over whom Satan hath got any advantage of\ndoubting of their estate. If they have resisted but ineffectually, or\nnot resisted at all, he chargeth them with the highest wilfulness, and\nwill so aggravate the matter that they shall be put in fear, not only\nthat there can be no grace\u2014where sin hath so much power as either to\ncontrol so much light and endeavours, or hath so subjected the heart\nto its dominion that it can command without a contradiction\u2014but that\nthey can have no hope; that they that sin with so high a hand should\never enter into God\u2019s rest. And to this purpose he commonly sets\nbefore them that text of Heb. x. 26, \u2018If we sin wilfully after that\nwe have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more\nsacrifice for sins.\u2019 Or that of Heb. vi. 4, \u2018It is impossible for\nthose who were once enlightened, ... if they fall away, to renew them\nagain to repentance.\u2019 Both which places speak indeed, at least, such\na difficulty as in common use of speech is called an impossibility,\nif not an utter absolute impossibility, of repentance and pardon.\nBut then the sinning wilfully or falling away there mentioned, is\nonly that of total apostasy; when men that have embraced the gospel,\nand by it have met with such impressions of power and delight upon\ntheir hearts, which we usually call common grace, do notwithstanding\nreject that gospel as false and fabulous, and so rise up against it\nwith scorn and utmost contempt, as Julian the apostate did. If now\nthe true intendment of those scriptures were considered by those that\nare distressed with them, they might presently see that they were put\ninto fear, where no such cause of fear was. But all men have not this\nknowledge, nor do they so duly attend to the matter of the apostle\u2019s\ndiscourse as to be able to put a right interpretation upon it. Upon\nsuch Satan imposeth his deceitful gloss, and tells them: Wilful sinners\ncannot be restored to repentance; but you have sinned wilfully; when\nsin was before you, you rushed into it without any consideration, as\nthe horse into the battle; or when God stood in your way with commands\nand advice to the contrary, when your consciences warned you not to\ndo so great wickedness, yet you would do it. You were as those that\nbreak the yoke and burst the bonds. Upon this supposition, that these\ntexts speak of wilful sinning in the general, how little can be said\nagainst Satan\u2019s argument! How many have I known that have been tortured\nwith these texts, judging their estate fearful, because of their\nwilfulness in sinning! who upon the breaking of the snare of Satan\u2019s\nmisrepresentation, have escaped as a bird unto the hill.\n\n_Third_, When either of the two former ways will not serve the\nturn\u2014that is, when he meets with such against whom he hath nothing of\nnotorious wickedness to object, or such as have a better discerning\nof Scripture than so to be imposed upon\u2014he labours _to make a charge\nagainst them, from the number of their miscarriages_. Here he takes\nup all the filth he can, and lays it upon one heap at their door.\nIt is indeed an easy thing for Satan to set the sins of a child of\nGod in order before him, and to bring to mind innumerable evils,\nespecially to one that is already awakened with a true discovery of\nthe corruption of nature and the vileness of sin. In which case the\nmore a man considers, the more he will discover; and sins thus set\nin battle array, though they be not more than ordinary heinous, yet\nbeing many, have a very dismal appearance. Satan\u2019s design in this is\nto bring men under the affrightments which seem most proper to be\nraised from a perverse aspect of the third rank of scriptures, which a\nlittle before I pointed at. For the word of God, speaking of the final\nestate of men, doth not only discover the hopeless condition of some\nas to eternal life from some particular acts of sin, but also the sad\nestate of others from the manner, degrees, and frequency of sinning.\nThe heathens, because they improved not the knowledge of God, which\nthey had from the works of creation, neither making those inferences\nin matters relating to his worship, which those discoveries did\ndirect them unto, nor behaving themselves in full compliance to those\nrules of virtuous conversation which they might have drawn from these\nprinciples, and unto which in point of gratitude they were obliged:\nRom. i. 21, \u2018They glorified him not as God, neither were thankful;\ntherefore God gave them to a reprobate mind.\u2019 And generally, concerning\nall others, the Scripture teacheth us that a return to a profane\nfleshly life, after some reformation, hath a greater hazard in it than\nordinary, as appears by the parable in Mat. xii. 45, \u2018Seven more wicked\nspirits re-enter;\u2019 where one that was cast out is received again; and\n\u2018the last state of that man is worse than the first.\u2019 So also 2 Pet.\nii. 20. To this purpose is that of Solomon concerning the danger of\ncontinuance in sin, after many reproofs: Prov. xxix. 1, \u2018He that being\noften reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and\nthat without remedy.\u2019 These, and many such like scriptures, Satan hath\nin readiness, which he plies home upon the consciences of those that\nare troubled with the sense of sin; telling them that their hearts\nand ways being continually evil, notwithstanding all the courses that\nGod hath taken to reclaim them; that they having so long neglected so\ngreat salvation, or that after having seemed to entertain it, became\nmore sinful than before\u2014which they will easily believe, because they\nare now more sensible of sin, and more observant of their miscarriages\nthan formerly\u2014there can be no question but they are given up to vile\naffections; and like the ground that bears nothing but \u2018briars and\nthorns, they are rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be\nburned,\u2019 [Heb. vi. 8.] The wound that is made with this weapon is not\nso easily healed as some others already mentioned; because though Satan\ndo unduly wrest these passages to such failures in the children of\nGod as have little or no affinity with them, for they only speak of\nfalling into open profaneness with contumacy, yet they that have deep\nconvictions, accompanied with great fears, do usually think that there\nare none worse than they are. And though they will grant that some\nothers have more flagitious lives, yet they think they have hearts so\ndesperately wicked, that they must needs be under as great hazards as\nthose whose lives seem to be worse.\n\n[4.] There is but one argument more that carries any probability of\nproof for everlasting condemnation, and that is from _a hard and\nimpenitent heart_. How Satan will manage himself to make a child of God\nbelieve that he hath such a heart, is our last observation relating to\nhis sophistry. And it is this: he unjustly aggravates the discomposures\nof the spirits of those that are troubled for sin, and from thence\ndraws his arguments of irrecoverable damnation, pleading that their\nhearts are seared, hardened, uncapable of repentance, and consequently\nof heaven. That final impenitency will conclude damnation is certain;\nand that some have been given up to such a judicial hardness long\nbefore death, that they could not repent, may not only be evidenced\nfrom the threatening of God to that purpose, Mat. xiii. 15, \u2018Make the\nheart of this people fat,\u2019 &c., but also from the sad instances of\nPharaoh, of whom it is said, that \u2018God hardened his heart;\u2019 and the\nJews who were blinded, Rom. xi. 8, \u2018God hath given them the spirit of\nslumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not\nhear.\u2019 But still the art lieth in this, How to make a child of God\nbelieve that it is so with him. For this purpose he must take him at\nsome advantage, he cannot terrify him with this argument at all times.\nWhile he is acting repentance with an undisturbed settled frame of\nheart, it is not possible to make him believe he doth not, or cannot\nrepent; for this were to force him contrary to sense and experience.\nBut he must take him at some season which may, with some probability,\nadmit of his plea, and nothing is more proper for that design than a\ntroubled heart; so that he hath in this case two things to do:\n\n_First_, He disquiets the soul into as great a height of confusion as\nhe can. That, _second_, when he hath melted it into heaviness, and torn\nit into pieces, he may work upon its distractions.\n\nThere are many things that fall out in the case of great anxiety\nof mind, that are capable of improvement for the accomplishment of\nthis design. As, 1. _Distracting troubles bring the heart under the\nstupidity of amazement._ Their thoughts are so broken and disjointed,\nthat they cannot unite them to a composed, settled resolution in\nanything; they can scarce join them together to make out so much as\nmight spell out their distinct desires or endeavours; they scarce know\nwhat they are doing, or what they would do. 2. _They also poison the\nthoughts with harsh apprehensions against God._ Great distresses make\nthe thoughts sometimes recoil against the holy Lord with unseemly\nquestionings of his goodness and compassion; and this puts men into\na bad sullen humour of untowardness, from whence, through Satan\u2019s\nimprovement, arise the greatest plunges of despair. 3. Most usually in\nthis case _the greatest endeavours are fruitless and dissatisfactory_.\nSatan, though he be no friend to duty, doth unseasonably urge them\nto repent and pray; but it is because they cannot do either with any\nsatisfaction, and then their failures are matter of argument against\nthem. For if they resolve to put themselves upon a more severe course\nof repentance, and accordingly begin to think of their sins, to number\nthem, or to aggravate them, they are usually affrighted from the\nundertaking by the heinous appearance of them. They cannot, they dare\nnot think of them; the remotest glimpse of them is terrible to an\naffrighted conscience; the raising of them up again in the memory, like\nthe rising of a ghost from the grave, is far more astonishing than the\nfirst prospect of them after commission. So true is that of Luther,\n\u2018If a man could see sin perfectly, it would be a perfect hell.\u2019 If\nthey set themselves to beg their pardon by earnest prayer, they are\nso distracted and confused in prayer, that their prayers please them\nnot; they come off from the duty more wounded than when they began. Or\nif in any measure they overcome these difficulties, so that they do\npray and confess their iniquities, then they urge and force a sorrow or\ncompunction upon themselves, but still to a greater dissatisfaction.\nFor it may be\u2014and this usually happens in greater distresses\u2014they\ncannot weep, nor force a tear, or if they do, still they judge their\nsorrow is not deep enough, nor any way suitable to the greatness of\ntheir sin. 4. To all these Satan sometimes makes a further addition of\ntrouble, _by injecting blasphemous thoughts_. Here he sets the stock,\nwith an intention to graft upon it afterward. When all these things\nare thus in readiness, then comes he to set fire to the train, and\nthus he endeavours to blow up the mine. Is not thy heart hardened to\neverlasting destruction? How canst thou deny this? Art thou not grown\nstupid, and senseless of all the hazards that are before thee? Here he\ninsists upon the amazement and confusion of their spirit; and it is\nvery natural for those that are drunk with the terrors of the Almighty,\nto think themselves stupid, because of the distraction of their\nthoughts. I have known several that have pleaded that very argument to\nthat purpose. Satan goes on: What greater evidence can there be of a\nhardened heart than impenitency? Thou canst not mourn enough. Thou hast\nnot a tear for thy sins, though thou couldst weep enough formerly upon\nevery petty occasion; nay, thou canst not so much as pray for pardon.\nIs not this not only a heart that doth not, but that cannot repent?\nBesides, saith he, thou knowest the secret thoughts that thy heart is\nprivy to; do they not boil up in thy breast against God? Art thou not\nready to tax him for dealing thus with thee? What is this untowardness,\nbut desperate obdurateness? And if with all these there be blasphemous\ninjections, then he tells him it is a clear case that he is judicially\nhardened; in that he acts the part of the damned in hell already. By\nall, or some of these deceits, the devil doth often prevail so far with\nmen, that they conclude their heart to be so obstinate, so stupid,\nthat it is impossible that it should be ever mollified or brought into\na penitential frame, and consequently that there is no hope of their\nsalvation.\n\n(3.) There is but one thing more, besides the occasions which he takes,\nand the arguments which he makes use of, relating to Satan\u2019s method for\nthe procurement of spiritual distresses, and that is his endeavour to\nstrengthen these arguments by the _increase of fears in their hearts_.\n\nWhat Satan can do in raising up misgiving, tormenting fears, hath been\nsaid; and how serviceable this is to his design, I shall shew in a few\nparticulars, having only first noted this in the general, that as his\ndesign in these distresses is raised to express his utmost height of\nmalice against men\u2014in pushing them forward to the greatest mischief, by\nexcluding them totally from the lowest degree of the hope of happiness,\nand by persuading them of the inevitable certainty of their eternal\nmisery\u2014so he doth endeavour, by the strongest impressions of fear,\nto terrify them to the utmost degree of affrightful amazement, and\nconsequently the effects of that fear are most powerful; for,\n\n[1.] By this means _the spirits of men are formed and moulded into\na frame most suitable for the belief and entertainment of the most\ndismal impressions that Satan can put upon them_. For strong fears,\nlike fire, do assimilate everything to their own nature, making them\nnaturally incline to receive the blackest, the most disadvantageous\ninterpretations of all things against themselves, so that they have no\ncapacity to put any other sense upon what lies in their way, but the\nvery worst. Hence are they possessed with no other thoughts but that\nthey are remediless wretches, desperate miscreants, utterly forsaken\nof God. They are brought into such a woeful partiality against their\nown peace, that they cannot judge aright of any accusation, plea,\nor argument that Satan brings for a proof of their unhappiness; but\nbeing filled with strong prejudices of hell, they think every sophism\na strong argument, every supposition a truth, and every accusation\nconclusive of no less than their eternal damnation; insomuch that their\nfears do more to discomfit them than all Satan\u2019s forces. \u2018A dreadful\nsound being in their ears,\u2019 [Job xv. 21,] their strength fails them at\nthe appearance of any opposition; as when fear comes upon an army they\nthrow away their weapons, and, by an easy victory, give their backs\nsometimes to an inconsiderable enemy.\n\n[2.] Men thus possessed with fear do not only receive into their own\nbowels every weapon which Satan directs on purpose to the wounding\nand slaying of their hopes, but by a strange kind of belief _they\nimagine everything to be the sword of an enemy_. All they hear or meet\nwith turns into poison to them, for they think everything is against\nthem\u2014promises as well as threatenings, mercies as well as judgments,\nand that by all these, one as well as another, God, as with a flaming\nsword turning every way, doth hinder their access to the tree of life.\nBilney the martyr, as Latimer in his sermons reports of him, after\nhis denial of the truth, was under such horrors of conscience, that\nhis friends were forced to stay with him night and day. No comforts\nwould serve. If any comfortable place of Scripture was offered to\nhim, it was as if a man should cut him through with a sword. Nothing\ndid him good; he thought that all scriptures made against him, and\nsounded to his condemnation. Neither is it so rare a thing for fears\nto form the imagination into such misshapen apprehensions, as that we\nshould think such instances to be only singular and unusual; but it\nis a common effect of terror, which few or none escape that are under\nspiritual distresses. The blackness of their thoughts make the whole\nScripture seem black to them. The unfit medium through which they look\ndoth discolour every object. So that the book of life, as Mrs Kath.\nBretterge in the like case expressed herself concerning the Bible,\nseems to be nothing else but a book of death to them.[358]\n\n[3.] From hence it follows _that no counsel or advice can take place\nwith them_. Excessive fears do remove their souls so far from peace,\nthat they will not believe there is any hope for them, though it be\ntold them. The most compassionate, serious admonitions of friends,\nthe strongest arguments against despair, the clearest discoveries of\nthe hopes that are before them, &c., effect but little. While they\nare spoken, it may be, they seem to relieve them a little; but the\ncomfort abides not with them, it is soon gone. Though they cannot\nanswer the arguments brought for them, yet they cannot believe them;\nas if their souls were now deprived of all power to believe anything\nfor their good: suitable to that expression of Spira, in answer to his\nfriends that laboured to comfort him, \u2018I would believe comfort, but\ncannot; I can believe nothing but what is contrary to my comfort,\u2019\nNay, when they are told that many others have been under the like\ndreadful apprehensions of everlasting misery who have at last been\ncomforted\u2014and by manifold experience we find that it is the greatest\nease to distressed souls to hear, especially to speak with some that\nhave been in the like case, for this will oft administer some hope that\nthey also may be at last comforted, when the most comfortable promises\nof the Scripture are a terror to them;\u2014yet this doth [not] effect the\nleast ease for them sometimes, because some are so wholly possessed\nwith unalterable prejudice against themselves, that they think none are\nor ever were like them. They compare themselves to Judas and Cain, and\nthink their iniquity to be aggravated by many circumstances far beyond\nthe pitch of them. Thus Spira judged of himself: \u2018I tell you,\u2019 saith\nhe, \u2018my case is mine own, it is singular, none like it.\u2019\n\n[4.] Though fears make the soul unactive to anything of comfort,\nbecause they wholly destroy its inclination and alter its bias to hope,\nyet, on the contrary, _they make it very nimble and active to pursue\nthe conclusions of misery which they have helped to frame_, for the\nspring of all the faculties of the soul are bent that way. Hence it\nis that those who are possessed with these agonies will eagerly plead\nagainst themselves, and with an admirable subtlety will frame arguments\nagainst their peace, coin distinctions, and make strange evasions\nto escape the force of any consolation that may be offered to them.\nTheir understandings are, as it were, whetted by their fears to an\nunimaginable quickness. Who would not wonder to hear the replies that\nsome will give to the arguings of their friends that labour to comfort\nthem! What strange answers Spira gave to those that pleaded with him!\nHow easily he seemed to turn off the example of Peter denying Christ,\nand those scriptures that speak of God\u2019s love to mankind, &c., may be\nseen at large in his narrative.\n\n[5.] Fears by a strange kind of witchcraft do not only make them\nbelieve that they shall be unhappy, but also will at last persuade them\n_that they feel and see their misery already_. How astonishingly doth\nSpira speak to this purpose: \u2018I find he daily more and more hardens\nme; I feel it.\u2019 Answerable to this, I remember, was the case of one\nwho was long imprisoned in deep distresses. He told me that he verily\nbelieved that scripture of Isa. lxvi. 23, 24 was fulfilled upon him,\n\u2018From one sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me,\nand they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have\ntransgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall\ntheir fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.\u2019\nTo his own feeling he had the torments of conscience, and the sense of\ndivine wrath was as a burning fire within him, and to his apprehension\nevery look from others was a gazing upon him as a monster of misery,\n\u2018abhorred of all flesh.\u2019\n\nThe nature of spiritual distresses, and Satan\u2019s method in working\nthem, being explained, the last thing promised is now to be opened.\nThis is,\n\n3. The burden and weight of these distresses, which how grievous, how\nintolerable it is, may be sufficiently seen in what hath been already\nsaid, and may be further evidenced in the particulars following:\u2014\n\n[1.] _Those that are wounded with these fiery darts do at first usually\nconceal their wound and smother their grief, being ashamed to declare\nit_, partly because some great transgression, it may be, hath kindled\nall this fire in their bosoms, and this they are unwilling to declare\nto others; partly because they suspect\u2014though no one remarkable sin\nhath occasioned these troubles\u2014that the discovery of their case will\nexpose them to the wonder and censures of all that shall hear of them.\nBy this means the fire burns with greater vehemency. Their sore runs\ncontinually, and having none to speak a word in season for the least\nrelief, it becomes more painful and dangerous; as bodily distempers,\nconcealed by a foolish modesty from the physician, increase the\ntrouble and hazard of the patient. Here have they many strugglings\nwithin themselves, many attempts to overcome their fears, but all\nin vain. They sit alone and keep silence, they flee the company and\nsociety of men, they labour after solitary places where they may weep\nwith freedom, if their tears be not yet dried up, or at least where\nthey may pour out their complaints against themselves. They meditate\nnothing but their misery, they can fix their thoughts upon nothing\nelse, they \u2018chatter as a crane or swallow, they mourn as a dove,\u2019 they\nare as \u2018a pelican in the wilderness, as an owl in the desert,\u2019 but\nstill without ease. They are but as those that are \u2018snared in dens and\nprison-houses,\u2019 who the longer they lie there have the less patience to\nbear the present unhappiness, and the less hope to be delivered from it.\n\n[2.] _When they are tired out with private conflicts, and have no rest\nor intermission of trouble, then at last they are forced to speak; and\nhaving once begun to open their troubles, they care not who knows it._\nIf there be any heinous sin at the bottom, their consciences are forced\nto confess it. Wickedness, that was once sweet in his mouth, \u2018is turned\nin his bowels, it is the gall of asps within him,\u2019 Job xx. 14, 15. Thus\ndoth God make men to vomit up what they had swallowed down. Terrors\nchase away all shame, they can now freely speak against their sin with\nthe highest aggravations. And if their consciences have not a heinous\ncrime to accuse them of in particular, yet in the general they will\njudge and condemn themselves as the most stubborn, sinful, or hardened\nwretches, justly branded with indelible characters of the wrath of God.\nHowever, the distress becomes greater; if they truly accuse themselves\nof any particular sin, that vomit is not without a violence offered to\nnature which otherwise would cover its shame. It cannot be done without\nsickness, straining, and torture; and when it is done, they take it for\ngranted that every one passeth the same judgment upon them which they\ndo upon themselves; and the frequent speaking doth confirm their minds\nin their fearful expectations. For what men do accustom themselves to\nassert, that they do more confidently believe. If they only complain of\nthemselves in the general, with any intentions of procurement of pity,\nas is usual for the distressed to do, yet while they cry out to others,\n\u2018Is this nothing to you, all you that pass by? Is there any sorrow like\nto my sorrow?\u2019 &c., [Lam. i. 12,] still they think their \u2018stroke is\nheavier than their groaning,\u2019 [Job xxiii. 2;] and their cry to others\ndoth strongly fix this apprehension in themselves, that none can be\nmore miserable than they. Thus are they brought to Job\u2019s condition:\nchap. xvi. 6, \u2018Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; and though I\nforbear, what am I eased?\u2019\n\n[3.] All this while they are under _an expressible[359] sense of divine\nwrath_. Heman speaks his apprehensions of it under the similitude of\nthe most hideous and dismal comfortless imprisonment: Ps. lxxxviii.\n6, \u2018Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.\u2019\nDavid, in Ps. cxvi. 3, compares it to the \u2018sorrows of death,\u2019 and\u2014the\nhighest that human thoughts can reach\u2014\u2018the pains of hell.\u2019 \u2018The\nsorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me;\nI found trouble and sorrow.\u2019 Well might they thus judge, all things\nconsidered; for sin, that then lies heavy upon them, is a great weight,\n\u2018a burden,\u2019 saith David, \u2018greater than I can bear,\u2019 especially when it\nis pressed on by a heavy hand: \u2018Thy hand presseth me sore.\u2019 Sin makes\nthe greatest wound, considering the conscience, which is wounded by it,\nis the tenderest part, and of exquisite sense. Hence the grief of it\nis compared to the pain of a running, fretting ulcer, that distempers\nthe whole body: \u2018My wounds stink and are corrupted; my sore ran in\nthe night, and ceased not.\u2019 Or to the pain of broken and shattered\nbones: Ps. xxxviii. 3, \u2018There is no soundness in my flesh, because\nof thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my\nsin.\u2019 The instrument also that makes the wound is sharp, and cuts deep:\n\u2018It is sharper than a two-edged sword,\u2019 [Heb. iv. 12;] but when the\nweapon is poisoned,\u2014and Satan hath a way to do that,\u2014then it burns,\nmaking painful, malignant inflammations. The wrath of God, expressed\nto the conscience, brings the greatest terror: \u2018Who knows the power\nof thine anger?\u2019 Ps. xc. 11. It is impossible for the most trembling\nconscience, or most jealous fears, to go to the utmost bounds of it;\nneither can we apprehend any torture greater. The rack, tortures, fire,\ngibbets, &c., are all nothing to it. Hence it is that those who were\nafraid of suffering for truth, when by this means they were brought\nunder these distresses, could then be willing to suffer any torment on\nthe body; yea, and heartily wish to suffer much more, so that these\ntortures might be ended. Thus it was with Bainham martyr,[360] who,\nin the public congregation, bewailed his abjuration of the truth; and\nprayed all his hearers \u2018rather to die by and by, than do as he had\ndone.\u2019 But that of Spira seems almost beyond belief. Thus speaks he\nto Vergerius, \u2018If I could conceive but the least spark of hope of a\nbetter estate hereafter, I would not refuse to endure the most heavy\nweight of the wrath of that great God, yea, for twenty thousand years,\nso that I might at length attain to the end of that misery.\u2019 What\ndreadful agonies were these that put him to these wishes! But it is\nless wonder, if you observe what apprehensions he had of his present\ntrouble, he judged it worse than hell itself. And if you would have a\nlively exposition of David\u2019s expression, \u2018The pains of hell,\u2019 &c., you\nmay fetch it from this instance: \u2018My present estate,\u2019 saith he, \u2018I now\naccount worse than if my soul, separated from my body, were with Judas\nand the rest of the damned; and therefore I desire rather to be there\nthan thus to live in the body.\u2019 So that if you imagine a man crushed\nunder the greatest weight, wounded in the most tender parts, and those\nwounds provoked by the sharpest corrosives, his bones all disjointed\nand broken, pined also with hunger and thirst, and in that case put\nunder the highest tortures; yet you have but a very shadow of divine\nwrath. Add to all these, according to Spira\u2019s wish, twenty thousand\nyears of hell itself, yet all is nothing to that which a distressed\nmind supposeth; while the word _eternity_ presents the soul with the\ntotal sum of utmost misery all at once. Oh, unexpressible burden of a\ndistressed mind! who can understand it truly, but he that feels it? How\nterribly is the mind of man shaken with terrors, as the wilderness by a\nmighty wind! which not only produceth violent motions, but also hideous\nnoise, murmur, and howling.\n\n[4.] This burden upon the mind _forceth the tongue to vent its sorrow\nin the saddest accent of most doleful outcries_. Their whole language\nis lamentation; but when the pangs of their agonies come upon them, for\ntheir distresses have their fits, then they speak in the bitterness of\ntheir souls. Oh, said Bainham, I would not for all the world\u2019s good\nfeel such a hell in my conscience again. One, formerly mentioned, in\nthese distresses cries out, \u2018Woe, woe, woe, a woeful, a wretched,\na forsaken woman!\u2019[361] It would surely have made a man\u2019s hair to\nstand upright for dread to have heard Spira roaring out that terrible\nsentence, \u2018How dreadful is it to fall into the hands of the living\nGod!\u2019 [Heb. x. 31.] Or to have heard his reply to him that told of\nhis being at Venice: \u2018O cursed day!\u2019 saith he, \u2018O cursed day! Oh that\nI had never gone thither, would God I had then died!\u2019 &c. The like\noutcries had David often: Ps. xxi. 1, \u2018My God, my God, why hast thou\nforsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words\nof my roaring?\u2019 And Heman, Ps. lxxxviii. 14, \u2018Lord, why castest thou\noff my soul, why hidest thou thy face from me?\u2019 It is true David\u2019s\nand Heman\u2019s words have a better complexion than those others last\nmentioned; but their disquiet of heart seems, at some times, to have\nurged their expressions with impetuous violence; as those passages seem\nto say, Ps. xxxviii. 8, \u2018I have roared by reason of the disquietness\nof my heart;\u2019 Ps. xxxii. 3, \u2018My bones waxed old through my roaring all\nthe day long;\u2019 Job iii. 24, \u2018My roarings are poured out like water,\u2019 If\ntheir lamentations were turned into roarings, and those roarings were\nlike the breaking in of a flood, and that flood of so long continuance\nthat it dried up the marrow of the bones, we may safely imagine that\nthey were not so much at leisure to order their words, but that their\ntongues might speak in that dialect which is proper to astonishment and\ndistress.\n\n[5.] Though the mind be the principal seat of these troubles, _yet\nthe body cannot be exempted from a co-partnership in these sorrows_.\nNotwithstanding, this is so far from abating the trouble, that it\nincreaseth it by a circulation. The pains of the body, contracted by\nthe trouble of the mind, are communicated again to the fountain from\nwhence they came, and reciprocally augment the disquiet of the mind.\nThe body is weakened, their \u2018strength poured out like water;\u2019 they are\n\u2018withered like grass,\u2019 pined as \u2018a skin,\u2019 become as a \u2018bottle in the\nsmoke.\u2019 Thus David frequently complains: Ps. xxii. 14, he describes\nhimself as reduced to a skeleton, \u2018I am poured out like water, and all\nmy bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the\nmidst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue\ncleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me to the dust of death.\u2019\nNeither is this his peculiar case, but the common effect of spiritual\ndistresses: Ps. xxxix. 11, \u2018When thou with rebukes dost correct man for\niniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.\u2019\n\n[6.] Being thus distressed for their souls, they cast off _all care\nof their bodies, estates, families, and all their outward concerns\nwhatsoever_. And no wonder, for being persuaded that they have made\nshipwreck of their souls, they judge the rest are not worth the saving.\n\n[7.] Giving all for lost, they usually cast about for some ease to\ntheir minds, _by seeking after the lower degrees of misery, hearing or\nsupposing that all are not tormented alike, they endeavour to persuade\nthemselves of a cooler hell_. This, if they could reach it, were but\npoor comfort, and little to their satisfaction; but, as poor as it is,\nit is usually denied to them, for while they judge themselves to be the\ngreatest sinners, they cannot but adjudge themselves to the greatest\ntorments; and these endeavours being frustrated, they return back to\nthemselves, as now hopeless of the least case, worse than before. Now\nthey fix themselves upon the deep contemplations of their misery. Oh,\nthink they, how great had our happiness been if we had been made toads,\nserpents, worms, or anything but men; for then should we never have\nknown this unhappiness; and this begets a thousand vain wishes. Oh that\nwe had never been born! or that death could annihilate us! or that as\nsoon as we had been born, we had died! as Job speaks: chap. iii. 11,\n12, \u2018Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when\nI came out of the belly?\u2019 for then had we not contracted so much guilt.\n\u2018Or that the mountains and hills could fall upon us, and cover us from\nthe face of our judge,\u2019 [Rev. vi. 16.]\n\n[8.] When all their hopes are thus dashed, and, like a shipwrecked\nman on a plank, they are still knocked down with new waves, all their\nendeavours being still frustrated, they seem to themselves to be able\nto hold out no longer; then they _give over all further inquiries, and\nthe use of means, they refuse to pray, read, hear_. They perceive, as\nSpira said, that they pray to their own condemnation, and that all is\nto no purpose. They are \u2018weary of their groanings,\u2019 Ps. vi. 6; their\n\u2018eyes fail with looking up;\u2019 their \u2018knees are feeble;\u2019 their hands hang\ndown; and as Heman: Ps. lxxxviii. 4, 5, \u2018They count themselves with\nthose that go down to the pit, free among the dead, like the slain that\nlie in the grave, whom God remembereth no more.\u2019 Thus they lie down\nunder their burden, and while they find it so hard to be borne, it is\nusual for them to come to the utmost point of desperateness, Satan\nsuggesting and forwarding them. Sometimes they open their mouths with\ncomplaints against God, and blaspheme. And, as the last part of the\ntragedy, being weary of themselves, they seek to put an end to their\npresent misery, by putting an end to their lives.\n\nI have presented you with Satan\u2019s stratagems against the peace of\nGod\u2019s children. The remedies against these and other subtleties of our\ngrand enemy I shall not offer you, because many others have done that\nalready, to whose writings I must refer you. Some principal directions\nI have pointed at in the way, and in the general, have done this for\nthe help of the tempted, that I have endeavoured to shew them the\nmethods of [the] tempter, which is no small help to preserve men from\nbeing thus imposed upon, and to recover out of his snare those that\nare. It is a great preservative from sickness, and no mean advantage to\nthe cure, to have a discovery of the disease, and the causes of it. I\nshall conclude these discoveries with a caution or two.\n\n[1.] _Let none think worse of the serious practice of holy strictness\nin religion, because these spiritual distresses do sometimes befall\nthose that are conscientiously careful in the ways of God, while the\nprofane and negligent professors are strangers to such trials._ These\ntroubles are indeed very sad, but a senseless, careless state is far\nworse. These troubles often end very comfortably, whereas the other\nend\u2014except God make them sensible by conviction of their sin and\ndanger\u2014in that real misery, the fears whereof occasion these sorrows to\nGod\u2019s children. And the danger of spiritual troubles is not so great as\nis that of a hardened heart; nay, God frequently makes use of them to\nprevent eternal ruin\u2014for one that goes roaring to the pit, there are\nthousands that go laughing to hell.\n\n[2.] _Let none slight or scoff at these tremendous judgments._ It\nis too common with men, either to ascribe spiritual troubles to\nmelancholy, as if none were ever thus concerned, but such, as by too\nmuch seriousness in religion, are become mad\u2014a fair pretence for\ncarelessness\u2014or to a whining dissimulation. To the former I have\nsaid something before, and as for the latter I shall only reply, in\nthe words of Spira, to one that objected hypocrisy to him: \u2018I am a\ncastaway, a vessel of wrath; yet dare you call it dissembling and\nfrenzy, and can mock at the formidable example of the heavy wrath of\nGod that should teach you fear and terror. But it is natural to the\nflesh to speak, either out of malice or ignorance, perversely of the\nwork of God,\u2019\n\n[3.] _Let none be afraid of this Goliath, let no man\u2019s heart faint\nbecause of him._ A fear of caution and diligence to avoid his snares\nis a necessary duty\u2014\u2018Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the\ndevil,\u2019 &c., [1 Pet. v. 8]\u2014but a discouraging, distrustful fear is a\ndishonourable reflection upon God\u2019s power and promises to help us, and\nupon the captain of our salvation, who goeth out before us. Let us hold\non in the practice of holiness, and not be afraid. \u2018The God of peace\nshall tread down Satan under our feet shortly,\u2019 [Rom. xvi. 20.] Amen.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE.\n\n Agreeably to Note at beginning, there will be found below the more\n specific title page of Part III.\u2014G.\n\n\n  _D\u00c6MONOLOGIA SACRA_:\n\n  OR, A\n\n  TREATISE\n\n  OF\n\n  Satans Temptations.\n\n  The Third Part.\n\n  CONTAINING\n\n An Account of the Combate betwixt Christ and Satan, in _Matth_. 4.\n Wherein the deep Subtilty of Satan, in managing those Temptations, is\n laid open, as the grand Instance of the Sum of his Policy in all his\n Assaults upon Men; Leading to a consideration of many Temptations in\n particular, and of special directions for Resistance.\n\n  By _R. G._\n\n  Heb. 4. 15.\n  \u2014_He was Tempted in all points like as we are, yet without Sin._\n\n  _London_, Printed by _J. D._ for _Richard Randel_, and _Peter\n  Maplisden_, Booksellers in _New-Castle_ upon _Tine_, 1677.\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\n_Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted\nof the devil._\u2014MAT. iv. 1.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n _The first circumstance of the combat\u2014The time when it happened\u2014The\n two solemn seasons of temptation\u2014The reasons thereof._\n\n\nI shall here consider the great temptation which it pleased our Lord\nChrist to submit unto, as a most famous instance for confirmation and\nillustration of the doctrine of temptations already handled.\n\nThe first verse sets down several remarkable circumstances of this\ncombat, all of them matter of weight and worth: as,\n\n1. First, _The time when this fell out_; not as a loose and accidental\nemergency, but as particularly made choice of both by God and Satan,\nbeing most fit and proper for the design which each of them were\ncarrying on. This is expressly noted in Mat. iv. 1, \u2018_Then_ was Jesus\nled up;\u2019 but more full in Mark i. 12, \u2018_Immediately_ the Spirit driveth\nhim into the wilderness;\u2019 manifestly directing us to expect something\nworthy of our observation in that circumstance. Neither can we miss of\nit, when the things unto which this directs us are so fully related\nimmediately before. For we find in both these evangelists, which speak\nso exactly of the time of these temptations, that Christ was baptized\nof John. This was in order to the fulfilling the righteousness of his\noffice. As the priests under the law, when they came to be thirty\nyears old, entered upon their function by washings, or baptizings and\nanointings:[362] so Christ, that he might answer his type, beginning to\nbe about thirty years of age, was solemnly inaugurated into the great\noffice of the mediatorship by baptism, and the extraordinary descending\nof the Holy Ghost, by which he was \u2018anointed with the oil of gladness\nabove his fellows.\u2019 To this solemn instalment the Father adds an\nhonourable testimony concerning him, \u2018This is my beloved Son, in whom I\nam well pleased,\u2019 Luke iii. 23. Immediately after this was he carried\nto the place of combat. Hence we may infer,\n\n_Obs._ 1. _That our entering upon a special service for God, or\nreceiving a special favour from God, are two solemn seasons which\nSatan makes use of for temptation._ Often these two seasons meet\ntogether in the same person at the same time. Paul, after his rapture\ninto the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2, 7, which, as some conceive,\nwas also upon his entrance upon the ministry, was buffeted by \u2018the\nmessenger of Satan.\u2019\n\nSometime these two seasons are severed; yet still it may be observed\nthat the devil watcheth them. When any servant of God is to engage in\nany particular employment, he will be upon him. He assaulted Moses by\npersecution, when he was first called to deliver Israel. As soon as\nDavid was anointed, immediately doth he enrage the minds of Saul and\nhis courtiers against him. It was so ordinary with Luther, that he\nat last came to this, that before any eminent service he constantly\nexpected either a fit of sickness, or the buffetings of Satan. He is\nno less sedulous in giving his assaults when any child of God hath\nbeen under peculiar favours or enjoyments. The church, after a high\nentertainment with Christ, is presently overcome by a careless, sleepy\nindisposition, Cant. v. 1, 2.\n\nThough this may seem strange, yet the harshness of such a providence\non God\u2019s part, and the boldness of the attempt on Satan\u2019s part, may be\nmuch taken off by the consideration of the reasons hereof.\n\n(1.) First, _On Satan\u2019s part_. It is no great wonder to see such an\nundertaking, when we consider his fury and malice. The more we receive\nfrom God, and the more we are to do for him, the more doth he malign\nus. So much the more as God is good, by so much is his eye evil.\n\n(2.) Secondly, There are in such cases as these several advantages,\nwhich, through our weakness and imperfection, we are too apt to give\nhim; and for these he lieth at the catch.\n\n[1.] As first, _Security_. We are apt to grow proud, careless, and\nconfident, after or upon such employments and favours; even as men are\napt to sleep or surfeit upon a full meal, or to forget themselves when\nthey are advanced to honour. Job\u2019s great peace and plenty made him, as\nhe confesseth, so confident, that he concluded he should \u2018die in his\nnest,\u2019 chap. xxix. 18. David enjoying the favour of God in a more than\nordinary measure, though he was more acquainted with vicissitudes and\nchanges than most of men, grows secure in his apprehension, that he\n\u2018should never be moved,\u2019 Ps. xxx. 6; but he acknowledgeth his mistake,\nand leaves it upon record as an experience necessary for others to\ntake warning by, that when he became warm under the beams of God\u2019s\ncountenance, then he was apt to fall into security; and\u2014this it seems\nwas usual with him in all such cases\u2014when he was most secure, he was\nnearest some trouble or disquiet. \u2018Thou didst hide thy face\u2019\u2014and then\nto be sure the devil will shew his\u2014\u2018and I was troubled.\u2019 Enjoyments\nbeget confidence; confidence brings forth carelessness; carelessness\nmakes God withdraw, and gives opportunity to Satan to work unseen. And\nthus, as armies after victory growing secure, are oft surprised; so are\nwe oft after our spiritual advancements thrown down.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Discouragement and tergiversation_ is another thing\nthe devil watcheth for. By his assaults he represents the duty\ndifficult, tedious, dangerous, or impossible, on purpose to discourage\nus, and to make us fall back. No sooner doth Paul engage in the gospel\nthan the devil is upon him, suggesting such hazards as he knew were\nmost prevalent with our frail natures, if he had not been aware of him,\nand refused to hearken to what flesh and blood would have said in the\ncase, Gal. i. 16. When God honoured Moses with the high employment of\ndelivering Israel, the hazard and danger of the work was so strongly\nfixed upon his thoughts, that he makes many excuses: one while pleading\nhis inability and insufficiency, \u2018Who am I, that I should go to\nPharaoh?\u2019 Exod. iii. 11. Another while he urgeth Israel\u2019s unbelief, and\na seeming impossibility to satisfy them of his commission, Exod. iv. 1.\nAfter that he deviseth another shift, \u2018I am not eloquent,\u2019 ver. 10. And\nwhen all these subterfuges were removed, Satan had so affrighted him\nwith the trouble and difficulty of this undertaking, that he attempts\nto break away from his duty: ver. 13, \u2018Send by the hand of him whom\nthou wilt send;\u2019 that is, spare me and send another: and till the\nanger and displeasure of God was manifested against him, he submitted\nnot. In Jonah the temptation went higher. He, upon the apprehensions\nmentioned, ran away from his service, and puts God to convince him by\nan extraordinary punishment. And when Satan prevails not so far as\nwholly to deter men by such onsets, yet, at least, he doth dishearten\nand discourage them, so that the work loseth much of that glory,\nexcellency, and exactness, which a ready and cheerful undertaking would\nput upon it.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The fall or miscarriage of the saints at such times\nis of more than ordinary disadvantage_, not only to others\u2014for if\nthey can be prevailed with to lay aside their work, or to neglect\nthe improvement of their favours, others are deprived of the benefit\nand help that might be expected from them\u2014but also to themselves.\nA prevailing temptation doth more than ordinarily prejudice them\nat such times. The greatness of the disappointment under special\nservice, the unworthy neglect and unanswerableness to special favours,\nare extraordinary provocations, and produce more than ordinary\nchastisements, as we see in Jonah\u2019s affliction, and the spouse\u2019s\ndesertion.\n\n(2.) Secondly, As we have seen the reason of Satan\u2019s keenness in\ntaking those opportunities, so may we consider the reasons of _God\u2019s\npermission_, which are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, Temptations at such seasons are permitted for more eminent\n_trial of the upright_. On this account was Job tempted.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _For an increase of diligence, humility, and\nwatchfulness_. If these privileges and mercies will not discourage\nSatan, what will? And if Satan so openly malign such enjoyments, we may\nbe awakened to hold them faster and set a double guard upon them.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _For a plentiful furniture of experience_. Temptation\nis the shop of experience. Luther was so great a gainer by this,\nthat he became able so to speak to the consciences and conditions of\nhis hearers, that the thoughts of their hearts were manifested by\nhis speaking, as if he had had an intelligencer in their own bosoms.\nHence did he commend prayer, meditation, and temptation as necessary\nrequisites for the accomplishment of a minister.\n\n_Applic._ This may administer matter of counsel to us in both cases\naforementioned, if we be put upon eminent employments or receive\neminent favours.\n\n1. First, _We must not be so secure as to think Satan will be asleep\nthat while, or that we are beyond danger_. While we are receiving\nkindnesses, he is devising plots and laying snares. With privileges and\nmercies expect exercises and hazards.\n\n2. Secondly, in particular, _We may receive something of advice from\nthis consideration in reference to both cases_.\n\n(1.) If God is about to employ us in any service,\n\n[1.] We have little need to be _confident of our abilities or\nperformance_, when we know that temptations wait for us.\n\n[2.] We must not only be sensible of our weakness, that we be not\nconfident; but we must be _apprehensive of the strength and power of\nGod to carry us through_, that we be not discouraged.\n\n[3.] We must see our _opposition_, that we may be watchful; and yet\nmust we refuse to give it the least place of consideration in our\ndebates of duty, lest it sway us against duty or dishearten us in it.\n\n(2.) If God be pleased to honour us with peculiar favours, then,\n\n[1.] Though we must improve them to the full, yet must we not feed on\nthem without fear.\n\n[2.] We must not stay in the enjoyment or play with the token, but look\nto the tendency of such favours and improve them to duty, as to their\nproper end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n _The second circumstance, Christ\u2019s being led by the Spirit.\u2014What hand\n the Spirit of God hath in temptations.\u2014And of running into temptation\n when not led into it._\n\n\n2. The second circumstance acquaints _how Christ was carried to the\ncombat_. In solemn combats and duels, the persons undertaking the\nfight were usually carried to the place with great solemnity and\nceremony. Christ in this spiritual battle is described as having the\nconduct of the Spirit, \u2018He was led up of the Spirit,\u2019 &c. What this\nSpirit was is, though by a needless and over-officious diligence,\nquestioned by some; but we need not stay much upon it, if we consider\nthe phrase of the evangelists, who mention _Spirit_ without any note of\ndistinction\u2014which of necessity must have been added if it had intended\neither his proper spirit as man, or the wicked spirit Satan\u2014directing\nthereby to understand it of him to whom the word Spirit is more\npeculiarly attributed, viz., the Holy Ghost. Or if we observe the close\nconnexion in Luke betwixt that expression of Christ\u2019s being \u2018full of\nthe Holy Ghost,\u2019 and his being \u2018led by the Spirit,\u2019 it will be out of\ncontroversy that the Holy Spirit is here intended. Hence was it that\nBeza translates it more fully, \u2018Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, was\nled, _eodem Spiritu_, of the same Spirit;\u2019 and the Syriac, in Matthew,\ndoubts not to express it by the Holy Spirit. And what else can be\nimagined, when in this text the Spirit that led him up, and the devil\nthat tempted, are mentioned in so direct an opposition? \u2018He was led of\nthe Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.\u2019 The manner\nof his being carried thither is expressed by such words as signify,\nthough not an external rapture like that of Philip, a strong inward\nmotion and impulse upon him. The Spirit driveth\u2014\u1f10\u03ba\u03b2\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03bd\u2014him, saith\nMark. The Spirit \u2018led him\u2019\u2014\u1f24\u03b3\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf\u2014saith Luke, using the same word by\nwhich the Scripture elsewhere expresseth the power of the Spirit upon\nthe children of God, who are said to be \u2018led\u2019 by him.\n\n_Obs._ 2. Hence note _that the Spirit of God hath a hand in\ntemptations_. Christ was led by the Spirit to be tempted. This must\nnot be understood as if God did properly tempt any to sin, either by\nenticing their hearts to evil, or by moving and suggesting wicked\nthings to their minds, or by infusing evil inclinations, or by any\nproper compliance with Satan to undermine and delude us by any\ntreachery or deceit. None of these can be imagined without apparent\nderogation to the holiness of God, \u2018who tempteth no man, neither can\nhe be tempted with evil,\u2019 [James i. 13.] But what we are to understand\nby the Holy Spirit\u2019s concerning himself in temptations, is included in\nthese particulars:\u2014\n\n1. First, God gives _commission to Satan_, without which his hand would\nbe sealed up under an impossibility of reaching it out against any.\n\n2. Secondly, _Opportunities and occasions do depend upon his\nprovidence_, without which nothing comes to pass. Neither we nor\nanything else do or can move without him.\n\n3. Thirdly, The Spirit _oversees the temptation as to measure and\ncontinuance_. The length and breadth of it is ordered by him.\n\n4. Fourthly, _The issue and consequences of every temptation are at his\nappointment_. The ways of its working for our exercise, humiliation, or\nconviction, or for any other good and advantage whatsoever, they all\nbelong to his determination.\n\nSo that it is not improper to assert that God and Satan do concur in\nthe same temptation, though the ways of proceeding, with the aims and\nintentions of both, be directly different and contrary. Hence is it\nthat the temptation of David, 1 Sam. xxiv. 1, and 1 Chron. xxi. 1, are\nupon several regards attributed both to God and Satan.\n\n_Appl._ 1. This note is of use to remove those harsh interpretations\nwhich poor tempted Christians meet withal, commonly from such as have\nnot touched their burdens with the least of their fingers. Men are apt\nin these cases to judge,\n\n(1.) First, _The ways of religion, as being ways, at least in the\nmore serious and rigid practice of them, of intolerable hazard and\nperplexity_, and only upon an observation that those who most addict\nthemselves to a true and strict observance of duty and command usually\ncomplain of temptations, and express sometimes their fears and distress\nof heart about them. This is your reading, your praying, and hearing.\nSuch preaching, say they, leads men to despair and perpetual disquiet;\nand upon the whole they conclude it dangerous to be religious above\nthe common rate of those that prosecute it in a slow and careless\nindifferency.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The like severity of censure do they use in reference\nto _the spiritual state of the tempted_, as if they were vessels of\nhis hatred, and such as were by him given up to the power of this\n\u2018wild boar of the forest\u2019 to devour and tear. All kind of distresses\nare obnoxious to the worst of misjudgings from malevolent minds. The\nsufferings of Christ produced this censorious scoff, \u2018Let God deliver\nhim, if he will have him,\u2019 [Mat. xxvii. 43.] David\u2019s troubles easily\ninduced his adversaries to conclude that \u2018God had forsaken him, and\nthat there was none to deliver him,\u2019 Ps. lxxi. 11. But in troubles of\nthis nature, where especially there are frightful complainings against\nthemselves, men are more easily drawn out to be peremptory in their\nuncharitable determinations concerning them, because the trouble itself\nis somewhat rare, and apt to beget hideous impressions; and withal\nthe vent which the afflicted parties give by their bemoaning of their\nestate, in hope to ease themselves thereby, is but taken as a testimony\nagainst themselves, and the undoubted echoes of their real feelings.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Their sins are upon this ground misjudged and\nheightened_. Unusual troubles with common apprehension argue unusual\nsins. The viper upon Paul\u2019s hand made the barbarians confident he was a\nman of more than ordinary guilt and wickedness, Acts xxviii. 4. David\u2019s\nsickness was enough to give his enemies occasion to surmise that it\nwas the punishment of some great transgression. \u2018An evil disease,\u2019 say\nthey, \u2018cleaveth to him,\u2019 Ps. xli. 8. Those that were overwhelmed by\nthe fall of the tower of Siloam, and those whose blood Pilate mixed\nwith their sacrifices, were judged greatest sinners, Luke xiii. 4. But\nin inward temptations, this misjudging confidence is every way more\nheightened; and those that are most molested are supposed to have given\nmore away to Satan.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Temptations are also misjudged _to be worse than they\nare_. They are indeed things to be trembled at; but they are not\nproperly of an astonishing, amazing, or despairing consideration, as\nmen are apt to think that view the workings of them at a distance.\n\nAgainst all those unrighteous surmises, the poor afflicted servants of\nChrist may have relief from this truth in hand, that the Holy Spirit\nof God hath a hand in temptations: and therefore it is impossible\nthat everywhere they should be of such a signification. Were they in\nthemselves no way serviceable to God\u2019s glory in the gracious exercise\nof his children, the Spirit of wisdom and holiness would not at all\nhave a hand in them. If under Satan\u2019s assaults you meet with those that\nby such a harshness of censure would aggravate your troubles, and so\ngrieve those whom God hath saddened, you may boldly appeal from them to\nhim that judgeth righteously. And indeed, if men would but consider, in\nthe saddest case of this nature, either,\n\n[1.] _The end of the Lord in permitting temptations_, which, if seen,\nwould give a high justification of his dealing, and force men to\napplaud and magnify his wisdom, rather than to censure it. Or,\n\n[2.] If they could but see the _secret ways of God\u2019s support_, how he\nacts his part in holding them by the hand, in counterworking of Satan,\nand confounding him under the exercise of his highest malice, and also\nin the ways of his preservation and deliverance. Or,\n\n[3.] _If the harmlessness of temptations, when their sting is taken\nout, were but weighed_, men would change their minds as readily as\nthe barbarians did, when they saw the viper not effect that mischief\nthey supposed upon Paul; and would see cause to stand amazed at the\ncontrivances of so much power and wisdom, as can turn these to quite\nother ends and uses, than what they of themselves seem to threaten.\n\n_Applic._ 2. This consideration will further express its usefulness\n_in comforting us under temptations_. It might have been Paul\u2019s great\ndiscouragement, that in his answer before Nero no man stood with him,\n2 Tim. iv. 16; but this was his support, that God was with him. The\nlike encouragement we have under all assaults of Satan, that we are\nnot left to ourselves, but the Spirit of God is with us, and that he\nconcerns himself on a design to oversee and overrule his work, and to\nput a check upon him when there is need. So that he cannot tempt as he\nwill, nor when he will, nor in what he would, nor as long as he would;\nbut that in all cases, we may rely upon the great master-contriver, for\nrelief, help, mitigation, or deliverance, as there is need.\n\n_Obs._ 3. In that the evangelists do not say that Christ cast himself\nupon a temptation, neither did go to undertake it till he was led to\nit, we note, _that whatever may be the advantage of a temptation by the\nSpirit\u2019s ordering of it, or what security from danger we may promise\nto ourselves upon that account, yet must we not run upon temptations;\nthough we must submit when we are fairly led into them_. The reasons of\nthis truth are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, There is so much of _the nature of evil in temptations that\nthey are to be avoided if possible_. Good they may accidentally be,\nthat is, beyond their proper nature and tendency, by the overruling\nhand of God; but being in their own natural constitution evil, it is\ninconsistent with human nature to desire them as such.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _To run upon them would be a dangerous tempting of God_;\nthat is, making a bold and presumptuous trial, without call, whether\nhe will put forth his power to rescue us or not. Now he that runs upon\na temptation hath no promise to be delivered out of it. And besides,\nruns upon so desperate a provocation, that in all probability he shall\nmiscarry in it, as a just punishment of his rashness.\n\n_Quest._ But inquiry may be made, When do men run uncalled and\nunwarrantably upon temptation? I answer, many ways. As,\n\n_Ans._ [1.] First, When men engage themselves _in sin and apparent\nwickedness, in the works of the flesh_. For it can never be imagined\nthat the holy God should ever by his Spirit call any to such things as\nhis soul abhors.\n\n[2.] Secondly, When men run upon _the visible and apparent occasions\nand causes of sin_. This is like a man\u2019s going to the pest-house. Thus\ndo they, that though they design not to be actors in evil, yet will\ngive their company and countenance to persons actually engaged in evil.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, When men _unnecessarily, without the conduct either\nof command or urging an unavoidable providence, do put themselves,\nthough not upon visible and certain opportunities, yet, upon dangerous\nand hazardous occasions and snares_. Peter had no errand in the\nhigh-priest\u2019s hall; his curiosity led him thither; he might easily\nhave foreseen a probable snare; but confidently putting himself\nforward, where his danger was more than his business, he ran upon the\ntemptation, and accordingly fell. The like did Dinah, when she made a\nneedless vagary to see the daughters of the land; where she met with\nher sin and shame, Gen. xxxiv. 1. Neither do they otherwise, who dare\nadventure themselves in families\u2014whilst yet they are free and may\notherwise dispose of themselves\u2014where they see snares and temptations\nwill be laid before them. The case indeed is otherwise to those that\nare under the necessary engagement of relation, natural or voluntary,\nif it be antecedent to the hazard, to live in such places or callings;\nthey have a greater promise of preservation than others can lay claim\nto, Ps. xci. 11; Prov. x. 29.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Those run upon temptation, that adventure _apparently\nbeyond their strength, and put themselves upon actions good or\nharmless, disproportionably to their abilities_. The apostle gives the\ninstance in marriage abstinence, 1 Cor. vii. 5, which he cautions may\nnot be undertaken at a careless adventure for fear of a temptation: and\nby this may we judge other things of like nature.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, They are also guilty that design an _adventure unto\nthe utmost bounds of lawful liberty_. Those that have a mind to try\nconclusions, how near they may make their approaches to sin, and yet\nkeep off from the defilement, such as would divide a hair betwixt good\nand evil, have at best but a hair\u2019s breadth betwixt them and sin; but\nhow easily are they brought over that. Like a man that walks upon the\nutmost verge of a river\u2019s brink, ofttimes meets with hollow ground and\na dangerous slip before he is aware.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Those also may be reckoned in the number of such as rush\nupon their danger, _who go abroad without their weapons, and forget in\nthe midst of daily dangers the means of preservation_. Thomas, by his\nneglect, slid into a greater unbelief than the rest of the apostles.\nDavid\u2019s unwatchful heart was easily smitten by the intelligence which\nhis eyes brought him. They that would plead their innocency against\ntemptation had need to carry their arms and preservatives still with\nthem.\n\n_Applic._ This truth is a sufficient caution against the _rash\nadventurousness of those who forwardly engage themselves in matters of\ntemptation_. As the former observation told us, temptations are not to\nbe feared, so this also tells they are not to be slighted. The carriage\nof the Philistines when the ark came among them is matter of imitation\nto us. We may tremble justly when we hear of their approach, but our\nhazard should be the whetstone of our courage, and our danger should\nbring us to resolves of a more stout resistance, that we may \u2018quit\nourselves like men.\u2019\n\nThe apostle, Gal. vi. 1, seems to imply, when he tells those that were\nmore severe and careless of others, that \u2018they may also be tempted,\u2019\nthat the best of men do little know what a change a temptation may\nmake upon them; a small temptation may be too strong for them, and\nmay carry them to what they never thought of; nay, may break down the\nstrongest of their resolves, and snap their purposes as a thread in a\nflame. It did so with Peter, who was quickly overcome by that which he\nhad with so much confidence undervalued.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n _The third circumstance, the place of the combat.\u2014The advantage given\n to temptations by solitude._\n\n\n3. The third circumstance next to be considered is _the place of this\ncombat, \u2018the wilderness.\u2019_ To inquire what or where this wilderness\nwas, is not only impertinent and useless, as to anything we can observe\nfrom it in reference to temptation, but also a matter of mere uncertain\nconjecture; only they that would understand it of a place more thinly\npeopled are expressly contradicted by Mark i. 13, where it is said,\n\u2018he was with the wild beasts;\u2019 noting thereby a desolate and dangerous\nsolitude, far remote from human society and comfort.\n\nIt is much more our concern to seek after the reasons of his choice\nof that place, or rather among those many that are given, to satisfy\nourselves with what may have the greatest appearance of truth. They\nthat think Christ hereby designed to shew the uncertain changes and\nvicissitudes of outward things in this life, or to point at the future\nlow estate of his church in the world, that it should sojourn in a\nwilderness; or to direct those that have dedicated themselves to God to\nwithdraw from the blandishments and allurements of the earth, with a\ngreat many more hints of instruction and document of that kind; they,\nI say, that offer no other, seem not to attend to the true design of\nthe choice of this place, which notwithstanding is evidently discovered\nto have been done in order to the temptation.[363] \u2018He was led into\nthe wilderness _to be tempted_.\u2019 The place then was subservient to the\nconflict, as the proper theatre on which so great a contest was to be\nacted. And if we shall but mind what special consideration was to be\nhad of such a place,\u2014a howling desolate wilderness,\u2014we may with ease\npitch upon these following reasons:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, It pleased God to have an eye to _the glory of Christ\u2019s\nconquests_, when in a single combat he should so remarkably foil the\ndevil, without any the least advantage on his part, there being none\nthat might be the least support or encouragement to him.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The condition of the place _gave rise to the first\ntemptation_. For in that he \u2018hungered\u2019 in a barren wilderness, it gave\noccasion to Satan to tempt him more strongly to \u2018turn stones into\nbread.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, In the choice of such a place God seems to offer Satan a\nspecial _advantage in tempting_, which was the solitude and danger of\nhis present condition.\n\nTo omit the two former considerations, as not altogether so useful,\nfurther than what I shall be engaged to speak to afterwards, this last\naffords this observation:\n\n_Obs._ 4. _That solitude affords a great advantage to Satan in the\nmatter of temptation._ This advantage ariseth from solitude two ways:\n\n(1.) First, _As it doth deprive us of help_. So great and many are\nthe blessed helps arising from the society and communion of such as\nfear the Lord, as counsel, comfort, encouragement from their graces,\nexperiences, and prayers, &c., that the woe pronounced to him \u2018that\nis alone\u2019 is not groundless, Eccles. iv. 10. Christians in a holy\ncombination can do more work, and so have a good reward for their\nlabour. They can mutually help one another when they fall; they can\nmutually heat and warm one another; they can also strengthen one\nanother\u2019s hands to prevail against an adversary. He then that is alone,\nbeing deprived of these advantages, lieth more open to the stroke of\ntemptation.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Solitude increaseth melancholy_, fills the soul\nwith dismal apprehensions; and withal doth so spoil and alter the\ntemper of it that it is not only ready to take any disadvantageous\nimpression, but it doth also dispose it to leaven and sour those very\nconsiderations that should support, and to put a bad construction on\nthings that never were intended for its hurt.\n\n_Applic._ This may warn us to take heed of giving Satan so great an\nadvantage against us, _as an unnecessary solitude may do_. I know there\nare times and occasions that do justly require us to seek a solitary\nplace for the privacy of duty, or for secret lamentations, as Jeremiah\ndesired, chap. ix. 1, 2, or to avoid the trouble and snare arising\nfrom our mixing with an assembly of treacherous and wicked men. This\nis no more than care and watchfulness. But when these reasons urge\nnot, or some of like nature, but either out of pettish discontent or a\nmopish reservedness, we withdraw from those aids and comforts which are\nnecessary for our support, we do strengthen Satan\u2019s hands against us\nand weaken our own.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n _The fourth circumstance, the end wherefore Christ was led to the\n wilderness.\u2014Holiness, employment, privileges, exempt not from\n temptation.\u2014Of temptations that leave not impressions of sin behind\n them.\u2014How Satan\u2019s temptations are distinguished from the lusts of our\n own heart._\n\n\n4. The fourth circumstance was _the end_. There was no other design in\nthe main of Christ\u2019s being led up and into the wilderness, but that\nhe might be \u2018tempted.\u2019 In this two things seem to be matter of equal\nwonder:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _Why Christ would submit to be tempted_. For this many\ngreat and weighty reasons may be given. As,\n\n[1.] First, Thus was Christ _evidenced to be the second Adam, and the\nseed of the woman_. His being tempted, and in such a manner, doth\nclearly satisfy us that he was true man; and that in that nature he it\nwas that was promised \u2018to break the serpent\u2019s head.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, This was a fair _preludium and earnest of that final\nconquest over Satan, and the breaking down of his power_.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, There was a more peculiar aim in God by these means\nof temptation to qualify him with _pity and power to help_, \u2018For in\nthat he suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are\ntempted,\u2019 Heb. ii. 18. And having experience of temptation himself, he\nbecame a merciful high-priest, apt to be \u2018touched with the feeling of\nour infirmities,\u2019 Heb. iv. 15.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _The consequence of this experimental compassion in\nChrist_, was a further reason why he submitted to be tempted, to\nwit, that we might have the greater comfort and encouragement in the\nexpectancy of tender dealing from him. Hence the apostle, Heb. iv. 16,\ninvites to \u2018come boldly to the throne of grace at any time of need.\u2019\n\n[5.] Fifthly, A further end God seemed to have in this, viz., _to give\na signal and remarkable instance to us of the nature of temptations_;\nof Satan\u2019s subtlety, his impudency, of the usual temptations which\nwe may expect; as also to teach us what weapons are necessary for\nresistance, and in what manner we must manage them.\n\n(2.) Secondly, It seems as strange that Satan would _undertake a thing\nso unfeasible and hopeless as the tempting of Christ_. What expectation\ncould he have to prevail against him, who was \u2018anointed with the oil\nof gladness above his fellows\u2019? [Ps. xlv. 7.] Some answer,\n\n[1.] First, That Satan might possibly _doubt whether Christ were the\nSon of God or no_. But the improbability of this I shall speak of\nafterwards.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Others attribute it to his _malice_, which indeed is\ngreat, and might possibly blind him to a desperate undertaking. But,\n\n[3.] Thirdly, We may justly apprehend _the power of sin over Satan to\nbe so great that it might enforce him to the bold attempt of such a\nwickedness_. We see daily that wicked men, by the force of their own\nwicked principles, are restlessly hurried upon acts of sin, though they\nknow the prohibition, and are not ignorant of the threatened danger.\nSatan is as great a slave to his own internal corrupt principles as\nany. And whatsoever blind fury is stirred up in man by the power of his\nlust, we may very well suppose the like in Satan.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _There is a superior hand upon the devil, that sways,\nlimits, and orders him in his temptations_. He cannot tempt when he\nwould, neither always what he would, but in his own cursed inclinations\nand the acting of them, he is forced to be subservient to God\u2019s\ndesigns. And in this particular, whatever might be Satan\u2019s proper end\nor principle, it is evident that God carried on a gracious design for\nthe instruction and comfort of his children.\n\nThe end of Christ\u2019s going to the wilderness being that he might be\ntempted, if together with this the holiness and dignity of Christ in\nrespect of his person and office be considered, we may note from it,\n\n_Obs._ 5. _That neither height of privilege, nor eminency of\nemployment, nor holiness of person, will discourage Satan from\ntempting, or secure any from his assaults._ The best of men in the\nhighest attainments may expect temptations. Grace itself doth not\nexempt them.\n\n(1.) For first, None of these privileges _in us, nor eminencies of\ngrace, want matter to fix a temptation upon_. The weaknesses of the\nbest of men are such that a temptation is not rendered improbable, as\nto the success, by their graces. Nay, there are special occasions and\ninclinations in them, to encourage temptations of pride and neglect. He\nfound indeed nothing in Christ that might offer the least probability\nof prevalency; but in the best of men, in their best estate, he can\nfind some encouragement for his attempts.\n\n(2.) Secondly, None of us are beyond _the necessity of such exercises_.\nIt cannot be said that we need them not, or that there may not be holy\nends wherefore God should not permit and order them for our good.\nTemptations, as they are in God\u2019s disposal, are a necessary spiritual\nphysic. The design of them is to humble us, to prove us, and to do us\ngood in the latter end, Deut. viii. 16. Nothing will work more of care,\nwatchfulness, diligence, and fear in a gracious heart, than a sense\nof Satan\u2019s designment against it. Nothing puts a man more to prayer,\nbreathing after God, desiring to be dissolved, and running to Christ,\nthan the troublesome and afflictive pursuits of Satan. Nothing brings\nmen more from the love of the world, and to a delight in the ordinances\nof God, than the trouble which here abides them unavoidably from Satan.\nThis discipline the best have need of. There are such remainders of\npride and other evils in them, that if God should not permit these\npricks and thorns to humble them, and thereby also awaken them to\nlaborious watchfulness, they would be careless, secure, and sadly\ndeclining. This made Augustine conclude that it was no way expedient\nthat we should want temptations,[364] and that Christ taught us as much\nwhen he directed us not to pray that we should \u2018not be tempted,\u2019 but\nthat we might not be \u2018led into the power and prevalency of temptation.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _The privileges and graces of the children of God do\nstir up Satan\u2019s pride, revenge, and rage against them_. And though he\nhath no encouragement to expect so easy a conquest over these as he\nhath over others, who are captivated by him at pleasure; yet hath he\nencouragements to attempt them, for the singular use and advantage he\nmakes of any success against them, the difficulty of the work being\nrecompensed by the greatness of the booty. For the fall of a child\nof God, especially of such as are noted above others, is as when \u2018a\nstandard-bearer fainteth,\u2019 [Isa. x. 18;] or as the fall of an oak,\nthat bears down with it the lower shrubs that stand near it. How the\nhearts of others fail for fear, lest they should also be overcome; how\nthe hearts of some grow thereby bold and venturesome; how a general\ndisgrace and discredit thereby doth accrue to religion, and the sincere\nprofession of it, are things of usual observation. If such men had not\nin them something of special prey in case of conquest, his pride would\nnot so readily carry him against the heads and chief of the people,\nwhile he seems to overlook the meaner and weaker. Out-houses, though\nmore accessible, are not the objects of the thief\u2019s design, but the\ndwellinghouse, though stronger built and better guarded, because it\naffords hopes of richer spoil, is usually assaulted. Neither do pirates\nso much set themselves to take empty vessels, though weakly manned,\nbut richly laden ships, though better able to make resistance, are the\nships of their desire.\n\n_Applic._ 1. This may be applied for _the encouraging of those that\nthink it strange that temptations do so haunt them_, especially that\nthey should, in their apprehension, be more troubled by him when they\nfly furthest from him. The consideration of this will much allay these\nthoughts, by these inferences which it affords:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _There is nothing unusual befalls these complainants_.\nSatan frequently doth so to others; they cannot justly say their\ncase is singular, or that they are alone in such disturbances; it\nis but what is common to man. If they urge the uncessantness of the\ndevil\u2019s attempts, Christ and others have felt the like. If they object\nthe peculiar strangeness and horridness of the temptation, as most\nunsuitable to the state of an upright soul, Christ met with the like.\nHe was tempted to self-destruction, to distrust, to blasphemy itself in\nthe highest degree.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _There is a good advantage to be made of them_: they are\npreservations from other sins that would otherwise grow upon us.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, These temptations to the upright do but argue Satan\u2019s\n_loss of interest in them, and their greater sensibility of the\ndanger_. The captivated sinners complain not so much, because they are\nso inured to temptation that they mind not Satan\u2019s frequent accesses.\nHe that studies humility is more sensible of a temptation to pride than\nhe that is proud.[365]\n\n2. Secondly, This is also of use to those that are apt to be _confident\nupon their successes against sin through grace_. Satan, they may\nsee, will be upon them again; so that they must behave themselves as\nmariners, who, when they have got the harbour, and are out of the\nstorm, mend their ship and tackling, and prepare again for the sea.\n\nLastly, If we consider the unspotted holiness of Christ, and his\nconstant integrity under these temptations, that they left not the\nleast of taint or sinful impression upon him, we may observe,\n\n_Obs._ 6. _That there may be temptations, without leaving a touch of\nguilt or impurity behind them upon the tempted._\n\nIt is true this is rare with men. The best do seldom go down to the\nbattle, but in their very conquests they receive some wound; and\nin those temptations that arise from our own hearts, we are never\nwithout fault; but in such as do solely arise from Satan, there is a\npossibility that the upright may so keep himself, that the wicked one\nmay not so touch him as to leave the print of his fingers behind him.\n\n_Quest._ But the great difficulty is, How it may be known when\ntemptations are from Satan, and when from ourselves?\n\n_Ans._ To answer this I shall lay down these conclusions:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, The same sins which _our own natures would suggest to us,\nmay also be injected by Satan_. Sometimes we begin by the forward\nworking of our own thoughts upon occasions and objects presented to\nus from without, or from the power of our own inclination, without\nthe offer of external objects, and then Satan strikes in with it.\nSometimes Satan begins with us, and by his injected motions endeavours\nto excite our inclinations; so that the same thing may be sometime from\nourselves, and sometimes from Satan.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _There is no sin so vile, but our own heart might\npossibly produce it without Satan_. Evil thoughts of the very worst\nkind, as of murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies\nmay, as Christ speaks, Mat. xv. 19, be produced naturally from our own\nhearts; for seminally all sins, the very greatest of all impieties, are\nthere. So that from the greatness and vileness of the temptation we\ncannot absolutely conclude that it is from Satan, no more than from the\ncommonness of the temptation, or its suitableness to our inclination,\nwe can conclude infallibly that its first rise is from ourselves.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, There are many cases wherein it _is very difficult, if\nnot altogether impossible, to determine whether our own heart or Satan\ngives the first life or breathing to a temptation_. Who can determine,\nin most ordinary cases, when our thoughts are working upon objects\npresented to our senses, whether Satan or our own thoughts do run\nfaster? Yea, when such thoughts are not the consequent of any former\noccasion, it is a work too hard for most men to determine which of the\nparents, father or mother, our own heart or Satan, is first in the\nfault. They are both forward enough, and usually join hand in hand\nwith such readiness, that he must have a curious eye that can discover\ncertainly to whom the first beginning is to be ascribed.\n\nThe difficulty is so great, that some have judged it altogether\nimpossible to give any certain marks by which it may be determined\nwhen they are ours and when Satan\u2019s.[366] And indeed the discoveries\nlaid down by some are not sufficient for a certain determination; and\nso far I assent, that neither the suddenness of such thoughts\u2014for the\nmotions of our own lusts may be sudden\u2014nor the horridness of the matter\nof them, are sufficient notes of distinction. That our own corrupt\nhearts may bring forth that which is unnatural and terrible, cannot be\ndenied. Many of the sins of the heathens mentioned in Rom. i. were the\nviolent productions of lust against natural principles; and to ascribe\nthese to the devil, as to the first instigator, is more than any man\nhath warrant to do. Yet though it be confessed that in some cases it\nis impossible to distinguish, and that where a distinction may be\nmade, these notes mentioned are not fully satisfactory, there may, I\nbelieve, be some cases wherein there is a possibility to discover when\nthe motions are from Satan, and that by the addition of some remarkable\ncircumstances to the fore-named marks of difference.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Though it be true, which some say,[367] that in most\ncases it is needless altogether to spend our time in disputing whether\nthe motions of sin in our minds are firstly from ourselves or from\nSatan, our greatest business being rather to resist them than to\ndifference them; _yet there are special cases wherein it is very\nnecessary to find out the true parent of a sinful motion_, and these\nare when tender consciences are wounded and oppressed with violent and\ngreat temptations, as blasphemous thoughts, atheistical objections,\n&c. For here Satan in his furious molestations aims mainly at this,\nthat such afflicted and tossed souls should take all these thoughts\nwhich are obtruded upon their imaginations, to be the issue of their\nown heart. As Joseph\u2019s steward hid the cup in Benjamin\u2019s sack, that\nit might be a ground of accusation against him, so doth the devil\nfirst oppress them with such thoughts, and then accuseth them of all\nthat villainy and wickedness, the motions whereof he had with such\nimportunity forced upon them; and so apt are the afflicted to comply\nwith accusations against themselves, that they believe it is so,\nand from thence conclude that they are given up of God, hardened as\nPharaoh, that they have sinned against the Holy Ghost, and finally\nthat there is no hope of mercy for them. All this befalls them from\ntheir ignorance of Satan\u2019s dealings, and here is their great need to\ndistinguish Satan\u2019s malice from their guilt.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Setting aside ordinary temptations, wherein it is neither\nso possible nor so material to busy ourselves to find out whether they\nare Satan\u2019s or ours;\u2014in extraordinary temptations, such as have been\nnow instanced, we may discover if they proceed from Satan, though\nnot simply from the matter of them, not from the suddenness and\nindependency of them, yet from _a due consideration of their nature and\nmanner of proceeding, compared with the present temper and disposition\nof our heart_. As,\n\n[1.] First, _When unusual temptations intrude upon us with a high\nimpetuosity and violence, while our thoughts are otherwise concerned\nand taken up_.[368] Temptations more agreeable to our inclination,\nthough suddenly arising from objects and occasions presented, and\ngradually proceeding, after the manner of the working of natural\npassions, may throng in amidst our thoughts or actions that have no\ntendency that way, and yet we cannot so clearly accuse Satan for them;\nbut when things that have not the encouragement of our affections\nare by a sudden violence enforced upon us, while we are otherwise\nconcerned, we may justly suspect Satan\u2019s hand to be in them.\n\n[2.] Secondly, While such things are borne in upon us, against the\n_actual loathing, strenuous reluctancy, and high complainings of the\nsoul, when the mind is filled with horror and the body with trembling\nat the presence of such thoughts_.[369] Sins that owe their first\noriginal to ourselves, may indeed be resisted upon their first rising\nup in our mind; and though a sanctified heart doth truly loathe them,\nyet they are not without some lower degree of tickling delight upon the\naffections; for the flesh in those cases presently riseth up with its\nlustings for the sinful motion; but when such unnatural temptations\nare from Satan, their first appearance to the mind is a horror without\nany sensible working of inclination towards them; and the greatness\nof the soul\u2019s disquiet doth shew that it hath met with that which the\naffections look not on with any amicable compliance.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Our hearts may bring forth that which is _unnatural in\nitself, and may give rise to a temptation that would be horrid to the\nthoughts of other men_, but that it should of its own accord, without\na tempter, on a sudden bring forth that which is directly contrary to\nits present light, reason, or inclination; as for a man to be haunted\nwith thoughts of atheism, while he is under firm persuasions that there\nis a God; or of blasphemy, while he is under designs of honouring him,\nis as unimaginable as that our thoughts should of themselves contrive\nour death, while we are most solicitous for our life; or that our\nthoughts should soberly tell us it is night when we see the sun shine.\nTemptations that are contrary to the present state, posture, light,\nand disposition of the soul are Satan\u2019s. They are so unnatural as to\nits present frame, that the production of them must be from some other\nagent.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Much more evident is it that such proceed from Satan,\nwhen they are of _long continuance and constant trouble_, when they so\nincessantly beat upon the mind, that it hath no rest from them, and yet\nis under grievous perplexities and anxieties of mind about them.\n\n_Applic._ The consideration of this is of great use to those that\nsuffer under the violent hurries of strange temptations.\n\n(1.) First, In that sometime they can justly complain of _the\naffliction of such temptation_, when they have no reason to charge\nit upon themselves as their sin. It is one thing to be tempted, and\nanother to consent or comply. To be tempted, and not to be brought into\ntemptation, is not evil. Satan only barks when he suggests, but he then\nbites and wounds when he draws us to consent.[370]\n\n(2.) Secondly, That not only the _sin but the degree also_, by just\nconsequence, is to be measured by the consent of the heart. If we\nconsent not, the sin is not ours, and the less degree of consent we\ngive, the less is in the sin.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n_And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards\nan hungered._\u2014Mat. iv. 2.\n\n _Of Christ\u2019s fast, with the design thereof.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s tempting in an\n invisible way.\u2014Of his incessant importunities, and how he flies when\n resisted.\u2014Of inward temptations, with outward afflictions.\u2014Several\n advantages Satan hath by tempting in affliction._\n\n\nI am next to explain _the fast of Christ, the end and design whereof,\nbecause it is not expressly mentioned, is variously conjectured_. Not\nto insist in this discourse, which is designed for practice, on the\ncontroversy about the Quadragesimal fast, that which I shall first\nconsider is the opinion of Musculus,[371] who, upon this ground that\nhis fast was not the principal thing for which the Spirit led him into\nthe wilderness; for he was not led to fast, but to be tempted\u2014thereupon\nconcludes, that this was only a consequent of his solitary condition\nin the wilderness, and no other thing than what befell Moses and Elias,\nwho being engaged by God to attend him in such a service, where the\nordinary means of the support of life were wanting, were therefore kept\nalive by him in an extraordinary way without them. Thus he thinks the\nfasting was not, at least principally, designed, but that he being to\nundergo a temptation in a desolate wilderness where he had no meat to\neat, there God restrained his hunger, so that he neither desired nor\nneeded any. If we acquiesce in this, it will afford this doctrine:\u2014\n\n_Doct._ 1. _That when God leads forth his children to such services as\nshall unavoidably deprive them of the ordinary means of help or supply,\nthere God is engaged to give extraordinary support, and his people may\nexpect it accordingly._\n\nThis is a great truth in itself, and a great and necessary\nencouragement to all the children of God that are called out to\nstraits; but I shall not insist on this as the genuine product of this\nfast.\n\nIf we look further amongst protestant divines, we shall observe\nit taken for granted, that Christ fasted upon design, and this is\ngenerally reduced to those two heads:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, Either for _instruction_: as to shew that he was _God,\nby fasting so long_, and that under the trouble of molesting and\ndisquieting temptations; whereas the fasts of like date in Moses or\nElias were accompanied with the quiet repose of their thoughts; or to\nshew that he was _man, in that he really felt the natural infirmities\nof the human nature, in being hungry_; or to teach us _the usefulness\nof fasting in the general_, when fit occasions invite us thereto; or,\n\n(2.) Secondly, _For confirmation of his doctrine_, to put an honour\nand dignity upon his employment;[372] as Elias fasted at the restoring\nof prophecy, and at the Reformation. As Moses fasted at the writing\nof the law, so Christ began the gospel of the kingdom with fasting.\nHowever, that these things cannot be spoken against, being conclusions\nwarrantably deducible from this act of Christ\u2019s; yet these seem\nnot, in my apprehension, to come fully up to the proper end of this\nundertaking of his; which seems not obscurely to be laid before us in\nthat passage of Luke iv. 2, \u2018being forty days tempted of the devil; and\nin those days he did eat nothing;\u2019 where we see that his being \u2018tempted\nforty days\u2019 was the principal thing, and that his fasting had a plain\nreference and respect to his temptation. Thus far, I suppose, we may\nbe secure, that we have the design in the general, that his fasting\nwas in order to his temptation. But then whether this was designed as\nan occasion of the temptations, or as a remedy against them, it is\nnot so easy to determine. That one of those, at least, was intended,\ncannot be denied by those that will grant that his fast related to the\ncombat; and it seems not to labour of any repugnacy or absurdity, if\nwe say that it is possible that both these ends might be aimed at, and\naccordingly I shall proceed to observe upon them. There are only some\nother things to be first despatched out of the way: as\n\nThe continuance of the fast, why it was forty days, neither more nor\nless. Though some adventure to give reasons for it,[373] not only\npapists, who, according to their wont, are ridiculous and trifling in\nthis matter; but also protestants, supposing that some regard was, or\nought to be, had to his fulfilling the times of the fasts of Moses\nand Elias; yet I think it is neither pertinent nor safe to determine\nanything about it, only it observes to us that the continuance of this\nwas a considerable time.\n\nWe are more concerned to inquire whether Christ was under any conflict\nof temptation all that time;[374] which although some deny, lest they\nshould favour a seeming contradiction among the evangelists, yet the\nwords of Luke are so express, \u2018being forty days tempted of the devil,\u2019\nLuke iv. 2, that no tolerable evasion can be found to cast these\ntemptations to the end of the forty days; for he tells us, he was not\nonly tempted after the expiration of the forty days, but that he was\ntempted during the continuance of the forty days beside; only there was\na difference in the kinds of these temptations, in regard of the way\nwherein Satan managed them, and this also is fully set down by Matthew,\n\u2018And when the tempter came to him,\u2019 which with the other expression of\nLuke compared, shews us, that during the space of the forty days Satan\ntempted Christ, and yet came not to him till afterward\u2014that is, he\nmanaged those temptations in an invisible way. Hence we may note,\n\n_Doct._ 2. _That Satan doth usually tempt in an invisible way and\nmanner._ To explain this a little, I shall evidence it by a few\nconsiderations. As,\n\n(1.) First, _That he hath a hand in all sins first or last, and then\nit must needs be in an invisible way_. His work is to tempt, to go\nabout laying snares to draw men to sin. Wicked men are \u2018of their father\nthe devil,\u2019 John viii. 44, and do his works. Carnal desires are \u2018his\nlusts;\u2019 giving way to anger is \u2018giving place to the devil,\u2019 Eph. iv.\n26, 27, and resisting of sin is called in the general, \u2018a resisting of\nthe devil,\u2019 &c., James iv. 7. In all this work of Satan, men do not see\nhim. When he puts evil motions into their hearts they do not perceive\nhim, and therefore doth he his work in an invisible way.\n\n(2.) Secondly, We have sufficient discoveries of these private paths of\nhis: for, [1.] Sometime he tempts by _friends_: he tempted Job by his\nwife, Christ by Peter. [2.] Sometime by _external objects_, as he drew\nout Achan\u2019s covetousness, and David\u2019s uncleanness, by the eye. [3.]\nSometime by _injecting thoughts and motions_ to our mind. [4.] Sometime\nby exercising an _invisible power upon our bodies_, in stirring up the\nhumours thereof, to provoke to passion or excessive mirth. All these\nways, of which I have discoursed before more largely, are secret and\ninvisible, and by such as these he most usually tempts.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _The wiles, depths, secrets, and devices of Satan_,\nwhich the Scripture tells us are his most familiar ways and courses,\nthey in their own nature imply a studied or designed secrecy and\nimperceptibility.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, He hath peculiar _reasons of policy_ for his invisible\nway of dealing; for the less visible he is, the less suspicious are his\ndesigns, and consequently the less frightful and more taking. By this\nway he insinuates himself so into our bosoms, that he gets a party in\nus against ourselves before we are aware; whereas in vain he knows he\nshould spread his net if his designs and enmity were discovered to us.\n\n_Applic._ This must teach us to suspect Satan where we see him not, and\nso to converse with objects and occasions as still fearing that there\nmay be _anguis in herba_, a secret snare laid for us to entrap us at\nunawares.\n\nIf we again cast our eyes upon what hath been said, that Christ was\ntempted \u2018all the forty days,\u2019 it will then give us this observation:\u2014\n\n_Doct._ 3. _That Satan is sometime incessant in temptations, and sets\nupon us with continued importunities._\n\nHere we may note a distinction of temptations, besides that of\ninvisible and visible, of which I have spoken, that some are moveable\nand short fits, and as it were skirmishes, in which he stays not\nlong, and others are more fixed and durable. We may call them solemn\ntemptations, in which Satan doth, as it were, pitch down his tents,\nand doth manage a long siege against us. Of these last sort is this\nobservation.\n\nThus he tempted Paul, continuing his assault for some time before\nhe departed, 2 Cor. xii. 8. Thus also he dealt with Joseph, who was\nsolicited day by day for a long time together, Gen. xxxix. 10. Of these\nI shall note a few things. As,\n\n(1.) First, Such temptations are not without a _special commission_. He\ncannot indeed tempt at all without leave, but in the ordinary course of\nhis temptations he hath a general commission under such restraints and\nlimitations as pleaseth the Most High to put upon him; but in these he\nmust have a special order, as we see in Job\u2019s case.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Such temptations have also _a special ground_. Either\nthe present state and posture of our condition is such as Satan\napprehends highly advantageous for his design, and therefore he desires\nto have the winnowing of us at such a season; or there are more than\nordinary dispositions and inclinations in our heart to what we are\ndirectly tempted to, or to some other consequent design. These animate\nand encourage him to high resolves of prosecuting us more closely, upon\nan expectation that a continued solicitation is most likely to prevail\nat the long run.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, It is possible that such temptations _may stand out\nagainst the endeavours of many prayers_, and that we shall find they\nare not so easily shaken off as the viper that was upon Paul\u2019s hand.\nPaul, 2 Cor. xii. 8, prayed thrice against the messenger of Satan, that\nis, as Estius and others interpret, he prayed often and fervently, and\nyet it departed not.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Such temptations give _no rest nor intermission_; men\nare haunted and dogged by them; what way soever they go, they still\nhear the same things, and cannot command their thoughts to give an\nexclusion to his motions, but still by renewed disputes and arguings,\nor by clamorous importunities, they are vexed and tormented: which\nsurely shews a high degree of earnestness and impudency in Satan.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, These are consequently _very burdensome, exceeding\nirksome and tiresome to us_. Paul calls them \u2018buffetings,\u2019 for their\ntrouble and molestation. Satan so molested Job in his affliction by\ninward accusations and troubles of terror, that, as an overwearied man,\nhe cries out he had no quiet, and that he was disappointed of his hope\nof ease in sleep, because he was then \u2018scared with dreams and terrified\nwith visions,\u2019 [Job vii. 14.]\n\n(6.) Sixthly, These are also upon a special design _on God\u2019s part,\neither to find us work and to keep us doing, or to prevent sin and\nmiscarriage_; to keep down our pride, lest we should be \u2018exalted\nabove measure,\u2019 [2 Cor. xii. 7;] to awaken us from slothfulness and\nsecurity, lest we should \u2018settle upon our lees,\u2019 [Jer. xlviii. 11;] or\nto be an occasion of his grace, and an evidence of his power in our\npreservation, satisfying us and others, that in the greatest shocks of\nour spiritual battle his \u2018grace is sufficient for us,\u2019 [2 Cor. xii.\n9.] Upon these, and such like designs as these, doth the most wise God\npermit it.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, Satan doth not attempt temptations of this kind but\nupon _a special design_, and that either because he hopes by a violent\nand pertinacious impetuosity at length to prevail, or that he would\nplease himself to molest us; for surely the cries and complainings of\nGod\u2019s children are music in his ears; or at least upon a design to\ndiscourage us in our services, and to make way for other temptations\nof murmuring, blasphemy, despair, &c., which are as a reserve or\nambushment laid in wait for us. The inferences from hence are these\ntwo:\u2014\n\n_Applic._ 1. That the children of God under such temptations may be\nencouraged under a patient expectation, by considering that Christ\ndid undergo the like assaults from Satan. It is in itself tedious and\ndisheartening, but they may see,\n\n(1.) First, That this way of trouble _is usual, and that to the best_;\nand therefore they should not faint under it.\n\n(2.) Secondly, That grace _is sufficient to preserve from the\nprevalency of the most earnest temptations_ even there, where our\nheavenly Father thinks it not fit to preserve us from the trouble of\nthem. When Paul gives the highest security that the faithfulness of God\ncan afford, that temptations shall not be above strength, 1 Cor. x. 13,\nor the ability that shall be given them, he tells them they are not to\nexpect always such aids as shall presently drive away the temptation,\nthat it must immediately vanish, or that their temptations shall\nbecome light and contemptible, but that God\u2019s faithfulness will be no\nfurther engaged in the general, than [1.] to make their temptations\ntolerable, that they \u2018may be able to bear them,\u2019 though not without\nmuch to do. [2.] That the \u2018way of escape\u2019 shall be concurrent with the\ncontinuance of the temptation, that though the temptation abide, yet we\nshall be aided under it. [3.] That yet he is as careful of our help in\ntemptations as he is ready to commissionate them, when need requires.\nHis resolves that we should be tempted, and his resolves that we should\nbe succoured, they bear the same date. \u2018With the temptation he will\nmake a way to escape.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, That such temptations do not argue [1.] either a\nlikelihood, much less a necessity, that they should prevail; nor [2.]\nany want of care and love in God; nor [3.] do they always evidence a\nmore than ordinary proneness and inclination in us; for Christ, who\nwas most averse to the least of sin, who was highest in God\u2019s love,\nagainst whom there was no possibility he should prevail, yet was thus\ntempted.\n\n_Applic._ 2. Secondly, In such continued violences it will concern us\nto _make stout resistances_; according to the counsel of James, chap.\niv. 7, \u2018Resist the devil, and he will fly.\u2019\n\n_Obj._ But I have done so, and yet the temptation is the same, and\nstill continues.\n\n_Ans._ (1.) First, It is not enough _to resist, but we must continue\nto do so_. Some make limited resistances, as besieged persons that set\na time for their holding out, and then if they be not relieved at that\ntime, they yield; but we must resolve a perpetual resistance, as long\nas the temptation lasts. When one hand is beaten off, we must hold by\nanother; when both are beaten off, we must, as it were, hold by our\nteeth.\n\n(2.) Secondly, In a faithful resistance, we may _cast the whole matter\nupon God_, and engage him in the quarrel; as David: \u2018I will say unto\nGod, Why hast thou forsaken me?\u2019 &c.\n\n_Obj._ But how is it consistent with truth that the temptation should\ncontinue, when James tells us that Satan will fly upon resistance?\n\n_Ans._ (1.) It may be _the resistance is not as it ought, and so the\nblame is ours_. If we be not serious, as some who defy the devil in\nwords, and resist him by crossing themselves, things which doubtless\nthe devil laughs at; or if in the confidence of a presumptuous bravado,\nor if not with that humility and care that is requisite, it will be no\nwonder if he depart not.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _He doth fly at every resistance more or less_; he doth\ngive back, and is discouraged, and is a loser by every opposition.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Though the scripture say that he shall fly,\u2014that is,\nsooner or later,\u2014yet it doth not say _that he shall do so immediately_,\nthough most usually he doth so where he is peremptorily rejected.\nBut in some cases time must be allowed; for the devil, as it is in\nChrysostom\u2019s comparison, stands like a fawning dog scratching and\nwaving his tail, and if anything be given him, it makes him importunate\nfor more; yet though we give him nothing, we cannot expect that the\nfirst or second denial should make him cease his trouble: as he hath\nbeen encouraged by former compliances, so will he not be discouraged\nbut with many and continued denials.\n\nIf we consider the fast of Christ as an occasion designed by God for\nan advantage to the temptation, and then look upon his condition\nin the wilderness, being under hazards from wild beasts, in want\nof necessaries, and without a possibility of supplies in a usual\nway, and also under the discomforts of cold and long nights,\u2014for\naccording to the conjectures of some this was about our October and\nNovember[375]\u2014then we may observe,\n\n_Doct._ 4. _That it is Satan\u2019s way to second outward distresses and\nafflictions with inward temptations._ We see the like carriage of Satan\ntoward Job. His affliction was followed with many temptations. All\nhis friends, in urging him with hypocrisy, were no other than parties\nto Satan\u2019s design, though they knew it not apparently. His wife is\nset on by the tempter, as the serpent against Eve, to provoke him to\n\u2018curse God and die.\u2019 Besides all this, whosoever shall consider what\ninward workings of heart, spiritual trouble and conflict, his words\nfrequently express, they will quickly find that when God put Job into\nSatan\u2019s hand, under that only limitation of not touching his life, he\ngave Satan a liberty to pursue him with inward temptations as well as\noutward vexations. When Israel was pinched with the straits of the\nwilderness, Satan was most busy with them to put them upon distrust,\nmurmuring, revolt, disobedient oppositions, idolatry, and what not.\nDavid gives in his experience to confirm this truth. He never met with\noutward troubles but he had also inward temptations with them, as\nfretting, disquiet, sad apprehensions of God\u2019s wrath, haste, distrust,\nfear, &c., as the relation of his several straits do testify. And\nbesides these, the generality of God\u2019s children find it so. Outward\nafflictions seldom pass alone. When they have \u2018fightings without,\u2019 they\nhave \u2018fears within\u2019 usually. Seldom have they a sickness, or meet with\na sad providence, but they have Satan busy with their souls, molesting\ntheir peace, or endeavouring to ensnare them. Thus their feet are never\nin the stocks but the iron enters into their soul. And for this reason\nis it that outward afflictions and troubles are called temptations in\nScripture, because temptations usually accompany them, and they are\nindeed the solemn seasons that Satan desires to improve for that end;\nand for that is it that Luke expresseth that which we translate a time\nof temptation by \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6, which signifies an occasion or\nopportunity of temptation, Luke viii. 13; 1 Peter i. 6; 2 Peter ii. 9.\n\nThe temptations that Satan drives on, upon the advantage of an\nafflicted estate, are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, To drive men upon _impatient outbreakings against God_, as\nthe Israelites in the wilderness turn upon Moses with this, \u2018Hast thou\nbrought us into the wilderness to slay us?\u2019 [Exod. xiv. 11.] To this\ntended Job\u2019s temptation by his wife, \u2018Curse God, and die,\u2019 as it is in\nour translation, which cannot in anywise admit of the excuse that Beza\nmakes for her, as if she gave wholesome advice, \u2018to die blessing of\nGod,\u2019 because he reproves her sharply as having spoken foolishly and\nwickedly; but at best it is an ironical scoff at Job\u2019s integrity, \u2018Dost\nthou bless God while thou art killed by his displeasure?\u2019 if it be not\na direct suggestion of revengeful despite. At such times men are too\napt to entertain cruel thoughts of God, and sadly reflective upon his\nmercy or justice.\n\n(2.) Secondly, In this posture of affliction he strives to put them\n_upon direful conclusions against themselves_, as if God called\nsolemnly their sin to remembrance, and that they are forsaken of God,\nand marked out for destruction, the pledge and earnest whereof they\ntake these troubles to be. We may observe that David\u2019s afflictions\nawakened his conscience to object guilt and miscarriage, so that he is\nas earnest to deprecate the marking and remembrance of his sin as he is\nto pray against his troubles. For this see Ps. xxv. 6, 7, xxxviii. 1, 4.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, He pusheth them usually upon _contempt of religion, and\nabandoning the ways of God_. We are too apt to blame religion for all\nour troubles; and as we expect that our owning the ways of God should\nsecure us from outward affliction, so when we find it otherwise we\nare too forward to say, \u2018We have washed our hands in vain,\u2019 &c., [Ps.\nlxxiii. 13.]\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _The sin of distrust is another evil that he drives at_;\nhe would have men conclude that God cannot or will not deliver. \u2018Can\nGod prepare a table in the wilderness?\u2019 said the Israelites, by the\npower of temptation, when they were distressed, [Ps. lxxviii. 19.]\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Another evil aimed at in such a case, is to put us upon\n_indirect courses and ways to escape from our troubles_. _Flectere\nsi nequeo superos_, &c. Saul went to the witch of Endor when God\nanswered him not. Distresses naturally prompt such things, and a little\ntemptation makes us comply, as is noted by the wise man\u2019s desire, \u2018Give\nme not poverty, lest I put out my hand and steal,\u2019 [Prov. xxx. 9.]\nDistresses of poverty put men upon theft and unlawful ways.\n\nThe reasons of Satan\u2019s tempting the afflicted are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, That outward afflictions are _a load and burden_. This\ngives a probability that his designs may the better take place. It is\neasy to overthrow those that are bowed down, to break those that are\nbruised, to master those that are weary and weak-handed.\n\n(2.) Secondly, An afflicted estate is _a temptation of itself, and\nnaturally dictates evil things_. It is half of his design brought to\nhis hand, it affords variety of matter for a temptation to work on.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Such a condition _strongly backs a temptation, and\nfurnisheth many arguments for a prevalency_; for troubles are serious\nthings; they speak to the heart, and what they speak, they speak\nfiercely; they represent things otherwise than common discovery can do,\nand for the most part they shew an ingenuity in multiplying fears, and\naggravating hazard, and ascertaining suspected events, so that Satan\ncan scarce desire a fairer hit than what these offer him.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, They also give him the advantage _of darkness_; for to\nsuch their \u2018way is hid,\u2019 Job iii. 23, and God hath hedged them in; they\nneither know where they are, whether their trouble be a chastisement of\nsin, or for trial, or for prevention of miscarriage, or to make way for\nmore comfortable manifestations; and as little know they how to behave\nthemselves in their trouble, or how and when to get out of it. In such\ngroping uncertainties, it is scarce possible but they should be put\nwrong.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, An afflicted condition brings _on weakness and\nindisposition to duty_; it makes the hands weak, and the knees feeble.\nThis made Job to faint, chap. iv. 5; this dried up David\u2019s strength.\nThe first assault of an affliction doth stound, and put it into such a\nconfusion, that hope turns back, and faith is to seek, and every grace\nso out of order, that a man shall be unable to do anything of duty in a\ncomfortable manner.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, In this case men are apt to conclude _their prayers\nare not heard_: \u2018I cry in the day-time, and thou hearest not,\u2019 [Ps.\nxxii. 2,] says David; \u2018Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious?\u2019 [Ps.\nlxxvii. 9.] And with such seeming probability is this urged upon us by\naffliction, that Job professeth he could not believe his own sense and\nknowledge in such a case. \u2018If I had called, and he had answered me;\nyet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice,\u2019 Job ix.\n16.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, Afflictions strongly _fix guilt upon us_, and represent\nGod \u2018searching out our iniquities, and inquiring after our sin,\u2019 Job x.\n6.\n\n(8.) Eighthly, They _imbitter the spirit_, and beget impressions upon\nthe mind, of very hard thoughts of God.\n\n(9.) Ninthly, They violently push men on _to speak unadvisedly_. There\nis such a swelling ferment of the old leaven of impatience and distrust\nin the mind, that it is matter of pain and difficulty to be silent:\n\u2018Their belly is as wine that hath no vent; it is ready to burst like\nnew bottles,\u2019 and they are \u2018weary with forbearing and cannot stay, and\nmust speak let come on them what will,\u2019 Job xxxii. 19.\n\nAll these advantages doth an afflicted condition bring to Satan; and\nwho can think that he who is so studious of our ruin will be willing to\nmiss so fair an opportunity?\n\n_Applic._ (1.) First, This must teach us to have _a watchful eye over\naffliction_. Though at all times we must expect Satan\u2019s stratagems, yet\nin troubles especially prepare for them; according to the wise man\u2019s\nadvice, \u2018In a day of adversity, consider,\u2019 [Eccles. vii. 14.]\n\n(2.) Secondly, Seeing Satan takes advantage of the sharp humours of\nimpatience and distrust, we must be particularly careful not _to touch\ntoo much upon the harshness of our troubles_, because this is that\nthat sets fretting and distracting thoughts on work. Afflictions, like\nthe pillar of the cloud and fire in the wilderness, have a light and\ndarkness; and accordingly, those that converse with the dark side of\ntroubles envenom their imaginations, and poison their thoughts with\ndark and hideous conclusions, and, in a word, draw forth nothing but\nthe wormwood and the gall; whereas those that study and view the\nlight side of them are full of praise and admiration for the gracious\nmixtures, comfortable mitigations, encouraging supports, &c., which\nthey observe. It is wisdom then to keep upon the right side of them.\n\nThough it be the design of God to turn the dark side of the cloud to\nus, yet may we have a competent light to guide us if we would improve\nit. When the sun is set, the moon may be up. Nay, it is our duty to\nstrive to recover the right side of the cloud. He hides that we may\nseek.\n\nIf this fast of Christ\u2019s be considered as a remedy against temptations,\nthen may we observe _that solemn temptations are to be resisted with\nfastings and prayers_. Of this I shall forbear to speak, till I come to\nspeak of Christ\u2019s answer, and the repulse of Satan.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n_And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God,\ncommand that these stones be made bread._\u2014Mat. iv. 3.\n\n _That Christ\u2019s temptations were real and not in vision.\u2014That\n temptation is Satan\u2019s employment, with the evidences and instances\n thereof.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s tempting visibly, with the reasons thereof._\n\n\nNext follows a particular account of those more eminent temptations\nwherewith Christ was assaulted by Satan. Before I speak of these, I\nmust necessarily remove this stumbling-block out of the way, viz.,\nwhether Christ was really tempted, or only in a vision. That this was\nbut visionary hath been supposed; not only by some, whose conceits\nin other things might justly render their supposals in this matter\nless worthy of a serious consideration,[376] but also by very grave\nand serious men,[377] whose reasons, notwithstanding, are not of\nthat weight as to sway us against the letter and history of these\ntemptations, which give us a full account of these things as really\ntransacted, without the least hint of understanding them as done only\nin a vision. For,\n\n(1.) First, It is a dangerous thing to depart from _the literal sense\nof what is historically related_. If we take such a liberty, we may\nas well understand other historical passages after the same rate, and\nso bring the history, not only of Christ\u2019s suffering to a visionary\nand fantastical cross, but also of all the New Testament to a very\nnothing.[378]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _The circumstances of the temptation are so particularly\nset down_\u2014as the devil\u2019s coming to him, leaving him, taking him to the\ntemple, &c.\u2014that if we may expect in anything to secure ourselves from\na visionary supposition, we may do it in this history.[379]\n\n(3.) Thirdly, This imagination doth wholly _enervate and make void\nthe very end and design of Christ\u2019s being tempted_; for where were\nthe glory of this victory over Satan, if it were only a visionary\ntemptation, and a visionary conquest? or where were the comfort and\nencouragement which believers\u2014from the apostle\u2019s authority, Heb. ii.\n18, and iv. 16\u2014might reap from this, that Christ imagined himself to be\ntempted, when really he was not so? Nay, how impossible is it to make\nthat expression of the apostle, \u2018He was tempted in all points like as\nwe are,\u2019 to agree to an imaginary temptation? except we also say that\nwe are only tempted visionarily and not really?\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Neither is it a plea of any value against this truth,\nthat it seems to _derogate too much from the honour and authority\nof our Saviour, that Satan should so impudently assault him with\ntemptations to worship him, and should carry him at pleasure from\nplace to place_, when we find that he voluntarily submitted to higher\nindignities from Satan\u2019s instruments, and \u2018turned not away his cheek\u2019\nfrom those that \u2018smote\u2019 him, spit upon him, and contumeliously mocked\nhim, and at last submitted to death, even the death of the cross.[380]\n\nAs for those objections from \u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cd\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6, the pinnacle of the\ntemple, upon which Scultetus thinks it was impossible for Christ to\nstand; as also the objection of the impossibility to shew the kingdoms\nof the world from any mountain, I shall answer them in their proper\nplace. In the meantime I shall return to the verse in hand, in which I\nshall first pitch upon the general _pro\u00e6mium_, or introduction to these\nspecial temptations, which is this, \u2018The tempter came to him.\u2019\n\nIn this we are to take notice of the name given to Satan, and also the\nway and manner of the assault, in that expression, \u2018he came to him.\u2019\n\nThere are three distinct names given to him in these temptations. [1.]\nHis name \u2018Satan\u2019 shews his malice and fury, which is the ground and\nfountain whence all that trouble proceeds which we meet with from him.\n[2.] He is styled \u2018the tempter,\u2019 and that signifies to us how he puts\nforth this malice, his way and exercise in the exerting of it. [3.] He\nis called \u2018the devil\u2019 or accuser, expressing thereby the end and issue\nof all. From this name, then, here given, we may observe:\u2014\n\n_Obs._ 1. First, _That it is Satan\u2019s work and employment to tempt men_.\nWe need not here dispute whether it be proper to Satan to tempt\u2014that\nis, _an soli, et semper competat_, whether it agree to him only and\nalways, which some indeed affirm in such a sense as this, that men do\ntempt men as Satan\u2019s instruments, the world tempts as it is the object\nand matter of temptations, but Satan tempts as the proper author and\nengineer of temptations. Others there are that think that men can and\ndo properly tempt themselves, according to James i. \u2018Every man is\ntempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust.\u2019[381] But the question\nis altogether needless as to us; though we and others may be true and\nproper tempters, yet this hindereth not but that it is most true,\nthat Satan makes temptation his very work and business. And therefore\nnot only here, but in 1 Thes. iii. 5, the devil is described by his\nemployment, \u2018Lest by any means the tempter,\u2019 or he that tempteth, \u2018hath\ntempted you:\u2019 which the ordinary gloss doth thus explain, _Diabolus,\ncujus est officium tentare_. This name, then, is put upon Satan, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u2019\n\u1f10\u03be\u03bf\u03c7\u1f74\u03bd, by way of eminency. Implying, [1.] That though there be never\nso many tempters, yet Satan is the chief. [2.] That he makes temptation\nhis proper employment.\n\nThat Satan doth so, I shall evidence by these few notes:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, Temptation is in itself _a business and work_. For if we\nconsider either the work of any one temptation, where Satan is oft put\nto it, after suggestion to persuade, and after persuasion to instigate\nand provoke; or if we consider what furniture, tools, means, and\ninstruments are requisite, and what it may cost to bring all things\ntogether into fit order and method; or if we think of the various ways\nand manners of temptation, that some are mediate, some immediate;\nsome inward, some outward; some moveable, some fixed and solemn; some\nenticements to evil, some affrightments from duty, others invasions of\nour peace and joy; or lastly, if we call to mind what study, what art,\nwhat fetches and contrivances the devil is sometimes put upon, we shall\neasily see that it keeps him doing, and that he eats not the bread of\nidleness that hath that employment to follow.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Satan _gives up himself unto it, is wholly in it_. He\n\u2018walks to and fro,\u2019 \u2018goes about\u2019 seeking advantages of this nature,\n\u2018compasseth sea and land\u2019 to proselyte men to his slavery, useth all\nmeans, upon all men, at all times, with all diligence. Hence was it\nthat Latimer, in his homely way of speaking, called him \u2018a busy bishop\nin his diocese,\u2019 and excited the sluggish to learn laboriousness of the\ndevil.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _He takes a delight in it, not only from a natural\npropensity, which his fall put upon him, whereby he cannot but\ntempt_\u2014as an evil tree cannot but bring forth evil fruits\u2014but also from\nthe power of a habit acquired by long exercise, which is accompanied\nwith some kind of pleasure; and further, whatever pleasure may be\nsupposed to arise from revengeful pride or companionship in evil, he\nhath of that in full measure, pressed down, and running over. _Solamen\nmiseris_, &c.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, All other things in Satan, or in his endeavours,\nhave either a _subserviency, or some way or other a reference and\nrespect to temptation_. His power, wisdom, malice, and other infernal\nqualifications, render him able to tempt; his labour and diligence\nin other things are but the work of one that prepares materials and\noccasions; his other business of accusing, affrighting, destroying,\ntormenting, are but the ends and improvements of tempting.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _He cares not how it goes on, so that it go on_; as a man\nthat designs to be rich, cares not how he gets it; which shews that\ntempting in general is his design. Of this we have many instances,\nas [1.] He sticks not to lie and dissemble; he will tell them of the\n\u2018kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,\u2019 and a thousand fair\npromises which he never intends. [2.] He will tempt for a small matter;\nif he can but gain a little, or but molest us, yet he will be doing.\n[3.] He will not give over for a foil or disappointment. [4.] He is not\nashamed to tempt contradictory things: he tempted Christ against the\nwork of redemption, \u2018Master, spare thyself,\u2019 [Mat. xvi. 22.] He tempted\nJudas to further it in betraying him. [5.] Any temptation that he sees\nwill hold, he takes up. Hence is it that he tempts not the Jews now to\nidolatry, because he hath them fast in another snare, being strongly\nled to an opposition and contempt of Christ. [6.] He will sometime\ntempt where he hath not probability to prevail, even against hope. Thus\nhe tempted Christ and Paul.\n\n_Applic._ (1.) The use of the observation is this, _If it be his\nbusiness to tempt, it must be our work to resist_.\n\n[1.] First, To resist _is a labour_. It is not an idle formality,\nconsisting in words of defiance, or a few ridiculous crossings and\nsprinklings of holy water, or spitting at the name of him, as ignorant\npeople are wont to do.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _We must give up ourselves to this work_, always\nfighting and opposing.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, It will be necessary to _make use of all helps_, as\nprayer, fasting, the counsel and support of holy and experienced men.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _We must also cast off all hindrances_. Whatsoever in us\nis apt to take fire or give advantage must be laid off, as pride, which\ndoth prognosticate a fall, and security, which betrays the best, or\npresumption, which provokes God to leave those of highest attainments,\nNeh. xiii. 16.\n\n2. Secondly, In this general introduction, we may cast our eye upon\n_the way and manner of the assault_. When it is said, \u2018the tempter\ncame unto him,\u2019 we are unavoidably forced to suppose another manner\nof coming than that whereby he tempted him for forty days together.\nAnd when we call to mind that at his coming here mentioned, he carried\nChrist to the temple, and from thence to a high mountain, and there\npropounded himself an object of worship; we can imagine no less than\nthat Satan here came visibly to him. But in what shape or manner of\nappearance it is altogether uncertain, though it is most probable it\nwas not in the form of a brute, but in some lustre of majesty or glory,\nas an angel, because a deformed or base appearance had been unsuitable\nto the boast of giving \u2018the kingdoms of the world,\u2019 or to his desire\nthat Christ should \u2018fall down and worship him.\u2019 Hence we may observe:\u2014\n\n_Obs._ 2. _That Satan sometimes tempts in a visible appearance, and by\nvoice._\n\n[1.] First, The possibility of this is evident from _the apparitions\nof angels_. Satan is still an angel, and there is nothing of a natural\nincapacity in him as to an outward appearance to our eyes and senses,\nmore than in glorified spirits.[382]\n\n[2.] Secondly, _In the first temptation he did no less, when he used\nthe serpent as a trunk to speak through, and an instrument to act by_.\nIn possessions he speaks audibly, and evidenceth a real presence.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Undoubted instances may be given of Satan\u2019s tempting and\nmolesting visibly_. I deny not but there are a great many idle stories\nof this kind, and a number of ridiculous figments; but it would be\nunreasonable and highly prejudicial to the truth of history, and the\ncommon faith of mankind, to refuse credit to the serious accounts of\nsober men, because of some foolish and unwarrantable fables.\n\nWhat is related of Luther and his several troubles from Satan this way,\nis evident in the story of his life. Cyrillus tells us of one Eusebius,\ndisciple of Jerome, who when he was dying, cried out of the devil\u2019s\nappearing to him. The like is storied of St Martin and others, and of\nthese, you may read more collected by Mr Clark.[383]\n\nIf we would inquire into the reasons of Satan\u2019s appearing thus, we\ncannot more fitly pitch upon any other than these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, Either he thinks a great affrightment necessary in some\ncases, and for that end appears. Or,\n\n[2.] Secondly, He sees his appearance needful, to give a greater\nevidence and certainty to the reality of the pleasures of sin which he\npromiseth. That is the common ground of his appearing in the ways and\ndesigns of witchcraft.\n\n[3.] Or thirdly, In the height of rage, when he perceives other ways\nnot available, and when he hath to do with persons not ignorant of his\ndevices, where he sees he hath no need of a visor, or covert ways of\ndealing, then he sticks not, if permitted, to tempt or molest openly.\n\nThis must teach us not to wonder at such temptations, much less to\njudge those that may be so molested, as if Satan had a greater share in\nthem, seeing Christ was thus tempted.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n _The general view of these temptations.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s gradual proceeding\n in temptations.\u2014Of reserving a great temptation last.\u2014What a great\n temptation is; in what cases to be expected.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s using a common\n road, in comparing these temptations with the ordinary temptations\n of men.\u2014Of the advantage Satan takes of natural appetite, sense, and\n affections._\n\n\nI have done with the _pro\u00e6mium_ to the temptations. Yet before I open\nthem particularly, I shall take a general view of them. First, By\ncomparing these with the other temptations of Christ during the forty\ndays. Secondly, By comparing these with the temptations of men.\n\n1. First then, If we compare these with the former temptations, and\nobserve that we have no account given us of those temptations, but only\nin the general, \u2018that he was tempted,\u2019 whereas these are particularly\nset down and recorded, we cannot apprehend less than this, _that\nthese last temptations were certainly greater and more remarkable\ntemptations_. Hence note,\n\n_Obs._ 3. _That it is Satan\u2019s method to be gradual in his temptations,\nand that he keeps his greatest temptations to the latter end._\n\nThat Satan is gradual in his temptations; this is true of him, if we\nregard,\n\n(1.) First, _The manner of his proceeding_, that he drives slowly,\nentreats gently, and is very careful that he do not over-drive men,\nbut after they are accustomed to his way, he puts on imperiousness and\ncommands them.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _If the matter of temptation be regarded_, he is gradual\nthere also. He tempts to little sins first, then to greater.\n\nI shall illustrate both these particulars by the example of Thomas\nSavage, apprentice to Mr Collins, vintner at the Ship Tavern,\nin Ratcliffe, who suffered in _anno_ 1660, for murdering his\nfellow-servant. He confesseth that the devil took this course with him:\nhe first tempted him to neglect of duty, then to contempt of ordinances\nand profanation of the Sabbath, then to drinking, then to fornication,\nthen to rob and steal from his master, and last of all to murder; and\ntakes particular notice that in this last temptation, to kill his\nfellow-servant, there was a violent and more than ordinary power of\nSatan upon him, to instigate him to that wickedness. All this you may\nread at large in the printed narration of his life.\n\n(1.) The reasons of his gradual proceedings are,\n\n[1.] First, _He would discover no more of himself in any temptation\nthan he is necessitated unto for the gaining his end_, lest he cross\nhis own design, and instead of drawing men to wickedness, scare or\naffright them from it.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Sins are mutually preparatory to each other_. Smaller\nproffers and temptations do insensibly prepare and incline the heart to\ngreater.\n\n(2.) Secondly, That he keeps his greatest temptations last, is a\nconsequence of the former; for which, besides what is now spoken, these\nreasons may be given:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _There is provocation given him in refusing his lesser\nassaults_. His \u2018head is bruised\u2019 by every refusal, he is set at\ndefiance, which calls him out to stronger opposition. He perceives by\noften repulses that those with whom he hath to do are not subjects of\nhis kingdom, and that his \u2018time is short,\u2019 and therefore no wonder is\nit, if he assault most furiously and with all his strength.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _There is also policy in it_. When he hath brought down\nour strength and weakened our courage, then a violent onset is fair to\nprocure him a victory.\n\nBut because I mention a great temptation, it may not be amiss both for\nthe further explaining of the text, and illustration of the matter,\nto shew what is a great temptation. These were great temptations\nto Christ, and there are several things remarkable in them, which,\nwherever they appear, they will denominate the temptation great, and\nthe more of them are conjoined together, and in higher degree, it may\njustly be called still the greater. As,\n\n(1.) First, In these temptations, we may note there were _external\nobjects as well as insinuated suggestions_. Inward motions are real\ntemptations, but when they have the objects and things presented to the\neye or the senses, then do they strongly urge. At this advantage the\ndevil tempted Eve. He urged her when the fruit was within the view.\nThus he tempted Achan, when the gold and garment were in his eye.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _These temptations were complex_, consisting of many\nvarious designs, like a snare of many cords or nooses. When he tempted\nto turn stones to bread, it was not one single design, but many, that\nSatan had in prosecution. As distrust on one hand, pride on another,\nand so in the rest. The more complicated a temptation is, it is the\ngreater.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _These were also perplexing, entangling temptations_.\nThey were dilemmatical,[384] such as might ensnare, either in the\ndoing or refusal. If he had turned stones into bread, he had too much\nhonoured Satan by doing it at his motion. If he did not, he seemed to\nneglect his own body, in not making necessary provisions for himself,\nbeing now hungry.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _These temptations proceeded upon considerable\nadvantages_. His hunger urged a necessity of turning stones into bread.\nHis present straits, and the lowness of his condition, seemed to speak\nmuch for the reasonableness of giving proof of his divine nature, by\ncasting himself down from the temple, and of doing anything that might\ntend to a more plentiful being and support in the world. Advantages\nstrengthen temptations.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, _These temptations were accompanied with a greater\npresence and power of Satan_. He appeared visibly in them, and was\npermitted to touch and hurry the body of Christ, and to depaint and set\nforth the glory of the world, doubtless in the most taking way, to the\neye of Christ.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, _The matter of these temptations_, or the things he\ntempted Christ to, _were great and heinous abominations_: a distrust\nof providence, a presumption of protection, and a final renunciation\nof the worship due to him, and transferring it to the most unworthy\nobject, God\u2019s professed enemy; and yet were they seconded by the\nstrongest, most powerful, and most prevailing means, as his present\nstraits, his infallible assurance of sonship, pleasure, and glory.\nWhere the matter is weighty, and the medium strong and pressing, there\nis the temptation great.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, _All these temptations pretended strongly to the\nadvantage and benefit of Christ_, and some of them might seem to be\ndone without any blame, as to turn stones to bread, to fly in the air.\nThe more kindness a temptation pretends to us, it is the stronger.\n\n(8.) Eighthly, _Satan urged some of them in a daring, provoking way_;\n\u2018If thou be the Son of God?\u2019 as if he had said, I dare thee to shew\nthyself what thou pretendest to be. These kind of provocations are very\ntroublesome to the most modest and self-denying, who can scarce forbear\nto do what they are urged unto at such times.\n\n(9.) Ninthly, _These temptations seem to be designed for the engagement\nof all the natural powers of Christ_; his natural appetite in a\ndesign of food; his senses in the most beautiful object, the world\nin its glory; the affections, in that which is most swaying, pride,\nand delight in extraordinary testimonies of divine power and love, in\nsupporting him in the air, &c.\n\n(10.) Tenthly, _Some of these warranted as duty, and to supply\nnecessary hunger, others depending upon the security of a promise_, \u2018He\nshall give his angels charge,\u2019 &c. The greater appearance of duty, or\nwarrantableness, is put upon sin, the greater is the temptation.\n\nBy these ten particulars may we, as by a standard, judge when any\ntemptation is great or less.\n\n_Applic._ 1. _Let us then take heed of small temptations, or the\nsmoother proceedings of Satan, as we would avoid the greater attempts\nthat are to follow._ Where he is admitted to beat out our lusts with\na rod or a staff, he may be suspected to bring the wheel over them at\nlast, [Isa. xxviii. 27, _seq._]\n\nLet us also after our assaults expect more and greater, because the\ngreatest are last to be looked for. This holds true in three cases.\n[1.] In solemn temptations, where Satan fixeth his assaults, there the\nutmost rage is drawn out last. [2.] In the continuance and progress of\nprofession, the further we go from him and the nearer to God, be sure\nof the highest measure of his spite. [3.] At the end of our race: for\nif he miss his prey then, it is escaped for ever, as a bird unto its\nhill.\n\n_Obj._ But some may say, I am but a messenger of sad tidings; and that\nby bringing such a report of giants and walled cities, I may make the\nhearts of the people to faint.\n\n_Ans._ I answer; This is bad news only to the sluggish, such as\nwould go to heaven with ease, and in a fair and easy way; but to the\nlaborious resolute soldiers of Christ this is no great discouragement:\nfor, [1.] It doth but tell them of their work, which as they are\npersuaded of, so it is in some measure their delight, as well as their\nexpectation. [2.] It doth but tell them, Satan\u2019s malice and fury, which\nthey are assured of, and are most afraid of it sometimes, when it seems\nto lie idle and as asleep. [3.] It doth tell them that Satan\u2019s thoughts\nconcerning them are despairing, he fears they are going, or gone from\nhim. If they were his willing servants, there would be no hostility of\nthis nature against them.\n\nI have thus compared these special temptations with those wherewith our\nLord Christ was exercised during the forty days. I shall,\n\nSecondly, Compare these temptations of Christ with those that usually\nbefall his members, in which there is so much suitableness and\nagreement both in matter and manner, that it cannot be unuseful to take\nnotice of it, which will the better appear in instances. First, then,\nlet us consider the first temptation of Eve: Gen. iii. 6, \u2018And when the\nwoman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to\nthe eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,\u2019 &c. Here are all\nthe arguments and ways summed up by which Satan prevailed upon her. It\nwas \u2018good for food;\u2019 here he wrought upon the desire of the natural\nappetite. It was \u2018pleasant to the eyes;\u2019 here he took the advantage of\nthe external senses. It was \u2018to be desired to make one wise;\u2019 here he\ninflamed the affections. Let us again call to mind the general account\nof temptations in 1 John ii. 16, \u2018All that is in the world, the lust\nof the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;\u2019 where the\napostle designedly calls all off from a love of the world, because\nof the hazard and danger that we lie open unto, from the things of\nthe world, striking upon and stirring up our lusts; which he ranks\ninto three general heads, according to the various ways whereby these\noutward things do work upon us, in exciting our natural powers and\napprehensions to sinful lustings; and these are so fully agreeing with\nthose three in Eve\u2019s temptation, that I need not note the parallel.\nLet us now cast our eyes upon these temptations, and the suitableness\nof Satan\u2019s ways and dealings will immediately appear. When he tempted\nChrist to turn stones into bread, there he endeavoured to take\nadvantage of the \u2018lust of the flesh,\u2019 which in 1 John ii., I understand\nin a more restrained sense, not for the lustings of corrupt nature,\nbut for the lustings of the body in its natural appetite, according to\nthat expression of Christ, \u2018The spirit is willing, but the flesh\u2019\u2014or\nbody\u2014\u2018is weak.\u2019 And if we should not so restrain it in this place, the\nlust of the flesh would include the lust of the eyes and the pride\nof life, contrary to the clear scope of the text, for these are also\nthe lustings of corrupt nature. When he further tempted him \u2018to cast\nhimself down,\u2019 he pushed him upon \u2018the pride of life;\u2019 when he shewed\nhim \u2018the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,\u2019 he attempted\nto gain upon him by the \u2018lust of the eyes.\u2019 From this proportion and\nsuitableness of temptation to Christ and his members, observe,\n\n_Obs._ 4. _That Satan usually treads in a beaten path, using known\nand experienced methods of temptation._ It is true, in regard of\ncircumstances, he useth unspeakable varieties in tempting, and hath\nmany more devices and juggles than can be reckoned up; yet in the\ngeneral he hath digested them into method and order, and the things\nupon which he works in us are the same. Thus he walks his round, and\nkeeps much-what the same track, not only in different persons, but also\nin the same men, using the same temptations over and over; and yet this\nargues no barrenness of invention or sluggishness in Satan; but he hath\nthese reasons for it:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, Because the same temptations being suited to human nature\nin general, will, with a small variation of circumstance, suit all men:\ntheir inclinations generally answering to one another, as face answers\nto face in water.\n\n[2.] Secondly, These standing methods are famous with him, as generally\npowerful and taking; and it can be no wonder if Satan practise most\nwith these things that have the largest _probatum est_ of experience to\nfollow them.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, The more experienced he is in any temptation, the more\ndexterously and successfully still he can manage it; so that we may\nexpect him more cunning and able in what he most practiseth.\n\n_Applic._ This may be some satisfaction to those that are apt to think\nof themselves and their temptations as Elias did in his persuasion,\n\u2018I alone am left,\u2019 [1 Kings xix. 14.] Where Satan useth anything of\nvigour and fierceness, we are apt to say, \u2018None are tempted as we,\u2019\nnone in like case, we are singular, they are peculiar and extraordinary\ntemptations, &c.; but it is a mistake. Even that of Solomon may be\napplied to these, \u2018There is nothing new,\u2019 [Eccles. i. 9,] nor anything\nbefallen us which others have not undergone before us; and would but\nChristians be so careful to observe the way of the serpent upon their\nhearts as they might, and so communicative of their experiences as they\nought, the weak and heavy laden would not go so mourning under such\napprehensions as commonly affright them, that none were ever so tempted\nas they are. It would be some support at worst, when the most hellish\nfuries do oppress them, to know that others before them were in these\ndeeps, and as fearful of being overwhelmed as themselves, and yet were\ndelivered. The deliverances of those that have escaped the danger, is\nground of hope to those that are at present under it.\n\n_Obs._ 5. _The usual advantages that Satan takes against us is from our\nnatural appetite, our external senses, or our passions and affections._\nAll these are usual ways by which Satan works against us, as appears\nfrom what hath been said; neither are any of them so mean and\ncontemptible, but that we have cause to fear the power and influence of\nthem. Hence the Scripture cautions descend to the eyes: \u2018Look not upon\nthe wine when it is red in the cup,\u2019 [Prov. xxiii. 31;] \u2018Be sober, be\nvigilant,\u2019 &c., [1 Peter v. 8.] The appetite is not so easily kept in,\nbut that it may prevail to gluttony and drunkenness; and some are so\npowerfully carried by this, that they are said \u2018to make their bellies\ntheir god,\u2019 [Phil. iii. 19.] Of the power of sense and affection,\nelsewhere hath been spoken.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n _The rise of Christ\u2019s first temptation.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s suiting his\n temptations to the conditions of men.\u2014Of tempting men upon the plea\n of necessity.\u2014The reasons and cheats of that plea.\u2014His pretences of\n friendship in tempting, with the danger thereof._\n\n\nHaving thus considered these temptations as they lie before us in their\ngeneral prospect, I shall now speak of this first special temptation in\nparticular, in which\u2014(1.) The rise, or occasion; (2.) The temptation\nitself; (3.) The argument by which Satan would enforce it, are to be\ndistinctly noted.\n\n1. First, _As to the rise of it_, it is questioned by some why Satan\nbegins with this first. The cause they assign, in part at least, is\nfrom his first success against Eve, in a temptation about eating, as if\nthis were the chief and most hopeful arrow in his quiver. But we need\nnot go so far, when the evangelist is so punctual in setting it down,\nin the latter end of the former verse, \u2018he was an hungered.\u2019 This the\ndevil took notice of, and from hence took the rise of his temptation,\nthat by \u2018turning stones to bread,\u2019 for the satisfaction of his present\nhunger, he might be induced to make way for the secret stratagems which\nhe had prepared against him on this occasion. Here I note,\n\n_Obs._ 6. _That where Satan hath a design against any, he doth take the\nadvantage of their condition, and suits his temptation accordingly._\nThus, if men be in poverty, or in the enjoyments of plenty, in sickness\nor health, if in afflictions, under wrongs, in discontents, or carried\nto advancements and honours, or whatever else may be considerable\nrelating to them, he observes it, and orders his designs so as to take\nin all the advantages that they will afford. That it is his concern and\ninterest so to do, we may imagine, upon these grounds:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _Our consent must be gained_. This he cannot properly and\ntruly force, but must entice and deceive us to a compliance with him.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _If our condition speak for him, and lie fair for the\nfurtherance of any device of his, our consent is upon the matter half\ngained_. It is much, if so powerful an advocate, as is our present\nstate, do not influence us to an inclination.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _This doth his work easily and effectually_. He more\ngenerally prevails by this course, and with less labour.\n\n_Applic._ This policy of Satan should advantage us by _suggesting\nfit memorials to us in our expectations of temptation_. Though we\nknow not all Satan\u2019s thoughts, yet may we know where and how he\nwill usually make an onset. Our condition will tell us what to look\nfor. The distressed and afflicted may expect a temptation suited to\ntheir condition, as of murmuring, repining, revenge, distrust, use of\nindirect means, despairings, &c. They that have peace and plenty may be\nsure they shall be tempted suitably, to pride, boasting, covetousness,\noppression, contempt of others, security, or whatever may be fit to be\ningrafted on that stock. The like may be said of any other different\ncondition. How fairly are we forewarned, by an observation made upon\nSatan\u2019s proceeding upon these advantages, where to expect him, and how\nto provide against him.\n\nLet us proceed to a further inquiry, _How the devil managed this\nadvantage of Christ\u2019s hunger_. He plainly urgeth him with a necessity\nof providing supplies for himself, spreading before him his desire\nto eat, and the impossibility of help, in a barren and desolate\nwilderness: as if he had said, \u2018The want of the body is to be provided\nfor; nature and religion consents to this; the wilderness affords no\nhelp, ordinary means fail; there is therefore a necessity that some\nextraordinary course be taken, therefore turn stones to bread; this\nis not unsuitable to the condition and power of him who is the Son of\nGod.\u2019 At this rate he pleads.\n\n_Obs._ 7. Observe then, _That Satan usually endeavours to run his\ntemptations upon the plea of necessity, and from thence to infer a\nduty_.\n\nWhen he cannot pretend a fair and direct way to irregular practices, he\nwould break a door and force a way by necessity.\n\nUnder this notion of necessity, the devil marshals all those\npretences that seem to be of more than ordinary force, in their usual\nprevalencies. Thus he teacheth men to think they are necessitated, if\nthey be carried by a strong inclination of their own, or if there be\nan urgency and provocation from others, or if they be in straits and\ndangers; and sometime he goes so high as to teach men that a necessity\nis included in the very fabric of their natural principles, by which\nthey presumptuously excuse themselves in being sinful, because by\nnature they are so, and cannot be changed without special grace. Scarce\nshall we meet any man with seasonable reproof for his iniquity, but he\nwill plead such kind of necessities for himself,\u2014I could not help it;\nI was strongly carried; or, I was compelled; I must do so, or else I\ncould not escape such a danger, &c.\n\nThe reasons of this policy are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _He knows that necessity hath a compulsive force_, even\nto things of otherwise greatest abhorrencies. A treasury of instances\nis to be had in famines and besieged places, where it is usual to eat\nunclean things, not only creatures that are vile, but even dung and\nentrails; nay, so tyrannical is necessity, that it makes inroads into,\nand conquests upon nature itself, causing \u2018the tender and delicate\nwoman, which would not adventure the sole of her foot upon the ground\nfor delicateness and tenderness, to have an evil eye towards the\nhusband of her bosom, towards her son, and towards her daughter,\u2019\nDeut. xxviii. 56. A like force doth it exercise upon the minds and\nconsciences of men. It makes them rise up against their light, it\nengageth men to lay violent hands upon their own convictions, to\nstifle and extinguish them. How many mournful examples have we of this\nkind! How many have apostatized from truth, being terrified by the\nurging necessities of danger, contrary to the highest convictions of\nconscience!\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Necessity can do much to the darkening of the\nunderstanding, and change of the judgment, by the strong influence it\nhath upon the affections_. Men are apt to form their apprehensions\naccording to the dictates of necessity. What they see to be hazardous,\nthey are inclinable to judge to be evil. Men in straits not only\nviolate their reason, but sometime by insensible steps, unknown to\nthemselves, slide into a contrary judgment of things, directly cross to\nwhat they have believed and professed. Which persuasion they owe not\nto any further accession of light, or new discovery of argument; for\nofttimes the same arguments which, in the absence of trouble, they have\ncontemned as weak, by the appearance of danger, put on another face and\nseem strong; but to the prevalency of their fears. And thus many in all\nages have altered their judgments and thoughts, not because they knew\nmore, but because they feared more.\n\nThe like necessities do men form to themselves from exorbitant and\ngreedy hopes and expectations of a better condition, compared to\nthat wherein they at present are; and the like influence it hath in\nthe alteration of their judgments. Let the bishop of Spalato be an\nexample of this, who loathed the Romish religion first, and in England,\nwhither he came for refuge, writ against it; but saw a necessity,\nfrom the disappointment of expectation, to change his mind, returned\nto Rome again, and persuaded himself that that was true which he had\nformerly pronounced false; and so writ against the church of England,\nas before he had done against the church of Rome. To him we may add\nEcebolius,[385] of whom Socrates reports, that, according to the\nvarious appearings of hazards, he changed his religion several times.\nUnder Constantine, he was a Christian; under Julian, a pagan; and under\nJovinian, a Christian again.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Necessity offer\u2019s an excuse, if not a justification, of\nthe greatest miscarriages_.[386] Lot offered to expose his daughters\nto the raging lust of the Sodomites for the preservation of his\nangel-strangers, which surely he would in no wise have done, but that\nhe thought the present necessity might have excused him. Esau profanely\nsells his birthright, but excuseth the matter so, \u2018Behold, I am at the\npoint to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?\u2019 Gen.\nxxv. 32. Aaron produceth a necessity, from the violent resolves of the\npeople, in justification of himself in the matter of the golden calf,\n\u2018Thou knewest that this people are set on mischief,\u2019 [Exod. xxxii. 22.]\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _Necessity is a universal plea_, and fitted to the\nconditions of all men in all callings, and under all extravagancies.\nThe tradesman, in his unlawful gains or overreachings, pleads a\nnecessity for it from the hardness of the buyer in other things; the\npoor man pleads a necessity for stealing, and the rich pleads the same\nnecessity for revenge, and thus it serves all with a pretext.\n\nThese considerations, discovering this course so hopeful as to this\ndesign of the devil, he will be sure to put us to this pinch where he\ncan. But, besides this, we may observe three cheats in this plea of\nnecessity:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _Sometimes he puts men upon feigning a necessity where\nthere is none_. Saul sacrificed upon a needless supposal that, Samuel\nnot coming at the time appointed, there was a necessity for him to\ndo it. He spared also the cattle upon the like pretence, that it was\na necessary provision for sacrifice. And thus would the devil have\npersuaded Christ, that there was an absolute necessity to turn stones\nto bread, when in truth there was no such need.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Sometimes he puts men upon a necessity of their own\nsinful procurement_. Herod sware to gratify the daughter of Herodias,\nand this is presently pleaded as a necessity for the cutting off John\nBaptist\u2019s head. Saul forbade the tasting of meat, and sealed the\npenalty by an oath and curse, and this is by and by made a necessity\nfor the taking away of Jonathan\u2019s life,\u2014who had tasted honey not\nknowing his father\u2019s curse,\u2014had not the people rescued him, [1 Sam.\nxiv. 24, _seq._]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Sometime he stretcheth a necessity further than it\nought_. He knows that God hath such a regard to real necessities, that\nupon that ground he will dispense with his Sabbath and the present\nperformance of duty. These instances he lays before men, and endeavours\nto persuade them, that in like manner God will, upon a necessity,\ndispense with sins, as well as with the present opportunity of service.\nWhat a covering, in all ages, men have made of necessity for their\nhighest outrages and extravagancies, and with what confidence they have\nmanaged such pleas, would be endless to relate.\n\n_Applic._ This must warn us _not to suffer ourselves to be imposed upon\nby the highest pretences of necessity_. Whatever it may dispense with,\nas in some cases it will suspend a present service, and warrant the\nperformance of a duty, besides the common rule and way wherein it ought\nordinarily to be managed, it must never be pleaded to give warranty\nto anything in its own nature sinful. Necessity will not justify\nlying, stealing, covetousness, adulteries, &c., _Ferenda magis omnis\nnecessitas quam perpetranda aliqua iniquitas_.\u2014Aug[ustine.]\n\nBesides, we must be wary in judging what is a necessity. Men are\napt to plead a necessity where there is none; and if we give way\nto a facile admittance of excuses of this kind, we shall presently\nmultiply necessities, and have them to serve us at every turn. Some\nwould warrant sin by necessity, others would turn off duty and rule by\npretending a necessity where none is; both are to be avoided as snares\nof Satan.\n\nOnce more, before we dismiss this rise of the temptation of Christ in\nhand, let us observe that, in persuading him to turn stones to bread,\nhe seems to express a great deal of care and tenderness to Christ,\nwith an invidious reflection upon the love and providence of God: as\nif he should say, \u2018I see thou art hungry, and this wilderness affords\nnothing to eat, and God hath not taken care to spread a table for thee;\nI therefore, pitying thy condition, as a friend, advise thee to turn\nstones to bread.\u2019\n\n_Obs._ 8. Note, _That Satan manageth his most cruel designs under the\nhighest pretences of friendship_. He did so with Eve, \u2018The Lord knoweth\nthat ye shall be as gods,\u2019 [Gen. iii. 5;] as if he had a greater regard\nto them than God himself. He tempted Christ in the mouth of Peter to\n\u2018spare himself,\u2019 under the show of great kindness, [Mat. xvi. 22;] and\nno less are his common pretences to all men. This is a deep policy, for\nby this means the mischief intended is the better concealed, and the\nless care and provision made against it; and besides, the affections\nand desires are stirred up to a hasty embracement of the motion, and an\neager swallowing of the bait.\n\nSo great a subtlety is in this manner of dealing, that those who affect\nthe name of great politicians in the world have learned from Satan\nto shew greatest respects and a most friendly countenance to those\nwhom they most hate and intend to ruin. Thus our Richard the Third of\nEngland constantly dealt with those for whose blood he lay in wait;\nand the precepts of Machiavel are fitted to this, that it is wisdom\n\u2018to hug those whom we desire to destroy.\u2019 Ehud\u2019s present made way for\nhis dagger, [Judges iii. 22.] Joab\u2019s sword could not so well have\ndespatched its errand upon Abner, if he had not ushered it in with a\nkiss, [2 Sam. xx. 9.]\n\n_Applic._ This should make us most _suspect those temptations that\noffer us most kindness and advantage, and such as are most gratifying\nto our humours and desires_. For can it be imagined in good earnest\nthat Satan intends us a real good? Can the gifts of enemies pass for\ncourtesies and favours with any,[387] but such as are bewitched into a\nblockish madness? Satan is more to be feared when he flatters than when\nhe rageth; and though such offers may be looked upon by some as more\nbenign, and less odious temptations, as some kind of familiar spirits\nare more kindly treated by some, under the notion of white devils,\nyet may we say of them, as Cornelius Agrippa speaks of some unlawful\narts and ways of Thurgia,[388] _E\u00f2 sunt pernitiosiora, q\u00f9o imperitis\ndiviniora_, They have the greatest danger that pretend the highest\nfriendship. Thus much for the rise of the temptation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n _A particular consideration of the matter of the first temptation,\n what Satan aimed at in bidding him turn stones into bread.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s\n moving us to things good or lawful.\u2014The end of such a motion.\u2014How to\n know whether such motions are from Satan or the Spirit.\u2014What to do in\n case they be from Satan.\u2014Of his various aims in one temptation.\u2014What\n they are, and of his policy therein.\u2014Of his artificial contrivement of\n motions to make one thing infer another._\n\n\nNext follows the temptation itself, \u2018Command that these stones be made\nbread.\u2019 There is no great difficulty in the words. The Greek indeed\nhath a remarkable suitableness to the supposition, on which Satan\ninsists, taking Christ to be the Son of God. It is very pertinently\nspoken, \u2018Say or speak\u2019\u2014\u03b5\u1f36\u03c0\u03b5\u2014that these stones be made bread; for if God\nspeak, it must be done.\n\nIt is not worth the while to insist upon so small a variety of\nexpression as is betwixt this evangelist, who hath it \u2018these stones,\u2019\nand Luke, who speaks it in the singular number, \u2018this stone;\u2019 for\nbesides that, as some suppose, this expression of Luke might, for\nanything that appears to the contrary, be Satan\u2019s lowering his request\nto one stone, when Christ had denied to turn many into bread upon his\nfirst asking; _this_ one stone in Luke, taken collectively for the\nwhole heap, will signify as much as _these_ stones in Matthew; or\nthe phrase \u2018these stones,\u2019 in Matthew, by an imitation of a common\nHebraism, may be no more but one of these stones, or this stone, as it\nis in Luke; as it is said, Jephthah was buried in the cities of Gilead,\nthat is, in one of the cities.[389]\n\nThe thing urged was the turning or changing the form of a creature,\nwhich is a work truly miraculous and wonderful, and such as had neither\nbeen unsuited to the power of Christ, nor unlawful in itself. It is\nfrom hence justly questioned where the sting of this suggestion lay, or\nin what point was the temptation couched.\n\n(1.) First, It was not in _the unlawfulness or sinfulness of the thing\nmentioned_. For Christ did as much as would amount to all this when\nhe turned water into wine, and when he fed multitudes by a miraculous\nmultiplication of a few loaves and fishes.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _It was not unsuitable to his condition, as hungry_; for\nso it seemed a duty to provide for himself, and which Satan took for\ngranted.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Neither seemed it _any derogation to his power and divine\nnature, but rather an advantage and fit opportunity to give a full\nproof of it_, to the stopping of Satan\u2019s mouth for ever.\n\nNotwithstanding these, there was poison and malignity enough in the\nsuggestion, and under these green leaves of plausible pretences lay\nhid many snakes. For [1.] By this was he secretly tempted to admit of\na doubting of the truth of the divine testimony, lately declaring him\nto be the Son of God. [2.] As also further to question his Father\u2019s\nprovidence and love; [3.] and unnecessarily to run out of the ordinary\nway of supply, and to betake himself to indirect means or extraordinary\ncourses. [4.] And all this to the abuse and undervaluing of his power,\nin prostituting it to Satan\u2019s direction or persuasion; and the devil\nhad gained a considerable advantage if he could have prevailed with\nhim to do such a thing by his instigation. [5.] It may be he further\nthought this might entice to a high esteem of himself, and so make way\nfor a vain ostentation of his power and interest in God. All or most of\nthese seem to be the design that the devil was driving forward. Several\nthings are hence observable.\n\n_Obs._ 9. _That where Satan doth not judge it his present interest to\nsuggest to us things in their own nature sinful, he will move us to\nthings good in themselves, in hopes thereby to lead us into evil._ This\nway of tempting is from a more refined policy than downright motions to\nsin, and doubtless it is less suspected, and consequently more taking.\nThe evils that Satan would introduce by this method are such as these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, Sometime when he tempts us to that which is good, it is\nthat he might _affright us from it_. His approbation is enough to put a\ndiscredit and disgraceful suspicion upon anything. Such a design had he\nwhen he gave testimony for Christ, \u2018that he was the Son of God,\u2019 Mat.\nviii. 29; or for the apostles, that they were the \u2018servants of the most\nhigh God,\u2019 Acts xvi. 17. It was not his intention to honour him or them\nby bearing them witness, but to bring them under suspicion and trouble.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _There are a great many ways to miscarry in a lawful\naction_, either by propounding bad ends, or by failures in the\nmanner of performance, or by a misimprovement of the whole. These\nmiscarriages, and the possibility and probability of them, Satan\ncarries in his mind; yet doth he not at first propound them, but moving\nus unto the thing, he hath an expectation that we will slide into them\nof ourselves, or be inclined by some suitable touches of suggestion\nupon our minds, together with the tendency or improvableness of the\nthing or action to such evils as are properly consequent to it. Satan\ndid not here tempt Christ to these sinful ends directly, but to an\naction which he hoped might insensibly produce them.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Another evil hereby aimed at is _the hindrance of a\ngreater good, not only as a diversion to turn us off a better or more\nprofitable occasion, but also as an unseasonable interruption of\nsomething at present more concerning us_. Thus he makes the suggestion\nof good things the hindrance of prayer or hearing.\n\n_Quest._ Some will say, This is a perplexing case, that in things\ngood or lawful in themselves, men should be in such dangers, and will\nthereupon desire to know how they may distinguish Satan\u2019s contrivances\nand motions from those that have no dependence upon him, or are from\nthe Spirit of God?\n\n_Ans._ In answer to this:\u2014\n\n[1.] Let us, when we fear thus to be circumvented, look well _to what\nimpressions are upon our spirit when we are moved to what may be\nlawful_. For together with the motion, if it be Satan\u2019s, we shall find\neither a corrupt reason and end privately rising up in our mind, or we\nmay observe that our hearts are out of order and perversely inclined.\nThis is oft unseen to ourselves. When the disciples moved Christ to\nbring down \u2018fire from heaven,\u2019 if they had considered the present\nrevengeful selfish frame of their spirits, which our Lord tells them\nthey were ignorant of, they might easily have known that the motion had\nproceeded from Satan.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _The concurrent circumstances of the thing or action are\nto be seriously weighed_, for from thence we may take a right measure\nof the conveniency or inconveniency of the proceeding in it. What is\nfrom Satan it will be either unseasonable as to the time, place, and\nperson, or some other thing will appear that may give a discovery. As\nhere Christ refuseth to turn stones to bread, because not only the way\nand manner of the proposal doth sufficiently lay open the design, but\nalso the circumstances of Christ\u2019s condition at that time shewed the\nmotion to be unseasonable and inconvenient; for if Satan had urged\nthe necessity of it for the satisfaction of his hunger, Christ could\nhave answered, that the experience that he had of God\u2019s support for\nforty days together, was sufficient to engage him to rely yet further\nupon him. If he had urged further, that by this means he might have\nhad a full proof of God\u2019s love and care, or of his sonship, it was at\nhand to tell him that it was needless to seek a further evidence when\nGod had given one so full a little before. If again he had pleaded\nit to have been a useful occasion to give a testimony of his power\nto the satisfaction of others, he could have told him that it had\nbeen impertinent to have done it then, when he was in the wilderness,\nwhere none could have the benefit of it. So that nothing Satan could\nhave propounded as a reason for that miracle, but it might have been\nrepelled from a consideration of his present condition.\n\n_Applic._ The instruction that may be gathered from this is, _that\nwe must not entertain thoughts of doing lawful things without a due\ninquiry into the temper of our own hearts, and a full consideration\nof all circumstances round about, with the probable tendencies and\nconsequences of it_.\n\n_Quest._ But, may some say, if I judge such a motion to be a thing\nlawful, which doth proceed from Satan, what am I to do?\n\n_Answ._ I answer, [1.] Consider whether the good be necessary or not.\nIf it be necessary, it is a duty and not to be forborne, only the\nabuses are to be watched against and avoided.\n\n[2.] Secondly, If it be a duty, consider whether it be seasonable or\nunseasonable, necessary or not, as to the present time; if it be not,\nit may be suspended, and a fitter opportunity waited for.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, If it be only lawful and not necessary, we ought to\nabstain from it wholly, after the example of David, Ps. xxxix. 2,\nwho \u2018abstained even from good,\u2019 that is, from lawful bemoanings of\nhimself or complainings against Absalom, that had rebelled against him;\nbecause it was not necessary, and, the circumstances of his condition\nconsidered, very dangerous, lest vent and way being given, he might\nhave been easily drawn to speak passionately or distrustfully against\nGod, and foolishly against providences.\n\nThat the thing unto which Satan moved Christ was lawful, hath been\nnoted. Next, let us consider _what end Satan might propound to himself\nin this motion_, and we shall see, as hath been said, that he did not\nso narrow and contract his design as that only one thing took up his\nintentions, but several. Hence have we this observation:\u2014\n\n_Obs._ 10. _That in one single temptation Satan may have various aims\nand designs._\n\nTemptation is a complicated thing, a many-headed monster. Satan hath\nalways many things in his eye.\n\n[1.] First, In every temptation there is _a direct and principal\ndesign, a main thing that the devil would have_.\n\n[2.] Secondly, There are several things _subservient to the main\ndesign_, as steps, degrees, or means leading to it; the lesser\nstill making way for the greater. If Satan design murder, he lays\nthe foundation of his work in inward grudgings and hatreds; next he\ngives provocations, by reproachful words, or disdainful carriages and\nbehaviours, as our Saviour notes in the expressions of _raca_ and\n_fool_, Mat. v. 22, and so by degrees enticeth on to murder. The like\nwe may observe in the lusts of uncleanness, and other things.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Besides these there are usually _reserves, something in\nambushment to watch our retreats_; for Satan considers what to do in\ncase we repel and refuse his motion, that so he may not altogether\nlabour in vain. A contrary extreme watcheth those that fly from a\ntemptation; pride, security, self-confidence, and boasting are ready\nto take them by the heel. So truly may it be said of Satan, that\nhe knoweth the way that we take: if we go forward, he is there; if\nbackward, we may also perceive him; on the left hand, he is at work;\nand on the right hand, he is not idle. All these we may particularly\nsee in this temptation in hand. He had a main design, of which more\npresently; he prepares means and seconds to help it forward; such were\nthose pleas of necessity and conveniency which the hunger and want of\nChrist did furnish him withal, and there wanted not the reserves of\npresumption and self-neglect in case he resisted the motion.\n\nThe reasons of this policy are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _When Satan tempts, he is not certain of his prevalency,\neven when the probabilities are the greatest_; and therefore doth he\nprovide himself with several things at once, that if the tempted party\nnauseate one thing, there may be another in readiness that may please\nhis palate. God gives this advice to the spiritual seedsman, \u2018In the\nmorning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for\nthou knowest not what shall prosper, whether this or that,\u2019 [Eccles.\nxi. 6.] Satan, that seedsman of the tares, imitates this; and because\nhe knows not what shall prosper, therefore doth he use variety.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Where many things are at once designed, it is a hundred\nto one they will not all return empty_. It is much if many snares\nmiss; he that hath broken one or two, may not only be enticed with a\nthird temptation\u2014as being either wearied out with the assaults, or\nmade pliable with the allurements of the former, but may also sit down\nsecure, as having, in his supposal, passed all the danger, and so\nunawares fall into an unseen or unsuspected trap.\n\n_Applic._ This may [1.] by way of caution, assure us that we have no\ncause to think that all fear is over, when we have avoided the more\nobvious and conspicuous designments of a temptation, but rather to\nsuspect some further train than we yet have discovered. [2.] That there\nis a necessity for us to be circumspect every way, and, Janus-like, to\nhave an eye before and behind, that we may make timely discoveries of\nwhat Satan intends against us.\n\nAs we have taken a view of the various designments of Satan in one\ntemptation, so it is also remarkable, that these various ways of his\nin this temptation, do give strength one to another, and have as\nclose a connexion as stones in an arch. Christ was pleased to commend\nthe wisdom of the unjust steward, though he intended not the least\napprobation of his dishonesty. So we may turn aside and observe the\ncunning artifice of the devil, in the management of this argument\nagainst Christ, which is to this purpose, as if he had thus proceeded:\n\u2018If thou art the Son of God,\u2019 as the voice from heaven lately\ntestified, it can be no inconvenience, but every way an advantage to\ngive a further proof of it. Thy present condition of want and hunger\nseem to contradict it; for how strange and unbeseeming is it for the\nSon of God to be in such straits! yet if thou beest what thou sayest\nthou art, it is easy for thee to help thyself. God, that made the world\nof nothing, by the power of his command, can much more change the forms\nof things that are made already; it is but speaking, and these stones\nthat are before thee will be turned into bread; and besides that, in\nso doing thou mayest seasonably vindicate thyself from the eclipse of\nthy present condition. Necessity and duty\u2014for it is duty to supply\nthe want of the body, which cannot be supported without its proper\nnourishment\u2014compel thee unavoidably to it, except thou fearest not to\ncontract the guilt of self-destruction, especially seeing I do not urge\nthee to provide delicacies, but only bread, and such as is needful to\nkeep in the lives of the poorest men, in the poorest manner.\n\n_Obs._ 11. Hence note, _Satan in driving on a temptation, useth such\nan artificial contrivement of motives and things, that still one doth\ninfer another, one strengthens another_. Temptations are like a screw,\nwhich if once admitted, will improve its first hold to draw in all the\nrest. By these arts doth Satan, like a cunning serpent, wriggle himself\ninto the affections of men.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s chief end in this temptation; his skill in making the\n means to sin plausible.\u2014The reasons of that policy, with his art\n therein.\u2014Men\u2019s ignorance his advantage.\u2014Of the differences of things\n propounded to our use._\n\n\nThe various aims of Satan, and their close dependence one upon another,\nhaving contributed to us their several observations, it remains that\nwe ask after the main and chief thing that Satan principally intended.\nAnd to make way to this, it must be noted, that in grand temptations\nespecially, the main design of Satan comprehends these two: the chief\nend, and the chief means conducing to that end. About these, some\nauthors conjecture variously, whose differences we have no great\noccasion to mention, seeing the text gives so great a satisfaction in\nthis matter.\n\n1. For first, The main end of Satan we have not obscurely expressed to\nus in these words, \u2018If thou be the Son of God,\u2019 which if we compare\nwith Mat. iii. 17, \u2018This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,\u2019\nwe shall easily apprehend that here Satan doth but echo to that voice\nwhich came down from heaven; as he did with Eve. God had said, of the\ntree in the midst of the garden, ye shall not eat, [Gen. iii. 3.]\nSatan, having as it were the sound of this yet in his ears, in a clear\nreference to it saith, \u2018Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat?\u2019 ver.\n1. So here is also an evident respect to God\u2019s testimony concerning\nChrist, as if he had said, \u2018Hath God said thou art his Son? If thou\nbeest indeed such as he testified, give some proof of it,\u2019 &c. By which\nit appears that his design was to undermine this testimony, or some way\nor other to defeat it. Neither need it pass for an objection against\nthis, that Satan doth not directly mention his doubt or distrust, nor\npositively suggest to Christ a questioning or misbelief of his sonship,\nfor it was not suitable to his policy so to lay open his main end. That\nmust have been expected afterward, as the last in execution, if it had\ntaken effect, though it were first in intention.\n\n2. Secondly, The chief means by which he would have brought this end\nabout, may be understood from Christ\u2019s answer to the temptation; for it\ncannot but be imagined that Christ knew the bottom of Satan\u2019s policy,\nand that his answer must fully confront the means by which Satan\nendeavoured to ensnare him. His answer was, \u2018Man lives not by bread\nalone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.\u2019 If\nwe can then come to a certain understanding of this scripture, which is\nnot difficult, we shall evidently know the mind of the temptation, to\nwhich this is a direct answer.\n\nThese words are cited out of Deut. viii. 3, which some interpret to\nthis sense,[390] as if Christ had said, Man hath not only a life of\nthe body\u2014which is mentioned[391] by bread\u2014to look after, but another\nlife of the soul, which is of so great concernment, that the bodily\nlife is to be neglected, rather than that of the soul to be endangered.\nThis is a truth in itself, but is apparently besides the meaning of\nDeut. viii. Neither doth it afford so full and particular an answer as\ndoubtless Christ intended. But let us consider the text, and we shall\nfind more in it; for Moses first sets down God\u2019s dealing with Israel\nin the wilderness, in that he suffered them to hunger, and took from\nthem the ordinary means of life, which, as the latter part of the verse\nshews, is to be understood of ordinary bread; and then to supply that\nwant, he fed them by an extraordinary means, such as they had never\nheard of before; this was by manna. Next he makes an inference from\nthis way of God\u2019s proceeding, improving this particular to a general\nrule, \u2018That he might make thee know that man lives not by bread only,\nbut by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man\nlive;\u2019 which is clearly of this import, that man lives not by ordinary\nmeans only, but that God can provide for his life in an extraordinary\nway, by appointing anything to that end, through his mighty and\npowerful word and good pleasure. So that things never so unusual, or\nunfit in themselves for nourishment, will become strengthening to us,\nif he shall give out his command. Christ then applying this in this\nsense, did, as it were, thus say to Satan, \u2018Though I want ordinary\nmeans of life, which is bread, yet I know God can make anything which\nhe pleaseth to nourish me instead of it. So that I will not cast off\na dependence upon the providence of God in this strait, and without\nwarrant run to an extraordinary course for supply.\u2019 Hence it is evident\nthat to bring about his main end, which was to distrust of his relation\nto God, he used this means, that by reason of his strait in the failure\nof ordinary supply, he should distrust providence, and without warrant\nprovide for himself. Observe,\n\n_Obs._ 12. _That where Satan carries on a main design and end, he\nbestows most of his pains and skill in rendering the means to that end\nplausible and taking._ The end is least in mention, and the means in\ntheir fit contrivance takes up most of his art and care. The reasons\nwhereof are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _The end is apparently bad, so that it would be a\ncontradiction to his design to mention it_. It is the snare and trap\nitself, which his wisdom and policy directs him to cover. His ultimate\nend is the destruction of the soul. This he dare not openly avouch\nto the vilest of men; he doth not say to them, \u2018Destroy your souls,\u2019\n\u2018Bring eternal miseries upon yourselves,\u2019 but only tempts them to that\nwhich will bring this misery upon them; and as for those intermediate\nends, which are the formal acts of sin, he useth also a kind of modesty\nin their concealment. He doth not usually say, Go and murder, or,\nCommit adultery; but rather puts them upon ways or means that will\nbring them up to those iniquities, except that he sometime have to deal\nwith those that are so hardened in sin, that they make a sport to do\nwickedly, and then he can more freely discover his ends to such in the\ntemptation.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The means to such wicked ends have not only an innate\nand natural tendency in themselves, which are apt to sway and bias men\nthat way, but are also capable _of artificial improvement, to a further\nenticement to the evils secretly intended; and these require the art\nand skill for the exact suiting and fitting of them_. The end cannot\nbe reached without the means, and means so ordered, without the aid of\ngrace, will scarce miss of the end.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, The means are capable of _a varnish and paint_. He can\nmake a shift to set them off and colour them over, that the proper\ndrift of them cannot easily be discovered; whereas the ends to\nwhich these lead cannot receive, at least so easily with some, such\nfair shows. It is far easier to set off company-keeping, with the\npleasurable pretences of necessity or refreshing divertisement, than to\npropound direct drunkenness, the thing to which company-keeping tends,\nunder such a dress.\n\n_Query._ If it be demanded, How and by what arts he renders the means\nso plausible? I shall endeavour a satisfaction to that query, by\nshewing the way that Satan took to render the means he made use of in\nthis temptation, plausible to Christ, which were these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, He represents it as _a harmless or lawful thing in itself_.\nWho can say it had been sinful for the Son of God to have turned stones\ninto bread, more than to turn water into wine?\n\n[2.] Secondly, He gives the motion a further pretext of _advantage or\ngoodness_. He insinuated that it might be a useful discovery of his\nsonship, and a profitable supply against hunger.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, He seems also to put _a necessity upon it_, that other\nways of help failing, he must be constrained so to do, or to suffer\nfurther want.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He forgets not to tell him that to do this was but\n_suitable to his condition_, and that it was a thing well becoming the\nSon of God to do a miracle.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, He doth urge it at the rate of _a duty_, and that being\nin hunger and want, it would be a sinful neglect not to do what he\ncould and might for his preservation.\n\nThe same way doth he take in other temptations; in some cases pleading\nall, in some most of these things, by which the means conducing\nthereunto may seem plausible. If he presents to men occasions of\nsinning, he will tell them ordinarily that they may lawfully adventure\nupon them, that they are harmless, nay, of advantage, as tending to\nthe recreating of the spirits and health of the body; yea, that it is\nnecessary for them to take such a liberty, and that in doing so, they\ndo but what others do that profess religion. And often he hath such\nadvantage from the circumstances of the thing, and the inclination\nof our heart, that he makes bold to tell us it is no less than duty.\nSuch did the outrage of Demetrius seem to him, when he considered how\nmuch his livelihood did depend upon the Diana of the Ephesians. Paul\u2019s\nzeal made him confident that persecution of Christians was his duty;\nneither is there anything which can pretend to any zeal, advantage, or\ncolourable ground, but presently it takes the denomination of duty.\n\nIf any wonder that such poor and shallow pretences are not seen through\nby all men, they may know that this happens from a fourfold ignorance:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _From an ignorance of the thing itself_. How easily may\nthey be imposed upon, who know not the nature or the usual issues\nof things! As children are deluded to put a value upon a useless or\nhurtful trifle, so are men deceived and easily imposed upon in what\nthey do not understand. And for this cause are sinners compared to\nbirds, who are easily enticed with the bait proposed to their view as\nprofitable and good for them, because they know not the snare that\nlies laid under it. This ignorance causing the mistake mentioned, is\nnot only a simple ignorance, but also that ignorance which owes its\nrise to a wilful and perverse disposition,\u2014for there are some that\nare willingly ignorant,\u2014doth often lay those open to a delusion, who,\nthrough prepossession or idleness, will not be at pains to make full\ninquiries.\n\n(2.) Secondly, This also comes to pass from _an ignorance of our\nspirits_: for while we either engage in the things proposed by Satan\nupon the general warranty of a good intention, or that we have no evil\nmeaning in it, we are kept from a discovery of the intended design.\nHence Paul saw nothing, in his persecuting the church of God, of\nwhat Satan aimed at; or while upon the pretence of a good intention,\nour secret corrupt principles do indeed move us underhand to any\nundertaking, we are as little apt to see the ends of Satan in what he\npropounds to us. Jehu and the disciples, Luke ix. 55, pretending a zeal\nfor God, but really carried on by their own furious tempers, did as\nlittle as others see what the devil was doing with them.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, The means of a temptation are rendered less suspicious,\nfrom _an ignorance of the circumstances and concomitants that do attend\nthem_.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, As also from _an ignorance of our own weakness and\ninclination_. While we are confident of greater strength to resist\nthan indeed we have, of a greater averseness than is in us to the evil\nsuspected, we contemn the danger of the means as below us, and so grow\nbold with the occasions of iniquity, as pretending no hazard or danger\nto us.\n\n_Applic._ _This may teach us a piece of wisdom in the imitation of the\ndevil._ We see his malice appears in the bloody and destructive aims or\nintendments which he discovers against us, but his skill and cunning\nin a suitable disposal and ordering of the means. So should we learn\nto employ all our care and watchfulness about those plausible ways or\nintroductions to sin that Satan puts in our hand; and as his eager\ndesire of gaining his end makes him industrious about the offering\nof means fit to compass it, so our fear of his design and end should\nmake us jealous of every overture propounded to us. They that from\nwilfulness or neglect shall admit the means of evil, cannot expect to\navoid the evil to which they lead, or if they may, unexpectedly, be\nrescued from the end, while they use the means,\u2014by grace interposing,\nas between the cup and the lip,\u2014it is no thanks to them, and often they\ncome not off so clear, but that some lameness or other sticks by them.\n\n_Quest._ I may suspect this will be retorted back as an advice scarce\npracticable: for if all means leading to sin are to be avoided, then\ncan we use nothing, but rather, as the apostle saith in another case,\n\u2018we must go out of the world,\u2019 [1 Cor. v. 10,] seeing everything may\nlead to evil?\n\n_Ans._ I answer, We are not by any command of God put into any such\nstrait. Things that are or may be improveable against us, may be used\nby us with due care and watchfulness; yet all things are not alike\nneither, for we must look upon things under a threefold consideration.\n\n[1.] First, If that which is propounded or laid before us as a means to\nsin, be in itself sinful, the refusal of both is an undoubted duty.\n\n[2.] Secondly, We must look upon things under the consideration of\nthe suspiciousness which they carry with them of a further evil. Some\ncircumstances, or postures of an opportunity and occasion offered, are\nof such a threatening aspect, that they fairly warn us to hold off. To\nkeep company with a friend may be admitted, when yet that society in a\nsuspicious place, as tavern or whore-house, is to be avoided.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, We must further consider things as we are free or\nengaged to them, and accordingly where there is appearance of danger\nor the fear of it, we must keep at a distance, if we are engaged to\nsuch things, either by the obligation of the law of nature, or lawful\ncalling, or command of God, or unavoidable providence, or relation.\nWhere these ties are upon us, we cannot avoid the thing or action, but\nare the more concerned to take heed of being overreached or overtaken\nby them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n _Of the temptation to distrust upon the failure of ordinary means.\u2014Of\n the power of that temptation, and the reasons of its prevalency.\u2014Of\n unwarrantable attempts for relief, with the causes thereof.\u2014Of waiting\n on God, and keeping his way.\u2014In what cases a particular mercy is to be\n expected._\n\n\nI have particularly insisted upon the aims of Satan in this temptation\nin their variety, and also the cunning connexion and coherences of\nthem. I have also singled out his chief design. I am now in the last\nplace to present you with the suitableness and respects that the\nsubordinate means carry to the principal, and that proportion which may\nbe found in all these to the end designed by them.\n\nThe chief means in reference to the end designed, was a distrust of\nprovidence, and the subordinate means to bring on that distrust, was\nthe failure of ordinary means of supply: for so he endeavoured to\nimprove his hunger and want in the wilderness, as a manifest neglect of\nprovidence towards him, for which, as he tacitly suggests, there was no\nground to wait or rely upon it any further, but to betake himself to\nanother course. Hence note,\n\n_Obs._ 13. _That the failure of ordinary means of help is by Satan\nimproved as his special engine to bring men to a distrust of\nprovidence, and from thence to an unwarrantable attempt for their\nrelief in an extraordinary way._\n\nThat the failure of ordinary and usual supplies hath by the devil\u2019s\nsubtlety brought a distrust of providence, and run men beyond all\nhopes of help, is a thing commonly and notoriously known. When men\nare afflicted, and brought unto unusual straits, and the ordinary\nways of relief are out of sight, they are soon tempted to distrust\nGod and man; and to conclude they are cut off, and that their \u2018hope\nis perished,\u2019 and that \u2018their eye shall no more see good.\u2019 David\ndistressed, proclaims \u2018all men liars:\u2019 concludes that he should at\nlast \u2018be cut off,\u2019 Ps. cxvi. 11, xxxi. 22. Jonah, in the whale\u2019s\nbelly, thought that all hope was gone, and that he was cast out of\nGod\u2019s sight, chap. ii. 4. The church of Israel in captivity, \u2018forgot\nprosperity,\u2019 notwithstanding the promise of deliverance after seventy\nyears, and thought no less than that \u2018her hope and strength was\nperished,\u2019 Lam. iii. 18. And from the scriptures mentioned, we may also\nsee the strength and prevalency of the temptation, especially when it\nis reduced to particulars. As,\n\n(1.) First, _It is not a thing altogether of no weight that such a\ntemptation should prevail against such persons_; as David and Jonah,\nand the whole church of Israel, that the manifold experiences that\nsome of them have had of God\u2019s faithfulness in delivering, and the\nseasonableness of help at times of greatest hazard, the particular\npromises that all of them have had\u2014how dismal and black soever things\nhave seemed\u2014have given the fullest assurances imaginable, that what he\nhad spoken should certainly be performed; the gracious qualifications\nof such persons as eminently holy and skilled in the duties of trust,\nand in the ways of providence, and the special advantage which some of\nthem, as prophets, have had above others, to enable them to improve\nthat skill, experience, knowledge, and grace, to a firm adherence to\nsuch special promises: that all these things should not be sufficient\nto keep them off distrust, though at present the ways of deliverence\nwere hid from them, seems strange.\n\n(2.) Secondly, It is wonderful _to what a height such a prevailing\ntemptation hath carried some of them_. David seems to be a little\noutrageous, and did upon the matter call God \u2018a liar,\u2019 when he said,\n\u2018All men are liars;\u2019 which however that some interpret[392] as if it\nhad been David\u2019s trust in God, and his confident avouchment of his\nenemies\u2019 prognostications of his ruin, to be but lies, and that this he\nspake from his firm belief of the promise, \u2018I believed, therefore have\nI spoken;\u2019 yet the acknowledgment of his \u2018haste,\u2019 which, compared with\nPs. xxxi. 22, is declared as his weakness, will force us to conclude\nit an ingenuous confession of his distrust at the first, when he was\ngreatly afflicted, though he recovered himself afterwards to a belief\nof the promise; and that in that distemper he plainly reflected upon\nSamuel, and calls the promises of God given by him \u2018a very lie.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, It is strange also _that present instances of God\u2019s\nprovidences working out unexpected deliverances should not relieve\nthe hearts of his saints from the power of such distrust_; that when\nthey see God is not unmindful of them, but doth hear them in what they\nfeared, they should still retain in their minds the impression of an\nunbelieving apprehension; and not rather free themselves from their\nexpectations of future ruin by concluding, that he that hath and doth\ndeliver will also yet deliver. David had this thought in his heart,\nthat he should \u2018one day perish by the hand of Saul,\u2019 1 Sam. xxvii. 1,\neven then when God had so remarkably rescued him from Saul, and forced\nSaul not only to acknowledge his sin in prosecuting him, but also to\ndeclare his belief of the promise concerning David. See chap. xxvi. One\nwould have expected that this should have been such a demonstration\nof the truth of what had been promised, that he should cast out all\nfear; and yet, contrariwise, this pledge of God\u2019s purpose to him is\nreceived by a heart strongly prepossessed with misgiving thoughts, and\nhe continues to think that for all this Saul would one day destroy him.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _The pangs of this distrust are also so remarkable, that\nafter they have been delivered, and have found that the event hath\nnot answered their fears, they have in the review of their carriage\nunder such fears, recounted this their weakness among other remarkable\nthings_, thereby shewing the unreasonableness of their unbelief, and\ntheir wonder that God should pass by so great a provocation, and\nnotwithstanding so unexpectedly deliver them. David in the places\nbefore cited was upon a thankful acknowledgment of God\u2019s love and\nwonderful kindness, which be thought he could not perform without\nleaving a record of his strange and unworthy distrust; as if he had\nsaid, \u2018So greatly did I sin, and so unsuitably did I behave myself,\nthat I then gave off, and concluded all was lost.\u2019\n\nTo open this a little further, I shall add the reasons why Satan\nstrikes in with such an occasion as the want of means to tempt to\ndistrust, which are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _Such a condition doth usually transport men beside\nthemselves_; puts them, as it were, into an ecstacy, and by a\nsudden rapture of astonishment and fear, forceth them beyond their\nsettled thoughts and purposes. This David notes as the ground of his\ninconsiderate rash speaking: \u2018It was my haste,\u2019 I was transported,\n&c. Now as passion does not only make men speak what otherwise they\nwould not, but also to put bad interpretations upon actions and things\nbeyond what they will bear, and hasten men to resolves exceedingly\nunreasonable; so doth this state of the heart, under an amazement and\nsurprise of fear, give opportunity to Satan to put men to injurious\nand unrighteous thoughts of the providence of God, and by such ways to\nalienate their minds from the trust which they owe him.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Sense is a great help to faith_. Faith then must needs\nbe much hazarded when sense is at a loss or contradicted, as usually it\nis in straits.\n\nThat faith doth receive an advantage by sense, cannot be denied. To\nbelieve what we see, is easier than to believe what we see not; and\nthat in our state of weakness and infirmity God doth so far indulge us,\nthat by his allowance we may take the help of our senses, is evident\nby his appointment of the two sacraments, where by outward visible\nsigns our faith may be quickened to apprehend the spiritual benefits\noffered. Thomas, resolving to suspend his belief till he were satisfied\nthat Christ was risen, by the utmost trial that sense could give,\ndetermining not to credit the testimony of the rest of the disciples\ntill by putting his finger into his side he had made himself more\ncertain, Christ not only condescended to him, but also pronounceth\nhis approbation of his belief, accepting it, that he had believed\nbecause he had seen. But when outward usual helps fail us, our sense,\nbeing not able to see afar off, is wholly puzzled and overthrown.\nThe very disappearing of probabilities gives so great a shake to our\nfaith that it commonly staggers at it; and therefore was it given as\nthe great commendation of Abraham\u2019s faith, that he, notwithstanding\nthe unlikelihood of the thing, \u2018staggered not at the promise;\u2019 noting\nthereby how extraordinary it was in him at that time to keep up against\nthe contradiction of sense, and how usual it is with others to be\nbeaten off all trust by it. It is no wonder to see that faith, which\nusually called sense for a supporter, to fail when it is deprived of\nits crutch. And he that would a little understand what disadvantage\nthis might prove to a good man when sense altogether fails his\nexpectation, he may consider with himself in what a case Thomas might\nhave been if Christ had refused to let him see his side, and to thrust\nhis finger into the print of the nails. In all appearance, had it been\nso, he had gone away confirmed in his unbelief.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Though faith can act above sense, and is employed\nabout things not seen, yet every saint at all times doth not act his\nfaith so high_. Christ tells us that to believe where a man hath not\nhad the help of sight and sense, is noble and blessed, John xx. 29;\nyet withal, he hints it to be rare and difficult: \u2018he that hath not\nseen, and yet hath believed,\u2019 implies that it is but one amongst many\nthat doth so, and that it is the conquest of a more than ordinary\ndifficulty. Hence it is, that to love God when he kills, to believe\nwhen means fail, are reckoned among the high actings of Christianity.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _When sense is nonplussed, and faith fails, the soul of\nman is at a great loss_. Having nothing to bear it up, it must needs\nsink; but having something to throw it down, besides its own propensity\ndownward to distrust, it hath the force of so great a disappointment\nto push it forward; and such bitterness of spirit, heightened by the\nmalignant influence of Satan, that with a violence like the angel\u2019s\nthrowing a millstone into the sea, it is cast into the bottom of\nsuch depths of unbelief, that the knowledge of former power and\nextraordinary providences cannot keep it from an absolute denial of\nthe like for the future. Israel in the wilderness, when they came to\nthe want of bread, though they acknowledged he \u2018clave the rock,\u2019 and\ngave them water in the like strait, yet so far did their hearts fail\nof that due trust in the power and mercy of God, which might have been\nexpected, that though they confessed the one, they as distrustfully\nquestion and deny the other. \u2018He clave the rock, but can he provide\nflesh? can he give bread?\u2019 [Ps. lxxviii. 20.] Strange unbelief, that\nsees and acknowledgeth omnipotency in one thing, and yet denies it in\nanother!\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _Providence hath been an old question_. It is an atheism\nthat some have been guilty of, to deny that God ordereth all affairs\nrelating to his children here below, who yet have not so fully\nextinguished their natural impressions as to dare to deny the being of\nGod. That God is, they confess, but withal they think that he \u2018walketh\nin the circuit of heaven,\u2019 and as to the smaller concerns of men,\nneither doth good nor evil. This being an old error, to which most are\nbut too inclinable; and the more because such things are permitted\u2014as\nthe punishment of his children, and their trials, while others have\nall their heart can wish\u2014as seem scarce consistent with that love and\ncare which men look for from him to his servants, they are apt enough\nto renew the thoughts of that persuasion upon their minds\u2014for which the\nfailure of ordinary ways of help seems to be a high probability\u2014that\nhe keeps himself unconcerned, and therefore there seems to be no such\ncause of reliance upon him. The psalmist so expresseth that truth,\n\u2018Men shall say, Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth,\u2019 [Ps.\nlviii. 11;] that it is discovered to be a special retrievement of it,\nby many and signal convincing evidences, from that distrust of God and\nhis providences that men usually slide into upon their observation of\nthe many seeming failures of outward means of help.\n\nSecondly, The other branch of the observation, _that from a distrust of\nprovidence he endeavours to draw them to an unwarrantable attempt for\ntheir relief_, is as clear as the former. Sarah being under a distrust\nof the promise for a son, because of her age, gave her handmaid to\nAbraham, that in that way, the promise seeming to fail, she might\nobtain children by her, Gen. xvi. 2. David, because of the many and\nviolent pursuits of Saul, not only distrusted the promise, thinking he\nmight \u2018one day perish\u2019 by him, but resolves to provide for his own\nsafety by a speedy escape into the land of the Philistines, 1 Sam.\nxxvii. 1; a course which, as appears by the temptations and evils he\nmet with there, was altogether unwarrantable. That from a distrust men\nare next put upon unwarrantable attempts, is clear from the following\nreasons:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _The affrightment which is bred by such distrusts of\nprovidences will not suffer men to be idle_. Fear is active, and\nstrongly prompts that something is to be done.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Yet such is _the confusion of men\u2019s minds in such a\ncase, that though many things are propounded, in that hurry of thoughts\nthey are deprived usually of a true judgment and deliberation_, so that\nthey are oppressed with a multitude of thoughts, as David on the like\noccasion takes notice, \u2018In the multitude of my thoughts within me,\u2019\n&c., [Ps. xciv. 19;] and, as he expresseth the case of seamen in a\nstorm, \u2018they are at their wits\u2019 end.\u2019\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The despairing grievance of spirit_ makes them take\nthat which comes next to hand, as a drowning man that grasps a twig or\nstraw, though to no purpose.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Being once turned off their rock, and the true stay of\nthe promise of God for help, _whatever other course they take must\nneeds be unwarrantable_. If they once be out of the right way, they\nmust needs wander, and every step they take must of necessity be wrong.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _Satan is so officious in an evil thing_, that seeing any\nin this condition, he will not fail to proffer his help; and in place\nof God\u2019s providence, to set some unlawful shift before them.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, And so much the rather do men close in with such\novertures, because a _sudden fit of passionate fury doth drive them,\nand out of a bitter kind of despite and crossness_\u2014as if they meditated\na revenge against God for their disappointment\u2014_they take up a hasty\nwilful resolve to go that way that seems most agreeable to their\npassion_, saying with king Joram, \u2018What wait we upon the Lord any\nlonger for?\u2019 [2 Kings vi. 33.] We will take such a course, let come on\nus what will.\n\n_Applic._ The service which the observation, well digested, may perform\nfor us, is very fully contained in an advice which David gives on the\nlike occasion, Ps. xxxvii. 34, which is this, \u2018Wait on the Lord, and\nkeep his way.\u2019 Failures of ordinary means should not fill us with\ndistrust, neither then should we run out of God\u2019s way for help. He that\nwould practise this must have these three things which are comprehended\nin it:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _He must have full persuasions of the power and promise of\nGod_. I do not mean the bare hearsay that God hath promised to help,\nand that he is able to deliver, but these truths must be wrought upon\nthe heart to a full assurance of them, and then we must keep our eye\nupon them; for if ever we lose the sight of this, when troubles beset\nus, our heart will fail us, and we shall do no otherwise than Hagar,\nwho, when her bottle of water was spent, and she saw no way of supply,\nsat down, gave up her son and self for lost and so falls a-weeping over\nher helpless condition. This was that sight of God, in regard of his\npower, goodness, faithfulness, and truth, which are things invisible,\nHeb. xi. 27, which kept up the heart of Moses, that it sunk not under\nthe pressure of his fears, when all things threatened his ruin.\n\n[2.] Secondly, He that would thus wait upon God _had need to have\nan equal balance of spirit in reference to second causes_. Despise\nor neglect them he may not, when he may have them, for that were\nintolerable presumption; and so to centre our hopes and expectations\nupon them, as if our welfare did certainly depend upon them, is a high\naffront to God\u2019s omnipotency, and no less than a sinful idolizing of\nthe creature; but the engagements of our duty must keep carefully to\nthe first, and the consideration of an independency of an almighty\npower, as to any subordinate means or causes, must help us against the\nother miscarriage. When all means visible fail us, we must look to\nlive upon omnipotent faithfulness and goodness, which is not tied to\nanything, but that without all means, and contrary to the powers of\nsecond causes, can do what he hath promised or sees fit.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, There is no waiting upon God, and keeping his way,\nwithout _a particular trust in God_. To this we are not only warranted\nby frequent commands, \u2018Trust in the Lord, I say, trust in the Lord,\u2019\nbut highly encouraged to it under the greatest assurances of help: Ps.\nxxxvii. 5, \u2018Trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass.\u2019 \u2018Trust in the\nLord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed,\u2019 ver. 3. The Lord shall\nhelp and deliver them, because they trust in him. And this we are to\ndo at \u2018all times,\u2019 and in the greatest hazards, and with the highest\nsecurity: \u2018I laid me down and slept; I will not be afraid of ten\nthousands of people that have set themselves against me round about,\u2019\nPs. iii. 5, 6.\n\n_Quest._ But some, possibly, may say, Is it our duty to sit still in\nsuch a case? When all the usual ways of supply fail us, must nothing be\nattempted?\n\n_Ans._ (1.) I answer, first, _At such times greater care and diligence\nis necessary in outward things_. That what one lawful course cannot\nhelp, another lawful course may; and as to spiritual diligence, it\nshould be extraordinary. We should be more earnest and frequent in\nprayer, fastings, meditations, and the exercise of graces.\n\n(2.) Secondly, While we are in the pursuit of duty, and where the\nsubstance of it may be preserved entire, if our straits and wants\nunavoidably put us out of the way, _we may be satisfied to go on,\nthough some circumstances be necessarily waived and hindered_. Phinehas\nmight kill Zimri and Cosbi upon the command of Moses, Num. xxv. 5;\nand consequently in prosecution of duty, though, other circumstances\nconsidered, it was in some respects extraordinary.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, But let the strait be what it will, _we must not forsake\nduty_; for so we go out of God\u2019s way, and do contradict that trust and\nhope which we are to keep up to God-ward.\n\n_Quest._ But, it may be further urged, must we, when all means fail,\npositively trust in God for those very things which we might expect in\nan ordinary way?\n\n_Ans._ In some cases our duty is _submission to his will_, and the\nparticular mercy neither positively to be expected not yet distrusted.\nThus did David behave himself when he fled from Jerusalem upon\nAbsalom\u2019s rebellion; \u2018Let him do what seemeth him good.\u2019\n\nBut there are other cases wherein it is our duty to fix our trust upon\nthe particular mercy or help. I shall name four; and possibly a great\nmany more may be added. As,\n\n[1.] First, _When mercies are expressly and particularly promised_:\nas when the kingdom was promised to David; when a son was promised to\nAbraham. Whatever had been the improbabilities of their obtaining the\nthing promised, it was their duty positively to believe. This is indeed\nnot a general case.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _When God leads us into straits by engaging us in his\nservice_: as when Israel followed the Lord into the wilderness, in\norder to an enjoyment of a further mercy, which was the possession\nof the land of Canaan. When they had no water to drink, nor food to\neat, and saw no natural possibility of supply in that wilderness, they\nought positively to have expected supplies from God in an extraordinary\nway; and it is reckoned up against them as their sin that they did\nnot believe. This was the very case of Christ under this temptation;\nthe Spirit led him into the wilderness upon the prosecution of a\nfurther design. When there was no bread there to satisfy his hunger,\nhe refuseth to work a miracle for his supply, but leans upon an\nextraordinary providence.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _When the things we want are common universal blessings,\nand such as we cannot subsist without_. If we have nothing to eat, and\nnothing to put on, yet seeing the body cannot live without both, we\nmust positively expect such supplies from providence, though we see not\nthe way whence they should arise to us. This kind of distrust, which\nreflects upon the general necessary providence of God, by which he is\nengaged to preserve his creatures in their stations, \u2018to clothe the\ngrass of the field, to feed the birds of the air,\u2019 &c., Christ doth\nseverely challenge, \u2018Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little\nfaith?\u2019 Mat. vi. 30. He hath little or no faith, and in that regard a\nvery prodigy of distrust, that will not believe for necessaries. Hence,\nHab. iii. 17, the prophet resolves upon a rejoicing confidence in God,\nwhen neither tree, nor field, nor flock would yield any hope in an\nordinary way.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _When God is eminently engaged for our help, and his\nhonour lies at stake in that very matter_; so that whether God will\nhelp or no, or whether he is able, is become the controversy, upon\nwhich religion in its truth or the honour of God is to be tried; then\nare we engaged to a certain belief of help. The three children upon\nthis ground did not only assert that \u2018God was able to deliver them,\u2019 or\nthat their death and martyrdom they could bear, which is all that most\nmartyrs are able to arise up to, but they asserted positively that \u2018God\nwould deliver them,\u2019 and that the fire should not burn them. They saw\nevidently that the contest, whether the Lord was God, was managed at\nso high a rate, that God was more concerned to vindicate his honour by\ntheir preservation, than to vindicate their grace and patience by their\nconstancy and suffering, [Dan. iii.] Another instance we have in Mat.\nviii. 26, where Christ rebukes his disciples for unbelief, in their\nfears of shipwreck in a great storm\u2014not that every seaman ordinarily\nlies under that charge, that gives himself up to the apprehensions\nof danger\u2014the ground of which charge was this, that Christ was with\nthem, and consequently it had unavoidably contradicted his design,\nand reflected upon his honour, if he had suffered his disciples at\nthat time to be drowned. Their not minding how far Christ was engaged\nwith them, and not supporting themselves against their fears by that\nconsideration, made Christ tax them for their little faith.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s proceeding to infer distrust of sonship from distrust\n of providences.\u2014Instances of the probability of such a design.\u2014The\n reasons of this undertaking.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s endeavour to weaken the\n assurance and hopes of God\u2019s children.\u2014His general method to that\n purpose._\n\n\nLastly, we are to consider the suitableness of the means to the end. He\nhad, as we have seen, fitly proportioned the subordinate means to the\nchief and principal. The failure of ordinary means of help was shrewdly\nproper to infer a distrust of providence. Now let it be noted how fitly\nhe improves this distrust of providence to bring about the end he aimed\nat, which was a distrust of his filial interest in God, as if he should\nhave thus reasoned: \u2018He that in straits is forsaken, as to all the\nusual supplies that may be expected in an ordinary way, hath no reason\nto rely on providence; and he that hath no reason to rely on providence\nfor the body, hath less cause to expect spiritual blessings and favours\nfor the soul.\u2019 Hence note,\n\n_Obs._ 14. _That it is Satan\u2019s endeavour to make men proceed from a\ndistrust of providence to a distrust of their spiritual sonship, or\nfilial interest in God._ First, I shall evidence that this is Satan\u2019s\ndesign, and next I shall give the reasons of it. The former I shall\nmake good by these several considerations:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _We see it is a usual inference that others make of men\nwhose heart fails them, under an absence or disappearance of all means\nof help in their distresses_. If providence doth not appear for them,\nthey conclude God hath forsaken them. Bildad thus concludes against\nJob, chap. iv. 6, \u2018Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and\nthe uprightness of thy ways?\u2019 Which must not only be understood as an\nironical scoff at the weakness of his confidence and hope, as not being\nable to support him against fainting in his trouble, but as a direct\naccusation of the falseness and hypocrisy of his supposed integrity,\nand all the hopes and confidence which was built upon it; and ver. 7\ndoth evidence, where he plainly declares himself to mean that Job could\nnot be innocent or righteous, it being, in his apprehension, a thing\nnever heard of, that so great calamities should overtake an upright\nman, \u2018Who ever perished, being innocent?\u2019 The ground of which assertion\nwas from ver. 5, \u2018It is now come upon thee, and thou faintest.\u2019 That\nis, distresses are upon thee, and thou hast no visible means of help,\nbut despairest ever to see a providence that will bring thee out;\ntherefore surely thou hast had no real interest in God, as his child.\nEliphaz also seconds his friend in this uncharitable censure, \u2018If thou\nwert pure and upright, he would awake for thee,\u2019 Job viii. 6; that is,\nbecause he doth thus overlook thee, therefore thou art not pure and\nupright.\n\nIf men do thus assault the comforts of God\u2019s children, we have reason\nenough to think that Satan will; for besides that we may conclude they\nare set on work by the devil, and what he speaks by them, he will also\nby other ways promote, as being a design that is upon his heart; we may\nbe confident, that this being a surmise so natural to the heart of man,\nhe will not let slip so fair an advantage, for the forming of it in our\nown hearts against ourselves.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _The best of God\u2019s children, in such cases, escape\nit very hardly, if at all_; which declares not only the depth and\npower of that policy, but also how usual it is with Satan to urge the\nservants of God with it. Job, chap. xix. 25, recovered himself to a\nfirm persuasion of sonship, \u2018I know that my Redeemer liveth,\u2019 &c.; but\nby the way his foot had well-nigh slipped, when, ver. 10, 11, he cries\nout, \u2018He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone; he hath also\nkindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his\nenemies.\u2019 His earnest resolve not to give up his trust in God, and the\nconfidence of his integrity, is sufficient to discover Satan\u2019s eager\nendeavours to have him bereaved of it.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Satan\u2019s success in this temptation over the saints of\nGod, who sometime have actually failed_, shews how much it is his work\nto cast down their hopes of interest in God, by overthrowing their\ntrust in his providences. If he attempts this, and that successfully,\non such whose frequent experiences might discourage the tempter, and\nin probability frustrate his undertaking; we have little cause to\nthink that he will be more sparing and gentle in this assault upon\nthose that are more weak, and less acquainted with those clouds and\ndarknesses that overshadow the ways of providence. David, for all the\npromises that he had received, and notwithstanding the manifold trials\nthat he had of seasonable and unexpected deliverances, yet when he\nwas distressed, he once and again falls into a fear of his soul, and\na questioning of God\u2019s favour. He complains as one utterly forsaken,\n\u2018Why hast thou forsaken me?\u2019 Ps. xxii. 1. In Ps. lxix., he expresseth\nhimself, ver. 1, \u2018sinking in the deep mire,\u2019 as a man that had no firm\nground to stand upon, and that his troubles had brought him to fear the\nstate of his soul, not only as deprived of God\u2019s favour\u2014and therefore,\nver. 17, begs that his face may be no longer hid\u2014but also as suspecting\nthe loss of it; ver. 18, \u2018draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it.\u2019 Ps.\nlxxvii., upon the occasion of outward troubles, Asaph falls into such\na fit of fear about his spiritual condition, that no consideration of\nformer mercies could relieve him, \u2018He remembered God,\u2019 ver. 3, \u2018but\nwas troubled;\u2019 he \u2018considered the days of old,\u2019 called to remembrance\nhis \u2018songs in the night;\u2019 but none of these were effectual to keep\nhim from that sad outcry of distrust, ver. 7, \u2018Will the Lord cast off\nfor ever? is his mercy clean gone for ever? hath God forgotten to be\ngracious?\u2019 &c. Which upon the review, in the composing of the psalm,\nhe acknowledged an unbelieving miscarriage; I said, \u2018This is mine\ninfirmity.\u2019\n\n(4.) Fourthly, It is also a common and ordinary thing with most, _to\nentertain misapprehensions of their spiritual condition, when they meet\nwith disappointments of providence_. Hence the apostle, Heb. xii. 5, 6,\nwhen he would quiet the hearts of men under the Lord\u2019s chastening, doth\nof purpose make use of this encouragement, that God speaks to them in\nthe rod as to children, and such as are under his care and love, \u2018My\nson, despise not the chastening of the Lord;\u2019 \u2018whom the Lord loveth,\nhe chasteneth,\u2019 &c. Which certainly tells us thus much, that it is\nordinary for men to doubt their sonship because of their afflictions.\nWe may conjecture what the malady is, when we know what is prepared as\na medicine. This would not have been a common remedy, \u2018that we may be\nchildren, though we be scourged,\u2019 if the disbelief of this had not been\nthe usual interpretation of afflictions, and a common distemper.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, We may further take notice, _that those disquiets of\nmind, that were only occasioned by outward things, and seem to have no\naffinity, either in the nature of the occasion, or present inclination\nof the party, with a spiritual trouble; yet if they continue long,\ndo wholly change their nature_. They that at first only troubled\nthemselves for losses or crosses, forget these troubles and take up\nfears for their souls.\n\nSometime this ariseth from a natural softness and timorousness of\nspirit. Such are apt to misgive upon any occasion, and to say, Surely\nif I were his child, he would not thus forsake me; his fatherly\ncompassions would some way or other work towards me.\n\nSometime this ariseth from melancholy, contracted or heightened by\noutward troubles. These, when they continue long, and pierce deep,\nput men into \u2018a spirit of heaviness,\u2019 which makes them refuse to be\ncomforted. Here the devil takes his advantage. Unlawful sorrows are as\ndelightfully improved by him as unlawful pleasures; they are _Diaboli\nbalneum_, his bath in which he sports himself, as the leviathan in the\nwaters. When for temporal losses or troubles men fall into melancholy,\nif they be not relieved soon, then their grief changeth its object, and\npresently they disquiet themselves, as being out of God\u2019s favour, as\nbeing estranged from God, as being of the number of the damned; such\nagainst whom the door of mercy is shut, and so cry out of themselves as\nhopeless and miserable. The observations of physicians afford store of\ninstances of this kind. Felix Platerus gives one, of a woman at Basle\nwho first grieved for the death of her son, and when by this means she\ngrew melancholy, that changed into a higher trouble; she mourns that\nher sins would not be pardoned, that God would not have mercy for her\nsoul. Another, for some loss of wheat, first vexeth himself for that,\nand then at last despairs of the happiness of his soul; with a great\nmany more of that kind.[393]\n\nSometimes a desperate humour doth, from the same occasion, distract\nmen into a fury; of which Mercerus gives one instance from his own\nknowledge, of a person who, upon the distresses which he met with,\nfell into a rage against God, uttering speeches full of horror and\nblasphemy, not fit to be related.[394]\n\nIf there be such an affinity betwixt distrust of providence and\ndistrust of sonship, that the one slides into the other naturally;\nif this be common to all men under troubles, to suspect their souls;\nif the best do here actually miscarry; if those that do not, yet\nhardly escape; and if bystanders commonly give this judgment of men in\nstraits, that there is no help for them in their God; we cannot but\ncollect from all this, that it is an advantage which Satan will not\nneglect, and that he doth very much employ himself to bring it about.\n\nThe reasons of it are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _Distrust of providence hath in it the very formal nature\nof distrust of sonship_. If the object of distrust were but changed,\nit would without any further addition work that way. He that trusts\nprovidence acknowledgeth that God knoweth his wants, that he is of a\nmerciful inclination to give what he sees he hath need of; that he\nhath manifested this by promise, that he is so faithful that this\npromise cannot be neglected, and that he hath power to do what he hath\npromised.[395] He that distrusts providence disbelieves all these,\nconsequentially at least; and he that will not believe that God takes\nany care of the body, or that he is of a merciful disposition toward\nhim, or thinks either he hath made no such promise, or will not keep\nit, if any such were made; cannot believe, if that doubt were but\nonce started, that God is his Father, or that he hath interest in the\nprivilege of a son, seeing it is impossible to believe a sonship, while\nhis care, mercy, promises, and power are distrusted. In this then\nSatan\u2019s work is very easy. It is but his moving the question about\nthe Lord\u2019s mercy to the soul, and presently, as when new matter is\nministered to a raging flame, it takes hold upon it, and with equal,\nnay greater, force it carries the soul to distrust spiritual mercies,\nas before it disbelieved temporal kindnesses.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _The same reasons, which any man doth gather from the\nseeming neglect or opposition of providence, upon which he grounds\nhis distrust of the Lord\u2019s kindness in reference to outward things,\nwill also serve as arguments for a distrust of spiritual favours_. The\ndistresses of men seem to argue\u2014[1.] That there is sin and provocation\non their part; [2.] And that there is a manifestation of anger on\nGod\u2019s part; [3.] And from these apprehensions ariseth bitterness,\nanxiety, fear, and dejection of spirit, which intercepts all the help\nand consolation which might arise from other considerations of the\nLord\u2019s promise or mercy, for the quieting of the heart and fortifying\nit against such apprehensions. These same grounds, with the prevailing\nfears and perplexities arising from them, are enough to make us suspect\nthat we are not yet under any such peculiar favours as may bespeak us\nhis children by adoption; so that from the same premises Satan will\nconclude, that as he hath no care for our bodies, so no love to our\nsouls; that we neither love God nor are beloved of him. Betwixt the\none conclusion and the other there is but a step, and with a small\nlabour he can cut the channel, and let in that very distrust to run\nwith all its force against our spiritual interest in God.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _To trust God for the soul is a higher act than to trust\nhim for the body_. The soul being of greater excellency than the body,\nand the mercy necessary for the happiness of it being more precious and\nless visible, it must require a higher confidence in God to assure of\nthis than satisfy us in the other. It is more easy to believe a lesser\nkindness from a friend than a singular or extraordinary favour. He,\nthen, that cannot trust God for temporal mercies, shall be more unable\nto believe eternal blessings. \u2018If we run with footmen, and they have\nwearied us, shall we be able to contend with horsemen? If the shallow\nbrooks be too strong for us, what shall we do in the swellings of\nJordan?\u2019 [Jer. xii. 5.]\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _When faith is weakened as to one object, it is so\ntainted and discouraged that it is generally weakened as to all other_.\nIf the hand be so weakened that it cannot hold a ring, it will be less\nable to grasp a crown. When we are baffled in our trust for temporal\nmercies, if Satan then put us to it not to believe for spiritual\nblessings, how can we expect but to be much more at a loss in them?\nSo that he is sure of the victory before he fights, and he that is so\nsedulous to take advantage against us will not lose so considerable a\nconquest for want of pursuit. There is indeed one thing that may seem\nfit to be objected against this, which is, that men may retain their\nfaith in one thing when yet they distrust in another, as the Israelites\ndistrusted the power and goodness of God for bread and flesh in the\nwilderness, when yet they believed that as he had given water out of\nthe rock, so he could do it again if there were need: Ps. lxxviii. 20,\n\u2018He smote the rock, and the waters gushed out; but can he give bread?\u2019\nas if they had said, We believe he can give water, but it is impossible\nhe should provide bread. But they that would thus object may consider\nthat the reason of men\u2019s confidence in one thing, while distrust is in\nother things prevailing, is not from any real strength of their faith,\nbut a present want of a temptation. If such a confidence were put to\nit, it would quickly be seen that it were truly nothing. As confident\nas the Israelites were that they could believe for a supply of water,\nwe find that neither that experience, nor the other of supplying them\nwith manna and quails, were sufficient to keep up their trust in God,\nbut that at the next strait all was to seek: ver. 32, \u2018For all this\nthey sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.\u2019\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Besides all the forementioned advantages that Satan hath\nin raising this temptation, of distrusting sonship out of a distrust\nof providence, we may suppose him the more earnest in this matter,\n_because it is so provoking to God to distrust his providence, that\nhe often, as a just chastisement of that evil, punisheth it by giving\nthem up to distrust him for their souls_. The height of the provocation\nmay be measured by this, that it is not only a denial of God that is\nabove, but usually a vesting some mean and contemptible thing with\nthose attributes which only suit a God infinite and eternal. As Israel\ndid not only forsake the Almighty by their distrust, but place their\nhopes upon Ashur, upon their own horses and warlike preparations, and\nat last upon the works of their hands, which they called their gods,\nHosea xiv. 2, 3. How offensive this is to the Lord, we may observe\nby that notable check which the prophet gave Ahaz, Isa. vii. 8, 13,\nnotwithstanding his compliment of refusing a sign, which God offered\nhim for the strengthening of his hope, upon a pretence that he would\ntrust without it,\u2014though indeed he absolutely distrusted him, as\nappears by 2 Chron. xxviii. 20,\u2014that it was a weaning[396] and tiring\nout the patience of a long-suffering God: \u2018Is it a small thing for you\nto weary men, but will you weary my God also?\u2019 God is so active and\njealous of all encroachments of this kind, that they may expect he\nwill give up such offenders to be punished by the terrors of a higher\ndistrust. He that is not owned as a God in his providences, will not\nbe owned as a Father for spiritual mercies; they that will not own him\nfor the body, shall not be able to lay hold upon him or his strength\nto be at peace with him for their souls; and by this piece of just\ndiscipline he often cures the distrust of providence in his children,\nwho when they see themselves plunged into terrors and fears about their\neverlasting welfare, do not only call God just, and accept of the\npunishment of their iniquity in distrusting him for smaller matters,\nbut now wish with all their hearts that they might have no greater\nthing to trouble them than what relates to the body or this life.\n\nTo sum up all these reasons in one word: Satan hath from the\nforementioned considerations _a certain expectation of prevalency_. For\nnot only in this case doth God, as it were, fight for him, by giving\nthem up to distrust their filial interest that have provoked him by\na distrust of providence, and our faith is also so weakened by the\nformer overthrow that it is not able to maintain its ground in a higher\nmatter; but also this distrust carries that in the nature and grounds\nof it that will of itself work up to a disbelief of spiritual mercies.\nHe knows, then, that this piece of the victory is an easy consequence\nof the former; and we may say of it as the prophet Nahum, chap. iii.\n12, of the strongholds of Nineveh, It is like \u2018a fig-tree with the\nfirst ripe figs, if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth\nof the eater.\u2019 This temptation of distrusting our sonship falls into\nSatan\u2019s mouth with a little labour, when once he hath prevailed so far\nas to make us distrust the providence of God in outward matters.\n\n_Applic._ _This must warn and caution us against any unbeseeming\nunbelieving entertainment of jealousy against the Lord\u2019s providence._\nWe are but too apt in our straits to take a greater liberty to question\nhis mercy and power, not foreseeing how closely this borders upon a\ngreater evil. We may say of it, as the apostle speaks of \u2018babbling in\ncontroversies,\u2019 that they \u2018lead to more ungodliness,\u2019 and that such\nwords \u2018eat as a canker,\u2019 [2 Tim. ii. 17;] so doth this distrust usually\ncarry us further, and when we fall out with God for small matters, he\nwill be angry in earnest, and withdraw from us our consolations in\ngreater. In the depth of your distresses, when your fears are round\nabout you, and God seems to compass you about with his net,\u2014when\nlover and friend forsakes, and when there is no appearance of help,\nendeavour, for the keeping hold of your interest in God, to behave\nyourselves according to the following directions:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _Look upon the providences of God to be as a great deep,\nthe bottom of whose ways and designs you cannot reach_. Think of them\nas of a mystery, which indeed you must study, but not throw away,\nbecause you cannot at first understand it. Providences are not to be\ndealt with as Alexander did by Gordius his knot, who when he could not\nloose it he cut it. If you see not the end of the Lord, or cannot meet\nwith a door of hope in it, yet \u2018lay your hand upon your mouth,\u2019 speak\nnot, think not evil of things you know not, but wait till the time of\ntheir \u2018bringing forth.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, _You must keep up in your hearts high and honourable\nthoughts of God_, yea, of his mercy and goodness, and where you cannot\nsee your way, or God\u2019s way, before you, yet, as it were by a kind of\nimplicit faith, must you believe that he is holy and good in all his\nways.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Though you may read your sins or God\u2019s displeasure\nin them, and accordingly endeavour to humble yourselves and call\nyourselves vile, yet must it be always remembered that _eternal love or\neternal hatred is not to be measured by them_.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _Restrain complainings_. It is indeed an ease to\ncomplain; \u2018I will speak,\u2019 saith Job, \u2018that I may be refreshed,\u2019 chap.\nxxxii. 20; notwithstanding a vent being given, it is difficult to keep\nwithin bounds. Our complainings entice us to distrust, as may appear in\nJob, who took a boldness this way more than was fit, as chap. x. 3, \u2018Is\nit good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, and that thou shouldest\ndespise the work of thine hands?\u2019\n\nAll this hath been said in the opening of the temptation itself. Now\nmust I consider the motive that Satan used to bring on the temptation\nby, \u2018If thou be the Son of God,\u2019 &c.\n\nThe question that is here moved by some is, whether Satan really knew\nor truly doubted Christ to be the Son of God. Several learned men think\nthat he was in doubt,[397] and the reasons are variously conjectured.\nCyprian conceives that the unity of the two natures in one person did\nblind him; he knew it to be impossible that the divine nature should\nhunger, and might think it strange that the human nature should fast so\nlong.[398] Cornelius a-Lapide thinks that Satan knew that there should\nbe two natures united in one person, and that this occasioned Satan\u2019s\nfall, while he proudly stomached the exaltation of the human nature;\nbut he imagines Satan\u2019s doubt arose from a doubtful sense of that\nphrase, \u2018This is my beloved Son,\u2019 as not knowing whether Christ were\nthe natural or an adopted son of God.\n\nBut notwithstanding these apprehensions, others conceive that Satan\nknew very well who Christ was, and that being privy to so many things\nrelating to him, as the promises which went before and directly pointed\nout the time, the angel\u2019s salutation of Mary at his conception, the\nstar that conducted the wise men to him, the testimony from heaven\nconcerning him, with a great many things more, he could not possibly be\nignorant that he was the Messias and the Son of God by nature. Neither\ndoth that expression, \u2018If thou be the Son of God,\u2019 imply any doubting,\nseeing that that is usually expressive of the greatest certainty\nand assurance, as in the speech of Lamech, \u2018If Cain shall be avenged\nsevenfold,\u2019 that is, as certainly he shall be avenged; so Satan might\nuse it to this sense, \u2018If, or seeing thou art the Son of God.\u2019 Now,\nwhereas it may seem strange that he should set upon Christ, if he knew\nwho he was, I have answered that before, and shall here only add that\nthough Satan did believe Christ to be the Son of God, yet so strongly\ndid the power of malice work in him, that he would have had him to have\ndoubted that he was not so. From all this we have this observation,\n\n_Obs._ 15. _That the great design of Satan is to weaken the assurance\nand hopes of the children of God in their adoption._\n\nThis is the masterpiece of his design, the very centre in which most\nof his devices meet. We may say of him as Esau said of Jacob, \u2018Is he\nnot rightly called Jacob, a supplanter?\u2019 [Genesis xxvii. 36;] he first\nstole away our birthright at the creation, and now he seeks to take\naway our blessing in Christ the Redeemer.\n\nThe reasons of this undertaking I shall not here insist on. It is\nsufficiently obvious that the greatest perplexity and sorrow ariseth\nto the children of God from hence, and that a troop of other spiritual\nevils, as impatience, fury, blasphemy, and many more, doth follow it at\nthe heels, besides all that inability for service, and at last plain\nneglect of all duty. All I shall further do at this time shall be to\nshew in a few particulars, from Satan\u2019s carriage to Christ in this\ntemptation, how and after what manner he doth manage that design, in\nwhich note:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _That it is his design to sever us from the promise, and to\nweaken our faith in that_. When Eve was tempted, this was that he aimed\nat, that she should question the good earnest of the prohibition, \u2018Hath\nGod said so?\u2019 Was he real in that command, that you should not eat at\nall? &c. The like he doth to Christ, \u2018Is it true? or can it be so as\nthat voice declared, that thou art the Son of God?\u2019\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Though this be his design, yet his way to come to it is\nnot at first to deny it, but to question and inquire_; yet after such\na manner as may imply and withal suggest a doubting or suspicion that\nit is not so. He doth not come to Christ thus, \u2018Thou art not the Son\nof God; or that voice that gave thee that testimony was but a lie or a\ndelusion;\u2019 but he rather proceeds by questioning, which might seem to\ngrant that he was so, yet withal might possibly beget a doubt in his\nmind.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Next he more plainly suggests something that may seem\nto argue the contrary_; for thus he aggravates Christ\u2019s present\ncondition of want, \u2018Can it be that God would leave thee to these\noppressing straits, if thou wert his Son?\u2019 At this rate he deals with\nus, improving the failure of outward means of help, the permission\nof temptation, the want of comfort, the continuance of affliction,\nnotwithstanding prayers, &c., as probabilities that we belong not to\nGod.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _After this he urgeth Christ to a sinful miscarriage, to\ndistrust providence, and to rely no longer on the care of his Father_.\nIf Christ had been prevailed with in this, he would have made use of\nit as an argument to prove that he was not the Son of God indeed. It\nis usual in his disputings with us about adoption, to put us upon\nsomething which may be as an argument out of our own mouths against us.\nChrist might have answered him in this as the man answered Joab, \u2018If I\nshould do so, then thou thyself wouldst set thyself against me.\u2019\n\n(5.) Fifthly, When at last he hath gradually ascended to that\nconfidence as to deny our adoption, _then, at a very great\ndisadvantage, he puts us upon the proof, in which he puts by the\nordinary evidences, and insists on extraordinary proofs as necessary_.\nThe servants of the Lord that are under this exercise, do find that in\nthis case the ordinary evidences of repentance, mortification, love\nto the brethren, &c., do nothing for them. Satan puts their spirit\nupon clamouring for higher evidences. Nothing will serve except they\nmay view the records of eternity, and read their names enrolled in\nthe everlasting decrees, or except God will speak from heaven in an\nextraordinary way, to testify of them, as Thomas resolved that no less\nshould satisfy his doubt than the feeling and seeing of the print of\nthe nails. To this purpose some stand upon no less than a miracle\nfor proof of sonship. Of which we have two instances of later years,\nthe one Mrs Honywood, the other Mrs Sarah Wight,[399] who in their\ndistresses for their souls were tempted by Satan to make a hasty\nexperiment, the one by throwing a Venice glass, the other by throwing\na cup against the wall, with this or the like expression, \u2018If I must\nbe saved, then let not this glass break\u2019\u2014a desperate temptation! Their\nmanner of desiring satisfaction is so provoking, that it cannot be\nexpected God will give an answer by it, but rather the contrary; and\nif he should not condescend, as he is not bound\u2014though he strangely\npreserved the cup and glass fore-mentioned from breaking\u2014what a\ndangerous conclusion would Satan draw from it! Of this nature and\ndesign was that proposal of Satan\u2019s to Christ, \u2018Command that these\nstones be made bread,\u2019 that is, do it as a proof of thy sonship.\n\n_Applic._ By this we must learn this skill, _not too easily to give\nup our hopes, or to be prodigal of our interest in Christ, so as to\npart with it slenderly_. If Satan would chiefly rob us of this, we\nmay learn thence to put a price upon these jewels, and to account\nthat precious, and of singular concernment, which he useth so much\ncunning to bereave us of. Many of the Lord\u2019s servants may justly blame\nthemselves for their lavish unthriftiness in this matter, who, as if it\nwere a necessary piece of humility or modesty, will readily conclude\nagainst themselves that they are not God\u2019s children, that they are not\nyet converted, &c. Thus, at unawares, they give up to Satan without a\nstroke all that he seeks for.\n\n_Quest._ But you will say, Must all men be confident of adoption?\n\n_Ans._ No, I mean not so; yet all men must be wary how they cast away\ntheir hopes. Particularly,\n\n[1.] First, Though it be a dangerous arrogancy for a sinful, wicked\ncreature to bear himself up in a belief that he is converted and\nactually instated into the adoption of sons; yet it is as dangerous,\non the other hand, for that man to cast off all hope, and to say he is\nreprobated, and such a one as cannot expect pardon and grace.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Those that are converted, though they may and ought to\nhumble themselves deeply for their sinful miscarriage, and sincerely\nacknowledge that they deserve not to be called his children, yet must\nthey be careful not to renounce their filial interest. They may say\nthey are prodigal, yet keep to this, that they are sons; though they\nare wandering sheep, yet must they stick here, that they are sheep\nstill, and that God is still a Father, though a provoked Father,\notherwise their folly will give more than all his fury could get, at\nleast so quickly and easily.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n_Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on\nthe pinnacle of the temple._\u2014Mat. iv. 5.\n\n _The preparation to the second temptation.\u2014Of his nimbleness to catch\n advantages from our answers to temptation.\u2014That Satan carried Christ\n in the air.\u2014Of his power to molest the bodies of God\u2019s children.\u2014How\n little the supposed holiness of places privilegeth us from Satan.\u2014Of\n Satan\u2019s policy in seeming to countenance imaginary defences.\u2014Of his\n pretended flight in such cases, with the reasons of that policy.\u2014Of\n his improving a temptation to serve several ends._\n\n\nI omit Christ\u2019s answer to the first temptation at present, purposing to\nhandle his answers to all the temptations together. And now the second\ntemptation is before us, in which, first, I shall observe a few things\nin Satan\u2019s preparation to the temptation, which takes in [1.] The time;\n[2.] The manner of his carrying him; [3.] The place where he acted it.\n\n(1.) First, For the time. That is noted in the word \u2018then,\u2019 which [1.]\nPoints at the immediate succession of this to the former assault. The\nevangelist Luke puts this temptation last, but he only had respect to\nthe substance of the temptation in his narration; not regarding the\norder of them, which Matthew hath punctually observed, as appears by\nhis close connecting of them, with the particles \u2018then\u2019 and \u2018again,\u2019\nver. 5, 8. Besides, whosoever shall consider that in the first, Satan\ntempted Christ to distrust, which he repelled by telling him that it\nwas his duty, in the failure of outward means, to rely upon divine\nprovidence, seeing man lives not by bread alone, &c., he will see so\nmuch of connexion in the matter of the temptations that he will easily\npersuade himself that the second place belongs to this, for this is\nbut, as it were, a fit and pertinent reply to Christ\u2019s refusal; as if\nSatan had said, \u2018Since thou wilt rely upon the help and providence of\nGod in an extraordinary way of working, give an experiment of that by\ncasting thyself down, which thou mayest with greater confidence do,\nbecause he hath promised an extraordinary help, and hath given his\nangels charge concerning thee,\u2019 &c. Hence observe,\n\n_Obs._ 1. _That Satan is not discouraged easily, nor doth he always\ndesist upon the first repulse, but frequently renews the assault when\nhe is strongly and resolutely resisted._\n\nThis word, \u2018then,\u2019 doth also [2.] Tell us of Satan\u2019s nimbleness in\ncatching a present advantage for a new temptation from Christ\u2019s answer.\nHe declared his trust in providence; this he presently lays hold on as\na fit opportunity to tempt him to presumption. Here note,\n\n_Obs._ 2. _That when Satan is upon any design, if an occasional\nadvantage occur from our way of refusal, he will not let it slip, but\nimproves it to what it may lead to, though it be contrary to that which\nhe was first labouring for._\n\nThis was the policy which Benhadad\u2019s servants used in their address to\nAhab, 1 Kings xx. 33; the men did diligently observe whether anything\nwould come from him, and did hastily catch it. If anything come from\nus we are under his temptation, he is diligent to observe it, and\nprosecutes it accordingly; which may serve to satisfy the wonder that\nsome have concerning the contrariety in the temptations to which they\nare urged. They admire how it comes to pass that their temptations\nshould so suddenly alter, that when Satan seems to be so intent upon\none design, he should so quickly change, and urge them presently to a\ndifferent or contrary thing; but they may know that the devil watcheth\nthe wind, and spreads his sail according to the advantage which ariseth\nfrom our answer or repulse. So that if we would but plough with our own\nheifer, and observe our frame of spirit, we should easily find out this\nriddle. For as it is in disputings and arguings of men, replies beget\nnew matter for answer, and so do they multiply one another; thus are\ntemptations altered and multiplied, and out of the ashes of one assault\nrepelled, another doth quickly spring up.\n\nThe second circumstance of preparation is, _Satan\u2019s taking him up\nand setting him on the temple_. That this was not a visionary or an\nimaginary thing, hath been proved before. Yet granting it to have been\nreal, as in truth it seems to have been, it is disputed what was the\n_modus_, the way and manner of it. Some think this was no more than\nChrist\u2019s voluntary following of Satan, who guided and conducted the\nway;[400] partly because the words \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd and \u1f04\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd are in\nScripture accommodated to a man\u2019s taking of any as a companion under\nhis guide and conduct of the way, and to a disposal of them in any kind\nof station. Thus, where it is said, \u2018Joseph took Mary and the young\nchild to go to Egypt,\u2019 Mat. ii. 13, the same word is used; and when\nChrist tells his disciples that they shall bring the ass and the colt\nwhich they should find tied, the same word which expresseth Christ\nbeing set on the temple is there used, Mat. xxii. 2. Partly also, they\nthink it below the dignity of Christ to be thus violently hurried.\n\nOthers think that Satan was permitted to take up the body of Christ,\nand by his power to have conveyed him in the air; and indeed the whole\nseries of the narration, with all the circumstances thereof, are\nevident for it. The distances of places, the quickness and speediness\nof the removals, the more proper applications of the words, \u2018taking\u2019\nand \u2018setting,\u2019 to Satan as the actor, and the declaration of his power\ntherein, as able to do great things; these make the matter so clear,\nthat it seems to be an unnatural forcing of the text to give it any\nother interpretation. Besides, the former opinion of Satan\u2019s taking\nof Christ, as a manuductor or guide, seems every way unreasonable;\nfor if Christ only followed Satan, then it must have been either by a\nland journey on foot or in the air. This latter it could not be; for\nif Christ had supported himself in the air by his own power, he had\nanticipated the temptation, and it would have been folly and madness\nfor Satan to have urged him to fly in the air, after such an evidence\nof his power; and who can imagine that Christ followed Satan on foot\nfrom the wilderness to the temple, or that his access to the roof of\nthe temple was so easy, in such a way when the temple was always so\nstrictly guarded? Note, hence,\n\n_Obs._ 3. _That Satan is sometime permitted to exercise his power upon\nthe bodies of those that are dear to God._ That he hath power to carry\nthe bodies of men in the air, is sufficiently confirmed by what he\ndoth frequently to witches, who are usually carried, if we can give\nany credit to the stories that are writ of them, in the air, to places\nfar remote from their dwellings, _equitatio cum Diana aut Herodiade_.\nAnd that this power is permitted him upon others, than such as are in\ncompact with him, is as evident from what is testified of those whose\nforward curiosity hath led to imitate witches in their anointings,\nwho have thereupon been conveyed after them to their assemblies, and\nwhen the company hath been suddenly dismissed, they have been found\nmany miles distant from their dwellings; such instances we have in\nBodin, and among other things that of Domina Rossa mentioned by him,\nwhom Satan would sometime bind to a tree, sometime to a table, or to\na bed\u2019s-foot, or to a manger, sometime one hand bound to another; the\ndevil thus molested her from eight years old, a long time.[401] This\npower of conveying persons in the air is not usual, yet there are some\nin this place\u2014Newcastle\u2014that have known one frequently molested by\nSatan at this rate. However, if we take notice of his power to abuse\nthe bodies of holy persons more generally, we shall find it frequent.\nMary Magdelene was possessed; Christ mentions a daughter of Abraham\nbowed down by him many years; Job was filled with botches and sores;\nand there are many diseases wherein Satan hath a greater hand than\nis commonly imagined. Physicians frequently conclude so much, while\nthey observe some distempers to elude such remedies as are usually\nsuccessful upon other persons under the same diseases.\n\n_Applic._ From this we may infer, [1.] The great power of Satan; who\ncan tell the extent of it? doubtless, if he were permitted, we should\nsee sad instances hereof daily. [2.] This discovers the wonderful care\nand providence of God over us in our preservation from his fury. [3.]\nWe may further note that the abuse of the bodies of men by Satan, will\nbe no evidence that therefore God doth disregard them, or that they are\nnot precious to him. Christ did undergo this abuse, to give such as\nshall be so molested, some comfort in his example.\n\nThe third circumstance, which is that _of place_, is set down first\nin general, \u2018the holy city,\u2019 that is Jerusalem, for so Luke speaks\nexpressly, Luke iv. 9. Jerusalem was so called, because of God\u2019s\nworship there established, and his peculiar presence there; but that\nit should be called so at this time may seem strange, seeing it might\nnow be lamented as of old, \u2018How is the faithful city become an harlot!\nRighteousness lodged in it, but now murderers,\u2019 [Isa. i. 21.] In answer\nto this, we must know that God having not yet given her a bill of\ndivorce, he is pleased to continue her title and privilege. This might\nbe profitably improved; but I will not suffer myself to be diverted\nfrom the matter of temptation, which is the only thing I propound to\nprosecute from hence. I shall here only observe,\n\n_Obs._ 4. _That the holiness or sanctity of a place will be no\nprivilege against temptations._ He is not so fearful, as many imagine,\nas that he dares not approach a churchyard or a church; neither place\nnor duty can keep him off. I do not believe the popish fiction of their\nSt Bennet\u2019s vision, wherein they tell of his seeing but one devil in\na market, and ten in a monastery; yet I question not the truth of\nthis, that the devil is as busy at a sermon or prayer as at any other\nemployment.\n\nBut to search a little further into this matter, it seems undeniable\nthat Satan had a design in reference to the place, of which afterward;\nand I see no reason to exclude our suspicion of a design from the\nname and title which the evangelist here gives to Jerusalem. It is\nan expression which, to my remembrance, we meet not with oft in the\nNew Testament. At the suffering of Christ, when the bodies of the\nsaints arose out of their graves, it is said \u2018they went into the holy\ncity,\u2019 Mat. xxvii. 53; but it is evident that it is there so styled\nupon special design, as if the evangelist would by that point at the\nstaining of their glory, and that in a little time their boast of the\ntemple and holy city should cease, and that all should be polluted\nwith the carcases of the slain. And by the same reason may we suppose\nthat Satan, intending for Christ a temptation of presumption, and\nbacking it with the promise of a guard of angels, had in his eye the\nusual confidence that the Jews had of that city, as a place where the\npresence of angels might be more expected than elsewhere. So that it\nseems Satan intended to impose upon Christ a confidence in order to\npresumption. From the privilege of the place, here observe,\n\n_Obs._ 5. _That Satan is willing to gratify us with nominal and\nimaginary privileges and defences against himself._ He will willingly\nallow us such defences as are altogether insignificant and delusive,\nand his policy here is centred upon these two things:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _He doth industriously prompt us to self-devised\ninventions_, such as were never appointed or blessed of God to any such\nuse; but only found out by the bold superstitions of men. Of this we\nhave an instance in Balak, who carried Baalam from place to place in\nhis prosecution of his design of cursing Israel; neither can we imagine\nthat a commodious prospect of Israel was all he aimed at, seeing he\ndiscovers his mind in this variation of places, \u2018Peradventure it will\nplease God that thou mayest curse them from thence,\u2019 Num. xxiii.\n27; clearly implying that he had a confidence that the place might\ncontribute something to his design, and that there was some inherent\nvirtue in those consecrated places; and therefore did he begin with\nthe high-places of Baal, and then to the held of Zophim, and then to\nthe top of Peor, Num. xxii. 27, xxiii. 14, 28. Among the papists we\nfind too much of this. What power they attribute to holy water, blessed\nsalt, sign of the cross, hallowed earth, consecrated places, relics,\nbaptized bells, exorcisms, and abundance of such stuff, may be seen in\nmany of their writings, too tedious to be related.[402]\n\n(2.) Secondly, He is also willing _that men use those real defences\nand helps which God hath commanded, so that they use them in a formal\nmanner_, which indeed deprives them of all the life and efficacy that\nmight be expected from an instituted means. Thus he readily permits\nignorant persons, without any disturbance or molestation, to use the\nrepetition of the Lord\u2019s prayer, ten commandments, and creed, or any\nother prayer, while they persuade themselves that the very saying of\nthe words is a sufficient defence against the devil all that day.\n\nThe reasons of Satan\u2019s policy in such gratifications are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _While we are kept doing with these, we are diverted from\nthat which might be really helpful_. He puts a broken reed into our\nhand, that we might be deprived of a staff. Experience confirms this.\nThose that, with greatest devotion, use these empty inventions, are\nusually careless in the use of God\u2019s own appointments.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Besides that he thus betrays them by these lying helps,\nhe doth by this means cast them on a further iniquity of idolising\nthese foolish calves of their own invention_. In this case men have\na presumptuous expectation from such usages of that which God never\npromised to do by them, neither ever entered into his heart so to do,\nseeing he answers them all with this, \u2018Who hath required these things\nat your hands?\u2019 [Isa. i. 12.] And accordingly their consciences are\nmore concerned for the omission of one of these fooleries, than for\nthe neglect of the greater things of the law. Such are more troubled\nfor the neglect of the sign of the cross or holy water, than for their\nconstant carelessness and want of faith, by which their hearts should\nbe guarded against their enemy.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _In the meantime he makes work for his own triumph over\nthem that dote upon these sottish inventions_. If we can suppose Satan\nto have pleasure or mirth at anything, we may be sure he will laugh\nat such preparations for a spiritual welfare,[403] it being as truly\nridiculous for any man to go out with these weapons against Satan, as\nfor a combatant to assail a giant with a paper helmet, a wicker shield,\nand a wooden dagger. And indeed when Satan counterfeits a flight or\nfear of such matters, as for his advantage he sometimes doth, it is\nbut in design to beget or confirm in men a confidence of a virtue or\nstrength in these usages against his power, that so they may fix upon\nthem to the neglect of God\u2019s own institutions, which he most dreads.\nThus we read that he cunningly ceased his oracle at Daphne upon a\npretence of the silencing power of the bones of the martyr Babilas,\nwhich were buried near the place, on purpose to lead unwary Christians\nto the adoration of saints and their relics.[404] Many such instances\nwe have in Sprenger, of the devil\u2019s feigned flight at the sign of the\ncross, the sprinkling of holy water, the angelical salutation, St\nBernard\u2019s staff, or certain words and verses hung about the neck.[405]\nAnd a great deal of such stuff we may meet with in most of their\nwriters, all which are but cunning contrivances of Satan, to advance a\nbelief of the virtue of these things; and so to stop men there, to the\nneglect of those spiritual weapons which the Scripture recommends.\n\nThese we have observed from the place in general, \u2018the holy city.\u2019\nLet us go on to the place in particular where Satan acted all this,\n\u2018the pinnacle of the temple.\u2019 Various are the conjectures of men\nabout this, whether it were some fane, or the top of some spire, or\nthe place whence the apostle James was thrown down, or the top of the\nking\u2019s porch, which was erected to a great height over a deep valley,\nor some battlement, &c. But we are not concerned in such inquiries;\nonly here shall I take notice of Scultetus, who, supposing the place\nto be the top of a fane or spire, and reading in Josephus that the\npoints of such broaches were so sharp that a bird could not rest upon\nthem without piercing its foot, was therefore willing to conclude that\nthese temptations were not really and historically acted, but in vision\nonly.[406] All this ariseth from a wrong interpretation of \u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cd\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd,\nwhich our English renders _pinnacle_, whereas it properly signifies\nany battlement or angular prominency, jutting out over the rest like a\nwing, which would afford a sufficient footing and support.[407]\n\nIt is more profitable to inquire after Satan\u2019s reason for the choice\nof such a place. No question but it was upon design, for else he might\nwith equal convenience have tempted Christ to cast himself down from\nsome tree or precipice in the wilderness; but then what that design\nwas, is not so easy to determine. It seems plain that he might suppose\nthat Christ might be the rather animated to the undertaking of flying\nin the air by the hopes of glory which might be expected from such a\nperformance before so many spectators. But some think that he had a\ndesign also upon the men of Jerusalem, and intended some delusion to\nthe Jews,[408] which I am not unwilling to close with, partly because\nthe experiences that we have of his devices assure us that in one\ntemptation his ends are oft manifold; and I cannot but think that\nSatan would make all things sure, and provide, in his projecting mind,\nagainst all events. For if Christ should have yielded and evidenced\nso great a power in the sight of all the people, it might have been a\nconviction general that he was the Messiah, about that time universally\nexpected; and partly I am ready to think so, because, in case Christ\nhad done so, it lay so fair to confirm the Jews in a misapprehension of\nthe personal coming of Elias, of whom they understood the prophecy of\nMal. iii. 1, \u2018Behold, I will send my messenger; and he shall prepare\nthe way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his\ntemple, even the messenger of the covenant.\u2019[409] If the Jews expected\nElias to come from heaven to the temple, how strongly would they have\nbeen confirmed in this opinion if they had seen a man fly from the\ntemple in the air; and by this means John the Baptist, who was the\nElias that was to come, should have been neglected, and Christ himself,\nthough honoured as Elias, not owned for the Messiah.\n\n_Obs._ 6. Observe then, _That Satan\u2019s designs are large, and that he\nprojects the ensnaring or deluding of others by such temptations as\nseem only to concern those that are under the immediate trouble of\nthem_. He tempts Christ to cast himself down, and also by it, at least,\nintends a delusion to the Jews. He tempts one man upon the back of\nanother. One is tempted to error; another by that man\u2019s temptation is\ntempted to atheism and rejecting of all religion. One man is tempted to\nprofaneness, another is tempted by that to an uncharitable disrespect\nof him. It is easy to multiply instance of this.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n _That presumption was the chief design of this temptation.\u2014Of tempting\n to extremes.\u2014What presumption is.\u2014The several ways of presuming.\u2014The\n frequency of this temptation, in the generality of professors, in\n hypocrites, despairing persons, and in the children of God.\u2014The\n reasons of Satan\u2019s industry in this design.\u2014His deceitful contrivance\n in bringing about this sin.\u2014Preservatives against it._\n\n\nNext to the preparation which Satan made for the second conflict,\nalready explained, the temptation intended offers itself to our view,\nwhich is this, \u2018Cast thyself down.\u2019 What Satan chiefly intended by\nit, we may collect from Christ\u2019s answer, as well as from the thing\nitself; for he thus replies, \u2018It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the\nLord thy God.\u2019 Christ doth not use this scripture to any such sense\nas this, that he should hereby prohibit Satan to tempt him because he\nwas Satan\u2019s Lord and God; but he mentioned this scripture as a rule\nof obedience: as if he should say, \u2018I may not cast myself down, and\nso rely on extraordinary help, seeing I can go down another way;\u2019 for\nthe neglect of ordinary means, when we have them, is a tempting of\nGod, which may not be done. So that it appears by this, that Satan\nhere tempted Christ to presumption. There is only this objection in\nour way, that Deut. vi. 16, the place by Christ cited, refers to the\ntemptation of the Israelites in Massah, mentioned Exod. xvii. 2, where\nthey chide with Moses for water; and there it would seem their tempting\nthe Lord was rather in despairing of his power and help than presuming\nin the neglect of the ordinary means. I answer, though the occasion\nand matter of that temptation be different from this of Christ\u2019s, yet\nthe presumptuous experiment that they there made of God\u2019s presence\nand power was the same with this which Satan designed; for ver. 7,\nwhere the account of that tempting is given, it is said, \u2018because they\ntempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?\u2019 they put it\nto this issue, that the being and power of God should be tried by the\ngiving or not giving of water. The manner, then, of that temptation\nbeing so agreeable to this, Christ very pertinently applies that\ncommand to it, presumption being the thing which Christ was tempted\nto. It might occasion some wonder in us to see Satan take such strange\nsteps. He was before tempting him to despair, now to presumption; but\nit is no argument of his lightness or uncertain roving in his way of\ntempting, but rather of his depth and subtlety. Note then,\n\n_Obs._ 7. _That it is Satan\u2019s policy in tempting, to run from one\nextreme to another._ The Corinthians were first tempted to a sinful\ncompliance with the adulterous person, and were averse to his\nexcommunication; afterwards they were tempted to the contrary severity,\nand were as backward to receive him again. The same men that have been\novercome by prodigality and excess, when they begin to see the evil\nof that, are oft tempted to worldliness or covetousness, the contrary\ndisposition. Reasons of this policy are:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _The avoiding of one extreme gives the soul such a swing,\nif care be not used to prevent it, that they are cast more than half\nway upon the other_. Peter, in an extreme of modesty, refused the\nwashing of his feet by Christ; but when he understood the danger, then\nhe runs as far wrong another way\u2014\u2018Not my feet only, but my hands and\nmy head,\u2019 John xiii. 9. Thus some are so for purity of churches, that\nthey exclude the weak; others so for unity, that they admit the open\nscandalous and profane.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _While men avoid one extreme by running into another,\nthey carry with them such strong impressions of the evil they would\navoid, and such fierce prejudices, that it is not an ordinary\nconviction will bring them right, but they are apt to be confident of\nthe goodness of the way they take, and so are the more bold and fixed\nin their miscarriage_.\n\nPresumption being the great design of Satan in this temptation, we may\nfurther observe:\u2014\n\n_Obs._ 8. _That as distrust on the one hand, so presumption on the\nother, is one of his grand designs._ Of these two, we may say as it was\nsaid of the sword of Hazael and Jehu, that of all those that are slain\nby the devil, whosoever hath escaped the sword of distrust and despair,\nthe sword of presumption hath slain. To explain this I shall,\n\n1. First, _Shew what presumption is_. It is in the general _a\nconfidence without a ground_. [1.] _First_, It is made up of\n_audacity_\u2014which is a bold and daring undertaking of a thing\u2014and\n_security_. [2.] _Secondly_, The ground of it is _an error of\njudgment_. A blind or a misled judgment doth always nourish it; and\nthis is either a mistake of the nature of such means on which we rely\nfor assistance, as when a man lays as much stress upon a thread as\nupon a cable, or expects as much nourishment from a stone as from\nbread;[410] or a mistake of the will of others, from whom we expect\naid and help, without a warrant for such a confidence. [3.] _Thirdly_,\nIn its way of working _it is directly opposite to distrust, and is a\nkind of excessive though irregular hope_; not that in this case a man\nbelieves or hopes overmuch, for there can be no excess properly in the\nexercise of divine graces, but that he hopes too rashly or lightly,\nwithout a solid foundation or reason.[411] Hope hath for its object\nthat which is good under the considerations of futurity, possibility,\nand difficulty. On the one side, desperation looks upon that good as\nfuture, but under so great a difficulty that it forgets the possibility\nof it, and thereupon surceaseth all endeavours. Presumption, on the\nother hand, is so keenly apprehensive of the possibility, that it\nnever regards the difficulty, and so thrusts forward into irregular\nendeavours or expectations. The nature of this will be better\nunderstood when the particular instances of presumption are before us.\n\n(1.) First, Then it is presumption, _when from external or subordinate\nmeans men expect that for which they were never designed nor appointed\nof God_. To expect \u2018grapes of thorns or figs of thistles,\u2019 would be a\npresumption, because God never designed them for such fruits; and no\nless is it when in any other case men look for high and extraordinary\nthings from any created good above what God hath put into it by the law\nof creation.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _When men do expect those fruits and effects from\nanything unto which it is appointed, in neglect or opposition to the\nsupreme cause, without whose concurrent influence they cannot reach\ntheir proper ends_\u2014that is, our hopes are wholly centred upon means,\nwhen in the meantime our eye is not upon God. Thus \u2018to make gold\nour hope,\u2019 Job xxxi. 24, \u2018to make flesh our arm,\u2019 Jer. xvii. 5, \u2018to\nmake Ashur a saviour,\u2019 Hosea xiv. 3, or to trust to any creatures\nwhatsoever, is in Scripture condemned as a presumptuous reliance, and,\nin regard of the necessary disappointment, \u2018a trusting in a lie;\u2019 in\nwhich sense it is said that \u2018every man is a liar,\u2019 Ps. lxii. 9. The\nlike presumption it is when we boast great things of ourselves, and, as\nPeter, make confident engagements, in our own strength, that we will\navoid such a sin or perform such a duty; for we are but frail, and\nall our sufficiency is from the Lord, so that it can be no less than\nintolerable arrogance to promise anything of ourselves without him;\nneither can men promise to themselves the continuance of that good or\nadvantage which they have already received from second causes, if their\nconfidence builds itself upon that sole consideration, without a just\nblame. Job had said he should \u2018die in his nest,\u2019 [chap. xxix. 18,] and\nDavid that \u2018he should never be moved,\u2019 [Ps. xvi. 8,] but both of them\nafterward noted these confidences to have been no other than deceitful\npresumptions.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, It is a presumption _to expect things above the reach\nof our present state and condition_; as for a mean man to beg of\nGod authority and rule, or to expect to be set with princes; or for\nordinary Christians to look for miracles, signs from heaven, visions,\nrevelations, extraordinary answers to prayers, and the like, all which\nexpectations are groundless, and the issue of a presumptuous pride:\n_sperare non speranda_.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _When men expect things contrary to the rules that God\nhath set for his dispensations of mercy, they boldly presume upon\nhis will_. God hath promised preservation to his children while they\nare in God\u2019s way, but if any shall go out of that way, and sinfully\nput himself into dangers and hazards, it would be presumption in him\nto expect a preservation. It is the same in spiritual things. God\npromiseth eternal life and the blessings of his covenant to such as\ngive up themselves to him and his laws; will it not be intolerable\npresumption for men \u2018to bless themselves in their heart\u2019 with\nexpectations of reigning with him in glory, while in the meantime they\ncontradict his own rule and neglect his order, walking in profaneness\nand living to themselves? This is a high presumption of mercy against\nhis express will. Hence are such courses called \u2018presumptuous sins,\u2019\nPs. xix. 13, and such sinners transgress \u2018with a high hand.\u2019\n\n(5.) Fifthly, It is also a presumption _to expect any mercy, though\ncommon and usual, without the ordinary means by which God in providence\nhath settled the usual dispensations of such favours_; as when men\nlook for his aid and help for supply of corporal wants, while they\nthrow off all care, and refuse their own endeavours, which are the\nways of God\u2019s appointment, in the conscientious use whereof such\nmercies are to be expected. The heathen, upon the consideration of\nthe necessary connexion of means and the end, have usually judged\nsuch sluggish expectations to be no better than solemn mockings of a\ndeity: _admot\u00e2 manu invocanda est Minerva_. In spiritual things it is\nno less presumptuous to expect conversion, and an interest in Christ\nand heaven, while they refuse the careful use of his ordinances; and\ntherefore we are commanded to pray for such blessings, \u2018to cry after\nknowledge, and to lift up the voice for understanding,\u2019 Prov. ii. 3-5,\nand to second these prayers with our own utmost endeavours \u2018to seek for\nit as for silver, and to search for it as for hid treasures,\u2019 and in so\ndoing to expect the finding of the knowledge of God.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, _When ordinary or extraordinary mercies are expected\nfor an unlawful end_; as when the Israelites at Massah called for\nwater,\u2014which they ought to believe God would supply them withal, their\ncondition considered,\u2014but for a test and proof of the being of God; for\nthey said, \u2018Is God among us, or not?\u2019 Exod. xvii. 7. It is by James\nmade a piece of spiritual unfaithfulness and adultery to ask anything\nof God with a design \u2018to spend it upon a lust,\u2019 [chap. iv. 3.] Ahaz\nhis refusing a sign when God offered it, however he made a show of\nmodesty and believing, argued no other thing but that he was conscious\nto himself that, in case he had accepted it, he should have abused\nthat favour to an unlawful end, and have tempted God by it, as putting\nit upon this experiment whether there was a God or not. This is also\nanother act of presumption. When a man becomes guilty of any of these\nmiscarriages, he is presumptuous.\n\n2. Secondly, I further add to this discovery of the nature and kinds of\npresumption, that this is one of Satan\u2019s grand engines; which I prove\nby two demonstrations:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _By Satan\u2019s common practice in this kind upon all sorts\nof men, in most occasions_. That which is his frequent practice upon\nmost men, and on most occasions, must of necessity be understood to be\nchiefly designed. Some men may possibly be free from the trouble of\nsome particular temptations, as Hieronimus Wallerus saith of Luther\nhis master, that he heard him often report of himself that he had been\nassaulted and vexed with all kind of temptations, saving only that of\ncovetousness; but none can say they have not been assaulted with this.\nI shall make it out by an induction of particulars:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _The generality of men that live in the profession of\nreligion are presumptuous, nay, the greatest part of the blind world\nare so_. They presume of mercy and salvation. The devil preacheth\nnothing else but all hope, no fear, and in these golden dreams they\nslide down to hell. If we look into their way of sinning, and then\ninto their hopes, we can judge no less of them. They stick not at the\nmost grievous abominations, the works of the flesh, and in these they\ncontinue. It is their trade, their life; they make provisions for them,\nthey cannot sleep except they do wickedly; he that reproveth is derided\nby them; they make but a mock and sport of those things which, as the\nshame and reproach of mankind, should rather fly the light and hide\nthemselves as things of darkness. These things they practise without\nregret or sorrow of heart, without smiting upon the thigh, and in all\nthis they have the confidence to say, \u2018Is not the Lord among us?\u2019\nThey can call themselves Christians, and have as bold expectations\nof eternal happiness, as if the committing of these evils were made\nby God the necessary qualifications to everlasting happiness. What\nis more common, and yet what more presumptuous? For (1.) These men\naudaciously hope and expect mercy, expressly contrary to the peremptory\nthreatenings of God. God saith, \u2018There is no peace to the wicked;\u2019 they\nsay, \u2018We shall have peace.\u2019 (2.) These run upon the greatest hazards\nof ruin and woe, with the least fear, in the contempt of all danger,\n\u2018as the horse rusheth into the battle, who mocketh at fear, and is not\naffrighted, neither turneth his back from the sword,\u2019 Job xxxix. 22.\n(3.) They dare God to do his worst, they provoke God to jealousy, and\nthat to his face; hence was it that Nimrod was said to be a mighty\nhunter before the Lord, [Gen. x. 9;] and Er, the son of Judah, that he\nwas wicked \u2018before the Lord,\u2019 [Gen. xxxviii. 7,] because such audacious\nsinners will not, as we may say, go behind his back to sin.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Hypocrites whose carnage is more smooth, they also are\npresumptuous_; for while they hide their sin, they do against dictates\nof conscience presume \u2018that he that made the eye doth not see,\u2019 and\nthat there is a possibility to cheat God as well as men: besides, their\nboastings and hopes have a special mark set upon them in Scripture as\naudaciously false; \u2018the hope of the hypocrite shall be cut off,\u2019 [Job\nviii. 13;] their confidence of the temple of the Lord is but a lie, and\nso termed expressly by the prophet.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Even despairing persons are not always free of\npresumption_. The act of self-murder is a terrible presuming upon\ninfinite justice. Spira\u2019s desire to know the worst was of the same\nkind. These are indeed extraordinary; but there are some other kinds\nof despair that come nearer to presumption, as that sensual despair\nwhich ariseth out of an excessive love of carnal delights, and a\nsecure contempt of spiritual things; for when sensuality prompts them\nto eat and drink while they may, despairing and hopeless of a future\nhappiness, \u2018for to-morrow they shall die,\u2019 [Isa. xxii. 13,] and their\npleasure cease, they highly presume against the patience and goodness\nof God.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _The best of men are too frequently overcome by it_.\n(1.) Not only while they are overtaken with sins more grievous, and\nabove the rate of sins of infirmity, to which how liable the holiest\nsaint may be upon temptation, may be gathered from David\u2019s prayer,\n\u2018Keep thy servant from presumptuous sins, that they have not dominion\nover me,\u2019 [Ps. xix. 13.] (2.) But by their earnest prosecutions of\ntheir own wills when contradicted by providence. It is by the prophet,\nIsaiah ix. 9, called \u2018a pride and stoutness of heart,\u2019 to contend with\nprovidence, to attempt to build with \u2018hewn stone when the bricks are\nfallen,\u2019 or to \u2018strive for cedars when divine wrath hath cut down the\nsycamores.\u2019 (3.) How frequently are they guilty of presuming upon their\nprivileges, their strength, their graces, and upon that score venture\nthemselves upon occasions of sin, or bear high above others upon a\nconceit of their higher attainments, or when they boldly put themselves\nupon suffering, or upon doing, while they want that due humility and\ncare that should balance them. (4.) There is also a presumptuous\nrashness, upon which the zeal and good intentions of holy men may\nsometimes precipitate them. Such was Uzziah\u2019s putting forth his hand\nto hold the ark, for which the Lord smote him. All these instances\nput together will sufficiently demonstrate that presumption is one of\nSatan\u2019s master designs.\n\nThe second demonstration of this truth is from the general subserviency\nof other things to this. Most of Satan\u2019s endeavours and temptations\naim at this point, and this is the result and consequence of most\nsins. That must needs be chief, to which so many things do but serve\nand minister. In this centre do most of the lines of his policy\nmeet,\u2014pride, vainglory, conceited privileges, supposed advantages, and\nmany things more were but under-agents to this temptation which the\ndevil attempted upon Christ, as hath in part, and presently shall be\nfurther, evidenced.\n\n3. Thirdly, Having thus proved that presumption is one of the\ngreat things he aims at, I shall next _discover the reasons of his\nearnestness and industry in his design_, which are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _It is a sin very natural, in which he hath the advantage\nof our own readiness and inclination_. However that some from a\nmelancholy temper are inclinable to fears and distrust at some time,\nwhen these black apprehensions are exalted, yet, these excepted, hopes\nare more predominant than fears; and self-love, which provides fuel to\nthese hopes, is a natural principle in all. When so many things give\nhim such advantages and promise him a success, we may well suppose he\nwill not miss such an opportunity.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _As it is easy for Satan\u2019s attempt, so it is remote from\nconviction, and not rooted out without great difficulty_. It is a sin\nthat is covered with a pretext of a higher degree of hope. Men in many\nways of this iniquity are under persuasions of duty, and by reason of\nthat confidence, fear, which is the soul\u2019s sentinel, is asleep. Hence\ndo they not lie so fairly open to counsel or reproof. The Israelites,\nDeut. i. 27, 28, being under discouragement, refuse to go up to Canaan,\nwhen they were upon the border of the land; but being convinced of\ntheir sin in distrusting the arm of the Lord, by God\u2019s declared wrath\nand threatening against them, they fall upon the contrary extreme of\npresumption, and then, ver. 41, \u2018they would go up and fight;\u2019 and\nthe conviction of their former sin made them so confident that this\nwas their present duty\u2014for thus they argue, \u2018We have sinned against\nthe Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord\nour God commanded us\u2019\u2014that though they were expressly forbidden from\nGod, ver. 42, \u2018Go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you;\u2019 yet\nwere they so strangely carried by their former persuasion, that they\nrefused to be convinced, \u2018and went presumptuously into the hill.\u2019 By\nwhich instance we see what great pretences lead on presumption, and how\ndifficultly they are removed, which two things do no less than tempt\nSatan to lay out himself to the uttermost in that design.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _The greatness of the sin when it is committed, is\nanother reason of his diligence in the pursuit of it_. It is not only\nfrom a simple error or mistake, but that error ariseth from intolerable\npride; they say and do such things from the pride and stoutness of\ntheir heart, Isa. ix. 9. He that is presumptuous is self-willed, 2 Pet.\nii. 10. Hence these sins, which we translate presumptuous, are in the\noriginal called prides or arrogancies, Ps. xix. 13; Deut. xvii. 12.\nBesides, they are contradictions to Gods order, separating those things\nthat God hath joined together, as the means from the end, or the end\nfrom the means, as if the \u2018earth should be turned out of its place\u2019 for\nus. And in some cases it is no less than the open affronting of God\nby abusing his own favours against himself; for thus they deal with\nhim, who are opinionated in sin because of his mercy, concluding, by\nan irrational consequence, that they ought to be wicked because God is\ngood, or that they may freely offend because he doth not punish.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _The dangerous issues and consequences of this way\nof sinning, do not a little animate Satan to tempt to it_. In some\ncases it was to be punished by death: Deut. xvii. 12, \u2018The man that\ndoth presumptuously, even that man shall die;\u2019 and most usually it\nis plagued with sad disappointments, by a severe engagement of God\u2019s\ndispleasure against it. \u2018The hypocrite\u2019s hope shall perish, it shall\nbe as the giving up of the ghost,\u2019 Job viii. 13, and xi. 20. And\ngenerally, \u2018He that thus blesseth himself in his heart, when he heareth\nthe words of the curse,\u2019 Deut. xxix. 19, 20, \u2018the Lord will not spare\nhim, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke\nagainst that man, and all the curses that are written in this book\nshall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under\nheaven.\u2019\n\n4. Fourthly and lastly, I shall lay before you _the deceitful\ncontrivance of Satan in bringing this sin about_, by shewing the\nparticulars of his craft against Christ herein. As,\n\n(1.) First, _He takes advantage from his resolve to rely upon\nprovidence, contrary to the former temptation of turning stones to\nbread_. Christ had refused that, telling him it was duty to trust\nhim, who not only by the ordinary means of bread could feed him, but\nalso by any other appointment. To this Satan rejoins, by offering\nan irregular opportunity of such a trust, in casting himself from\nthe pinnacle of the temple: as if he should say, \u2018If thou wilt thus\nrely upon providence, do it in this.\u2019 Wherein we may note, that from\nan obediential dependence, he would draw Christ to an irregular\npresumption. He retorts Christ\u2019s argument back again upon him thus,\n\u2018If God is to be relied upon by a certain trust for food, by the like\ntrust he is to be relied upon for preservation; if the belief of supply\nof bread can consist with a neglect or refusal of ordinary means for\nthe procurement thereof, then may the belief of preservation in casting\nthyself from the pinnacle of the temple consist also with a neglect\nof the ordinary means.\u2019 Thus, like a cunning sophister, he endeavours\nto conclude sin from duty, from a seeming parity betwixt them, though\nindeed the cases were vastly different. For, though it be duty to\ndepend upon providence, when God, in the pursuit of service and duty,\nbrings us out of the sight and hopes of outward means, yet it can be\nno less than sinful presumption for us to make such experiments of\nprovidences, when we need not, and when ordinary means are at hand.\nAfter the same manner doth he endeavour to put fallacies upon us, and\nto cheat us into presumptuous undertakings, by arguing from a necessary\ntrust, in some cases, a necessity of presuming in others, upon a\nseeming likeness and proportion.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _It was no small piece of Satan\u2019s craft to take this\nadvantage, while the impression of trust in the want of outward means\nwas warm upon the heart of Christ_. He hoped thereby the more easily\nto draw him to an excess. For he knows that a zealous earnestness to\navoid a sin, and to keep to a duty, doth often too much incline us to\nan extreme, and he well hoped that when Christ had declared himself\nso positively to depend upon God, he might have prevailed to have\nstretched that dependence beyond its due bounds, taking the opportunity\nof his sway that way, which, as a ship before wind and tide, might soon\nbe overdriven. And this was the design of his haste in this second\ntemptation, because he would strike while the iron was hot, and closely\npursue his advantage, while the strength and forwardness of these\nresolves were upon him.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _He endeavours to animate him to this presumption by\npopular applause, and to tickle him into a humour of affecting the\nglory and admiration, which by such a strange undertaking might be\nraised in the minds of the spectators_; and therefore did he bring\nhim to the most conspicuous place of a great and populous city, not\nthinking the matter so feasible if he had tempted him to it in a\nsolitary desert.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _He propounds to him a plausible end, and a seeming\nadvantage_, viz., the clear and undoubted discovery of his divine\nnature and near interest in God; urging this as a necessary duty, for\nhis own satisfaction, and the manifestation of his sonship to others.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, To drive out of his mind those fears of miscarrying in\nhis attempt, which otherwise might have been a block in his way, _he is\nofficious in strengthening his confidence by propounding treacherous\nhelps and preservatives_, suggesting a safety to him from the privilege\nof the place where this was to be acted, a holy city and temple,\nproducing more of a divine presence for his safety than other places.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, To make all sure, _he backs all this with a promise of\npreservation_, that nothing might be wanting to his security.\n\nBy this method applied to other things and cases, he endeavours to\nbring us to presumption.\n\n_Applic._ The consideration of this should _put us upon a special care\nand watchfulness against presumption_. It is more designed, and hath\na greater prevalency than men are aware of. Two things I shall only at\npresent propound for our preservation, out of Ps. xix. 12, 13.\n\n[1.] First, _He that would be kept from presumptuous sins must make\nconscience of secret sins, to search for them, to mortify them, to\nbeg pardon for them_. With what face or hope can we expect from God\nhelp against these, when we provoke him to leave us to ourselves, by\nindulging ourselves in the other?\n\n[2.] Secondly, He that would avoid them _must be under the awe and\nfear of being overcome by them_. He that slights and contemns such\nvisible hazards shall not long be innocent. David here first shews his\nconscience to be concerned with secret sins, and then begs to be kept\nfrom presumptuous sins, and by such earnest begging he next shews how\nmuch he dreaded such miscarriages. [Dickson, _in loc._]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n _Self-murder another of his designs in this temptation.\u2014How he tempts\n to self-murder directly, and upon what advantage he urgeth it.\u2014How\n he tempts to it indirectly, and the ways thereof.\u2014Of necessary\n preservatives against this temptation._\n\n\nWe have seen and considered the main end of Satan in this temptation.\nLet us further consider whether this was the sole end that he\npropounded to himself. We have little reason to think that he would\nconfine himself to one, when the thing itself doth so clearly suggest\nanother, which might possibly have followed. In most cases, the ends\nof the devil are manifold. We may therefore easily suppose\u2014and several\nhave noted it[412]\u2014that the devil, that great murderer, had herein\na secret design against the life of Christ, and that he tempted him\nhere indirectly to self-murder. And indeed, supposing that Christ had\nattempted to fly in the air, and had failed in the enterprise, what\nelse could have followed but death and ruin? Hence let us note,\n\n_Obs._ 9. _That Satan seeks the ruin of our bodies as well as of our\nsouls, and tempts men often to self-murder._ That the devil goes\nabout seeking how he may destroy men, by putting them upon attempts\nagainst their own lives, is evident, not only from the experience and\nconfessions of such as have suffered under Satan\u2019s suggestions to that\nend\u2014and it is a temptation more common than we think of, because most\nmen are unwilling to lay open themselves to others in this matter\u2014but\nalso from those many sad instances of men over whom Satan so far\nprevails, that they execute upon themselves this design by destroying\nthemselves. Yet by the way we may note, that such thoughts are often\nin the minds of men where Satan is not industriously designing their\ndestruction; for he often casts in such thoughts, not only to try how\nmen take with them, but to affright and disquiet them; and it is usual\nwith men of sad and melancholy tempers to mistake their own fears of\nsuch a temptation, for Satan\u2019s endeavours against them, when indeed\ntheir fear and trouble lest they should be so tempted, makes them think\nthey are tempted indeed.\n\nSatan drives on the design of self-murder two ways:\u2014\n\n1. First, _Directly, when in plain terms he urgeth men to destroy\nthemselves_. This because it is directly repugnant to the law of\nnature, which vehemently urgeth them to self-preservation, he cannot\neffect but by the help of some advantages; yet some ways and methods\nby experience he hath found to be so available to such an unnatural\nresolve, that he frequently puts them in practice. As, (1.) first,\nHe works upon _the discontents of men_, and improves the disquiet of\ntheir minds, upon the occasion of any loss, vexation, disappointment,\nor disgrace, to as great a height as he can, and when their lives\nare made bitter to them, and they are sufficiently prepared by the\nuneasiness of their condition, then he propounds death as the only\nremedy to set them at quiet; wherein, besides his officiousness to\nprovide them with instruments of cruelty and opportunity for their use,\nhe follows them with arguments drawn from the sense of their present\ncondition; the great intendment whereof is to aggravate their smart,\nand to make their burden seem intolerable, and then self-ruin is but a\nnatural consequence. We may see enough of this in the discontents of\ngood men, and that they naturally work this way. Job speaks the general\napprehensions of men in trouble, chap. iii. 20, 21, \u2018The bitter in soul\nvalue not life; they long for death, and dig for it more than for hid\ntreasures; they rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find\nthe grave.\u2019 Jonah in his discontent prefers death before life: \u2018It is\nbetter for me to die than to live,\u2019 [chap. iv. 3.] Elias doth the like;\nand Job seems impatient for it. All this is from the power and working\nof this temptation, though God held their hand that it did not fully\nprevail. In Ahithophel the ground of discontent was more a fancied than\na real disgrace; his counsel was rejected\u2014which was in itself no great\ndishonour\u2014and this works up such a perplexing resentment in his mind,\nthat Satan prevails with him to hang himself very deliberately.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _He most frequently draws on men to destroy themselves\nby terrors and despairing troubles of conscience_. These, as they\nafford greater disquiet and distress of mind than other kind of\ndiscontentments, so doth he more prevail by them; for a wounded spirit\nis above ordinary strength, and hard to bear; only it may seem strange\nthat those who so experimentally feel how \u2018fearful a thing it is to\nfall into the hands of the living God,\u2019 [Heb. x. 31,] should entertain\nsuch a temptation as, to their apprehensions and knowledge, will\ncertainly plunge them into the very ocean of everlasting vengeance.\nThis no doubt Satan finds to be no small obstruction to his design;\nbut here he useth his skill to open a way for them that would outrun\ntheir lives on the one hand, as he labours to pursue them with sense of\nwrath and indignation on the other hand. To this purpose he tells them,\n[1.] That all the hell they are to meet with is in their consciences,\nand that death will free them from all, or at least that death will\ngive a present ease, and that till the resurrection they shall be\nin quiet. Those that are willing to receive these apprehensions may\neasily be prevailed with to hasten their own death, seeing they have\nalready fixed this conclusion with themselves, that there is no hope\nnor pardon for them, that they are reprobates and cut off; for their\nthoughts can meditate nothing but the terrors of such conclusions.\n[2.] He sometimes endeavours to persuade them, that by executing this\nrevenge upon themselves, they may make some kind of satisfaction and\namends for the sins they have committed; which though most false,\nyet it is a wonder how far such ungrounded surmises may possess the\nminds of the desperate. That Judas might have some such thought when\nhe destroyed himself, is conjectured by some;[413] but that must be\nbut a conjecture, seeing none can pretend to know his thoughts; but\nwe may speak with greater freedom of those who have declared the\nworking of such apprehensions upon their minds. [3.] A more plausible\npretext he useth when he endeavours to persuade them that they may\nkill themselves, and yet go to heaven for all that. To this purpose\nthe subtle adversary is not backward to tell them what have been the\ncharitable expressions of some men who have supposed a possibility of\nrepentance _inter pontem et fontem_, as we say, betwixt the stroke\nor halter and the death. Capel is so apprehensive of the mischievous\nimprovement of this charity, for an encouragement to self-murder, that\nhe with great earnestness cautions all ministers against such liberal\nexpressions.[414] I have known some, and heard of others, that have\nbeen so possessed with this imagination of being saved, notwithstanding\nthat having purposed to destroy themselves\u2014though God prevented them\nthat they did it not\u2014they have first by prayer recommended themselves\nto God, and so prepared themselves to die. [4.] Sometime, though such\nafflicted ones have no such persuasion but that from death they go\nimmediately to hell, yet are they pushed forward by a certain fearful\ncuriosity of knowing the worst. At that rate did Spira express himself,\nwhen he desired to be freed of his life that he might know the utmost\nof those torments which he feared; as if the affrightments of his\nfearful expectations were worse than the real feeling of them. [5.] But\nmost of all doth he prevail against that objection of greater misery\nafter death, by running men up to a desperate distraction in their\nterrors. Their present anguish is made insupportable, so that they\nhasten out of life, without care or consideration of what shall follow.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _He tempts men directly to destroy themselves from a\nprinciple of heroic boldness and seeming fortitude of mind_\u2014a thing\nvery common among the Romans, who impatient of injuries, and from\npride of heart, not willing to subject themselves to affronts, chose\nrather to tear their own bowels than to live to see themselves abused.\nLucretia being forced by Tarquinius, and not willing to outlive her\ndisgrace, stabbed herself. Cato, not being able to endure the victory\nof C\u00e6sar, puts an end to his days. Innumerable instances of this kind\nhistories do everywhere afford. These, though they consulted their\nown passions, and knew of nothing that prompted them but their own\ngenerosity or magnanimity, yet were they not without a tempter to\nsuch cruel actions. Satan undoubtedly pleased himself by exercising\nhis cruelty upon them so easily, by the help of such a humour, which\npassed among these blind heathens for the highest proof of virtue\nand fortitude. To this height it came, insomuch that we find Seneca\nhighly applauding Cato[415] for procuring his liberty by his own death;\nand setting forth that fact as the most delightful spectacle to the\ngods. Though indeed, as Augustine notes,[416] it is not fortitude\nbut weakness, and a clear evidence of impatience, which cannot bear\nother men\u2019s insolencies or their own hardships. And if we examine the\nmatter to the bottom, though there be audacity in it to undertake\ntheir own death, yet is this led on by no better principles than\npride, impatience, and despair: which may the better be discovered if\nwe consider such kind of attempts as they arise from more ignoble and\nbase occasions. Paterculus tells us of a Tuscan soothsayer, who being\ncarried to prison with his friend Fulvius Flaccus, and despairing of\npardon, desperately runs his head against the prison door and dashed\nout his brains; and yet this man was moved to attempt his destruction\nupon the same general principles by which Cato destroyed himself.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, It is also sufficiently known that Satan _by the force\nof custom in several countries, doth as it were necessitate men to\ncut off their own lives_. In some barbarous places, at the death of\nthe husband, the wife, in a brutal affection of the praise of love\nand loyalty, casts herself to be devoured by the same flame in which\nthe dead body of her husband is consumed.[417] And there are found in\nother places customs of self-destruction for the avoiding the tedious\ninconveniences of old age, where it is usual for old persons with joy\nto prepare their own funeral pile, and to make a quick despatch of\ntheir lives, and rather to die at once than by piecemeal, as Seneca\nexpresseth it.[418] Calanus, an Indian philosopher, being dysenterical,\nobtained leave of Alexander to burn himself for more quick despatch.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, There is yet another way by which men are tempted\nsometime, though rarely, to hasten themselves out of the world, and\nthat is by _a pretence of an earnest and impatient desire of happiness\nto come_. That longings for such enjoyments do become the best of\nsaints, and is indeed their excellency, cannot be denied; but to make\nsuch a preposterous haste must be a cheat of Satan. That there is a\npossibility of this, may appear in the story of Cleombrotus, mentioned\nalso by Augustine, who reading Plato\u2019s \u2018Ph\u00e6do, of the Immortality of\nthe Soul,\u2019 that he might hasten thither, threw himself headlong from a\nwall, and died.[419] Now, though it be hard to find such an instance\namong Christians, yet we have reason to believe that where Satan\nperceives such a temptation may take place, he will not be wanting in\nthe prosecution. And if we may conjecture Augustine\u2019s thoughts by that\nquestion which he propounds\u2014viz., Whether it be lawful for a man to\nkill himself for the avoiding of sin, which he solidly confutes,[420]\nwe may conclude that such thoughts were the usual temptations of good\nmen in his time, and the rather because in the close of that chapter\nhe applies that discourse particularly to the servants of Christ,\nthat they should not think their lives a burden. _Non itaque vobis, O\nfideles Christi, sit t\u0153dio vita vestra._\n\n2. Secondly, Satan promotes the design of self-murder, not only\ndirectly, as we have heard, but also _by some indirect ways he\nundermines the life of man_. That is, when he doth not formally say to\nthem, Destroy yourselves, but tempts them to such things as he knows\nwill let in upon death. This way of subtle malice I shall explain under\nthese heads:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _Upon highest pretexts of zeal for Gods glory, he sometimes\nlays a snare for our lives_. I cannot believe but Satan had a hand in\nthat forwardness of ancient Christians, who by an open profession of\ntheir faith before persecuting judicatures, did as it were court a\nmartyrdom; and I have the same persuasion of the painful earnestness\nof many holy preachers, who lavish out their strength in a prodigality\nof pains for the good of souls, which, like a thief in the candle,\nwastes them immediately; whereas a better husbanded strength might be\ntruly more advantageous, as continuing the light the longer; and yet\nso sincere are their ends, so pleasant is their work, that they seldom\nobserve, as they ought, that Satan, when he can do no better, is glad\nof the opportunity to destroy them with their own weapon; and therefore\nin this case they may expect he will do all he can to heighten and\nforward their zeal, not only by adding all the fuel he can to their\ninward propensity of laboriousness, but also by outward encouragement\nof the declared acceptations and expectations of their hearers.[421]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Upon baser pretences of the full enjoyment of sensual\npleasures and carnal delights, he doth unawares push men forward to\ndeath and dangers_. Thus the voluptuous, the glutton, the drunkard, dig\ntheir own graves, and invite death to cut them off before they have\nlived out half their time. While Satan tempts men to such excesses of\nriot, he labours not only the destruction of the soul, but also of the\nbody; not only that they be miserable, but that they may be so with all\nexpedition.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Besides all these, _he hath other subtle ways of\ncontriving the death of men, by putting them upon ways and actions\nthat are attended with hazard_. Thus he sought the death of Christ,\nnot directly but indirectly, by urging him to an action which he\nthought would unavoidably bring him to death, for a fall from so\ngreat a precipice would easily have bereaved any man of life. And\nsometimes when men are besotted with enthusiastical delusions, he\ncan more easily beguile them with such stratagems. That instance of\nStuker[422] is famous, who cut off his brother\u2019s head upon a foolish\npersuasion that God would magnify his great power in giving him life\nagain. If Satan can befool such bewitched slaves into such absurd and\nunreasonable apprehensions in regard of others, what hinders but that\nhe may so far impose upon them, that they may be willing to practise\nupon themselves? I remember something to this purpose, of one whom the\ndevil had well-nigh prevailed with to make a hole in his breast, which\nof necessity must have let out his life, upon a pretended promise of\ngiving him eternal life, and was accordingly forced to take up a knife\nand to carry it to his throat.[423] In _anno_ 1647, in Yorkshire, a\ncompany of people were seduced to sacrifice certain creatures to God,\namong the rest they sacrificed their aged mother, persuading her she\nshould rise the third day, and for this they were executed at York.\n\n_Applic._ _This may awaken all to be aware of this temptation._ Some\nare sadly concerned in it. Many are the complaints which some of us\nhave met withal about it in private, and the apprehensions of such\nhazards are sadly disquieting. Through such fears thousands of God\u2019s\ndear children have passed, and many, too many, have been overcome by\nthis weapon. Those of us that have not yet known temptations of this\nnature, do not know how soon we may be assaulted in this kind. It\nis necessary for all to stand upon their guard, and for that end it\nbehoves us to have at hand these defences against it:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, It is useful to consider _that this is one of Satan\u2019s great\nplots_; and when we meet with it clothed with never so many pretexts,\nenforced with never so many seeming necessities, yet must we look upon\nit as the counsel of an enemy, who certainly intends us no kindness,\nlet him pretend what he will; and therefore may we be sure it will be\nour sad inconvenience and disadvantage.\n\n[2.] Secondly, It must be fixed in our minds _that the thing in\nitself is a high iniquity, a most grievous provocation_. No instance\nof self-murder, properly such, can be met withal in Scripture, as\npractised by any holy person. The command is directly against it, \u2018Thou\nshalt not kill.\u2019 If we may not murder another, as Austin argues, we\nmay not murder ourselves; for he that kills himself kills no other\nthan a man; nay, we may much less lay hand upon our own life.[424] It\nis a greater violation of the law of nature and of love. Every man is\nnearest to himself; and his love to himself is the pattern of his love\nto another. Self-murder must then be a sin of higher aggravations by\nfar than the murder of another person. And the wiser heathens were far\nfrom countenancing any such cruelty. If Plato had thought it best, for\nan immediate enjoyment of immortality, which is the highest pretence\nof self-murder imaginable, to make an end of life violently, he would\ncertainly have practised it himself, or recommended it to others, but\nhe is so far from this, that he speaks against it as a great wickedness.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, It is necessary that men keep in mind _the danger that\nfollows such an act_. Death brings God\u2019s unalterable _mittimus_, and\nseals up the condition of every man, so that in the same posture he\ncomes to judgment, it puts an end to all hopes and endeavours. Suppose\nthen such tempted creatures to have fears and terrors as great as you\ncan imagine them to be, yet there is a possibility that they may be\ndeceived in them, that their case is not so bad as they fear, or if it\nbe bad enough at present, that it may be better afterwards; for many\nthat have in their anguish resolved against themselves, have been\nprevented of the execution of their resolves, and have lived to see\nthe Lord and his salvation. And who is able to determine that secret,\nthat their name is not in the book of life? Who can say he is certainly\nexcluded out of God\u2019s decree? What madness is it then to rush into\ncertain ruin, when our fears that distress us may be but mistakes! It\nis not so certain that men shall be damned, because of what they feel\nor fear at present, as it may be if they destroy themselves.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, To prevent occasions to this temptation, _it must\nbe our care not to give way to discontents for outward things, nor\nto distressing fears, such as are despairing and hopeless, for our\nspiritual estate_; or if we have a burden either way upon our mind, we\nmust avoid as much as may be impatient fretfulness, \u2018lest Satan get\nadvantage of us.\u2019 Discontented moods and casting away hope are sad\noccasions for this temptation. If we find ourselves thus burdened, we\nmust look to it betimes, and not suffer it to go too far. And if this\ntemptation come, we must take heed we keep not the devil\u2019s counsel,\nbut discover the matter to some that are wise and faithful, able to\nadvise and pray for us; remembering still that if only outward things\ntrouble us, we have a better way of ease and remedy, by submitting to a\nchastising providence. If spiritual troubles move this way, we should\nnot run from him, but rather resolve to perish at his foot as humble\nsuppliants for mercy and pardon.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, The temptation must also be opposed with _fasting and\nprayer_. If this be sincerely practised, it will go away at last.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, Something may also be said for caution against\n_unnecessary thrusting ourselves, while under such temptations, into\nplaces of danger, or into a converse with instruments of death_. This\nmay be too great a daring of the temptation, and in the consequence\na mischief. Yet on the other hand, we must not be so cowardly as to\nbe afraid of such places and things, unto which our callings and\nlawful employments do engage us; not to dare to go over a bridge, or\nto walk by a river or a pit, if it be our necessary way, is but to\ngive an advantage to Satan to keep us under continual affrightments;\nand therefore I subscribe to Capel\u2019s advice, \u2018We must abide by it,\nand fight it out by faith; we must not fly the way, the place, the\nemployment, but go on and look to God, and at last we shall make Satan\nfly.\u2019[425]\n\n_Obj._ But if some object to this, that their weakness is great, and\ntheir fears are strong, and Satan never idle, and that therefore they\nhave little ground to expect an escape, I shall desire they would\nconsider seriously the instance of Christ in this particular. When he\nwas upon the pinnacle of the temple, a small push might have overthrown\nhim, and yet it was not in Satan\u2019s power to do it himself, though he\ntempted Christ to cast himself down: which may sufficiently satisfy\nus, that there is a sure hedge of providence about us, and that Satan\ncannot do us the least hurt by pushing us into a pit or river, or any\nsuch danger.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n _Of pride, Satan\u2019s chief engine to bring on presumption.\u2014What pride\n is, and how it prepares men for sinning presumptuously.\u2014Considerations\n against pride.\u2014The remedies for its cure.\u2014Pride kindled by a\n confidence of privileges and popular applause._\n\n\nThe aims of Satan in this temptation being thus explained, I must now\noffer to your consideration the means by which he sought to bring his\nend about, which we have noted already, was pride: this he endeavoured\nto raise up in him two ways:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, By urging to him the privileges of his condition, as taking\nhimself to be the Son of God.\n\n(2.) Secondly, By offering him the occasion of popular applause; to\nwhich purpose he brought him into the holy city, where he might be sure\nof many spectators. I shall hence note,\n\n_Obs._ 10. _That pride is Satan\u2019s proper engine to bring men on to\npresumption._\n\nIf we should trace the history of presumptuous sins, we shall ever find\nit to have been so. Adam\u2019s first sin was a high presumption against\nGod\u2019s express command, but pride was the stair by which he knew they\nmust ascend to it; and therefore he used this argument to corrupt the\nhearts of our first parents, \u2018Ye shall be as gods.\u2019 The presumption\nof Uzziah in burning incense upon the altar, was from his pride, 2\nChron. xxvi. 16, \u2018His heart was lifted up, because he was become\nstrong.\u2019 David\u2019s presumption in numbering the people was from hence.\nThus might we run through many instances. But Satan\u2019s own case may be\ninstead of all. His first sin, though we have but conjecture what it\nwas particularly, is concluded by all to have been highly presumptuous,\nand the Scripture expressly asserts that it was his pride that brought\nhim to it. 1 Tim. iii. 6, \u2018He that is lifted up with pride, falls into\nthe condemnation of the devil.\u2019 And in the general we are told by the\nprophet, Hab. ii. 4, \u2018that the soul that is lifted up,\u2019 cannot be so\nupright as patiently to wait upon God in a way of believing, but it\nwill be presuming to evade a trouble by indirect contrivances.\n\nTo explain the observation, I shall do no more but shew what pride is,\nand how fit it is to beget presumption.\n\n_Pride is a self-idolising, an over-valuation or admiration of\nourselves, upon a real or supposed excellency, inward or outward,\nappertaining to us._ It is in Scripture frequently expressed by the\nlifting up or exaltation of the soul. And this is done, upon the\nconsideration of any kind of thing, which we apprehend makes us excel\nothers; so that inward gifts of mind, as knowledge, humility, courage,\n&c., or outward gifts of the body, as beauty, strength, activity, &c.,\nor additional advantages of riches, honour, authority, &c., or anything\nwell done by us, &c., may all be abused to beget and nourish pride, and\nto fill us with high and lofty thoughts concerning ourselves; and being\nthus blown up, we are fitted for any presumptuous undertaking. For,\n\n(1.) First, _The mind thus corrupted begets to itself apprehensions\nof a self-sufficiency_: and therefore, as it is not apt to remember\nfrom what fountain all those excellencies come, and to what ends they\nare to serve; so it brings them to a contempt of others, and to a\nconfidence of themselves. Thus are men by degrees so intoxicated by\ntheir own humour, that they mount up to irrational and absurd conceits,\nfancying that they are more than they are, and that they can do far\nmore than is possible for them to accomplish, till at last they become\napparently foolish in the pursuit of their imaginations. I need not\ninstance in the follies of Alexander, who being elated in mind, would\nbe Jupiter\u2019s son, and go like Hercules in a lion\u2019s skin. Or in the mad\nfrenzies of Caius, who as he would need fancy himself a god, so would\nhe change his godship when he pleased: to-day he would wear a lion\u2019s\nskin and club, and then he must be Hercules; to-morrow in another garb\nhe conceits himself Apollo; a caduceus made him Mercury, a sword and\nhelmet made him Mars, &c. Or in Xerxes, who would whip the seas, and\nfetter Neptune. The Scripture affords enough of this nature, as the\nboast of Nebuchadnezzar; \u2018Is not this great Babel that I have built?\u2019\nIn the insolency of Nineveh, Zeph. ii. 15, \u2018I am, and there is none\nbesides me.\u2019 The blasphemy of Tyre, Ezek. xxviii. 2, who set her heart\n\u2018as the heart of God, saying, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God.\u2019\nThe arrogancy of Sennacherib, Isa. xxxvi. 19, 20, \u2018Where are the\ngods of Hamath ... that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my\nhand?\u2019 Though all pride in all men ariseth not to so great a height of\nmadness, yet it is the nature of it, and none have any of it without\nthis humour of conceiting themselves above themselves, which strangely\nprepares them for any presumption.\n\n(2.) Secondly, He that is proud, _as he looks upon himself in a\nflattering glass, and measures himself by the length of his shadow; so\ndoth he contemn and undervalue things that lie before his attempts as\neasy and small_. Hence doth he put himself upon things that are far\nbeyond him. David notes the working of a proud heart, Ps. cxxxi. 1, in\nthis particular, \u2018Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or\nin things too high for me,\u2019 shewing that it is the guise of pride to\noutbid itself in its attempts.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _It is not only forward to attempt, but also desperate\nto execute without consideration of hazard_. Difficulty and danger,\nwhen they stand in the way, should usually deter men from their\nenterprise; but pride hardens the heart, and, in a blind rage, engageth\nit to contemn all inconveniencies. If sin and the breach of God\u2019s\nlaw be set before a person, whose pride engageth him to an unlawful\nundertaking, he overlooks it as a thing of nought: \u2018Through the pride\nof his countenance he will not seek after God: God is not in all his\nthoughts,\u2019 Ps. x. 4.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, Pride ariseth up _to a scornful competition with\nanything that opposeth it_; and the more it is opposed, the more it\nrageth, for the contest is for having its will. This was the voice of\npride in Pharaoh, \u2018Who is the Lord, that I should serve him?\u2019 [Exod.\nv. 2.] Hence men are said to \u2018despise the commandments of God,\u2019 [Lev.\nxxvi. 15,] when in the strength of their pride they are carried on\nto an open contest for their own ways and desires against peremptory\ncommands and threatenings.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, All this is done by _a pleasing allurement_. It is\na witchcraft that strongly holds men, _Amabilis insania mentis\ngratissimus error_; and they think they are sufficiently rewarded\nif they be but gratified. Though other things go to wreck, yet they\napprehend, if credit and honour be kept up, it is enough. Saul, when\nSamuel had declared that God would forsake him, yet sought to please\nhimself by keeping up his esteem and authority; \u2018Honour me,\u2019 saith he,\n\u2018before the people,\u2019 [1 Sam. xv. 30.]\n\nIf all these particulars be weighed, what presumptuous act can be\npropounded by Satan which pride may not lead to? He that swells himself\nto a conceit of absoluteness, that will needs be attempting things\ntoo high, that contemneth all hazards, and is made more forward by\nopposition, and yet pleaseth himself in all, as in a golden dream, he\nis as much prepared for any figure or shape that Satan is ready to\nimpress upon him, as melted metals for their mould or stamp.\n\n_Applic._ _Hence must we be warned against pride, as we would avoid\npresumption._ If we admit this, we cannot well escape the other. And we\nare the more concerned to resist pride,\n\n[1.] First, _Because it is a natural sin_. It was the first sin, and\nour natures are so deeply tainted with it, that it is a sin that first\nshews itself in our infancy; for children will express a pride in their\nclothes very early, and it is a general infection, from which none are\nexempted in some degree or other. The apostle\u2019s phrase, 1 John ii. 16,\nshews that our whole life, and all the concerns thereof, is but the\nsphere in which pride acts; and therefore, whereas he restrains other\nlusts to some particular ends or peculiar instruments, he calls this\niniquity the \u2018pride of life,\u2019 implying how impossible it is to confine\nit in a narrow compass.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _It is a subtle sin, and often lies where it is least\nsuspected_. Every man sees it, as it is expressed in \u2018haughty looks,\u2019\nin \u2018boasting speeches,\u2019 in \u2018gorgeous apparel,\u2019 in \u2018insolent behaviour;\u2019\nbut often men are insensibly possessed with this sin and know not\nof it. Under an affected contempt of honours and fine clothes they\nsecretly hug themselves in their private conceits, and raise up in\ntheir own thoughts imaginary trophies of honour and victory, for\ndespising what others so much dote upon. It was observed of Diogenes\nthat he did _intus gloriari_, inwardly boast, and with greater pride\ncontemned honour, riches, plenty, &c., than they were troubled with\nthat enjoyed them. Some decry pride in others, vehemently declare\nagainst it as a sin, recommend humility as an ornament of great price\nin the sight of God, and yet are proud that they are above others in\na fancied humility; and, in the management of themselves in their\nreproofs and exhortations, express such sad symptoms of an insulting\nhumour, that the latent pride of their heart doth appear by it. It is\npossible for men to give thanks to the Almighty for all they have,\nand yet to be proud of what is in them. The Pharisee was proud, for\nso Christ calls him, that \u2018he was not as other men,\u2019 and yet he could\n\u2018thank God,\u2019 as ascribing all to him; nay, he that is truly sensible\nof the working of this pride in himself, and dares not approve it,\nyet he shall find in his heart such a delight when he is stroked or\npraised; and when some actions, praiseworthy, are not taken notice of,\nthe best shall find that, without great watchfulness, they shall not be\nable to hold from giving some hints to others, as a memorial to them,\nof observing their excellency, or from some insinuations of their own\ncommendation.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Pride is a sin _no less dangerous than subtle_. There are\nno attempts so strange, unreasonable, monstrous, or absurd, but it may\nprompt to them. It was a strange arrogancy in Herod to deify himself in\nhis own thoughts, and yet the acclamations of the people swelled him\ninto such a blasphemous imagination, that God thought fit to chastise\nhim, and instruct others by so dreadful a judgment, as clearly baffled\nhis insolency, and made him and his flatterers confess he was but a\npoor, frail man. Ordinarily pride is attended with a judgment, it is\nthe very prognostic of ruin: \u2018Pride goeth before destruction, and a\nhaughty spirit before a fall,\u2019 Prov. xvi. 18. But these judgments have\nsomething in them peculiar, which other judgments for other sins do\nnot always express, to a manifestation of a special abhorrency in God\nagainst pride; as, (1.) He commonly smites the thing for which they are\nproud. Staupitius boasted of his memory, and God smote it; Hezekiah\nboasted of his treasure, and for that God designed them for captivity;\nDavid glorified [himself] in the multitude of his people, but God\nlessened them by pestilence; Nebuchadnezzar is proud of his Babel, and\nGod drove him from the enjoyment of it. Men are proud of children or\nrelations, and God oft removes them, or makes them a shame and sorrow.\n(2.) He doth not only this, but also orders the judgment so that it\nshall bring a shame and contempt upon men in that thing wherein they\nprided themselves. He will not only punish, but also stain their pride.\nThe haughty daughters of Zion were not only plagued by removing their\nornaments, bracelets, and the rest of their bravery, but over and above\nhe \u2018smites with a scab the crown of their head, and discovers their\nsecret parts, and brings a stink and baldness upon them instead of a\nsweet smell and well-set hair, and burning instead of beauty,\u2019 Isa.\niii. 17, 24.\n\nSo sad a distemper stands in need of a special care; and for that end\nwe should,\n\n[1.] First, _In all things we have or do, not so much consider what is\nexcellent, or wherein we excel, as what we have not, and wherein we\ncome short_. We should be strange to ourselves, and design that the\n\u2018right hand should not know what the left hand doth,\u2019 which must be by\nhaving our eye upon the imperfections that attend us at the best.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _It must be our care to be suspicious of the working of\npride in us_; and also by an industrious watchfulness to give a stop or\ncheck to thoughts of this nature when they arise.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The conquest of this cannot be expected without a\nserious and constant labour herein_. A humble soul is compared by David\nto a weaned child, Ps. cxxxi. 2. But a child is not weaned easily.\nWormwood must be laid on the breast, and time allowed, before the child\nwill forget it. He only that is content to exercise a discipline upon\nhimself, and by frequent practices to habituate himself to low and\ncareful thoughts, is likely to overcome it.\n\nPride, we have seen, was Satan\u2019s great engine to bring on presumption.\nThe means by which he endeavoureth to beget pride, as was before noted,\nwere,\n\n[1.] First, _The consideration of privileges_, as being \u2018the Son of\nGod.\u2019 For this expression, \u2018If thou art the Son of God,\u2019 is now urged\nin a sense different from that which it had in the first temptation.\nThere he propounded it as unlikely that he should be the Son of God,\nand yet be under such a disregard of providence. In this sense it\nnotably suited his design of drawing him to a distrust of God\u2019s care,\nand consequently of his sonship. Here he is upon a contrary temptation,\nand therefore propounds this as a thing of which Christ was assured,\nand from that assurance he thus disputes: \u2018Thou believest thou art the\nSon of God, and dost well depend on his care; therefore needest thou\nnot to distrust thy preservation, if thou castest thyself down.\u2019\n\n[2.] Secondly, To help his confidence forward to the undertaking, he\nsuggests _what credit and honour it would be to him, in the sight of\nall the people, to be so miraculously kept from hurt_. Hence note,\n\n_Obs._ 11. _That Satan doth usually kindle and nourish pride, by a\nperverse confidence of our privileges._\n\nIt is very hard for Christians to carry their assurance _even_: not but\nthat grace in its proper working begets humility, and a watchful care\nagainst sin and folly; but such is our infirmity that we are easily\ndrawn to be proud of our mercies, and to persuade ourselves that we may\nmake bold with God because we are his children. Hence was that paradox\nof Mr Foxe, \u2018That his sins did him most good, and his graces most\nhurt;\u2019 he means, sins occasioned his humility, whereas his graces were\napt, through his weakness, to make him proud. And to hide this pride\nfrom man, God is forced to keep them sometime from the sight of their\nassurance, or to discipline them by other temptations, as he did with\nPaul, lest they should be \u2018exalted above measure.\u2019\n\nNote further, _Obs._ 12. _That popular applause Satan finds, and useth\naccordingly, to be a great instigator to pride._\n\nThe great thing that moved the Pharisees in their often fastings and\nlarge charity, was that they might have praise of men, and therefore\ntook they care to be seen of men.[426] The heathens noted this to be\nthe great feeder of that humour which animated them, as a drum or\ntrumpet animates soldiers to adventurous acts.[427] And some good men\nhave found no small difficulty to carry steadily, when they have been\nhoisted up by the breath of men\u2019s praise; which hath also occasioned\nthose serious cautions against the danger of flattery and high\ncommendations, \u2018A flattering mouth worketh ruin,\u2019 Prov. xxvi. 28.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n _Of Satan\u2019s subtlety in urging that of Ps. xci. 11, 12,\n to Christ.\u2014Of his imitating the Spirit of God in various ways of\n teaching.\u2014Of his pretending Scripture to further temptation.\u2014The\n reasons of such pretendings, and the ends to which he doth abuse\n it.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s unfaithfulness in managing of scriptures.\u2014Cautions\n against that deceit.\u2014The ways by which it may be discovered._\n\n\nThe ways of Satan, hitherto insisted on, to engage Christ in this act\nof presumption, were secret insinuations and underhand contrivances:\nbut that which he openly and expressly urged to this purpose, was\nan argument drawn from the promise of God, though sadly abused and\nmisrepresented, \u2018He shall give his angels charge concerning thee,\u2019\n&c. This we are next to consider, in which, as cited by him, we may\neasily see, (1.) That Satan affected an imitation of Christ, in the way\nof his resistance. Christ had urged Scripture before, and now Satan\nendeavours to manage the same weapon against him. (2.) It is observable\nthat Scripture is the weapon that Satan doth desire to wield against\nhim. In his other ways of dealing he was shy, and did but lay them in\nChrist\u2019s way, offering only the occasion, and leaving him to take them\nup; but in this he is more confident, and industriously pleads it, as\na thing which he could better stand to and more confidently avouch.\n(3.) The care of his subtlety herein, lay in the misrepresentation\nand abuse of it, as may be seen in these particulars: [1.] In that he\nurged this promise to promote a sinful thing, contrary to the general\nend of all Scripture, which was therefore written \u2018that we sin not.\u2019\n[2.] But more especially in his clipping and mutilating of it. He\nindustriously leaves out that part of it which doth limit and confine\nthe promise of protection to lawful undertakings, such as this was not,\nand renders it as a general promise of absolute safety, be the action\nwhat it will. It is a citation from Ps. xci. 11, 12, which there runs\nthus, \u2018He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all\nthy ways.\u2019 These last words, \u2018in all thy ways,\u2019 which doth direct to a\ntrue understanding of God\u2019s intention in that promise, he deceitfully\nleaves out, as if they were needless and unnecessary parts of the\npromise, when indeed they were on purpose put there by the Spirit of\nGod, to give a description of those persons and actions, unto whom, in\nsuch cases, the accomplishment of the promise might be expected; for\nalbeit the word in the original, which is translated \u2018ways\u2019\u2014\u05d3\u05e8\u05db\u05d9\u05dd\u2014doth\nsignify any kind of way or action in the general, yet in this place it\ndoth not; for then God were engaged to an absolute protection of men,\nnot only when they unnecessarily thrust themselves into dangers, but in\nthe most abominably sinful actions whatsoever; which would have been a\ndirect contradiction to those many scriptures wherein God threatens to\nwithdraw his hand and leave sinners to the danger of their iniquities;\nbut it is evident that the sense of it is no more than this, \u2018God is\nwith you, while you are with him.\u2019 We have a paraphrase of this text,\nto this purpose, in Prov. iii. 23, \u2018Then shalt thou walk in thy way\nsafely, and thy foot shall not stumble:\u2019 where the condition of this\nsafety, pointed to in the word \u2018then,\u2019 which leads the promise, is\nexpressly mentioned in the foregoing verses, \u2018My son, let them\u2019\u2014that\nis, the precepts of wisdom\u2014\u2018not depart from thine eyes.... Then\u2019\u2014not\nupon other terms\u2014\u2018shalt thou walk in thy way safely.\u2019 The ways then in\nthis promise, cited by Satan, are the ways of duty, or the ways of our\nlawful callings. The fallacy of Satan in this dealing with Scripture\nis obvious, and Christ might have given this answer, as Bernard hath\nit, That God promiseth to keep him in his ways, but not in self-created\ndangers, for that was not his way, but his ruin; or if a way, it was\nSatan\u2019s way, but not his.[428] (3.) To these two, some add another\nabuse, in a subtle concealment of the following verse in Ps. xci.,\n\u2018Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.\u2019 This concerned Satan, whose\ncruelty and poisonous deceits were fitly represented by the lion and\nthe adder, and there the promise is also explained to have a respect to\nSatan\u2019s temptations\u2014that is, God would so manage his protection, that\nhis children should not be led into a snare.\n\nHence observe, _Obs._ 13. _That Satan sometimes imitates the Spirit of\nGod by an officious pretence of teaching the mind of God to men._\n\nThis our adversary doth not always appear in one shape. Sometime he\nacts as a lion or dragon, in ways of cruelty and fierceness; sometimes\nas a filthy swine, in temptations to bestial uncleanness and sensual\nlusts; sometime he puts on the garb of holiness, and makes as if he\nwere not a spiritual adversary, but a spiritual friend and counsellor.\nThat this is frequent with him, the apostle tells us: 2 Cor. xi. 14,\n\u2018Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.\u2019 Angels of light\nare those blessed spirits sent forth to minister for the good of the\nelect, whose ministry God useth not only for our preservation from\nbodily hurts, but also for prevention of sin and furtherance of duty.\nSatan, as wicked as he is, doth counterfeit that employment, and takes\nupon him to give advice for our good, pretending to teach us in the\ntruth, or to direct and further us in our endeavours.[429]\n\nThat he designs an imitation of God and his Spirit, may be discovered\nby expressing a great many particulars of God\u2019s ways and appointments,\nwherein Satan, as God\u2019s ape, partly out of mockery and scorn, partly\nupon other grounds of advantage to his intendments, doth counterfeit\nthe current coin of the Lord\u2019s establishments by a very close\nimitation. But I shall here confine myself to the point of teaching and\ninstruction, wherein how he proceeds, we shall the better understand by\nconsidering how many ways God hath of old, and now still doth use in\ndeclaring his mind to his people. The sum of all we have, Heb. i. 12.\nHeretofore he signified his mind in \u2018divers manners\u2019 by the prophets,\nand \u2018in these last days by his Son,\u2019 in all which we shall trace the\nsteps of Satan.\n\n(1.) First, _God revealed himself sometime by voice_; as to Abraham,\nMoses, and others. The devil hath dared to imitate this. There want\nnot instances of it; in the temptation, which is now under explanation,\nhe did so; and his confessing Christ, \u2018I know thee who thou art,\u2019 [Mat.\ni. 24,] &c., doth shew that he is ready enough to do it at any time\nfor advantage. Sprenger tells us a story of the devil\u2019s preaching to a\ncongregation in the habit and likeness of a priest, wherein he reproved\nsin, and urged truth, and seemed no way culpable for false doctrine;\nbut I suspect this for a fabulous tale. However, it is undeniable that\nhe sometime hath appeared to men with godly exhortations in his mouth,\nof living justly, and doing no man wrong, &c.,[430] except we resolve\nto discredit all history, and the narrations of persons, and some such\nare known to some in this auditory, who solemnly affirm they have met\nwith such dealing from him.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _God hath sometime revealed himself to men in ecstasies\nand trances_; such as was that of Paul: Acts xxii. 17, \u2018I was in an\necstasy or trance,\u2019 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03bc\u03b5 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9. This also hath the devil\nimitated. Mohammed made this advantage of his disease, the epilepsy or\nfalling-sickness, pretending that at such times he was in an ecstasy,\nand had converse with the angel Gabriel. But what he only in knavery\npretended, others have really felt. The stories of Familists and\ndeluded Quakers are full of such things. They frequently have fallen\ndown and have lain as in a swoon, and when they have awaked, told\nwonderful stories of what they have heard and seen.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Visions and dreams were usual things in the Old\nTestament, and famous ways of divine revelation_; but Satan was not\nbehind in this matter. His instruments had their visions too. In Ezek.\nxiii. 7 we have mention of vain visions and lying divinations; and such\nsatanical dreams are also noted, Deut. xiii. 1, \u2018If there arise among\nyou a dreamer of dreams.\u2019 Those days of confusion, that are not yet\nout of memory, afforded store of these. While unstable, giddy-headed\npeople began to dote on novelties and questions in religion, they\ngave opportunity to Satan to beguile them; for he taking advantage\nof their nauseating of old truths, and their expectation of sublime\ndiscoveries, which had sufficiently prepared them for any impression,\ndid so overwork their fancies that they easily conceited themselves\nto have had divine revelations, and nothing was more ordinary than\nto hear stories of visions and dreams. And this spread further by a\nkind of infection, for it grew into a religious fashion; and he was\nnot esteemed that had not something of this nature to experience.\nAnd though the folly and impertinences of such things generally, and\nsometime the apparent wickedness of them, as contradicting truth and\nthe divine rules of holiness, were sufficient discoveries that Satan\u2019s\nhand was in them, yet until time, experience, and the power of God had\ncooled the intemperate heat of this raving humour, it continued in\nthe good liking and admiration of the more inconsiderate vulgar. And\nsometime those from whom more seriousness and consideration might have\nbeen expected fell into a reverence for these pretences in others,\nand helped forward this spiritual witchcraft by their countenance and\narguings, often abusing that text in Acts ii. 17, \u2018Your young men\nshall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,\u2019 by applying\nit to a justification of these apparently foolish dotages. And indeed\nthe effect hath discovered they were no better, for many of those\nthings which with great confidence were avouched as certain, were by\ntime proved to be false. Many things were useless, vain, ridiculous,\nand some were brought to lament and confess their folly after they\nproceeded far in these ways; and at last, when the former opportunities\nwere worn out, Satan grew weary of that design as being no longer\nproper to be insisted on. There is now a great calm, so that it is but\nseldom that we hear of such things talked of. It were needless to give\nparticular instances, when you may at your leisure fetch them from\nhundreds of pamphlets commonly known.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, One of the most noted ways by which God discovered his\nmind was that of _inspiration_, by which some eminent persons, called\ntherefore prophets, spake the will of God \u2018as they were moved or\nacted by the Spirit of God,\u2019 [2 Peter i. 21.] The devil had also his\nfalse prophets. Such are frequently taxed in the Old Testament, and\nforetold in the New: \u2018False Christs, and false prophets shall arise,\u2019\nMat. xxiv. 24; \u2018There were false prophets among the people, as there\nshall be false teachers among you,\u2019 2 Peter ii. 1. Many false teachers\nare gone out into the world. Such a one was Montanus in Tertullian\u2019s\ntime, David George, John of Leyden, Hacket, our countryman, were such,\nand a great many such there have been in all ages. It is notoriously\nknown that Satan hath thus inspired poor, possessed wretches, who\nhave uttered threatenings against sin and woe to sinners. The sayings\nof such possessed creatures have not long since been gathered into\na volume and published, as containing very persuasive arguments to\nrepentance and amendment of life.[431] Besides these, our own times\nafford too many examples of this kind. Many have put on the guise of\nthe old prophets in a foolish though adventurous imitation of their\nactions and prophecies. Some have in our streets resembled Jonah\nin Nineveh, \u2018Yet forty days,\u2019 &c. Some fancied to walk naked like\nIsaiah; others have come with their earthen pitchers and broken them,\nimitating these and other types by which God in his true prophets\nforesignified his judgments to come; in all which actions and garbs,\nwith much earnestness, and in an affected tone, they have called out\nfor repentance in a confident denunciation of woes and miseries, with\na bold limiting of the time of forty days, that the same might carry a\nparallel to Jonah\u2019s prophecy, and sometime giving\u2014which is the surest\nway\u2014an unlimited, uncertain time. How the devil acts in these matters,\nand by what ways he seduceth them to believe they are inspired of\nGod, or have real visions and revelations, it is not my business now\nto inquire; only let those that think such things strange, consider\nthat the devil hath the advantage of deep fanciful apprehensions and a\nworking melancholy in such persons, by which he can easily work them to\nconceit anything, and confidently believe what they have conceited.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Sometime God notified his mind _by signs and miracles_.\nSatan hath also his \u2018lying signs and wonders;\u2019 a power God hath\npermitted him this way, which is very great, and the delusions wrought\nthereby are strong, hazarding the deception of the elect. This power\nof doing wonders the devil usually applies to false doctrines, to\nstrengthen and countenance errors. The apostle testifies, 2 Thes. ii.\n9, that Satan shall employ this power for the advancement of the \u2018man\nof sin, whose coming shall be with signs and lying wonders.\u2019 The beast\narising out of the earth, Rev. xiii. 14, \u2018he shall deceive by the means\nof those miracles which he hath power to do.\u2019 And accordingly the\npopish legends are full of stories of miracles, whereof, though most\nbe lies, forgeries, and the false contrivements of those who sought to\nbring the people to receive their doctrines, the credit and advancement\nof which they sought by such ways; some notwithstanding, though not\ntrue miracles, yet were truly acted, to countenance those errors which\nare pretended to be established by them.\n\n(6.) Sixthly, God doth teach and lead his people _by impulses_. Christ\nwas thus \u2018led of the Spirit into the wilderness;\u2019 and Paul was \u2018bound\nin spirit to go to Jerusalem,\u2019 [Acts xx. 22.] It is common for Satan to\nimitate such impulses. We have clear instances of diabolical impulses\nto sin in Scripture. A strong impulse was on Ananias, \u2018Satan filled his\nheart,\u2019 [Acts v. 3;] a strong impulse on Judas, \u2018Satan entered into his\nheart,\u2019 [Luke xxii. 3;] and what then more easy to apprehend, than that\nSatan can counterfeit better impulses, and violently stir up the hearts\nof men to actions seemingly good or indifferent? Some hypocrites are\nmoved strongly to pray or preach,\u2014Satan therein aiming at an increase\nof pride or presumption in them;\u2014and they know no other, but that it is\nthe Spirit of God. God\u2019s children may have impulses from Satan, upon\npretences of zeal, as the disciples had, when they called for fire from\nheaven. In these impulses Satan doth not so act the heart of man as\nthe Spirit of God doth, whose commands in this case are irresistible;\nbut he only works by altering the disposition of our bodies in a\nnatural way; and then having fitted us all he can for an impression, he\nendeavours to set it on by strong persuasions. Some memorable instances\nof these impulses might profitably illustrate this. Math. Parisiensis\ntakes notice of a boy, in _anno_ 1213, of whom also Fuller makes\nmention,[432] who, after some loss which the Christians had received in\nthe war against the Turks, went up and down, singing this rhyme\u2014\n\n    \u2018Jesus Lord, redeem our loss:\n    Restore to us thy holy cross.\u2019\n\nAnd by this means he gathered a multitude of boys together, who could\nnot by the severest menaces of their parents be hindered from following\nhim to their own ruin. Another instance of a strange impulse we have in\nJosephus:[433] one Jesus, the son of Ananus, about four years before\nthe destruction of Jerusalem, at the feast of tabernacles, begins to\ncry out, \u2018Woe, woe, to the east and west, to men and women,\u2019 &c., and\ncould by no means be restrained night or day; and when his flesh was\nbeaten off his bones, he begged no pity nor ease, but still continued\nhis usual crying.\n\n(7.) Seventhly, God doth also by his Spirit teach his people in\n_bringing things to their remembrance_, John xiv. 26. Satan also in\nimitation of this, can put into the minds of men, with great readiness\nand dexterity, promises or sentences of Scripture, insomuch that they\nconclude that all such actings are from the Spirit of God, who, as they\nconclude, set such a scripture upon their heart. Thus dealt Satan with\nChrist. He urgeth the promise upon him, wherein upon the matter he doth\nas much, as when he secretly suggests such things to the heart without\nan audible voice. In this way of craft Satan doth very much resemble\nthe true work of the Spirit; [1.] In the readiness and quickness of\nsuggesting; [2.] In seeming exact-suiting scripture suggested, with the\npresent occasion; and [3.] In the earnestness of his urging it upon the\nfancies of men. Yet when all this is done, they that shall seriously\nconsider all ends, matter and circumstances, will easily observe it is\nbut the cunning work of a tempter, and not from the Holy Spirit.\n\n_Obs._ 14. Observe also, _That whatever be the various ways of Satan\u2019s\nimitation, yet the matter which he works and practiseth upon is still\nScripture_. To this he confines himself:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _Because the Scriptures are generally, among Christians,\nreceived as the undoubted oracles of God, the rule of our lives and\nduties, and the grounds of our hope_. It would be a vain and bootless\nlabour to impose upon those that retain this belief, the sayings of the\nTurkish Alcoran, the precepts of heathen philosophers, or any other\nthing that may carry a visible estrangement from or contradiction to\nScripture. He could not then possibly pretend to a divine instruction,\nnor could he so \u2018transform himself into an angel of light:\u2019 but by\nusing this covert of divine command, promise, or discovery, he can\nmore easily beget a belief that God hath said it, and that there is\nneither sin nor danger in the thing propounded, but duty and advantage\nto be expected; and this is the very thing that makes way for an\neasy entertainment of such delusions. Poor creatures believe that is\nall from God, and that they are acted by his Spirit, and that with\nsuch confidence that they contemn and descry those, as ignorant of\ndivine mysteries, and of the power of God, who are not so besotted as\nthemselves.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _The Scriptures have a glorious irresistible majesty in\nthem, peculiar to themselves, which cannot be found in all that art\nor eloquence can contribute to other authors_. It is not play-book\nlanguage, nor scraps of romances that Satan can effect these cheats\nwithal; and therefore we may observe that in the highest delusions\nmen have had pretences of Scripture; and their strong persuasions of\nextraordinary discoveries have stricken men into a reverence of their\nprofession, because of the Scripture words and phrases with which\ntheir boldest follies are woven up. For let but men inquire into the\nreason of the prevalency of Familism of old, upon so vast a number\nof people as were carried away with it, and they shall find that the\ngreat artifice lay in the words they used, a language abstracted from\nScripture, to signify such conceits as the Scripture never intended.\nHence were their expressions always high, soaring, and relating to a\nmore excellent and mystical interpretation of those divine writings.\nThis may be observed in David George, Hen. Nicholas, and others, who\nusually talk of being consubstantiated with God, taken up into his\nlove, of the angelical life, and a great deal more of the same kind.\nThe Ranters at first had the like language, and the Quakers after them\naffected such a canting expression. And we may be the more certain of\nthe truth of this observation, that such a kind of speaking, which\nborrows its majesty from the style of the Scripture, is of moment to\nSatan\u2019s design; because we find the Scripture itself gives particular\nnotice of it. The false teachers in 2 Pet. ii. 18, are described,\namong other things, by their \u2018swelling words of vanity,\u2019 which the\nSyriac renders to be \u2018a proud and lofty way of speaking.\u2019 The original\nsignifies no less\u2014\u1f51\u03c0\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03b3\u03ba\u03b1,\u2014they were words swelled like bladders,\nthough being pricked, they be found to be empty sounds, and no\nsubstance. There are indeed swelling words of atheistical contempt of\nthose who, as the psalmist speaks, \u2018set their mouths against heaven,\u2019\nPs. lxxiii. 9, 11; but this passage of Peter, as also the like in\nJude 16, signify big swollen words, from high pretensions and fancies\nof knowing the mind of God more perfectly; for they that use them\npretend themselves prophets of God, ver. 1, and as to their height in\nprofession, are compared to clouds highly soaring; and in 2 Cor. xi.\n14, they are said to be \u2018transformed into the apostles of Christ,\u2019 and\nto the garb of the \u2018ministers of righteousness.\u2019 And that which is\nmore, this particular design of Satan is noted as the rise of all; \u2018No\nmarvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.\u2019\n\nHaving seen the reasons why Satan chooseth Scripture as his tool to\nwork by, I shall next shew to what base designs he makes it subserve.\n\n[1.] First, He useth this artifice _to beget and propagate erroneous\ndoctrines_. Hence no opinion is so vile, but pretends to Scripture\nas its patron. The Arians pretend Scripture against the divinity of\nChrist. The Socinians, Pelagians, Papists, yea, and those that pretend\nto inspirations for their rule, and disclaim the binding force of\nthose antiquated declarations of the saints\u2019 conditions, as they call\nthem, yet conform all their sayings to the Scripture expression, and\nendeavour to prove their mistakes by its authority.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _He makes abused Scripture to encourage sinful actions_.\nHe can cite passages of God\u2019s patience and long-suffering, of his\npardoning grace and readiness to forgive, and a thousand more, upon no\nother design than the \u2018turning of the grace of God into wantonness,\u2019\n[Jude 4.] When professors turn loose and negligent, when they adventure\ntoo far upon sinful pleasures, they lick themselves whole by an\noverforward grasping at such passages of Scripture, which Satan will\nwith great readiness set upon their hearts; and then they pretend to\nthemselves that their peace is made up with God, and that they have no\nless than a sealed pardon in their bosoms; which notwithstanding may\nbe known to have only Satan\u2019s hand and seal at it, by their overly and\nformal sorrow for such miscarriages, and their readiness to return to\nthe same follies again.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, By this imitation of the commands and promises of God,\n_he doth strangely engage such as he can thus delude unto desperate\nundertakings_.[434] The Familists of Germany were persuaded by this\ndelusion, to expose themselves unarmed to the greatest hazards, upon\nvain pretences of promises set home upon them, as that God would fight\nfor them, that they must \u2018stand still and see the salvation of God,\u2019\n[Exod. xiv. 13.] Some of later times have paid their lives for their\nbold misapplication of that promise, \u2018One shall chase a thousand,\u2019\n[Deut. xxxii. 30.] Judas of Galilee and Theudas were prompted by Satan\nto gather multitudes together, though to their own ruin, upon a vain\npersuasion that they were raised up of God, and that God would be with\nthem.[435]\n\n[4.] Fourthly, He sometimes _procures groundless peace and assurance in\nthe hearts of careless ones by Scripture misapplied_. Many you may meet\nwith who will roundly tell you a long story how they were cast down and\ncomforted by such a scripture brought to their minds, when, it may be\nmuch feared, they are but deceived, and that as yet God hath not spoken\npeace to them.\n\nLastly, This way of Satan\u2019s setting home scriptures proves sadly\neffectual to beget or heighten _the inward distresses and fears of\nthe children of God_. It is a wonder to hear some dispute against\nthemselves, so nimble they be to object a scripture against their\npeace, above their reading or ability, that you would easily conclude\nthere is one at hand that prompts them, and suggests these things to\ntheir own prejudice. And sometime a scripture will be set so cross or\nedgeway to their good and comfort, that many pleadings, much time,\nprayers, and discourses cannot remove it. I have known some that have\nseriously professed scriptures have been thrown into their hearts like\narrows, and have with such violence fixed a false apprehension upon\ntheir minds, as that God had cut them off, that they were reprobate,\ndamned, &c., that they have borne the tedious, restless affrightments\nof it for many days, and yet the thing itself, as well as the issue\nof it, doth declare that this was not the fruit of the Spirit of God,\nwhich is a spirit of truth, and cannot suggest a falsehood, but of\nSatan, who hath been a liar from the beginning.\n\nObserve lastly, _Obs._ 15. _Though Satan useth Scripture in these\ndeceitful workings, yet he never doth it faithfully._\n\n(1.) First, _Because it is against his nature, as it is now corrupted\nby his fall_. There is no truth in him: \u2018When he speaketh a lie he\nspeaketh of his own, for he is a liar,\u2019 John viii. 44; not that he\ncannot speak a truth, but that he usually is a liar, and that he never\nspeaks truth but with a purpose to deceive.[436]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _To deal faithfully in urging scriptures upon the\nconsciences of men, is also contrary to his interest_. He hath a\nkingdom which he endeavours to uphold. This kingdom, being directly\ncontrary to that of Christ\u2019s, which is a kingdom of light, is therefore\ncalled a kingdom of darkness, being maintained and propagated only\nby lies and deceits. He cannot then be supposed to use Scripture\nfaithfully, because that is the true sceptre of Christ\u2019s kingdom, for\nthen should Satan, as Christ argues, Mat. xii. 26, \u2018cast out Satan, and\nbe divided against himself.\u2019\n\nThis unfaithful dealing with Scripture is threefold.\n\n(1.) First, The unfaithfulness of his _design_. Though he speaks what\nis true, yet he doth it with an evil mind, aiming at one of these three\nthings:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _To deceive and delude_. If he applies promises, or insists\nupon the privileges of God\u2019s children, it is to make them proud or\npresumptuous. If he urge threatenings, or stir up the conscience to\naccuse for sin, it is to bring them to despair; if he object the law,\nit is to enrage lust; and that \u2018sin by the commandment might become\nexceeding sinful,\u2019 [Rom. vii. 13.]\n\n[2.] Secondly, His design is sometime _to bring the Scripture under\nsuspicion or contempt_. He puts some weak Christians upon unseasonable\nor imprudent use of Scripture, and then tempts others to laugh at\nthem, and to despise in their hearts those ways of religion which\nsome zealots with too much weakness do manage. Men are apt enough to\nscoff at the most serious and weighty duties of holiness, even when\nperformed in a most serious manner. If David put on sackcloth, and\nafflict himself with fasting, it is presently turned to his reproach,\n\u2018and the drunkards make a song of it,\u2019 [Ps. lxix. 12;] but much more\nadvantage hath the devil to raise up scorn and loathing in the minds of\ndebauched persons, by the affected and unskilful use of Scripture. Some\nby a narrow confinement of the words _brother_ and _sister_ to those\nof their own fellowship, as if none else were to be owned by them,\nhave occasioned the scoff of holy brethren\u2014a phrase notwithstanding\nused with a grave seriousness by the apostle\u2014in the usual discourses\nof those who wait all occasions to harden themselves against the\npower of religion. The like observations they make of other ways and\nforms of speaking, which some have accustomed themselves unto, in a\nconscientious conformity to Scripture phrase: in all which the devil\nobserving the weakness and injudiciousness of some on the one hand, and\nthe scornful pride of others on the other hand, is willing to provide\nmatter for their atheistical jeers, by putting all the obligations he\ncan upon the consciences of the weak, to continue in the use of these\nexpressions. For some proof of this matter we may note the secret\ndeceit of Satan, in that liberal profession of Christ to be \u2018the Son of\nGod,\u2019 [Mark i. 24; Luke iv. 34], \u2018I know thee who thou art; the Holy\nOne of God.\u2019 Here was truth spoken by him, and one would have thought\nwith great ingenuity;[437] but yet he cunningly insinuated into the\nminds of the hearers a ground of suspicion that he was not the Son of\nGod; and for that end calls him Jesus of Nazareth, as if Christ had\nbeen born there. He knew well that the Jews expected no Messiah from\nNazareth, and therefore on set purpose used he that expression, that\nhe might draw him into contempt. And accordingly we find this very\nmistake, that Christ was born at Nazareth, became an argument against\nhim: John vii. 41, while some were convinced, and said, \u2018This is the\nChrist,\u2019 others said, \u2018Shall Christ come out of Galilee?\u2019\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Another part of his design in the use of scriptures is\nto _put a varnish upon hypocrisy_. He is ready to serve men by putting\nScripture expressions in their mouths, and inuring them to a constant\nuse of the phrases of those divine writings, that they may less suspect\nthemselves of the pride, formality, and secret wickedness of their\nhearts; and to help on their mistakes concerning their spiritual\ncondition, he can urge upon their consciences those scriptures that\nserve to engage them in external observances of religion. It may appear\nby the Pharisee\u2019s boast of fasting \u2018twice a week,\u2019 of \u2018paying tithes,\u2019\nof \u2018giving alms,\u2019 Luke xviii. 11, that their consciences were someway\nconcerned in these things, so that though they were left without check\nof conscience \u2018to devour widows\u2019 houses,\u2019 yet were they urged to make\n\u2018long prayers.\u2019 Suitable to this is that which Solomon speaks of the\nharlot, who, to colour over her wickedness, had her offerings and\nvows; and when her conscience is appeased with these performances,\nshe can excuse herself in her way of sinning, \u2018She eats and wipes her\nmouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness,\u2019 Prov. xxx. 20. Satan\ndoth but hereby help to paint a sepulchre, or gild a potsherd, and to\nfurnish men with excuses and pretexts in their way of sinning. Not\nunlike to this was that service which the devil with great readiness\nperformed\u2014as I was informed from some of good credit\u2014to a young student\nwho had fallen upon some books of magic in a college library, into\nwhich having stolen privately one night in pursuit of that study,\nwas almost surprised by the president, who, seeing a candle there at\nan unseasonable time, suddenly opens the door to know who was up so\nlate, in which strait the devil\u2014to gratify his pupil with a ready\nexcuse\u2014snatcheth away his book, and in a moment lays Montanus his Bible\nbefore him, that he might pretend that for his employment.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Another point of Satan\u2019s unfaithful dealing with\nScripture is _his false citation of it_. It is nothing with him to\nalter, change, or leave out such a part as may make against him. If\nhe urge promises upon men, in order to their security and negligence,\nhe conceals the condition of them, and banisheth the threatening far\nfrom their minds, representing the mercy of God in a false glass,\nas if he had promised to save and bring to heaven every man upon\nthe common and easy terms of being called a Christian. If it be his\npurpose to disquiet the hearts of God\u2019s children, to promote their\nfears, or to lead them to despair, then he sets home the commands and\nthreatenings, but hides the promises that might relieve them, and,\nwhich is remarkable, he hath so puzzled some by setting on their hearts\na piece of Scripture, that when the next words, or next verse, might\nhave eased them of their fears, and answered the sad objections which\nthey raised against themselves from thence, as if their eyes had been\nholden, or as if a mist had been cast over them, they have not for a\nlong time been able to consider the relief which they might have had.\nThis hiding of Scripture from their eyes, setting aside what God may do\nfor the just chastisement of his children\u2019s folly, is effected by the\nstrong impression which Satan sets upon their hearts, and by holding\ntheir minds down to a fixed meditation of the dreadful inferences which\nhe presents to them from thence, not suffering them to divert their\nthoughts by his incessant clamours against them.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, He unfaithfully handleth scriptures, _by wresting the\ntrue import and sense of them_. We read of some, 2 Pet. iii. 16, who\n\u2018wrest the Scripture.\u2019 The word in the original\u2014\u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03b5\u03b2\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9\u2014signifies\na racking or torturing of it, as men upon a rack are stretched beyond\ntheir due length, to a dislocation of their joints, and sometimes\nforced to speak what they never did nor intended; so are the Scriptures\nused. Those that do so are Satan\u2019s scholars, and taught of him, though\nin regard of the Spirit\u2019s true teaching, they are called unlearned,\nwhich is sufficient to shew Satan\u2019s deceitful dealing. He often lays\nhis dead and corrupt sense\u2014as the harlot did with her dead child in the\nroom of the living infant\u2014in the place of the living meaning of the\nscripture. This may be seen evidently:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _In heresies or errors_. These are Satan\u2019s brood, and there\nare none so vile, that pretend to Christian religion, but they claim a\nkindred to Scripture, and are confident on its authority for them. Now\nseeing truth is but one, and these errors not only contradictory to\ntruth, but to each other, Satan could never spin out such conclusions\nfrom the divine oracles, but by wresting them from their true\nintendments; and he that would contemplate the great subtlety of Satan\nin this his art, need but consider what different strange and monstrous\nshapes are put upon the Scripture by the several heresies which march\nunder its colours. The Quakers in their way represent it like an old\nalmanack out of date, and withal, in the use they make of it, they\nrender it as a piece of nonsensical furious raving. The Socinians take\ndown the sublime mysteries of Christ\u2019s satisfaction and justification\nby faith, with external rewards and punishments, to a strain as low\nas the Turkish Alcoran. The papists make it like a few leaves of an\nimperfect book, wanting beginning and end, and so not fit to be set up\nas a sufficient rule. The Ranters make it seem rather like language\nfrom hell than the commands of the pure and holy God. Some will have it\nto countenance most ridiculous inventions in worship; others will have\nit to discharge all outward observations and ordinances, as childish\nrudiments. Some raise it all to the pitch of enigmatical unintelligible\nmysteries; others can find no more in the precepts of it than in\nAristotle\u2019s ethics. Thus by distorting and wresting, Satan hath learned\nthese unskilful ones to make it serve their vilest lusts and humours.\n\n[2.] Secondly, The same art of wresting Scripture is observable in his\n_secret suggestings_. If he would encourage any in sin, he can wrest\nScripture for that, and tell him that God is merciful, that Christ\ndied for sinners, that there is hope of pardon, that saints have done\nthe like: things very true in themselves, but perverted by him to\nanother sense than ever they were intended to by God, who hath spoken\nthese things that we sin not. If he would discourage a saint, he can\ntell him when he finds him doubting his estate, that the \u2018fearful and\nunbelieving have their part in the lake which burns with fire and\nbrimstone,\u2019 Rev. xxi. 8; when he finds him under a known sin, he tells\nthat of the apostle, \u2018If we sin wilfully after we have received the\nknowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,\u2019\n[Heb. x. 26.] When he observes them discomposed and wandering in duty,\nthen he objects, \u2018They draw nigh me with their lips, but their heart\nis far from me,\u2019 [Isa. xxix. 13.] If he sees them dull and without\nconsolation at the Lord\u2019s supper, then to be sure they hear of him,\n\u2018He that eats and drinks unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to\nhimself,\u2019 1 Cor. xi. 29. If he find him bemoaning that he is not so\napprehensive of mercies or judgments as he would be, then he sets home\nsome such scripture as this, \u2018This people\u2019s heart is waxed gross, and\ntheir ears are dull of hearing,\u2019 Mat. xiii. 15, &c. These scriptures\nare frequently perverted by Satan from the true and proper meaning of\nthem. I have had complaints from several dejected Christians of these\nvery scriptures urged upon them to their great trouble, when yet it was\nevident that none of these were truly applied, by Satan\u2019s temptation\nagainst them.\n\n_Applic._ These things give us warning not _to take anything of this\nnature upon trust_. If Satan can so imitate the Spirit of God in\napplications of Scripture, and bringing it to our remembrance, we\nhave great reason to beware lest we be imposed upon by Satan\u2019s design\nclothed in Scripture phrase; not that I would have men esteem the\nsecret setting of Scripture upon their minds, to be in all cases a\ndelusion, and to be disregarded as such. Some indeed there are that so\nseverely remark the weaknesses of professors of religion, that they\nraise up a scorn to that which is of most necessary and serious use.\nBecause the devil prevails with some hypocrites to gild themselves\nwith Scripture phrase, and others through imprudent inadvertency\nare, unknown to themselves, beguiled by Satan, to misapplications of\nScripture to their own estate, or to other things; they therefore decry\nall the inward workings of the heart, as fancy or affected singularity;\nthese do but the devil\u2019s work. But that the Spirit of God, whom Satan\ntreacherously endeavours to imitate, doth set home Scripture commands,\nthreatenings, and promises upon the hearts of his people, is not only\nattested by the experience of all that are inwardly acquainted with\nthe ways of God, but is one of the great promises which Christ hath\ngiven for the comfort of his people in his absence: John xiv. 26, \u2018But\nthe Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father shall send in\nmy name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your\nremembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.\u2019 This then being granted\nas a firm unshaken truth, our care must be in discovering and avoiding\nSatan\u2019s counterfeit using of Scripture, and in this we should be more\nwary;\n\n[1.] First, _Because we are not so apt to suspect what we meet with in\nsuch a way, when it is brought to us in the language of Scripture_.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _And those that are not exercised in the Scripture, will\nbe at a sad loss, as not knowing how to extricate themselves from such\ndifficulties as may arise to them from Satan\u2019s sophistry_.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Wariness is also more necessary, _because we are\ninclinable to believe what suits our desires, and conscience awakened\nis averse to the rejecting of that which answers its fears_.\n\n_Quest._ You may say, What is there of direction for us in this case?\n\n_Ans._ The answer is ready. Two things are given us in charge. (1.)\nThat we be wisely suspicious. A facile hasty credulity is treacherous.\nChrist forbids, when he foretells the rising of false Christs, Mat.\nxxiv. 26, the forwardness of a sudden belief, taxing thereby those\nthat are presently taken with every new appearance. It is childish to\nbe carried with every wind. We are warned also of this: 1 John iv.\n1, \u2018Believe not every spirit.\u2019 (2.) We are commanded to bring all\npretences whatsoever to trial. Though immediate revelation or vision be\npretended, or extraordinary commission, yet must all be brought to the\ntouchstone. \u2018We must prove all things,\u2019 1 Thes. v. 21, \u2018and try those\nthat say they are apostles,\u2019 Rev. ii. 2; nay, \u2018the spirits are to be\ntried whether they be of God,\u2019 1 John iv. 1.\n\n_Quest._ You will say, How must we try?\n\n_Ans._ I answer, God hath given a public, sufficient, and certain rule,\nwhich is _the Scripture, and all must be tried by that_; so that if\nthere be impulses or discoveries or remembrances of Scripture upon any,\nit must not be taken for granted that they are of God, because they\npretend so high, for so we shall make Satan judge in his own cause; but\nlay all to the line and plummet of the written word, and if it answer\nnot that, call it confidently a delusion, and reject it as accursed,\nthough it might seem in other regards to have been suggested by an\nangel from heaven.\n\n_Obj._ But it will be said, Satan pretends to this rule, and it is\nScripture that is urged by him.\n\n_Ans._ I answer, Though it be so, yet he useth not Scripture in its own\nintendment and sense. For the discovery of his unfaithful dealing;\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _Compare the inference of the suggestion with other\nscriptures_. If it be from a dark scripture, compare it with those that\nare more plain, and in every case see whether the general current of\nthe Scriptures speak the same thing; for if it be from Satan, he either\nplays with the words and phrases, from doubtful and equivalent terms\nmaking his conclusion, or his citation will be found impertinent, or,\nwhich is most usual, contrary to truth or holiness. If any of these\nappear by a true examination of the import of the scripture which he\nseeks to abuse, or by comparing it with the scope and genius of other\nscriptures, you may certainly pronounce that it is not of God, but\nSatan\u2019s deceit.[438]\n\n[2.] Secondly, _Consider the tendency of such suggestions_. Let no\nman say that this will come too late, or that it is an after-game. I\ndo not mean that we should stay so long as to see the effects, though\nthis is also a certain discovery of Satan\u2019s knavery in his highest\npretences. The fanatic furies of the German enthusiasts do now appear\nplain to all the world to have been delusions, by their end, fruits,\nand issue. But that while these conclusions are obtruded upon us, we\nshould observe to what they tend, which we shall the better know if all\ncircumstances round about be considered. Sometimes Satan doth covertly\nhint his mind, and send it along with the suggestions; sometimes our\ncondition will enough declare it, and there is no case but it will\nafford something of discovery if seriously pondered. If he either\nprompt us to pride, vainglory, or presumption, or that our condition\nsway us that way, it will be sufficient ground of suspicion that it is\nSatan that then urgeth promises or privileges upon us. If we are of a\nwounded spirit, inclined to distrust, or if we be put on to despair,\nit is past denial that it is Satan that urgeth the threatenings, and\npresseth the accusations of the law against us. He that gathers stones,\ntimber, lime, and such materials together, as are usually employed in\nbuilding, doth discover his intention before he actually build his\nhouse, and thus may Satan\u2019s end be known by his preparations, compared\nwith the sway and inclination of our present temper.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _It must be remembered that with these endeavours, we\noften seek the face of the Lord for help and counsel_; and that we\napply ourselves to such of the servants of God, as being more knowing\nthan ourselves, and less prepossessed in their judgments, because not\nconcerned, are better able to see into the nature of our straits, and\nto help us by their advices.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n _Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,\n and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of\n them._\u2014MAT. iv. 8.\n\n _The manner of Satan\u2019s shewing the kingdoms of the world.\u2014Of Satan\u2019s\n preparations before the motion of sin.\u2014Of his confronting the Almighty\n by presumptuous imitation, and in what cases he doth so.\u2014Of his\n beautifying the object of a temptation, and how he doth it.\u2014His way of\n engaging the affections by the senses.\u2014Of his seeming shyness._\n\n\nThis is the preparation to the third temptation; in which we have, (1.)\nThe place where it was acted; (2.) The object set before him there.\n\n1. First, The place was an \u2018exceeding high mountain.\u2019 What mountain\nit was, Nebo, Pisgah, or any other, it is needless to inquire. It\nis of more use to ask after the reasons of Satan\u2019s choice of such a\nplace. The text doth clearly imply one; that was the commodiousness of\nprospect. Satan intending to give him a view of the kingdoms of the\nworld, chooseth a mountain as fittest for that end. But that this was\nnot all the reason, is not only intimated by some,[439] but positively\naffirmed by others,[440] who think that Satan in this imitated the like\nin God to Moses, who was called up to Mount Nebo to view the land which\nGod promised to Israel. Whether these circumstances of the mountain,\nand the view of the kingdoms of the world, were of purpose contrived to\naffront God by such an imitation, I will not be positive in it; but we\nmay with greater evidence affirm that in offering the kingdoms of the\nworld as things altogether in his disposal, he doth directly outbrave\nGod by an insolent comparison of his power with that of the Almighty\u2019s,\nwhose is \u2018the earth and the fulness of it,\u2019 [Ps. xxiv. 1,] and to whom\nthe sovereignty of the disposal of it doth belong.\n\n2. Secondly, That which Satan sheweth Christ from the mountain is\nsaid to be \u2018the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.\u2019 Here\nsome busy themselves to conjecture what kingdoms were thus pointed\nat. Some keep so strictly to the word \u2018all,\u2019 that they are forced to\ntake up with that opinion, that all these temptations were only in\nvision,[441] for they consider that no one mountain in the world can\ngive a prospect over one whole hemisphere, or if it could, yet no eye\nwould be able to discern at so great a distance. But the inconveniences\nof this surmise have been pointed at before, and it is enough to\nshew that the text may admit of an interpretation which shall not be\nencumbered with this supposed impossibility.\n\nOthers restrain this to the land of Canaan, as if Satan only shewed\nthis as a famous instance of the glory of all kingdoms. Some think\nthe Roman empire, which was then most flourishing, and lifted up its\nhead above other kingdoms, was the great bait laid before Christ, as\nif he had a design to divert Christ from the business of his office,\nby offering him the seat and power of Antichrist.[442] But the text\nruns not so favourably for any of these opinions as to constrain us\nto stay upon them. \u2018Kingdoms of the world\u2019 seem to intend more than\nCanaan or the Roman empire; the word \u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 used here, and \u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7 in\nLuke, which we translate \u2018the world,\u2019 do so apply to one another in a\nmutual accommodation, that we cannot stretch the \u2018world\u2019 to the largest\nsense of the whole globe of the earth, because it is expressed in Luke\nby \u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7, which signifies such a part of the world which is more\ncultivated and honoured by inhabitants; nor can we so restrain it to\nthe Roman empire-though when they spake their apprehensions of their\nown empire, they seem to engross all, Luke ii. 1\u2014because Matthew useth\nthe word \u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, a word of greater freedom. It seems then that many\nkingdoms, or the most considerable kingdoms of the then known world,\nwere here exposed to his sight. But then the difficulty still remains,\nhow the devil could shew them to his eye. That it was not a visionary\ndiscovery to his mind, hath been said. Some think he shewed these\npartly by ocular prospect of those cities, castles, towns, vineyards,\nand fields that were near, as a compend of the whole, and partly by a\ndiscourse of the glory, power, and extent of other kingdoms that were\nout of the reach of the eye; but because the expression which Luke\nadds, \u2018in a moment of time\u2019\u2014\u1f10\u03bd \u03c3\u03c4\u03c5\u03b3\u03bc\u1fc7 \u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u2014intimates, that the way\nwhich Satan took was different from common prospecting or beholding,\nothers are not satisfied with that solution of the difficulty, but\nfly to this supposition, that Satan used only juggling and delusion,\nby framing an airy horizon before the eyes of Christ, shewing not the\nkingdoms themselves, but a phantasm of his own making. But seeing this\nmight have been done in any place, and that a high mountain was chosen\nfor furthering the prospect, I think it is safest to conclude that\nthe prospect was ocular, and not fantastical but real, only helped\nand assisted by Satan\u2019s skill and art, as a great naturalist and as\na prince of the power of the air, by which means, in reflections or\nextraordinary prospectives, he might discover things at vast distances;\nwhich we may the rather fix upon, because we know what helps for\nprospect art hath discovered by glasses and telescopes, by which the\nbodies of the sun, moon, and planets, at such unspeakable distance\nfrom us, have in this latter age been discovered to us beyond ordinary\nbelief.[443] And we have reason to think that Satan\u2019s skill this way\nfar exceeds anything that we have come to the knowledge of, and so\nmight make real discoveries of countries far remote, more than we can\nwell imagine.\n\nThese things thus explained, I shall note several observations.\n\n_Obs._ 1. First, If we consider this great preparation that Satan makes\nas introductory to the temptation to follow, we may observe, _that\nwhere Satan hath a special design, he projects and makes ready all\nthings relating to the temptation before he plainly utter his mind_. He\nprovides his materials before he builds, and lays his train before he\ngives fire. What is his method we may learn from the practice of those\nthat are trained up in his service. They, in Rom. xiii. 14, are said to\n\u2018make provision for the flesh\u2019\u2014\u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1\u2014to fore-contrive their sins, and\nto project all circumstances of time, place, occasion, and advantage\nfor their accomplishment. This is not to be understood of all sins, for\nin some that are inward in the mind, as vain thoughts, pride of heart,\n&c., there needs not such provisions. We may say of them their times\nare always, and in many cases \u2018the house is swept and garnished\u2019 [Mat.\nxii. 44] to his hand; he finds all things ready by the forwardness\nof those who are free in his service, and the sudden accidental\nconcurrence of things. But where the temptation is solemn, and where\nthe thing designed, in the perfecting of it, relates to exterior acts,\nthere he useth this policy, to have all in readiness, though it cost\nhim the labour of \u2018compassing sea and land\u2019 for it, before he expressly\nspeak his purposes. His reasons are these:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, If things necessary for the encouragement and\naccomplishment of a temptation _lay out of the way, and were not at\nhand, his suggestions would perish as soon as they were born, and would\nbe rejected as impossible or inconvenient_. To tempt a man to steal\nwhen he knows not where nor how, or to revenge when he hath no enemy\nnor provocation, seem to be no other than if they should be commanded\nto remove a mountain or to fly in the air, which would quickly be\ndeclined as motions affording no ground of entertainment. And therefore\nthat his temptations may not bring a reason of refusal with them as\nbeing unseasonable, he takes care to fit his servants with all things\nrequisite for the work he puts them upon.\n\n(2.) Secondly, As temptations of this kind would be no temptations,\nbecause not feasible, _without their preparations, so must we not\nthink that it is the bare suggestion of Satan that makes a temptation\nto pierce_. The reason of its prevalency is not barely because\nSatan breaks such a motion to us, but because such a motion comes\naccomplished with all suitable preparations. When it prevails, it is\nthe sinful motion that wounds; but preparations are as the feathers\nthat wing his arrows, without which they would neither fly nor pierce.\n\n_Applic._ Let this, (1.) First, _Renew our caution and suspicion in\neverything and every place that Satan is at work against us, though we\nsee no visible snare_.\n\nLet it put us upon such a watchful carefulness in every of our ways,\nthat we may resolve to undertake nothing for which we have not a good\nand warrantable reason at hand, that if our conscience say to us, What\ndost thou here? we may be able to give a good account.\n\n(2.) Secondly, If we mind the behaviour of Satan in these preparations\nand offers, _we see him act after the pattern of highest sovereignty,\ndisposing of earthly kingdoms at such a rate as if all power were in\nhis hand_. Hence we may observe,\n\n_Obs._ 2. _That when Satan tempts to sin of highest contempt and\ninsolency against God, he then thinks it concerns him to bear himself\nout by confronting the Almighty in imitating his authority and power._\n\nThis carriage of Satan is not to be found in all his temptations.\nFor in most cases he acts with greatest secrecy; and as a thief that\nis afraid of discovery, he useth all ways possible for concealment;\nbut when he sets up himself as \u2018the god of the world,\u2019 and stands\nin competition with the Lord, claiming an interest in the fear and\ndevotion of men, then he boldly avoucheth himself, and labours to\noutvie God in point of greatness, that he might possess them with a\nbelief that he only ought to be feared. This arrogancy of Satan against\nGod may be seen in three things:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _In imitating divine ordinances and institutions_. There\nis not any part of divine worship, the observation whereof God hath\nenjoined to men, but Satan hath set up something like it for himself.\nAs God appointed his temple, priests, altars, sacrifices, offerings,\ntithes, sanctuaries, sacraments, &c., so hath Satan had his temples,\npriests, altars, sacrifices, offerings, sanctuaries, sacraments, &c.\nThis is sufficiently known to any that read his histories; and I could\ngive a full account of it from heathen authors, but that I have done\nalready when I spoke of Satan\u2019s subtlety in promoting idolatry in the\nworld. I shall only add here that which Varro relates[444] of the books\nof Numa Pompilius, which were casually cast up by the plough of one\nTerentius coming too near the sepulchre of Numa, where these books\nhad been buried. This Numa was the second king of the Romans, who\ninstituted the rites and ceremonies of pagan worship for his subjects,\nand in these books, which he thought fit to conceal by burying them\nwith him, he had laid open the bottom of these devilish mysteries, so\nthat when they were brought to the senate, they, judging them unfit\nto be known, adjudged them to the fire; which is a clear ground of\nsuspicion that he had there discovered so much of the causes of these\nrites, or of the way whereby he came to be instructed in them, that\nthe public knowledge thereof consisted not with the interest of their\nheathenish religion. This conjecture Austin hath of the matter,[445]\nwho also notes that Numa pretended familiar converse with the nymph\n\u00c6geria as a plausible cover to that devilish art of _Hydromantia_, by\nwhich he was instructed in ordering the ceremonies of idolatry which he\nestablished.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Satan, with no less arrogancy, takes upon him to imitate\nGod _in his acts of power for the countenancing of his worship in\nthe world_. He had his miracles frequently, of which I have spoken\nelsewhere; so had he his oracles, as at Delphos and other places. Here\nit shall suffice to note that, as the sending the Lord Jesus into the\nworld, furnished with such power of doing miracles for the confirmation\nof that office and authority which he had received from God for the\nredemption of man, was the highest instance that can be given of the\nmighty power, wisdom, and goodness of God; so Satan set himself with\ngreatest industry to imitate that. Christ was almost no sooner ascended\nto the Father, but we hear of Simon Magus, Acts viii. 9, who was cried\nup as an instance of \u2018the great power of God;\u2019 and after that at Rome\nhe gave out that he was God, confirming the people in such a belief,\nby the strange things which he there did among them, that a statue\nwas erected for his honour, with this inscription, \u2018To Simon, a great\ngod.\u2019[446] Long after this the devil raised up Apollonius Tyan\u00e6us, a\nman of an abstemious and commendable life. Him the devil did design\nto match Christ in his miracles, which were so many and so strange,\nthat Philostratus doth not only compare him to Christ, but prefer him\nas the more honourable person. Christ himself foretold this stratagem\nof Satan, that he should raise up \u2018false Christs\u2019 with \u2018lying signs\nand wonders.\u2019 And to omit instances of former days, it is not beyond\nthe memory of most of you, that the devil renewed this policy in\nJames Nayler, who, in a blasphemous imitation of Christ\u2019s riding to\nJerusalem, rode to Bristol with a great company before him, crying,\n\u2018Holy, holy,\u2019 and \u2018Hosanna to the son of David,\u2019 and strewing the way\nwith branches of trees. The authority that was then, taking notice\nof this and other blasphemous outrages, sentenced him to exemplary\npunishment; but here also the devil renewed his mockery, for a certain\ncitizen of London of good note, being overcome with delusion, printed a\nbook of Nayler\u2019s sufferings, wherein the devil had opportunity to vent\nhis malice more fully, for he compared all the parts of his punishment\nto the sufferings of Christ; his whipping, he said, was that it might\nbe fulfilled which was spoken by Matthew, \u2018And Pilate delivered him\nto be scourged;\u2019 his stigmatizing, he said, was that it might be\nfulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, \u2018His visage was marred more\nthan any man\u2019s;\u2019 the boring of his tongue with a hot iron, he said,\nwas the fulfilling of that, and they \u2018crucified him;\u2019 and after other\nparticulars of comparison, in all which he equalled him to Christ, he\nat last takes notice that the multitude of spectators held off their\nhats while his tongue was bored through, a thing common in a crowd to\ngive opportunity of sight to those that are behind, and to this act he\napplies that of the evangelists, \u2018The vail of the temple was rent from\nthe top to the bottom.\u2019\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _In acts of empire and sovereignty he imitates God_,\nthat is, as God propounds himself as the only Lord God, and enjoins\nhimself to be worshipped accordingly by promises of advantage in\ncase of obedience, and threatenings of miseries and plagues in case\nof disobedience; so doth Satan set up himself in the world as god to\nbe adored and worshipped, and him do all idolaters worship, as God\ntestifies: Deut. xxxii. 17, \u2018They sacrificed unto devils, not to God:\u2019\nPs. cvi. 37, \u2018They sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils:\u2019 1\nCor. x. 20, \u2018The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice\nto devils, and not to God.\u2019 And though it be true that many of these\nblind worshippers did not formally worship the devil, but thought they\nhad worshipped God, yet by such cunning did he engage them to take\nup with ways of worship of his prescribing, that it was in reality a\nservice done to him. But, besides this, in those places of the world\nwhere he hath greater power, he formally propounds himself to be\nworshipped, and doth accordingly often appear to them in a visible\nshape; so that many of these blind heathens acknowledge two gods,\none good and another cruel and hurtful, which latter they say they\nmust worship, lest he destroy or harm them. By this Satan contests\nwith God for an empire in the world; and to promote it the more he\nsometimes deals by fair promises of riches, advancement, pleasure, and\nsuch other baits, to allure men to his professed service. Thus are\nwitches drawn to a compact with him. Thus Sylvester the Second gave up\nhimself to the devil for the popedom, and so did several others. When\nthis is not enough to prevail, he adds menacings, and breathes forth\ncruel threatenings, by which means many heathens are kept in awe by\nhim and worship him, _ne noceat_, for no other reason but to preserve\nthemselves from hurt by him. In this temptation he propounds himself to\nChrist as the object of divine worship, and boasts of the kingdoms of\nthe world as things of his disposal; by which he seeks to draw him to\nfall down before him.\n\nThis course Satan takes for these reasons:\u2014\n\nFirst, _As this proud and malicious ostentation of his power is some\nkind of satisfaction to his revengeful humour against God_; so,\nSecondly, _He doth hereby raise up himself and his wicked institutions\nof idolatry into credit and esteem with men_. Thirdly, _As this is\na mockery to true religion, and a scorn cast upon the ways of God\u2019s\nservice, to bring it into disgrace and discredit_; so, Fourthly, _By\nthis means he hardens the hearts of men against God_. This was the\nconsideration by which Pharaoh hardened his heart. When Moses turned\nhis rod into a serpent, changed waters to blood, and did so many signs\nbefore him, his magicians did the like; upon which the king might\nthus reason with himself, that Moses had no other power but what his\nmagicians had, though he might think him a more skilful magician; and\ntherefore there was no reason to believe his message as being from God,\nseeing his miracles might be no other than the effect of his art to\ncountenance a pretended command from heaven.\n\n_Applic._ This insolency of Satan may inform us, First, _Of the great\npatience of God_, that sees these outrageous mockings, and yet doth not\nby a strong hand put a stop to them. Secondly, _Of the great power and\npride of Satan_, that he both can\u2014though not without permission from\nGod\u2014and dare attempt things of this nature. Thirdly, _The great power\nof delusion_, that can so blind men, that they not only are drawn to\nact a part in such designs, but believe confidently a divine impulse\nand heavenly warrant for their so doing. Fourthly, _The miserable\nslavery of such vassals of Satan_ that are thus led by him, who are\ntherefore sadly to be pitied and lamented, as being under such strong\nchains of captivity.\n\n_Obs._ 3. Thirdly, _We cannot pass by the art which the devil here\nuseth to set off the temptation, and to make it plausible_. He sets\nbefore him the world in all its glory. Here observe, _That Satan, in\nhis temptations to worldly pleasures, doth usually paint the object\nwith all its utmost beauty_.\n\nWhen I have sometime observed a mountebank upon a stage, giving\nexcessive commendations of a trivial medicine, asserting it good\nalmost for every disease, and with a great many lies and boastings\nenforcing it upon the credulous multitude, it hath put me in mind of\nthis spiritual mountebankery of the devil. How doth he gull and delude\nthe foolish by laying out the pleasures of sin! and no otherwise doth\nhe keep them at a gazing admiration of worldly pomp, delights, and\nsatisfaction, which he promiseth them from iniquity, than the serpent\nScytale doth with passengers, whom she stays, by amazing them with her\nbeautiful colours, till she have stung them.[447] The art of Satan in\nthis matter lies in four things:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _If there be anything that can be called a delight, or may\nany way conduce to a satisfaction in any sin, he will be sure to speak\nof it in its highest praises_. He not only stretcheth his rhetoric to\nthe height in giving commendations to the most noted pleasures that men\npropound to themselves, but he seeks out the hidden things of delight,\nand raiseth in men an itch of desire after the improvement of delight,\nby the contrivances of wit or art. Thus he tells them of jollity,\nravishing mirth, high satisfaction, and, if they will believe him, of\nunspeakable delight to be had by giving themselves up to the world and\nthe course of it. Nay, he hides nothing that will bear any praise; the\nleast advantage, the smallest gratification that any sin can afford to\nhuman desire, he will be sure to speak of it.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _He carries on this design by lying_. He promiseth\nmore than ever sin can give, and he sends his proselytes out after\nsin under the highest expectations, and when they come to enjoy it,\nthey often find the pleasure falls short of his boast. He whispers\nhonours, preferments, and riches, in the ear of their hearts, and often\npays them with poverty and disgraces, and gives them _pro thesauro\ncarbones_, stones for bread, a serpent for a fish. Witches give\nfrequent accounts of Satan\u2019s lying promises; he tells them of feasts,\nof gold, of riches, but they find themselves deluded; he sends them oft\nhungry away from those banquets, so that they have no more than when a\nman dreams he eats. He gives that which seems gold in appearance, but\nat last they find it to be slates or shells. We find in this temptation\nhe is liberal and large in his offers to Christ, and what he requires\nhe will have in present payment, but the reward for the service is\nfuture. It is his business to engage men in sin by his promise of\nadvantage, but being once engaged, he takes not himself concerned in\nhonour or ingenuity for performance. Hence doth the Scripture fitly\ncall the pleasures of sin \u2018lying vanities,\u2019 a \u2018vain show,\u2019 a \u2018dream;\u2019\nthereby warning men from a forward belief of Satan\u2019s promises, in\nthat they find by experience they shall be at last but lies and\ndisappointments.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, To make his bait more taking, _he conceals all the\ninconveniences that may attend these worldly delights_. He offers\nhere the kingdoms of the world to Christ, as if all were made up of\npleasure. Those cares, troubles, and vexations that attend greatness\nand rule, he mentions not; their burden, hazard, and disquiet, he\npasseth over. Thus in common temptations he is careful to hide from men\nthe miseries that follow these empty pleasures. So that often men do\nnot consider the mischief, till \u2018a dart strike through their liver,\u2019\nProv. vii. 23, and till a dear-bought experience doth inform them of\ntheir mistakes.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _His power and work upon the fancies of men, is none of\nthe least of his ways whereby he advanceth the pleasures of sin_. That\nhe hath such a power, hath been discoursed before, and that a fancy\nraised to a great expectation makes things appear otherwise than what\nthey are, is evident from common experience. The value of most things\ndepends rather upon fancy than the internal worth of them, and men are\nmore engaged to a pursuit of things by the estimation which fancy hath\nbegat in their minds, than by certain principles of knowledge. Children\nby fancy have a value of their toys, and are so powerfully swayed by\nit, that things of far greater price cannot stay their designs, nor\ndivert their course. Satan knows that the best of men are sometimes\nchildish, apt to be led about by their conceits, and apt in their\nconceits to apprehend things far otherwise than what they are in truth.\nHence is it, as one observes,[448] that of thousands of men that return\nfrom Jerusalem, or from Mount Sion, or from the river Jordan, scarce\ncan we find one which brings back the admiration which he had conceived\nbefore he had seen them. Fancy doth pre-occupate the mind with a high\nopinion of things; and these exorbitant imaginations pass to such an\nexcess, that men think to find a satisfaction beyond the nature of\nthese pleasures they aim at, which hath these two inconveniences: the\none, that this affects and draws as powerfully as if they were all as\nreal and high as they are conceited to be; the other, that sight and\nfruition takes away the estimation, and by a disappointment doth deaden\nand dull the affections to what may be really found there. Thus Satan\nby one deceit makes men believe that sin hath pleasure, which indeed it\nhath not, and by that belief leads them on powerfully to endeavour an\nembracement of them, and at last urgeth them with a delusion.\n\n_Applic._ In opposition to this deceit of the devil, we must learn to\nesteem worldly delights as low as he would value them high. And to\nthis purpose the Scripture speaks of them in undervaluing language,\ncalling worldly pomp an opinion, a fantasy, a fashion or figure, an\nimagination rather than a reality; and further enjoins us not to admire\nthese things in others, not to envy them that enjoyment of them, nor to\nfret at our want of them, much less to be transported with any angry\npassion about them, nor to concern ourselves in any earnest pursuit of\nthem.[449]\n\n_Obs._ 4. Fourthly, _Satan in this temptation did not bravely speak of\nthese things, nor only make an offer in discourse, but he thought it\nmost conducible to his design to present them to his sight_. He knew\nfull well that the heart is more affected by sensible discoveries than\nby rational discourses.\n\nNote here, _That Satan in temptations of worldly pleasure, endeavours\nto engage the affections by the senses_.\n\nThat it is Satan\u2019s great business to work upon the affections, I have\nshewed at large. Here he endeavoured to prepare the affections of\nChrist, that so the motion, when it came, might not die, as a spark\nfalling upon wet tinder, but that the affections being stirred up might\ncherish the offer, and that the offer by a mutual warmth might more\ninflame the affections that were heated before.\n\nTo this end he works by the senses, and would have Christ\u2019s eye to\nraise his affections of love, desire, hope, and whatever else might\nwing his soul to activity. There is a great connexion betwixt the\nsenses and the affections. The senses bring intelligence unavoidably,\nand are apt to stir up our powers to action. As the jackal is said to\nhunt the prey for the lion, so do the senses for the affections, and\nboth for Satan.\n\nIt is also remarkable that Satan, endeavouring to make the eyes of\nChrist traitors to his affections, and that he thinking it necessary to\ngive him a view of what he proffered him, should not give him time to\ntake a full survey of these kingdoms, but should huddle it up in such a\nhaste, that all, as Luke tells us, was done in \u2018a moment of time.\u2019 Was\nSatan in haste? or was he unwilling to part with what he so liberally\nproffered? Surely no, but this transient view was his subtlety, to\nentice him the more, and to inflame his heart with greater desires.\n\n_Obs._ 5. Observe then, _That where Satan is most liberal in his\nproffers, he there manageth his overtures of advantage with a seeming\nshyness_. And this he doth, _First_, To heighten the worth of them in\nour estimation, as if they were jewels not to be gazed at, or curious\npieces not fit to be exposed to common view. _Secondly_, By this art he\nmakes men more eager in the pursuit. Our natural curiosity presseth us\nwith great earnestness after things of difficult access, and we have\nalso strange desires kindled in us from a prohibition, so that what\nwe list not to choose if we have a liberty of enjoyment, when we are\nforbidden, we are troubled with impatient longings for it, and cannot\nbe at quiet till we do enjoy it: _nitimur in vetitum_.\n\nWhen Satan makes nice with men, offering the pleasures of the world,\nand yet hedging up the way with difficulties, they should make no other\nconstruction of it, but that Satan doth, so far as he is concerned,\nmore strongly entice them. He plays at peep with them, that he may make\nthem more earnest to follow him, and to bid high for the possession of\nthese delights.\n\n  Malo me Galatea petit, ...\n  Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n _Satan\u2019s ends in tempting Christ to fall down and worship him.\u2014Of\n blasphemous injections.\u2014What blasphemy is.\u2014The ways of Satan in that\n temptation, with the advantages he takes therein, and the reason of\n urging blasphemies upon men.\u2014Consolations to such as are concerned in\n such temptations.\u2014Advice to such as are so afflicted._\n\n\nThese observations, which the preparation to the temptation hath\nafforded us, being despatched, the temptation itself follows, which is\nthis, \u2018fall down and worship me.\u2019\n\nThis motion, from such a one as Satan, to such a one as Christ, who was\nholy and undefiled, God and man, seems to be an incredible piece of\narrogancy, pride, and malice; for to propound himself as the object of\ndivine worship, was certainly a desperate assault. It includes, [1.]\nthe highest blasphemy; [2.] the grossest idolatry imaginable. Both\nthese are frequently noted as the design of this temptation.[450] But\n[3.] the comprehension of this motion takes in the whole withdrawing\nof the mind from God and religion, or the care of the soul and eternal\nlife; in which sense Satan doth frequently practise this temptation\nupon men by the motive of worldly pleasures. I shall consider the\ntemptation first, as blasphemous, and so it will give us this\nobservation:\u2014\n\n_Obs._ 6. _That the best of God\u2019s children may be troubled with most\nvile and hideous blasphemous injections._\n\nBlasphemy, in the largest sense, is anything spoken or done, by which\nthe honour and fame of God may be wounded or prejudiced; but the\nformality of blasphemy lies in the purpose or intendment of reproaching\nGod. Such was the blasphemy of the Israelitish woman\u2019s son, recorded in\nLev. xxiv. 11, where blaspheming is explained by the addition of the\nword cursing, which in the original\u2014\u05e7\u05dc\u05dc\u2014comes from a word\nthat signifies to \u2018set light by one.\u2019[451] So that hence, and from\nthe circumstances of the story, we may safely conjecture that this\nman having an Egyptian to his father, which probably might in scorn\nbe objected to him by his contending adversary, he more readily might\nbe drawn out to vilify the true God; but, be it what it will, it was\ncertainly more than that blasphemy which the Rabbins fancy to be in the\nrepetition of naming the word Jehovah, which in reverence they either\nleave out, as when they say, \u2018the arm of the Almighty,\u2019 or change\nit into some other, as Adonai, or the like; and accordingly we may\nobserve, that reproaching God and blaspheming God are joined together,\nas Ps. xliv. 16; Isa. xxxvii. 23.\n\nIn blasphemy, as the matter, there must be thoughts, words, or actions\nthat may aptly express a contempt or reproach of God; so also, as to\nthe form of it, there must be an intendment of reproaching. Now though\nthis be a sin which the heart of a servant of God would most abhor,\nyet Satan doth sometimes trouble the best with it. We have an instance\nin Job. His design was to bring him to curse God, for so he professeth\nin express terms; chap. i. 11, ii. 5, \u2018Lay thine hand upon him, and\nhe will curse thee to thy face.\u2019 And in prosecution of this his\nboast, he breaks the matter plainly to him by his wife, chap. ii. 9,\n\u2018Curse God and die.\u2019 Whatever may be spoken of the word as signifying\nblessing, though some affirm the word \u05d1\u05e8\u05da, in the proper\nidiom of that language, and not by an antiphrasis or euphemismus, as\nsome think,[452] signifies as properly to \u2018curse\u2019 as to \u2018bless,\u2019 and\nis determinable to its signification either way by the circumstances\nof the place, or whatever men endeavour to excuse his wife, it is\nplain, not only by Job\u2019s answer, that it was evil counsel, but also by\nSatan\u2019s avowed design, that it was directly for cursing God. Besides\nthis instance, if we consider the expression of \u2018fiery darts,\u2019 Eph. vi.\n16, we shall find that this temptation is more common to all sorts of\nChristians than we would imagine. It is plain that these words allude\nto the poisoned arrows which Scythians and others used. These not only\nwounded but poisoned, and the venom inflamed with a fiery heat the part\nor member pierced. By this similitude, it must be granted that not\ncommon temptations are hereby understood, but such as were more than\nordinarily hurtful, vexing, and dangerous. It may be persecutions are\none of these darts, but all reckon temptations of spiritual terrors,\nand blasphemy, to be undoubtedly pointed at.[453]\n\nThe ways of Satan in this temptation are three:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, He endeavours to bring men to blaspheme, _by secret and\nsubtle ways of ensnaring them_; and this is most-what practised in\nconsequential and covert blasphemies, when, though men do not directly\nintend an open outrage against God, yet Satan brings them to that\nwhich might be so interpreted. This seems to have been the case of\nJob\u2019s sons, according to his jealousy of them; \u2018It may be my sons\nhave sinned, and cursed God in their heart,\u2019 Job i. 5; not that they\nwere open blasphemers, for they were surely better educated, neither\ndoth Job express such a fear of them; but that in their mirth their\nhearts might have been so loosened from the fear of God, that they\nmight be tempted to undue thoughts of God, slighting his threatenings\nor goodness. To this purpose Broughton translates, \u2018They have little\nblessed God in their hearts.\u2019[454] The same thing we may observe in\nJob himself. When the devil could not prevail with him to \u2018charge God\nfoolishly,\u2019 chap. i. 22, yet he pressed him so hard by his miseries,\nthat he hoped at last to bring him to utter the anguish of his mind\nin impatient and reflecting expressions, and so far prevailed, that\nhe bitterly \u2018Curseth the day wherein he was born,\u2019 chap. ii. 3, and\nwisheth that he had \u2018given up the ghost when he came out of the belly;\u2019\nwhich though it came far short of what Satan had boasted of in his\nachievement against him, yet it had such an unwarrantable tendency\nthat way, that when his friend Eliphaz took notice of his expressions,\nas savouring of too much distrust, he is forced to make apology for\nhimself, and to excuse it by the desperateness of his condition;\nchap. vi. 26, \u2018Do you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of\none that is desperate?\u2019 In such cases, the devil provokes men beyond\ntheir intentions, to speak in their haste so inconsiderately, that they\nknow not or mind not, the just consequence of their speeches. It was\na degree of blasphemy in David to say, though in his haste, that \u2018all\nmen were liars;\u2019 it was an unbelieving reflection on the promise given\nhim by Samuel. In Mal. iii. 13, the people did not believe that they\nhad \u2018spoken so much against God,\u2019 when yet their words had been \u2018stout\nagainst him.\u2019\n\n(2.) Secondly, Satan endeavours this _by violent injections of\nblasphemous thoughts that are directly such_. In this I shall note to\nyou,\n\n[1.] First, _That the vilest thoughts of God, of his ways and\nprovidences, of Scripture, and of Christ, are frequently suggested_.\nThings of greatest outrage against heaven, and contempt of the\nAlmighty, as Bernard expresseth it, _Terribilia de fide, horribilia\nde divinitate_; as, there is no God, or that he is not just, or not\nfaithful to his promises; or that Christ was but an impostor. He sticks\nat nothing in this kind, though never so contrary to the hope and\npersuasion of those whom he thus molests.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _These are frequently reiterated upon them_, and their\nminds so troubled by them, that they cannot free themselves from such\nthoughts, but he follows on and clamours in their ears, as Gerson[455]\nobserves, _Nega Deum, maledic Deo_\u2014Deny God, curse God.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, And this with so great _a force and impetuosity, that\nthey are compelled to form these thoughts in their minds, and to speak\ncontrary to what they would_, as if their thoughts and tongues were not\nunder their own government, the devil not satisfying himself to bear in\nthese thoughts upon them, but he endeavours, as it were, to make them\nsay after him, and to cast his suggestions into their own mould, that\nso they might seem properly to be their own; and this they are forced\nto whether they will or no, even then when their minds are filled with\nhorror, their heart with grief, and their body with trembling. I have\ndiscoursed with some who have bitterly complained that their tongues\nand their thoughts seemed not to be their own, but that Satan ruled\nthem at his pleasure; and that when in opposition to the temptation\nthey would have formed their tongues to speak blessing of God, they\nhave spoken cursing instead of blessing; and that when a blasphemous\nthought had been cast into their mind, they could not be at rest till\nthey had thought it again.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, These troublesome temptations are oft of _long\ncontinuance_. Joannes Climacus tells us[456] of a monk that was\ntroubled with blasphemous thoughts for twenty years together, and\ncould not quit himself of them, though he had macerated his body with\nwatchings and fastings. Some have them going away and returning again\nby fits, according as the prevalency and ferment of their melancholy\ngives Satan the advantage of dealing thus with them. For if we inquire\nwhy it is thus, especially with the children of God, we must partly\nresolve it into the \u2018unsearchable wisdom of God,\u2019 who for holy ends\nof teaching and disciplining his servants, permits Satan thus to\nmolest them; and partly into those particular advantages which Satan\nhath against them according to the variety of their conditions, which\nusually are these:\u2014\n\n_First_, He takes advantage of such _bodily distempers as do deprive\nmen of the use of their reason_, as fevers, frenzies, madness. In these\nhe oft forms the tongues of men to horrid blasphemous speeches.\n\n_Secondly, A pressure of outward afflictions_ gives him his desired\nopportunity; and this he knows to be generally so successful, that he\npromised himself by this means a victory over Job. Ordinarily, straits\nand miseries do produce blaspheming. Isa. viii. 21, the prophet notes\nthat when the people should be \u2018hardly bestead and hungry,\u2019 they should\n\u2018fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward,\u2019\nas avouching what they had done.\n\n_Thirdly, Worldly plenty, fulness, and pleasure_ lay often foundations\nof this temptation. When their cups are full, and their hearts high,\nSatan can easily make them \u2018set their mouth against heaven.\u2019 A proud\nheart will readily say, \u2018Our tongue is our own, or, Who is the Lord?\u2019\n[Ps. xii. 4.] This was the engine which the devil managed, if it were\nas Job suspected, against the sons and daughters of Job, to make them\ncurse God in their hearts; and by this did he seek to prevail upon\nChrist in this blasphemous temptation.\n\n_Fourthly, A melancholy distemper doth usually invite Satan to give\nblasphemous suggestions._ The disturbed and pliable fancies of such,\nare the advantages which he improves against them.\n\n_Fifthly, Inward terrors and distresses of conscience_ are also an\noccasion to Satan to move them, as by a desperate humour, to utter hard\nthings of God and against themselves.\n\nBut there is yet a third way by which Satan tempts men to blaspheming,\n_by sudden glances of blasphemous imaginations_, which like lightnings\ndo astonish the heart and then suddenly vanish. These are very common,\nand the best of men observe them frequently. Satan seems as it were\nrather to frolic and sport himself in these suggestions, than to intend\na serious temptation. Their danger is not so much, yet are they not\nto be despised, lest these often visits, carelessly entertained, and\nnot dismissed with just abhorrency, do secretly envenom the soul, and\nprepare it for stronger assaults.\n\nI shall next inquire into the reasons of this trouble which Satan gives\nthe children of God.\n\n[1.] First, _These temptations are very affrighting; though they\nprevail not, yet they are full of perplexing annoyance_. Corrupt nature\nstartles at them, and receives them not without dread and horror. It\nis sadly troublesome to hear others blaspheme God. \u2018The reproaches of\nthose that reproached thee,\u2019 saith David, \u2018fell upon me.\u2019 It was as\n\u2018a sword in his bones\u2019 to hear the blasphemous scoffs of the wicked,\nwhen they said to him, \u2018Where is thy God?\u2019 And if it were confusion\nand shame to him to hear \u2018the enemy reproach and blaspheme,\u2019 as he\nprofesseth it was, Ps. xliv. 15, 16, how sadly afflicting would it be\nfor any child of God to observe such things in his own imaginations! If\nthere were no more in it than this, it is enough to put Satan upon that\ndesign, because it is a troublesome kind of martyrdom.[457]\n\n[2.] Secondly, _This is also a spiteful revenge against God_. All he\ncan do is to blaspheme and rage, and it is a kind of delight to put\nthis force upon those that carry his own image. He would do all he can\nto make his own children to vilify and reproach their heavenly Father,\nand to render cursing for blessing.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, This temptation, _though it have not the consent or\ncompliance of God\u2019s children, yet it opens a way to many other sins_,\nas murmuring, distrust, despair, weariness of God\u2019s ways and services.\nWhen we find Satan thus to run upon us, it is apt to breed \u2018strange\nthoughts of God,\u2019 that thus permits Satan to take us by the throat,\nor to make us judge of ourselves as rejected of God, and given up to\nSatan\u2019s power; and if it do this, his labour is not in vain; we are,\nas one observes,[458] more to fear his subtlety in bringing us by\nthis into other snares, than the violence of the adversary in this\nsuggestion.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, This is a stratagem _for laying the foundation of\ndireful accusations_. The devil in this doth as the Russians are[459]\nreported to do. They, when they have a spite against any of their\nneighbours, hide secretly some of their goods in their houses, and then\naccuse them of theft. When blasphemous thoughts are injected, and men\nrefuse to consent, then Satan raiseth an accusation against them, as\nJoseph\u2019s mistress did, as if they were guilty of all that blasphemy\nthat he tempted them unto; and it is a difficult task to persuade them\nthat these things should be in their minds, and that they should not be\nthe proper issues of their own heart. And very often doth he from hence\naccuse them of sinning against the Holy Ghost, because of the hideous\nblasphemies which he had first suggested to them.\n\n_Applic._ First, This will give us considerations of _consolation_,\nand that\u2014(1.) _In regard of others._ We observe often our sick friends\nspeak what we would not willingly hear, and it cannot choose but be\nsadly afflictive to hear their curses and blasphemous speeches; but\nwhen we consider the advantage that Satan takes of their distemper,\nif their lives heretofore have been pious and religious, we comfort\nourselves in this, that it is more his malice than their own\ninclinations; neither should we suffer our hope or charity to be\ndistressed on their behalf. (2.) It is the like ground of consolation\nfor ourselves or others that are violently afflicted with blasphemous\nthoughts. For,\n\n[1.] First, _If we call to mind that our Lord and Master suffered\nsuch things, we that are of his household need not think we receive a\nstrange or unusual measure in that we are molested as he was_.\n\n[2.] Secondly, If we consider that Christ was tempted _without sin\non his part_, then may we fetch this conclusion from it, _that it is\npossible that such thoughts should be cast upon us, and yet that we may\nnot be chargeable with them as our iniquities_.\n\nThirdly, We may hence see that such temptations _are more frightful\nthan hurtful_. These, as one observes,[460] seldom take, they carry\nwith them so much horror, to those that believe and love the true God,\nthat it keeps them from a participation with Satan in the sin itself,\nnay, it fills them with fear and striving against it; they rather, as\nbugbears, scare and disquiet them, than produce the real effects of\ncompliance with them.\n\n_Applic._ Secondly, The consideration of this kind of temptation may\n_fill the hearts and mouths of those of us as have not hitherto been\ntroubled with it, with praise for so merciful a preservation_. If we\nhave not been under this kind of exercise, it is not from any good\nwill that Satan hath to us, but because our God withholds a commission\nfrom him. A poor weak Christian wonders that Satan hath not made him a\nmark for this arrow, that he hath not broken him with this tempest. To\nanswer that wonder, he may know that the same tenderness in God, that\nwill not put \u2018new wine into old crazy bottles,\u2019 nor a \u2018new stiff piece\nof cloth into an old tender garment,\u2019 nor that will oppress the weak\nand infirm with strong exercise or burdens; that same tenderness of a\ncompassionate Father doth keep off such trials, because he will not\nsuffer them \u2018to be tempted above what they are able.\u2019\n\n_Applic._ Thirdly, This temptation calls for _advice to those that are\nunder it_, to whom I shall direct a few things.\n\n[1.] First, When any are troubled with blasphemous thoughts, let it\nbe considered _in what state and temper their body is_. If it be\ndistempered with melancholy, as is most usual, then the prescription\nof an able physician is necessary in the first place, without which\nhe that would spiritually advise or counsel shall but beat the air,\nand his words be so far from the fastness of nails that they shall be\nas wind. I have known many under great complaints and fears by reason\nhereof, that have been cured by physic alone; for when, in this case,\nthe fuel is withdrawn, the fire goes out. Correct the melancholy temper\nthat gives the devil this advantage, and the trouble will cease.\n\n[2.] Secondly, It is of great consequence to understand _the nature\nof these temptations_. If the tempted could see these to be their\nsufferings rather than their sins, they would with greater ease bear it\nas an affliction. And to those that complain, abhor, resist, and pray\nagainst them, they are not sins, no more than when a harlot layeth her\nchild at an honest woman\u2019s door, that child is to be reckoned as the\nfruit of her wickedness. A giant may dash the son against his father,\nbut so far will the father be from imputing it as rebellious insolence\nin his child, that he will pity him the more, as suffering by a double\ninjury; for it is not only against his natural affection and reverence\nto his parent, but it is a bodily hurt beside. Thus will God much more\npity his children under these sufferings.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, We must not suffer such thoughts _to lodge in us_, but\nbefore they settle, if possible, we must repel them; as Abraham drove\naway the fowls that came down upon his sacrifice. I know the tempted\nwill say this advice is not practicable; they find these thoughts swarm\nabout them as bees, and when one is driven back another straight comes\nin its place. But to them I answer, that blasphemous thoughts are\nrepelled two ways. (1.) By stout and resolute resistance. This, though\nit do not extinguish them, nor free us of the trouble, yet it keeps\nthem from settling upon us, and us from the guilt of them. (2.) By\ndiversion, which the work of a lawful employment, or good society, and\nother discourses may do. This may give some ease from the molestation,\nand the other preserves us innocent.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, In temptations to blasphemy _confident refusals do\nbetter than disputings_.[461] Here we are to resist with courage and a\nholy contempt of Satan. If we be too timorous and fearful, he insults\nthe more upon us; as dogs when they are observed follow the passenger\nwith greater eagerness and noise. Abhorrences and positive discharges,\nlike that of Christ in the same case, \u2018Get thee hence, Satan,\u2019 do more\nfor us than to debate the matter with him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\n _The nature of idolatry.\u2014Satan\u2019s design to corrupt the worship of\n God.\u2014The evidences thereof, with the reasons of such endeavours.\u2014His\n general design of withdrawing the hearts of men from God to\n his service.\u2014The proof that this is his design.\u2014Upon whom he\n prevails.\u2014That professions and confidences are no evidences to the\n contrary.\u2014His deceit of propounding sin as a small matter.\u2014The\n evidences of that method, and the reason thereof._\n\nThus have I considered the temptation as blasphemous. I proceed next\nto consider it as idolatrous. The words \u1f10\u1f70\u03bd \u03c0\u03b5\u03c3\u1f7c\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03c5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u1fc3\u03c2, if thou\nwilt fall down and worship, do give us the true notion of idolatry. The\nword which we call _worship_ comes from \u03ba\u03cd\u03c9, which signifies to kiss,\nor from \u03ba\u03c5\u1f7c\u03bd, which signifies a dog, both being to the same purpose,\nand signifying any action of reverence by which we signify the respect\nof our minds. To kiss the hand, or to fawn as a dog, are gestures\nwhich express the honour we would give, and being applied to divine\nworship before, or with respect unto, an undue object, is idolatry;\nand as such doth Christ reject it in his answer, \u2018Thou shalt worship\nthe Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.\u2019 We worship God, when\nin ways and actions commanded or prescribed, we testify our belief\nand resentment of his incommunicable attributes. It is idolatry when\neither we use the same actions of prescribed worship to that which is\nnot God, or when we testify our respects to the true God in an undue\nway of our own devising. Here might I take occasion to shew the vanity\nof the popish subterfuges; their distinction of _latria_ and _dulia_\nis, as Dr [Henry] More observes, hereby overthrown.[462] Satan doth not\nhere set himself up as the omnipotent God, for he acknowledgeth one\nsuperior to himself, in that he confesseth that the power he had of\nthe kingdoms of the world was given to him, Luke iv. 6, and therefore\nnot the _latria_ but the _dulia_ is required of him; and yet this,\nChrist denies him as being idolatry, in that no religious worship\u2014for\nthat must needs be the sense of his answer\u2014is due to any but God\nalone. Their other distinction of worshipping an idol, saint, angel,\ncross, &c., and before such a creature, is also hereby crushed, as\nis commonly observed:[463] for what the evangelist Matthew expresseth\nby \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03c5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u1fc3\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9, Luke calls \u1f10\u03bd\u03ce\u03c0\u03b9\u03cc\u03bd \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5, before me; so that the\nScripture makes no difference betwixt these two, shewing it to be\nidolatry to use religious worship to that which is not God, or before\nit. But these things I shall not prosecute; keeping therefore to my\ndesign, I shall observe,\n\n_Obs._ 7. _That it is one of Satan\u2019s great designs to corrupt the\nworship of God._ That this is so will appear,\n\n(1.) First, _If we consider what varieties of worship hath been in\nthe world_. God gave a fixed and stable law, and yet this so little\nprevailed, that men were upon new inventions presently. I shall not\nneed to reckon up the almost numberless varieties of this kind among\nthe heathen. The instance is plain enough in those that professed the\nname of the true God; they were still changing for new fashions in\nreligion, borrowing patterns from their neighbours, so that if there\nwere but a new altar at Damascus, or a new idol in any strange city,\nthey must presently have the like, till, as the prophet tells them,\n\u2018according to their cities so were their gods,\u2019 [Jer. ii. 28.] He that\nwill call to mind that the husbandman did first \u2018sow good seed in his\nfield,\u2019 and that there is such variety of tares and false worship,\nnotwithstanding the plain and positive command of God, fixing and\ndetermining his worship, must needs conclude that an enemy, Satan, hath\ndone it.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _If we call to mind how in all ages there hath been\na constancy in this inconstant variety_. We hear of it among the\nheathens. We read enough of it among the Jews, and when they were out\nof the humour of more shameful idolatries, they yet corrupted the\nworship of God by their traditions; and of these they were so fond,\nthat they caused the law of God itself to give place to them, and made\nit void by them. The times of the gospel were not free. Though Christ\ncame to seek such worshippers as should \u2018worship him in spirit and in\ntruth,\u2019 yet before the apostles\u2019 deaths, while yet they were persuading\nto the contrary, there arose up some that corrupted the worship, by\nleading the people back again to the Jewish ceremonies, and others\nlaboured to bring in \u2018worshipping of angels,\u2019 and at last to \u2018eat\nthings offered to idols,\u2019 with greater defilements. Since the apostles\u2019\ndays the same design hath been carried on in the churches. Rome hath\npatched together a great deal of Jewish and heathenish ceremonies;\nand when the man of sin shall be revealed, yet a higher flood of such\nabominations is to be expected. Who hath wrought all this, but Satan?\nThis is still the same design, and though the work be not in all parts\nlike itself, yet the whole of it evidenceth the working of the same\nspirit in all.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Let us observe how early this began_. We cannot say\nbut that in the days of Adam, who doubtless had received particular\ncommands from God, in which he would not fail to instruct his children,\nthey were seeking to themselves \u2018many inventions,\u2019 Gen. iv. 26. At the\nbirth of Enos, as some conjecture, there were such defilements brought\ninto use in worship, that Seth had respect to it when he called his son\nEnos, _Sorrowful_, as lamenting that profanation which was then begun\nin \u2018calling upon the name of the Lord,\u2019 for so do many interpret that\npassage, which in our English we read thus, \u2018Then began men to call\nupon the name of the Lord.\u2019 The word in the original is \u05d4\u05d5\u05d7\u05dc, which\nsignifieth both to _profane_ and to _begin_, and may be as properly\ntranslated, then \u2018profaned they in calling upon the name of the Lord.\u2019\nAnd there are several reasons that move learned men[464] to fix upon\nthis translation. As (1.) That it is not probable that men began then\nto call upon God, or publicly to do so, as some would interpret, and\nnot before, as the present English would imply. (2.) That age was noted\nas corrupt, and therefore it is noted as a rarity that Enoch walked\nwith God. (3.) The Rabbins generally translate \u05d7\u05dc\u05dc to _profane_; but\nif we should grant the present English, \u2018Then began men to call upon\nthe name of the Lord,\u2019 it would imply that the worship practised by\nAdam and Abel had been corrupted, and now it was restored again and\nreformed; which will make the corruption of worship to be yet more\nearly. And after that we read of corruption crept into the family of\nSeth, as well as now in the family of Cain, Gen. vi. 2; so that the\nworship of God stood not long in its honour, though Adam and Seth were\nalive to instruct them; which shews that it was a rebellious departure\nfrom the way, fomented and brought on by the malignant spirit Satan.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, But to make all sure, _the Scripture lays all these\nkinds of corruption of worship at Satan\u2019s door_. The defilements of\nworship taught in Thyatira, by Jezebel, are called \u2018the depth of\nSatan,\u2019 Rev. ii. 24; the corruptions introduced by antichrist, are from\n\u2018the workings of Satan,\u2019 2 Thes. ii. 9. What was promoted by false\napostles to that purpose, they had it from their great teacher Satan,\nwho \u2018transforms himself for such ends into an angel of light,\u2019 2 Cor.\nxi. 13, 14; so that nothing can be more plain than that this is an old\nand constant design of Satan.\n\nThe particular ways by which Satan effects this design I shall not now\ntouch, but shall in lieu of that give you the reasons of his endeavours\nthis way.\n\n[1.] First, _He knows that this is a sin of a high provocation_.\nWorship is the proper tribute that is due to God, and it is peculiarly\nhis prerogative to prescribe the way and manner of it. Neither of these\nhonours will he give to any other, but will express his jealousy when\nany invasion is made upon these his sole prerogatives. Now his worship\ncannot be corrupted, but one of these at least will in some degree or\nother be touched. If we set up another object of worship, we deny him\nto be God; if we worship him in a way of our own invention, we deny\nhis wisdom, and set up ourselves above him, as if we could order his\nworship better than he hath done in his word.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _If the worship be corrupted, all the exercise of the\naffections of the heart, and all the service itself is lost, and become\nunacceptable_. He knows that such worshippers shall meet with this\nanswer, \u2018Who hath required this at your hands?\u2019 [Isa. i. 12.]\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Corruption in worship_, Satan by long experience knows\nto have been the ground of those hatreds, quarrels, persecutions,\nand troubles under which the church hath groaned in all ages, every\ndifference imposing their way and persuasion upon all dissenters, to\nthe disturbance of peace, breach and decay of love, hindrance of the\ngrowth of piety, to the biting and devouring of one another.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, Besides God is provoked by this to _leave his\nsanctuary_, to remove his glory and his candlestick, to make his\nvineyard a desolation, and his churches as Shiloh.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, Satan is the more industrious in this, because _his ways\nare capable of many advantages to further his design, and many specious\npretences to cover it_. In Col. ii. 8, he made use of philosophy to\ncorrupt religion, and by unsound principles of some heathens famous for\nthat learning, introduced \u2018worshipping of angels.\u2019 What that could not\neffect he laboured to perform by \u2018the traditions of men,\u2019 and where\nthat came short, \u2018the rudiments of the world\u2019\u2014the Mosaical ceremonies\nwere so called here, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews\u2014were his engine\nby which he battered the plain worship of the New Testament. And as to\npretences, the apostle doth there and elsewhere note that decency and\norder, humility, wisdom, and self-denial, are things very taking, and\nyet usually pretended for such bold innovations as may corrupt the pure\nstreams of the sanctuary.\n\n_Applic._ Hence may I leave with you a few memorials.\n\n[1.] First, _This may make us jealous of any alterations in the way\nof Gods worship_. We have reason under the most plausible pretexts to\nsuspect the hand of Satan, because it is one of his main businesses to\ncorrupt the worship.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _This may justify those that out of a conscientious\nfear of complying with Satan\u2019s design, dare not admit of a pin in\nthe tabernacle beside what God hath prescribed, nor leave behind a\nshoe-latchet of what he hath enjoined_.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _This will tell us that that worship is best and safest\nthat hath least of mixture of human invention_. We cannot offend in\nkeeping close to the rule, though the worship thereby become more\nplain, and not so gorgeous in outward appearance. We may soon overdo it\nby the least addition, and cannot be so certain of God\u2019s acceptation,\nas we are of pleasing the senses of men, by such introducements.\n\nThis motion of Satan, \u2018Fall down and worship me,\u2019 is now in the last\nplace to be considered as a particular instance of Satan\u2019s general\ndesign _of drawing the hearts of men from God his service and ways, to\nthe pleasures of sin_; as if he should say to him, follow my advice,\ngive up thyself to my service, and thou shalt be gratified with all\nthe delights that the world can give thee. To this doth the bait here\noffered most fitly agree. Hence observe,\n\n_Obs._ 8. _That it is Satan\u2019s general design to withdraw the hearts of\nmen from God, that they may be enslaved to him in the service of sin._\n\nThat the devil doth level all his endeavours to this, cannot be\ndoubted; for,\n\n(1.) First, _He hath a kingdom in this world_, from which he is\ndenominated \u2018the prince of this world.\u2019 And this is not only a rule of\nexterior force, such as conquerors have over their captivated slaves,\nwho are compelled to subject their bodies, while yet their minds are\nfull of hatred against him who hath thus forced them to subjection;\nbut it is a rule over the hearts and affections of men, working in\n\u2018the children of disobedience\u2019 a love and liking of these ways, and\nbegetting in them the image of Satan; so that what work he imposeth\nthey are pleased withal, and \u2018love to have it so.\u2019 Therefore he is not\nonly called their prince, but their god and their father: \u2018Ye are of\nyour father the devil,\u2019 in that with a kind of inward devotion they\nwill and endeavour to perform the lusts which he propounds to them.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _This kingdom is contrary to Gods spiritual kingdom_,\nthat being of darkness, this of light; and it is managed by Satan with\nan envious competition and co-rivalship to that of God; so that as God\ninvites men to the happiness of his kingdom, and sends his Spirit in\nhis word and ordinances to persuade them, Satan doth the like. He sends\nout his spirit, which the apostle calls \u2018the spirit of the world,\u2019\n1 Cor. ii. 12, and employs all his agents to engage men for him. He\nrequires the heart as God doth, he promiseth his rewards of pleasure,\nhonour, riches, if they will fall down and worship him. Now it is so\nnatural to prosecute an interest thus espoused in a way of opposition,\nespecially to any other that set up for themselves in a contradictory\ncompetitorship, that the very natural laws of Satan\u2019s kingdom will\nengage him to stand up for it, and to enlarge it all he can.\n\nThose upon whom he prevails are of two sorts\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _Some are visibly in his service_. These answer the\ncharacter which was given of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 20, \u2018who sold himself\nto work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.\u2019 The first expression\nshews that such are wholly in Satan\u2019s power and disposal\u2014as things sold\nare in the possession and power of the buyer\u2014they are at Satan\u2019s will.\nIf he say to them, \u2018Go, they go,\u2019 and if he say, \u2018Come, they come.\u2019\nTheir bodies and spirits are Satan\u2019s, they are not their own; and they\nare his for the ends of sin, for that employment only, so that they are\n\u2018wholly corrupt and abominable.\u2019 The latter expression, that he did so\n\u2018in the sight of the Lord,\u2019 manifests their shameless impudency in sin,\nthat they \u2018declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not,\u2019 that they do\nnot blush, but openly wear the devil\u2019s livery and avouch his service.\nAs the works of the flesh are manifest, so these in their practice\nof such works are manifestly Satan\u2019s subjects. These kind of men are\nfrequently in the Old Testament styled \u2018sons of Belial,\u2019[465] a name\nvery significant, shewing either their devoting of themselves to the\ndevil\u2019s service, in that they reject the yoke of God\u2019s law, in that\nthey \u2018break his bonds, and cast his cords from them,\u2019 or their pride\nthat they will have none above them, not considering that there is a\nGod, or that the Most High rules, or their averseness to what is good,\nbeing \u2018wholly unprofitable, and to every good work reprobate.\u2019 [Titus\ni. 16.]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Some are secretly his servants_. They come to the\ndevil, as Nicodemus did to Christ, by night. They will not openly\nprofess him, but yet their hearts are wholly his. Such are called by\nthe name of hypocrites. The pharisees and scribes seemed to declare for\nGod, called themselves Abraham\u2019s seed, fasted, gave alms, made long\nprayers, and yet were a \u2018generation of vipers,\u2019 and \u2018of their father\nthe devil.\u2019 The secrecy of this underhand engagement to hell is such,\nthat many who are in a league with the devil, and at an agreement with\ndeath, do neither know nor believe it concerning themselves. For,\n\n[1.] First, _This private covenant may be where there are the greatest\nseeming defilements of Satan and high professions of service to God_.\nThe pharisees, as have been said, were the devil\u2019s servants, under\nall the fair show they made of religion and zeal for the law, and yet\nwhen Christ plainly told them that they were not Abraham\u2019s seed but\nthe devil\u2019s seed, they with high indignation and scorn throw back the\naccusation to Christ, \u2018Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil; we are\nAbraham\u2019s children,\u2019 [John viii. 48,] so little believed they the truth\nwhen it was told them.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _This may consist with some designment and intention\nto give God glory_. The Jews, though they submitted not to the\nrighteousness of God, yet, by the testimony of Paul, they had a zeal\nto God. The very heathens that sacrifice to devils had not formal\nintentions so to do, as appears by their inscription on the altar at\nAthens, Acts xvii. 23, \u2018To the unknown God.\u2019 The true God, though\nunknown, they propounded as the object of their worship; yet falling\ninto those ways of devotion which the devil had prescribed, these\nintentions could not hinder but that they became his servants.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Men may be servants to Satan under great assurances and\nconfidences of their interest in God_. Many go to hell that have lived\nwith _Lord, Lord_ in their mouths. Those mentioned in Isa. xlviii. 2,\nthat had no interest in truth and righteousness when they solemnly\nsware by the name of the Lord, \u2018yet they called themselves of the holy\ncity, and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel,\u2019 [Isa. xlviii. 2.]\n\n_Obj._ If it seem strange to any that these professions, intentions,\nand confidences are not enough to secure men from this charge, but that\nthey may be secretly slaves to hell, I answer,\n\n_Ans._ 1. First, _That those do not necessarily conclude that the heart\nof such men is right with God_. Formality, natural conscience, and\nthe power of education may do much of this; for though we grant that\nsuch are not conscious to themselves of any real design of serving\nSatan, yet they may either so far miss it in the way of their service,\noffering that as well-pleasing to God, which indeed he hates, and\nthat through wilful and affected ignorance, as those of whom Christ\nspeaks, John xvi. 2, that should think the killing of God\u2019s children\na piece of acceptable service; or they may be so mistaken as to the\nsincerity of their hearts that they may think they have a design to\nplease God in doing of what he requires in order thereunto, when indeed\nit may not be singly for God but for themselves that they work, in\na self-gratification of their natural zeal for their way; or their\nesteem, credit, and advantage may privately influence them, rather than\na spirit of life and power.\n\n_Ans._ 2. Secondly, _The work which they do, and the ends they serve,\nwill be evidence against professions and intentions_. It is a sure\nrule, that the work shews to whom men are related as servants, and it\nis laid down as a certain standard to measure the hearts of men by,\nwhen pretences and persuasions seem to carry all before them: Rom.\nvi. 16, \u2018His servants ye are to whom ye obey;\u2019 1 John iii. 8, 10, \u2018He\nthat committeth sin is of the devil: in this the children of God are\nmanifest, and the children of the devil\u2019\u2014that is, when it becomes a\nquestion to whom a man belongs, whose child and servant he is, it must\nbe determined by the works he doth. If he engage in the ways of sin,\nhe is of the devil, let him profess what he will to the contrary. This\nsame balance Christ useth to try the truth of the Jews\u2019 pretences to\nGod: John viii. 34, \u2018Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin;\u2019\nthey boasted high, but he shews them that seeing their designs and\nworks were hatred, envy, murder, &c., which are apparently from Satan,\nit was evident they had learned these of him; and he concludes by this\nproof, ver. 44, \u2018that they were of their father the devil.\u2019 Thus may\nwe say of those that pretend they honour God, they deify the devil,\nthey intend well, if yet they give themselves up to the pleasing of\nthe flesh, if worldly-minded, if they live in pride, strife, envy,\nmaliciousness, &c.,\u2014which are works of the devil,\u2014it is not all their\npretences that will entitle them to God, but they are, for all this,\nthe devil\u2019s servants, as doing his works.\n\n_Applic._ This may put men upon inquiries, _Who are ye for? whose\nservants are ye?_ There are but two that can lay claim to you, and\nthese two divide the whole world betwixt them. There is no state of\nneutrality: you are either God\u2019s servants or the devil\u2019s. Ye cannot\nserve them both; \u2018now if the Lord be God, serve him.\u2019 Satan\u2019s service\nis base, dishonourable, slavish; the service of God, freedom, honour,\nlife, and peace; there is indeed no comparison betwixt them. Happy,\nthen, is that man that can say the Lord is his lot and portion; that\ncan come into God\u2019s presence, and there in his integrity avouch the\nLord for his God\u2014that can stand upon it. \u2018My soul hath said unto the\nLord, Thou art my God, and I have none besides thee; other lords have\nhad dominion over us, but we will make mention of thy name only,\u2019 [Isa.\nxxvi. 13.]\n\nThis temptation, though it were in itself horrid, and as a brood\nof vipers knotted together, which at once could send out several\nstings, and make many wounds,\u2014as hath been noted,\u2014yet in the way of\npropounding, Satan seems to insinuate the largeness of his proffer, and\nthe smallness and inconsiderableness of the service required, as if he\nshould say, \u2018See how free I am in my kindness; I will not stick to give\nthee the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and all this for\nso small a matter as bowing before me, or doing me a little reverence.\u2019\nThis gives us to observe,\n\n_Obs._ 9. _That when Satan doth design no less than to enslave men to\nhis service, yet he will propound sin as a small thing, or but one act\nof sin, as a thing not valuable, to engage them to him._ Not but that\nhe desires to run men to excess in wickedness, and delights to see them\nwith both hands earnestly work iniquity with greediness; yet where\nhe sees the consciences of men squeamish, and that they cannot bear\ntemptations to open and common profaneness without danger of revolt\nfrom him, there he seems modest, and requires but some small thing, at\nleast at first, till the ways of sin become more familiar to them, and\nthen when they can better bear it, he doubles the tale of bricks, and\nwith greater confidence can urge them to things of greater shame and\nenormity. That this is his way appears,\n\n[1.] First, _From the common argument which he useth at first to those\nwhom he would draw off from a more careful conversation_, which is\nthis: Do such a thing, it is but for once, and but little; others do\nthe like, and demur not, or the best do as great matters as this comes\nto. It is but a small thing, considering the strait, or the advantage\nthat may accrue. This is his usual note to candidate iniquity, as\nexperience of all doth testify.\n\n[2.] Secondly, That this is so is also evident from a consideration\nof _the several ways and courses of sinners_. Some are tempted and\novercome by one kind of sin, and not at all urged to others. Some go\nto hell in a way of covetousness; others are pretty unblameable in\nmost of their carriages, but are overcome by a proud humour; others\nare given to drink, and yet will not steal nor deal falsely; others\ntake a more cleanly way to hell, rely upon their own righteousness, or\nare engaged in error, and their life otherwise smooth and fair. The\nJews in Christ\u2019s time were only engaged against Christ, and for their\ntraditions, but not molested with temptations to open idolatry as\nformerly. Those who are ignorant are not troubled with temptations to\ndespair, or inward terrors. The reasons of his dealing thus are these:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _He sees that one sin heartily prosecuted is enough\nto signify homage to him, and to give him possession_. As we take\npossession of land by a turf or a twig, so by one sin admitted with\nfull purpose of mind, Satan is let into the heart. As a penny will be\nsufficient earnest for a bargain of a thousand pounds, so may one sin\nbe a pledge or earnest for the whole soul in a league with hell.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _He knows that one sin persisted in may be enough to\ndestroy the soul_; as one wound may kill, one leak may sink a ship.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _He knows that one sin breaks the covenant of God_, and\nturns the heart from him, if men give up themselves to it.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _One sin wilfully pursued makes a man guilty of the\nbreach of the whole law_. It destroys love and respect to God,\nundervalues his authority, contemns his threatenings and promises.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _One sin is enough to make way for more_. Where Satan\nwould have more, yet at first he is pleased with it as a hopeful\nbeginning. It makes room enough for the serpent\u2019s head, and then he\nwill afterwards easily wind in his whole body.\n\n_Applic._ This may warn us not to be emboldened to any sin by the plea\n_of diminution_; not to venture because it may seem little, or be but\nfor once. A true Christian should be a perfect universalist; he should\nbe universally against all sin, and universally for all duty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\n _Of worldly pleasure.\u2014Proofs that this is Satan\u2019s great engine.\u2014What\n there is in worldly delights that make them so.\u2014Counsels and cautions\n against that snare._\n\n\nI come now to the argument which Satan used for all this, \u2018All these\nthings will I give thee.\u2019 He casts a golden apple before him, and seeks\nto entangle him by worldly greatness and delight. I shall not examine\nhow true or false Satan spake when he called all these things his,\nand that he could give them to whom he would. It is enough for our\npurpose to take notice of his pretence, so far as might make his offer\nprobable; and then observe,\n\n_Obs._ 10. _That the great engine which Satan useth to draw away the\nheart from God to his service is worldly pleasures and delights._\n\nI shall first shew that this is Satan\u2019s great engine, and then explain\nwhat is in it that fits it so much for his purpose. The first of these\nis evidenced by these particulars:\u2014\n\n1. First, The Scripture doth particularly note to us _a deceit or guile\nto be in worldly pleasures_. Christ, in Mat. xiii. 22, speaks of \u2018the\ndeceitfulness of riches;\u2019 and that deceit is expressed by such a word\nas signifies \u2018a drawing out of the way,\u2019 a misleading;[466] so that he\nmeans not the uncertainty of these delights, in which sense it is said\n\u2018that riches take themselves wings and fly away,\u2019 [Prov. xxiii. 5,]\nwhich often disappoint and deceive the expectations of those that do\nmost hug them. Nor can this be understood of riches in an active sense,\nas we attribute deceit to men, who as rational agents can contrive\nand devise snares; but it only means that these are so _objective_ as\nthings that are abused by Satan to delude and betray the sons of men:\nand these are so frequently made use of by him for such purposes, and\nwith such advantages of power and provocation, that Christ elsewhere,\nMat. xix. 23, speaks of it as a thing almost impossible, to have riches\nand not to be ensnared by them: \u2018A rich man shall hardly enter into the\nkingdom of heaven,\u2019 [Mat. xix. 23,] which Mark and Luke express by an\naffectionate amazement, \u2018Oh, how hardly can a rich man be saved!\u2019 [Mark\nx. 23-25, and Luke xviii. 24, 25.]\n\n2. Secondly, _These are Satan\u2019s great net which encloseth multitudes_;\na general bait, by which most are hooked into the service of sin. Most\ntemptations come from this ocean as springs from the sea. \u2018The lust\nof the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,\u2019 have their\noriginal from the world, 1 John ii. 16. Christ speaks of this \u2018mammon\nof unrighteousness\u2019 as the only thing that stands up in competition\nfor the hearts of men against God, Mat. vi. 24; and the apostle, 2\nTim. iii. 4, reckoning up the various ways of particular lusts, as\ncovetousness, boasting, pride, blaspheming, &c., concludes them all\nunder this, that they \u2018are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of\nGod;\u2019 shewing us thereby, that though the lusts of men might run out\ndiverse ways, and be exercised upon diverse particular objects, yet\nthey all borrow their original from worldly pleasures, and their\ndesign is nothing but that in the general. Hence it is that some make\nthe world the great traitor to God; for though they reckon up three\ngreat enemies to God and man, \u2018the world, the flesh, and the devil,\u2019\nyet \u2018these three agree in one;\u2019 the pleasing of the flesh is the great\nend and desire of natural men; the world is the storehouse, from which\nmen draw out several pleasures, according to the several ways they take\nin gratifying their lusts and humours, and the devil is only officious\nto help all this forward, by enticing and persuading them to \u2018make\nthese provisions for the flesh.\u2019 And who can think other, but that\nthis must be Satan\u2019s great engine, when, as hath been said, _first_,\nthe world, and the pleasures of it, is the sum of all iniquity,\ncontaining in it virtually or actually the transgression of the whole\nlaw. The root it is of all evil, 1 Tim. vi. 10; all profaneness against\nGod, all neglect of duty, all outrage, wrong, or injustice to man,\nmay, and usually doth, spring from hence, insomuch that some have\nparticularly traced it through every command of the decalogue, and\nfound it guilty, either as principal or accessary, of every iniquity.\n_Second_, Our thoughts may be the more confirmed in this when we see\nall men entangled by it; for albeit that some temptations seem directly\nto carry men from a love or care of the world, as despair, terrors of\nmind, voluntary humility, neglecting of the body, and others of the\nsame kind; yet if the matter be considered, the truth in hand cannot be\nprejudiced by such an objection. For, [1.] Those who seem in distress\nof conscience most to loathe the world were yet first entangled by\nit, and the consideration of that guilt, whether at present justly or\nunjustly charged upon them, is the usual occasion of these troubles.\nAnd, [2.] Those who seem to undervalue money, riches, plenty, &c., are,\nit may be, no less slaves to other worldly lusts; for pleasures of the\nworld comprehend whatsoever may arise from anything that is in the\nworld to the delight of life. Honour, pride, ambition, prodigality, are\n\u2018worldly lusts,\u2019 as well as covetousness and desire of power or rule.\nAnd those that seem to deny themselves of \u2018faring deliciously,\u2019 or\n\u2018wearing soft raiment,\u2019 may be as much distressed with an inward desire\nof applause and honour, as those that would gratify their senses are by\nsensual lusts.\n\n3. Thirdly, How much the world stands Satan in stead may be observed\nfrom _the force of that temptation upon those that have very much\nengaged in their profession of the ways of God_. It hath often fetched\noff those that seemed to have given up themselves to God. Demas was\nonce commended by Paul as his fellow-labourer, Philem. 24; yet at\nlast it so prevailed upon him that he complained, 2 Tim. iv. 10, that\n\u2018Demas had forsaken him,\u2019 and turned his back upon his profession,\nand so far, if Dorotheus do him right, that he became an idol-priest\nin Thessalonica, the cause of which horrid apostasy was his \u2018love to\nthe present world.\u2019 Balaam seemed resolute not to act anything against\nIsrael, yet \u2018the ways of unrighteousness\u2019 so far blinded him, that he\ntaught Balak \u2018to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel.\u2019\nThe highest of nominal professors, noted by the \u2018thorny ground\u2019 in\nMat. xiii. 22,\u2014who seemed to differ from the good ground only in this,\nthat their fruit was green and not ripe, as Luke expresseth it, \u2018They\nbrought not fruit to perfection,\u2019\u2014they were choked in these fair\nbeginnings and offers for holiness by the \u2018cares and pleasures of the\nworld.\u2019 All ages abound with instances of this kind. \u00c6neas Sylvius\npreached against the pope, set up the council above him, commended\nthe Germans for opposing him; but preferment made him alter his note,\nand at last he became pope himself. Bonner, the persecutor, seemed at\nfirst a good man, a favourer of Luther\u2019s doctrine, but advancement\nchanged him to a bloody wolf, a cruel tiger. Spalato forsook popery,\nbut, missing those dignities which he aimed at in England, was, upon\nhopes of greater preferment, induced to lick up his vomit, and to own\npopery again. How many examples have we of those who, the higher they\ngrew in the world, became more careless of religion; as Sixtus Quintus,\nwho went as fast back in religion as he went forward in promotion; so\nthat he that at first entering into orders, had a good hope of his\nsalvation, by that time he came to be pope, he became so wicked that he\ndespaired of happiness.\n\n4. Fourthly, _This temptation is one of Satan\u2019s last refuges, and\noften prevails where persecution cannot_. The thorny-ground hearers\nwere above those of the stony ground in this, that they stood out the\nstorm, and bore the scorching heat of persecution, but then the world\nchoked them. Sad experience tells us that churches that did thrive and\ngrow as the palm-tree under their pressures, were spoiled by ease and\nplenty, which so cherished the seeds of pride, vanity, and contention,\nthat they grew up amain, and did more to their desolation than the\ncruelty of all their fiercest enemies. Julian, who, by the greatest\nart and policy, studied to overthrow the Christian\u2019s name, so observed\nthis, that he made it his rule rather to corrupt men by honours than\nto compel them by torments.[467] We have also found that though the\nRoman synagogue join force to subtlety in the advancement of their\ndagon, yet they have still looked upon this temptation of the world\nas most likely to gain the hearts of their rational opposers. Cruelty\ncould overawe the senseless multitude, and could take out of the way\nthose of whose opposition they were afraid, but it seldom with success\nwrought upon persons guided by light and conscience, to a compliance\nthat would hold long; for though at first some good men were overawed\nto make subscription and to recant, as it did with Bilney, Bainham,\nCranmer, and several others,[468] yet upon the working of conscience,\nafter the stound and dazzle of the temptation was over, they recoiled\nso resolutely upon them, that they lost more than they gained that way.\nBut those that were willing to nibble at preferments became theirs\nwholly. Thus they set upon Luther, Galeaceus, Carracciolus, Dr Taylor,\nand a great many more, though to no purpose, for they were ready to bid\ntheir money \u2018perish with them,\u2019 and to bid defiance to their favour\nas well as to their frowns. Notwithstanding they have made many real\nconquests by this weapon, and accordingly this is reckoned among the\ntemptations of greatest force: Heb. xi. 37, \u2018They were stoned, they\nwere sawn asunder, they were tempted,\u2019 that is, by the pleasures and\npreferments of the world. It seems the Holy Ghost would point at\nthis, how fair and plausible soever it be, as one of the devil\u2019s most\npowerful engines.\n\nNext, I promised to discover what it is in the world which makes it so\nfit for Satan\u2019s designs.\n\n(1.) First, _The world brings or affords fit matter to be made the fuel\nof lust_. For this reason the apostle in the place afore-cited, 1 John\nii. 16, forbids us so earnestly to love the world, or the things of the\nworld, because there is nothing in it which is not improveable, as an\noccasion or provocation to lust. Whatsoever is in the world is lust of\nflesh, or eyes, or heart; and there is no lust but it may be furnished\nwith a proper object from hence. The appetite, senses, or affections\nfetch all their delights from hence.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Besides the common materials of sin that are digged\nout of this mine, the world hath something _of an aptitude in it to\ntempt_. Not that it hath properly and formally, _insidiationis animum_,\nan active subtlety to lay snares for men, but yet it is not so purely\npassive as to make it altogether innocent. There is something of a\ncurse upon it ever since, by the fall of man. It was loosened from\nits proper, primitive ends; and as the devil spake by the serpent, so\ndoth he urge, speak, tempt, and insinuate by the world, so that it is\nstill an occasion of danger to us, and hath a special advantage over\nour affections, upon several accounts. As, [1.] In that it is in itself\nlawful to be used. [2.] In that it is suitable to our desires and\ntempers. [3.] In some respects it might be necessary and advantageous\nfor the comfort of life, for the support of families, and to enable us\nto be helpful to others. [4.] It is near to us, under our eye; we have\nfamiliar converse with it, it is still with us. [5.] We have a natural\npropensity to be in love with it; the flesh would fain be pleased,\nand nothing is more answerable to it than the pleasures of the world.\nWe need not wonder then, when we see it so highly captivating the\naffections of men, and leading them bound in chains and fetters. Some\nmake it their god; gain is all their godliness and religion; they seek\ntheir \u2018portion in this life,\u2019 Ps. xvii. 14; this is their treasure, and\nhere is their heart; and it would be no less wonder if Satan should be\nguilty of so much oversight, as to neglect the use of an instrument\nwhich is every way so fitted for his purpose.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, Besides this fair prospect which it gives to sin, it\nhath _an enmity to God and his ways, which is no less advantageous to\nthe devil_. This is positively affirmed, James iv. 4, \u2018The friendship\nof this world is enmity with God;\u2019 not only is this true in a lower\nsense, as a hindrance, being backward and averse to it, but it is a\ndirect opposition and contrariety to God and his service. Its drawing\nback and hindering is charge enough against it: for it [1.] withdraws\nthose thoughts, affections, time, care, and endeavours, which should be\nlaid out upon better things, so that holiness must needs be obstructed,\ndwindle, and decay by it. [2.] It hinders the influence of heaven; it\nshuts out the light casually, quencheth and resisteth the Spirit, and,\nmeritoriously also, it provokes God to withdraw, to remove his glory,\nand to give over his striving with them; but the contrariety that it\nhath to all the parts of holiness is yet more: Christ notes it, Mat.\nvi. 24. These two masters, God and the world, are contrary in their\ndesigns, in their commands, in their natures, so that it is impossible\nfor any man to serve them both. They both require the heart, and they\nboth require it to contrary and incompatible services and ends. These,\nthen, are such masters as would be _domini in solidum_, masters of the\nwhole.[469] Now there cannot be two masters of one thing in that sense;\nneither, if there were, could the hearts of men serve these different\ncommands, but their work would necessarily engage their affections to\none only; they would either \u2018love the one and hate the other, or hold\nto the one and despise the other.\u2019 This very consideration, if there\nwere no more, doth render the world a desirable instrument for Satan.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, In all this the world hath so many _cunning disguises,\nand plausible shifts, that it becomes thereby wonderfully serviceable\nto Satan_. It is the perfection of wicked policy to manage wicked\ndesigns under plausible pretences. These the world hath in readiness\nwhen it is accused of rebellion and treachery against God. The pleas\nof necessity, of prosecution of a lawful calling, of providing for a\nfamily, of not neglecting the benefits of God, of cheering the heart,\nand taking the comforts of the labours of their hands, and a great\nmany more, are ready excuses to ward off the force of the convincing\nword. These the devil drives home, and fastens them into such strong\npersuasions, that the deluded sinner cannot see the danger that is\nbefore him, nor the spiritual adultery or idolatry of his soul, in his\nexcessive love to worldly pleasures.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, The world hath also _a spiritual fascination and\nwitchcraft_, by which, where it hath once prevailed, men are enchanted\nto an utter forgetfulness of themselves and God, and being drunk\nwith pleasures, they are easily engaged to a madness and height of\nfolly. Some, like foolish children, are made to keep a great stir in\nthe world for very trifles, for a vain show; they think themselves\ngreat, honourable, excellent, and for this make a great bustle, when\nthe world hath not added \u2018one cubit to their stature\u2019 of real worth.\nOthers are by this Circe transformed into savage creatures, and act the\npart of lions and tigers. Others, like swine, wallow in the lusts of\nuncleanness. Others are unmanned, putting off all natural affections,\ncare not who they ride over, so they may rule or be made great. Others\nare taken with ridiculous frenzies, so that a man that stands in the\ncool shade of a sedate composure would judge them out of their wits.\nIt would make a man admire to read of the frisks of Caius Caligula,\nXerxes, Alexander, and many others, who because they were above many\nmen, thought themselves above human nature. They forgot they were\nborn, and must die, and did such things as would have made them, but\nthat their greatness overawed it, a laughing-stock and common scorn to\nchildren. Neither must we think that these were but some few or rare\ninstances of worldly intoxication, when the Scripture notes it as a\ngeneral distemper of all that bow down to worship this idol. They live\n\u2018without God in the world,\u2019 saith the apostle, [Eph. ii. 12,] that\nis, they so carry it as if there were no God to take notice of them,\nto check them for their madness. \u2018God is not in all his thoughts,\u2019\nsaith David, Ps. x. 4, 5. \u2018The judgments of God are far above out of\ntheir sight;\u2019 he puffs at his enemies, and saith in his heart, \u2018he\nshall never be moved,\u2019 &c. The whole psalm describes the worldling as\na man that hath lost all understanding, and were acting the part of\na frantic bedlam. What then can be a more fit engine for the devil to\nwork with than the pleasures of the world?\n\n_Applic._ I shall briefly apply this to two sorts of men, those that\nare straitened with want and necessities, and those whose \u2018cups run\nover,\u2019 having all \u2018that their heart can wish.\u2019\n\n(1.) First, To those that think their measure of outward comforts\nlittle, I would from the doctrine now explained tell them that _they\nhave not so much cause to vex and disquiet themselves for their poverty\nor troubles as they apprehend_. The world is not so desirable a thing\nas many dream. Did but men consider how great a snare it is, and what\ndangers attend the fulness of it, they would not so earnestly covet it,\nnor so passionately lament when it flies from them. If thou hast so\nmuch godliness as can quiet thy heart in a contented enjoyment of thy\nlittle, that little which thou hast is better than great riches of the\nwicked. Thou little knowest from what pride, insolency, contempt of God\nand men, and many other temptations and lusts, God doth preserve thee,\nby denying thee earthly things. Thou art now, it may be, often looking\nup to God, striving to believe his word, often examining thy heart,\nlabouring to live upon God and his all-sufficiency, looking after the\nbread that endures to eternal life; when if thou hadst the temptations\nof plenty, it may be feared thou wouldst be another man, and be carried\naway to forget God, to be careless of holy walking, and so make way for\nbitterness and sorrow at last.\n\n(2.) Secondly, I would also caution poor men not _to enlarge their\ndesires too much after the world, but to fear the temptations of the\nworld_. It is not only a snare to those that enjoy it, but to those\nthat want it: for while they admire it, and engage their affections for\nit, it ensnares them in sinful undertakings; they are tempted to lie,\ncheat, dissemble, to use unlawful shifts, to rob, steal, overreach in\nbargaining, and to neglect the care of the soul in all. Let such call\nto mind, [1.] That often the providence of God doth of purpose thwart\nand cross the designs of such, so that though they toil and sweat,\nrunning from market to market, \u2018rising early and sitting up late,\u2019 yet\nhe blows upon their gettings, and they wither to nothing, \u2018while it is\nyet in their hand;\u2019 or if they seem to keep them longer, yet all the\nend they make with them is but to put them into a \u2018bag with holes,\u2019\n[Haggai i. 6,] they \u2018perish by evil travail,\u2019 Eccles. v. 14. [2.] They\noften are at a great deal of labour in pursuit, and then when the\ndesired object is within their reach, they are overwhelmed with their\ndisappointment, as if providence designed to mock them for their folly.\nThis is excellently set forth, in the emblem of a man climbing up a\nrock, with great labour, to reach a crown that hung upon the precipice,\nwho when he had stretched himself to grasp it, falls down and breaks\nhis neck. [3.] And when they do by great toil rake together a heap of\nriches, they are starved frequently in their plenty, and so cursed that\nthey have no more than \u2018the beholding of their goods with their eyes,\u2019\nin that God denies them a \u2018heart to use them,\u2019 Eccles. v. 11. [4.]\nTheir gettings allay not their thirst for more, \u2018He that loveth silver,\nshall not be satisfied with silver,\u2019 Eccles. v. 10. [5.] Often they are\ngiven as a scourge and plague; as the quails given to the Israelites\n\u2018came out of their nostrils.\u2019 The wise man notes it, Eccles. v. 13,\n\u2018Riches are kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, To those that have the delights of the world, plentiful\nestates, full tables, beautiful houses, rich tradings, honours, and\ndignities, I would desire to give the greatest caution, that they take\nheed to themselves, _because they walk in the midst of snares_. They\nshould consider, [1.] That the great God hath laid most serious charges\nupon them, \u2018not to love the world,\u2019 but to withdraw their affections\nfrom it, nay, to be crucified to it, as to any captivating delight,\nand to use it with such an indifferency of mind, that they should be\nin their deportments towards it as \u2018if they used it not.\u2019 [2.] They\nshould have their danger in their eye. How careful is he of his steps\nthat knows he walks in the midst of serpents which are ready to sting\nhim; the thoughts of this should blunt the edge of our delights. If you\nwere at a feast where you knew there were poisoned dishes, you would be\nafraid to eat anything. Do you think that Captain Smith[470] when he\nwas taken by the savages of America, and had plenty of meat set before\nhim, which he knew was given to fatten him that he might be better\nmeat when he was killed, had any stomach to eat or to drink? Was that\nfeast pleasing to him that sat under a sharp sword hung over his head\nin a horse hair, when he expected every moment it should fall upon him\nand kill him?[471] Such are great men, rich men. With what fear and\ncare should they use these things, when they know there is hazard of\nmischief from them upon every occasion! How much doth Christ speak in\nthat one sentence, \u2018It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a\nneedle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven\u2019! [Mat.\nxix. 24.] He means not that it is absolutely impossible, but extremely\ndifficult, and the difficulty lies in the hindrances which their riches\ncasts before them. [3.] They should carefully consider for what ends\nGod gives these, and to what use they are to be put. Rich men are but\nGod\u2019s pursers; they do but \u2018carry the bag,\u2019 and what is put therein,\nfor public uses. If accordingly, as faithful stewards, they lay it out\nupon those that have need, they shall \u2018make friends of the unrighteous\nmammon,\u2019 and it will turn to a spiritual account: but if they think\nthat all is for themselves, and so shut their bowels and purses from\nothers, then they carry the bag no otherwise than as Judas did, and\nwill be easily persuaded to sell Christ and heaven for a little more of\nearth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\n _Of Christ\u2019s answer in the general.\u2014That these temptations were upon\n design for our instruction.\u2014Of the agreement betwixt Eph. vi. and\n Mat. iv.\u2014The first direction.\u2014Of courageous resolves in resisting\n temptations.\u2014Its consistency with some kind of fear.\u2014The necessity\n of this courage.\u2014Wherein it consists; and that there is a courage in\n mourning spirits._\n\n\nThese answers of Christ to the several temptations, which are now to be\nexplained, are different as to their matter, yet the general purport of\nthem being the same, I shall therefore handle them together. They may\nbe considered two ways:\u2014\n\n1. First, _As they are fit and pertinent answers to particular\ntemptations, of distrust, of presumption, of debauching the heart by\nworldly delights to the service of Satan_; and thus may they be useful\nin their consideration, to those who are directly moved by Satan to\nsuch sins. And when at any time we are tempted in straits to cast away\nour reliance upon the careful providence of God, we may look upon\nChrist\u2019s answer, that man\u2019s life doth not so depend upon the usual\nmeans, but that any other thing blessed by divine appointment may be\nuseful to that end. When we are enticed to presume of extraordinary\nsupports, then by Christ\u2019s example the temptation may be resisted, by\nconsidering, that however God be to be trusted, yet he is at no time to\nbe tempted by unnecessary expectations in the neglect of the ordinary\nmeans. If our hearts be wooed by worldly delights to cast off our care\nof God and religion, we may then call to mind that this is abominable\nidolatry, and so may we turn off our hearts from sinful compliance by\ncharging our souls with the opposite duties, upon a true discovery of\nthe vileness and inconvenience of the transgressions urged upon us.\n\n2. But, secondly, They may be considered as they give _instruction for\nthe management of our spiritual armour against all Satan\u2019s wiles in the\ngeneral_; and in this sense I shall endeavour to open them, laying down\nfirst these two conclusions:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _That the whole business of these temptations, as permitted\nto Satan, and submitted unto by Christ, was certainly upon design_. The\nsame wisdom that contrived the wonderful method of the salvation of\nmen by a Redeemer, did also order these temptations; for else Christ\ncould have prevented them, or by a divine authority commanded silence\nto the tempter, and by his power might have chased him away. As Christ\ntold Pilate, \u2018Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except\nit were given thee from above,\u2019 [John xix. 11;] thereby manifesting\nthat his suffering was from a higher design than he was aware of; so\nmight he have said to the devil, \u2018Except this had been designed by an\neternal counsel, thou couldst not have made this attempt.\u2019 So that we\nmust look further for the spring and rise of this, than to any supposed\noccasional outbreaking of satanical malice upon him.\n\n(2.) Secondly, That this design, however it touched upon the person and\noffices of Christ, as mediator and second Adam, for thus it became him\nto overcome the enemy at the same weapon by which he overcame our first\nparents, and by this personal experience, to be fitted with feeling\ncompassions to the tempted, yet was it _wholly for our sakes_, as may\nappear by two things:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, In that Christ, if his answers had only concerned himself,\nmight have given other fit replies to the first temptation, of turning\nstones to bread. He could have retorted the argument upon Satan, as\nJerome and others observe.[472] If I am not the Son of God, it is in\nvain to require a miracle of me. If I am, it is in vain to tempt me.\nOr he might have answered, \u2018That as the Father hath life in himself,\nso hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and that by this\ndivine power he could sustain himself without bread.\u2019[473] To the\nsecond it might have been a sufficient answer to have excepted against\nhis unfaithfulness in citing that testimony out of Ps. xci., where,\nby discovering his wilful omission of the clause, \u2018in all thy ways;\u2019\n\u2018He shall keep thee in all thy ways;\u2019 his temptation might have fallen\nto the ground, as no way encouraged from that promise. To the third\nmight have been returned such answers as these: that Satan\u2019s offer was\na lie; that it was not in his power to dispose of the kingdoms of the\nworld\u2014that these were Christ\u2019s already; that these were vain arguments\nto draw him from the glory of a heavenly kingdom; and finally, that\nof all creatures Satan, being God\u2019s sworn enemy, had least reason to\nexpect divine honour.\n\n[2.] Secondly, In that all Christ\u2019s answers were from Scripture, which\nis properly a \u2018light to the steps of men,\u2019 and all these scriptures\ncited shew man\u2019s duty. He saith not, \u2018the Son of God shall not live\nby bread alone,\u2019 but \u2018man lives not by bread alone;\u2019 he saith not,\nChrist must not tempt, but thou, man, shalt not tempt the Lord thy\nGod, &c. By all which we may discern that Christ answered not by\narguments peculiarly agreeable to his person and nature, but by such as\nsuit the general state of God\u2019s children. And this certainly was for\nour advantage. He conquered with such weapons, not for any necessity\nthat he had to take that course, but for the need that we had of such\ninstruction; for hereby we see that Satan is conquerable, and also how\nwe must use our weapons.[474] In this also he left us \u2018an example, that\nwe should follow his steps;\u2019 as Gideon said to his soldiers, \u2018As you\nsee me do, so do you likewise,\u2019 [Judges vii. 17.] Thus, as it were,\ndoth our Lord speak to us: For your sakes suffered I these temptations,\nthat I might teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight; for\nyour sakes I used these weapons of yours, rather than my own, that I\nmight shew you the use of your sword and shield, and how your adversary\nmay be overcome by them; dealing herein with us as a master at arms,\u2014it\nis Musculus\u2019s comparison,\u2014who, for the better instructing and animating\nof his tyro, takes rather his disciple\u2019s sword than his own, to beat\nhis adversary withal, minding not only the conquest of an enemy, but\nalso the encouragement of a young soldier.[475]\n\nIf any carry a suspicion in their mind that Christ had not our\ninstruction so much in his eye as hath been said, because he gives\nnot such particular instructions for our spiritual welfare[476] as\nthe apostle in Eph. vi., expecting that our Saviour should have been\nmore punctual in making particular applications from every part of\nhis carriage to our use, and drawing out from thence some positive\nconclusions or draughts of the way and manner of resistance, they may\nknow that there is no other difference betwixt Eph. vi. and Mat. iv.\nthan there is betwixt precept and example. What the apostle there\nprescribed in the theory, here Christ teacheth in the practice; here we\nhave in their use the girdle of truth, the shield of faith, the sword\nof the Spirit, the helmet of salvation, and all the other parts of that\narmour; and withal we may know that this is a far more advantageous way\nof teaching young beginners, to let them see things in a plain example,\nthan only to give general precepts. But besides, we are to consider\nthat Christ did many things, the meaning whereof the disciples then\npresent with him did not know as yet, neither was it expected from\nthem that they should; like to what he said to Peter, John xiii. 7,\n\u2018What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter;\u2019 but\nwere intended to be laid up in store to be more fully made use of, as\nafter-directions should come in to give them information. He therefore\nthat had purposed to give further light in this matter by his apostle\nand servant, was now doing that which his design led him to in his\npersonal actings, with a secret respect also to those instructions\nwhich he intended after to communicate. We have then no reason to be\njealous that these temptations were not intended for our use, but the\nmore to assure ourselves that it was even so, because we find that\nthose very weapons which here Christ in his own person wielded against\nSatan, are afterwards recommended to us.\n\nHaving thus laid the foundation, we must then, if we will imitate our\ncaptain, carefully observe his deportment from point to point, that we\nmay draw out those instructions which he intended for us.\n\nAnd the first thing that I shall take notice of, shall be the courage\nand magnanimity of our leader. He had endured temptations forty days\nand nights before, and yet he keeps the field without any appearance of\nshrinking or running away. Satan no sooner tempts than he is repelled.\nFrom this consideration we have this instruction:\u2014\n\n_Direct._ 1. _That he that would successfully resist temptations, must\nnot fly, but with a courageous resolve set himself to oppose._\n\nChristians are apt to fear, when Satan comes up against them, and ready\nto turn their backs: as the Israelites were dismayed at the appearance\nof Goliath, and fled before him. But if we would conquer, we must, as\nDavid, go out against him in \u2018the name of the Lord.\u2019 To this we are\ncalled, 1 Cor. xvi. 13, \u2018Stand fast in the faith, quit yourselves like\nmen, be strong;\u2019 and Eph. vi. 14, \u2018Stand, having your loins girt with\ntruth,\u2019 &c. This courage recommended is not a contempt and negligent\nslighting of danger, nor is it a bold adventurousness upon occasions of\nsin; it is a holy, humble courage, and doth admit of a threefold fear.\n\n(1.) First, _Of a fear of sin_, that is, a hatred of it. We must\nfear sin as the greatest evil. This is no cowardice, but tends to\nthe strongest resolution and highest endeavours against it. From\nthis principle is it that men oppose sin as their mortal enemy, and\nexcite their utmost courage to fight against it. As the Philistines\nbeing afraid of Israel, and yet hating to serve the Hebrews, mutually\nencouraged one another, \u2018Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye\nPhilistines.\u2019 A fear of hatred begets boldness.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Courage admits _of a preventing fear and a provident\navoidance_. Occasions of sin are to be fled. We are not with greater\nearnestness called upon to stand, than we are warned in this case \u2018to\nfly.\u2019 So the apostle often, \u2018fly fornication,\u2019 \u2018fly idolatry,\u2019 \u2018fly\nyouthful lusts.\u2019 Occasions are best opposed by flying, where calling\nand duty doth not engage: Prov. iv. 14, \u2018Enter not into the path of the\nwicked, and go not in the way of evil men.\u2019 He fights best that flies\nmost, where necessity doth not bid him stay, 1 Cor. vi. 18, x. 14, and\n2 Tim. ii. 22.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, It also admits of the fear _of a holy jealousy_; such a\ndistrust of ourselves, as puts us to seek to \u2018the rock which is higher\nthan we\u2019 for shelter. God calls us to \u2018turn into our stronghold,\u2019 Nahum\ni. 7, and to \u2018lay hold upon his strength,\u2019 [Isa. xxvii. 5.] It is\nrashness or desperateness, and not true courage, to adventure ourselves\nwithout our guard or shield. But however we must fear sin, suspect our\nstrength, and fly occasions, yet Satan we must not fly. Here we are bid\nto stand, for these reasons:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _It is impossible to fly from him_. He can follow us\nwherever we go. If we go to holy assemblies, he can come thither. If we\nshut up ourselves in our closets, he can meet us there. If we betake\nourselves to a wilderness or to a crowd, to be sure he will find us out.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _We are expressly charged to make resistance_: James iv.\n7, \u2018Resist the devil;\u2019 1 Peter v. 9, \u2018whom resist.\u2019 This plainly speaks\npositive endeavours and opposition on our part.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _A fainting fear is an unbelieving distrust of Gods\npower_, as if he were not \u2018able to save to the uttermost,\u2019 [Heb. vii.\n25,] and of Christ\u2019s compassionate tenderness, as if he would not\n\u2018succour those that are tempted,\u2019 [Heb. ii. 18.]\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _Our fainting makes Satan insult_. He triumphs when\nwe turn our backs, and besides hath the greater advantage to wound\nus or to tread us down at pleasure. It is observed that God provides\narmour for head and breast, and all the fore parts, by a shield in case\nof resistance; but if we fly, so little encouragement is there for\ncowardice, there is no armour for the back.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _It is most suitable to Christian courage to die in\nthe place, and to put it to the utmost hazard rather than to yield_.\nAccording to Vespasian\u2019s motto, _Oportet imperatorem stantem mori_.\nEvery Christian should say, \u2018Shall such a one as I fly?\u2019 [Neh. vi. 11;]\none that hath given up my name to God; one that hath professed holiness\nafore men; one that hath so many advantages for resistance, and such\nsweet encouragements from a victorious general!\n\n_Quest._ But the great question is, What is this fear that is\nforbidden, and the courage which is enjoined?\n\n_Ans._ The fear forbidden is an unbelieving weakness and pusillanimity,\nthrough which, as hopeless of success, men throw down their weapons and\nyield themselves up to Satan, when the hearts of men fail them to the\ngiving up of the victory.\n\nSpiritual courage, on the contrary, is a serious resolve of fighting it\nout in the strength of the Lord, and it consists of these two parts:\u2014\n\n_First, A sincere resolution to be on Christ\u2019s side against all\niniquity_, a deliberate unfeigned determination to stand for God\nand his holy ways, against Satan and sin. [1.] The ground of this\ndetermination is a conviction of the evil of sin, even to a hatred of\nit. He that hath not thoroughly weighed the misery of living in sin,\nand fully purposed within himself to forsake it, can have no true\nChristian courage when it comes to a pinch. [2.] From this ground\nhe lays himself under solemn engagements to Christ his general, as\nsoldiers list themselves under their captains, that he will follow him\nand observe his commands; he gives up himself to God by covenant. So\nthat now he is no longer his own, but Christ\u2019s servant, bound for his\nwork. [3.] And this with such or so much belief of his promises for aid\nand victory, that he hath some hopes or expectations at least, that God\nmay at last so assist him that he may attain to some real degree of the\nmortification of the \u2018flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof,\u2019\n[Gal. v. 24.]\n\n_Secondly_, The second part of this courage consists in _a suitable\nmanagement of this undertaking_. Courage is not only seen in the first\nonset, but in the prosecution of the warfare; and this lies in two\nthings. [1.] When there are real endeavours against sin, answerable\nto this undertaking, in all ways of striving to oppose it. When men\ndo not engage against sin with big words only; or as the children\nof Ephraim\u2014who, arming themselves and carrying bows, seemed to have\nstout resolves, but then \u2018turned back in the day of battle;\u2019 but with\nreal and conscientious wrestlings, setting themselves with all their\nmight and care against every temptation, and studying to pursue the\nvictory, where in any degree it is obtained, to a greater height. [2.]\nWhen these endeavours are sincerely persisted in, without being quite\nwearied out or utter fainting, so that it never comes to this, though\nthey may be sometime under Satan\u2019s feet, that they relinquish their\nfirst solemn engagement, or repent of their undertaking, and then\nturn their backs upon God, listing themselves under Satan\u2019s colours.\nSuch a fainting as this would bereave men of their crown; \u2018Ye shall\nreap in due time if ye faint not,\u2019 Gal. vi. 9. Upon this hazard are\nthe children of God cautioned, Heb. xii. 3, \u2018Lest ye be wearied and\nfaint in your mind.\u2019 [3.] There is also a particular kind of courage\nexpressed in a holy and humble contempt of Satan\u2019s suggestions, when\nafter all means used they cease not to be troublesome. This is not to\nslight sin but to slight Satan, who, though he is resisted, ceaseth not\nto molest.[477]\n\n_Applic._ I shall particularly apply this first direction, [1.] To\nthose that propound ease to themselves in their race or warfare,\nwhich is a thing impossible to one that doth the work of a soldier,\nnot considering that work and courageous endeavours do abide them.\n[2.] To those that pretend themselves Christ\u2019s soldiers, courage and\nChristian magnanimity is your cognizance. By this must you be known.\nHow do ye stand? what are your resolutions and undertakings? Those\nChristians that have \u2018joy and peace in believing\u2019 can more easily\nsatisfy themselves in this; but those that fight in tears and grief,\nin disquiets and troubled thoughts, are apt to conclude themselves\nunbelieving, because they are fearful; or to think that they look not\nup to Jesus, the \u2018author and finisher of their faith,\u2019 because they\napprehend themselves weary and \u2018faint in their minds.\u2019 For the ease\nand help of such, I shall shew in a few things that there is as real\na Christian courage in such mourners as in some that sing songs of\ntriumph.\n\n[1.] First, It is a real courage and undertaking against sin for\nany to resolve his utmost, _out of detestation of it, before he can\nsatisfy himself that God will accept of it_. To oppose sin under such a\ndiscouragement, or at such a venture, is a courageous hatred; and yet\nso do these mourners.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _To be under continual grievings because of\nmiscarriages, so that other things of outward enjoyment cease to be\npleasing_, is a courageous hatred; but this is their case.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _To wrestle against sin under high discouragements_,\nwhen afflicted and tossed, when Satan runs upon them and shakes them\nby the neck, and yet they continue their wrestling and withstanding\nas they are able; this is faithful resistance, \u2018a resistance unto\nblood, striving against sin,\u2019 Heb. xii. 4; that is, if that expression\nbe proverbial, like that, _ad sanguinem usque_, they resist sin\nfaithfully, under great hazards and inconveniencies, even to wounds\nand blood, till they have broken heads and broken faces; and can say\nto God, though we have been \u2018broken in the place of dragons,\u2019 and have\nthese wounds to shew, yet \u2018have we not departed from thee,\u2019 [Ps. xliv.\n19,] nor quitted our desires after thee and holiness, for all these\nbuffetings of Satan; but this is the character of these dejected ones.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, It is a courageous hatred that cannot _suffer a sinful\nmotion to fall upon the soul, but it puts all into a combustion\nwithin, and raiseth disquiet_; for it is an argument that there is a\ncontrariety betwixt the heart and sin; but this is their case also.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, It is courage and constancy _to hold on in gracious\nendeavours and strivings_; so that when they fall, as soon as they can\nre-collect their strength they set on where they left, and renew the\nbattle, never changing their first resolve for holiness against sin.\nThis is implied in the apostle\u2019s phrase of \u2018standing,\u2019\u2014Eph. vi., \u2018That\nye may withstand, and when ye have done all, to stand.\u2019 He is accounted\nto stand that runs not out of the field, but stands to his holy resolve\nto the last, though the battle go sore against him by fits; but such\nare these mourners.\n\nThere is true courage under mourning and disquiet of heart, so that we\nmay say to such, \u2018O thou afflicted and tossed,\u2019 fear not, \u2018the glory of\nthe Lord shall shine upon thee,\u2019 [Isa. lx. 1.] They that are weak in\nthis sense shall be strong as David.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\n _The second direction, that temptations are not to be disputed.\u2014The\n several ways of disputing a temptation.\u2014In what cases it is convenient\n and necessary to dispute with Satan.\u2014In what cases inconvenient, and\n the reasons of it._\n\n\nThe next thing observable in Christ\u2019s carriage to Satan is this, that\nChrist, though he rejected every temptation by giving a reason of his\nrefusal from the command of God, did not suffer Satan to dispute his\ntemptations further than the first proposal, and in his answers he\ntakes no notice of the reasons or motives by which he laboured to make\nhis temptations prevailing. In the two first temptations he gives no\nreply to what Satan insinuated by his supposition, \u2018If thou be the Son\nof God,\u2019 neither by affirming that he was so, nor discovering to him\nhis knowledge of the secret subtlety which he had wrapped up under\nthese plausible pretences. In the third he answers not a word to the\nvanity and falsehood of his deceitful offer of \u2018the kingdoms of the\nworld,\u2019 though, as hath been observed, he might have opposed strong\nreasons against them all; and besides, when Satan became insolent and\nimpudent in tempting Christ \u2018to fall down and worship him,\u2019 he chaseth\nhim away with a severe abomination, \u2018Get thee hence, Satan;\u2019 from which\nwe have a second direction, which is this:\u2014\n\n_Direct._ 2. _That temptations to sin are to be opposed by peremptory\ndenials rather than by disputings._\n\nThis is a note which most commentators have on this place; but it\nstands in need of a distinct application, because it is not a rule so\ngeneral but that the practice of God\u2019s children have made exception\nagainst it. For the clearer explanation of it, I shall,\n\n1. First, _Give you the several kinds of disputings, by which we may\nsee that all are not alike_; for,\n\n(1.) First, _The serious working of the thoughts in a quick denial of\na temptation with a reason implied or expressed, though it admit not\nSatan to any further dispute or argument, may in some sense be called\na disputing_; for the Scripture useth \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2 for any inward,\nserious thought. Such a kind of disputing as this is necessary. It\ncannot be wanting to any that refuse a sinful motion, this being, as\nwe shall see afterward, one of those directions which Christ intended\nus by his example, and the very thing which Christ practised in every\ntemptation; for he contented not himself to give a naked denial, but\nstill adds a reason of such refusal. Those who in general terms urge\nthat temptations are not to be disputed, do not reckon this as any\ndisputing; and others that do, taking disputing for the refusal of a\nthing with a reason assigned, think that his procedure in the two first\ntemptations is not imitable by us, but only that of the third, wherein\nhe chased away the devil with angry denial; but the mistake is obvious.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _There is a disputing of unnecessary curiosity and\nconference_. This is when a sinful motion injected into our hearts\nis not directly consented to, but then instead of a full denial men\nbegin to raise questions and make objections of lesser moment, or some\nimpertinent queries which strike not at the root; as one observed of\nhimself, that instead of denying a sinful motion, he began to dispute\nwhether it came from Satan or his own inclination; and so, instead of\nquenching the fire, he busied himself to inquire whence it came. Men\ndeal with temptations in this case as they who being asked whether they\nwill buy such a commodity, hastily answer no, but yet call back the\nparty again and ask whence it came, or what it must cost, and by such\nentanglements of curiosity engage themselves at last to buy it. Eve\nfailed by such an inconsiderate conference with Satan, for the abrupt\nbeginning of the serpent\u2019s speech, \u2018Yea, hath God said ye shall not\neat,\u2019 &c., and the summing up of the arguments which prevailed with\nher to eat, \u2018When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and\npleasant to the eyes,\u2019 &c., [Gen. iii. 6,] do clearly evidence that\nthere was more discourse than is there expressed, and that also tending\nto ascertain the goodness, pleasantness, and profit of the fruit. This\nkind of disputing is always unlawful and dangerous, for it is but a\nwanton dalliance with a temptation, a playing upon the hole of the asp,\nand commonly ends in a sinful compliance.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _There is a disputing of a deliberating and parleying\nindifferency_. This is when the devil puts a thought of sin into their\nminds, and, while they seem not to be forward to embrace it, leaves\nit to further consideration, and then they float betwixt resolved and\nunresolved, betwixt _pro_ and _con_, being at a great dispute within\nthemselves what is best to be done, whether the conveniences on the one\nhand will weigh down the inconveniences on the other. This, in cases of\napparent sin, is a wicked halting betwixt two, always unlawful.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _There are also treacherous partial arguings, wherein\nthe heart takes part with Satan_. These are those debates that are to\nbe found in natural men, about the doing or not doing of sinful things.\nThis looks so like the combat betwixt the flesh and the Spirit, that\nit hath occasioned an inquiry how they may be distinguished each from\nother. It is generally concluded that in that strife of the natural\nman, the light of the understanding and conscience gives opposition to\nthe bent of the affections, and the same faculties, though sanctified\nin part in the regenerate, are the parties that give opposition each\nto other; but with this principal difference, that in this strife of\nthe flesh and Spirit the man takes part with God, whereas in the other\nthe affections take the devil\u2019s part, and in a malignant averseness\nto the light, strive to put it out and to get over the conviction of\nconscience, so that the man strives to sin, and to stop the mouth of\nsuch objections as come in to the contrary; this kind of disputing is\nalways sinful.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, _There is yet a disputing in a strict sense, which\nis a full and solemn debating of a satanical injection, by giving\nit the full hearing, and admitting Satan to be a respondent to our\nobjections_. Of this it is queried how far it may be convenient and\nhow far inconvenient, because we see Christ in this place did not thus\ndispute with Satan, and yet we find instances in Scripture of some holy\nmen that have been unavoidably engaged to dispute a temptation to the\nutmost.\n\nTo answer this query, I shall, secondly, shew in what cases it may\nbe necessary or convenient to enter the lists with Satan in a holy\narguing, and in what cases it is inconvenient and dangerous. There are\nfour cases in which we may dispute a temptation:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, When the motion is of things _doubtful and disputable,\nwhether they be lawful or not_. Here it cannot be avoided; for albeit,\nas the apostle adviseth, Rom. xiv. 1, \u2018doubtful disputations\u2019 are not\nto be imposed upon others, so as to tie them up to our persuasions, yet\nin these things every man, before he can act clearly, is to endeavour\nhis own satisfaction in the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the thing,\nthat so he may be \u2018fully persuaded in his own mind,\u2019 ver. 5. And he\ngives two strong reasons of this, ver. 22, 23: (1.) From the rack and\ntrouble which otherwise the man may be put upon, while his conscience,\nunsatisfied, \u2018condemneth him in that which,\u2019 by a contrary practice,\n\u2018he alloweth.\u2019 (2.) In that this condemnation of conscience, while he\ndoth that, the lawfulness whereof he believeth not, is an evidence of\nhis sin, as well as an occasion of his trouble.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Disputings have place, when _a temptation hath taken\nhold upon the thoughts, and so far possessed itself that our corruption\nriseth up in the defence of the suggestion_. Satan will not quit\nthat hold, though he be an intruder without our leave, till he be\nbeat out of his quarters. The apostle, Eph. vi. 16, implies so much\nby that expression, of \u2018quenching the fiery darts\u2019 of Satan. It\nis not proper to understand it of a refusal of the first motion of\nsin\u2014though interpreters do usually make it comprehensive both of the\nkeeping out of the dart, and the plucking it out\u2014because this evidently\nsupposeth that the dart hath pierced the soul, and now begins to burn\nand inflame, which will require more labour for the quenching of it,\nthan a refusal of the first motion would put us to. As when fire hath\ntaken hold upon our houses, we shall be forced to bring water for the\nextinguishing of the flame, which before it had broke out upon the\nbuilding, an ordinary care might have prevented. And this we [are]\nfurther taught by a distinction which the same apostle useth in the\nsame place, of \u03c3\u03c4\u1fc6\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 and \u1f00\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u1fc6\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9, standing and withstanding. We\nmust keep off the temptation, that it enter not, by standing against\nthe assault in a peremptory refusal; but if it do enter, then we must\nbe put to it, by a force of holy arguing, to pull out the arrow, and to\nwithstand it.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Much more need have we of disputing, when the present\ntemptation is _a motion of such a sin which we are habituated unto, and\nhave long practised_; for these kind of sinful motions are not cast\nout easily. In this case, David adviseth his enemies, Ps. iv. 2-4, who\nhad for a long time, \u2018loved vanity, and sought after leasing,\u2019 that by\n\u2018communing with their own heart,\u2019 and by disputing against their sinful\npractices, they should bring themselves under a holy awe, and by that\nmeans stop the course of their sinning, ver. 4. This, indeed, is the\ngreat thing that sinners are called to by God, to ponder their estate,\nto consider their ways, to study the evil and danger of sin, to examine\nthemselves, and to reason together with God about the wickedness and\ningratitude of their actions, and about the contrary loveliness,\nblessedness, and happiness of the ways of God, that so they may be\nbrought to repentance; all which are done only by a serious arguing of\ntheir case and hazard.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, It is convenient, and in some cases necessary, to\ndispute a temptation which Satan offers to us, _by the mouths of men,\nwho entice us to share with them in their wickedness_; for here, by\narguing, we may not only discourage their further solicitation, and so\nfree ourselves from the like temptation for the future, but we also,\nby the exercise of a holy charity, endeavour to \u2018pull them out of the\nfire,\u2019 Jude 23. When Joseph\u2019s mistress tempted him, he considered that\nhe had to deal both with the devil and his mistress, Gen. xxxix. 7, 8,\nand therefore that he might \u2018resist the devil,\u2019 he peremptorily refused\nthe temptation; but that he might take off his mistress from her\nunlawful prosecution, he argues with her about the ingratitude, danger,\nand unlawfulness of such an act, \u2018My master wotteth not what is with me\nin the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand: there\nis none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept anything\nback from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do\nthis great wickedness, and sin against God?\u2019 When sinners do entice us\nto cast in our lot amongst them, pity to them, and care of ourselves,\nwill engage us to argue the folly and danger of their ways with them,\nexcept they behave themselves as dogs and swine; their carriage giving\nus just ground to conclude, that they are so set on wickedness, that\nit may endanger us, rather than profit them, to debate with them. And\nso was it likely\u2014and the text seems to hint so much\u2014that when Joseph\nperceived his mistress was resolved upon the pursuit, and that his\nreasonings were not minded, he persisted in his denial, but forbore his\narguings.\n\nBut however it may be convenient to dispute, in the last mentioned\nsense, in these four cases\u2014and others may probably be added\u2014yet there\nare cases in which it will be inconvenient and hazardous to dispute or\nargue, and of this order I shall reckon four.\n\n[1.] First, It is not safe to dispute the matter in _vile, infectious\ntemptations, such as are either suitable to our inclinations, or\nmay receive a favourable aspect and countenance from the posture of\nour affairs and condition_. These temptations, even in our debating\nagainst them, are like the opening of a sepulchre, which sends forth\na poisonous stream[478] which may infect those that loathe and resist\nit. It is dangerous to admit fire into the same room where there is\ngunpowder, though there be no intention to kindle it. It hath been an\nold observation, that the very confession of infectious sins, though\ndesigned to beget shame, and resolution against them for the future,\nhave kindled a new flame, by the unnecessary declaration of the manner\nand circumstances, so that they have returned from the confessor\nmore infected than when they went; and those very persons whose care\nit should have been to have put the highest disgrace upon sins so\nconfessed, to the begetting of loathing and abhorrency in the parties\nand themselves, have by too curious an inquiry received such poison at\nthe ear, that the heart hath been forthwith infected. The like hazard\nremains to those that are willing to debate such sins with Satan; for\nthough they begin upon the score of resistance, yet the very dwelling\non such a subject, when admitted to lay itself open, doth convey such\namorous looks unto the treacherous affections, that the heart is in\ndanger of a secret poison. There is no better way in such cases than to\ncommand all such thoughts and considerations out of our coasts, and,\nas we do when the city or town we live in is infected, to withdraw\nourselves from the air of such a temptation. We may observe the like\ncare in Joseph, though he thought himself concerned at first, as hath\nbeen said, to oppose the unlawful suit of his mistress, yet seeing her\ndesperately set upon her folly, he declined all communication with\nher, and would not be with her, Gen. xxxix. 10; and at last, when she\ncaught him by his garment, \u2018he left it in her hand and fled,\u2019 ver. 12.\nHe might easily have rescued his garment from her, had he not been\naware that his contesting against her might have been an occasion of\nensnarement to himself. Christ himself, when he was tempted by Peter\nto spare himself, [Mat. xvi. 22,]\u2014which was a temptation very taking\nto human nature, especially when suffering and death is in view,\u2014is\nmore short and sparing in his reasoning against it, than he was when\nthe devil tempted him. He gives no positive reasons against it, as\nhe did when he was tempted to \u2018fall down and worship the devil,\u2019 but\ndischargeth himself from any further consideration of the matter by\na declared abhorrency of the thing, \u2018Get thee behind me, Satan, for\nthou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things which be\nof men.\u2019 Which is as if he had plainly said, This is so apparently\nfrom the devil, and so much abhorred by me, because so suitable to my\ncondition, that I will not so much as discourse of it or consider it.\n\n[2.] Secondly, Generally in all temptations, though they have not\nthe advantage of our present special estate or inclination, as hath\nbeen noted, _of an apparent withdrawment from obedience, or of\nthings unquestionably sinful, it is not convenient to dispute them,\nbut to dismiss them by a denial, except some of the forementioned\nconsiderations do alter the case_. In known cases we need not parley,\nbut stoutly deny. Our resolutions for duty, and against sin, should\nnot be to seek. We are certain that sin is to be avoided, and duty to\nbe practised; here we should be peremptory. Abraham being certain of\nduty, when God called him to \u2018a place which he should afterward receive\nfor an inheritance,\u2019 he disputed not the uncertainty, the danger or\ninconvenience that possibly might attend his removal, but went out,\n\u2018not knowing whither he went,\u2019 Heb. xi. 8. Paul being called by God\nto preach among the heathen, though \u2018flesh and blood\u2019 were ready with\narguments against it, yet he would not so much as confer with them,\nbut immediately obeyed, Gal. i. 16. Like instances I might fetch from\nother holy men. Cyprian, when the president gave it to his own choice\nwhether he would obey or be put to death, commanding him to take it\ninto consideration, he readily replied, _In re tam sancta non est\ndeliberandum_, that it was not to deliberate in so plain a case. Mrs\nAnn Askew, when at the stake ready to be burnt, a pardon was offered by\nthe Lord Chancellor; she would not so much as look on it, but returned\nthis answer, that she came not thither \u2018to deny her Lord and Master.\u2019\nBishop Hooker,[479] in the same condition, had a box laid before him\nwith a pardon in it, which when he understood\u2014he was so afraid of\ntampering with a temptation\u2014he cried out, \u2018If ye love my soul, away\nwith it; if ye love my soul, away with it.\u2019 And many others there were\nin all ages, so far from accepting such \u2018unlawful deliverances,\u2019 that\nthey would not take into consideration the unrighteous terms upon which\nthey might have escaped.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _When a temptation, after all means used, continues to be\ntroublesome, and is rather an annoyance than an infection, then must\nwe not dispute it, but by a holy contempt despise it_. Temptations to\nblasphemy are oft of this nature, as hath been noted in its place, and\nthere are other things by which Satan creates to God\u2019s children great\ndisquiet, while they in the meantime abhor the sin, and cry out of the\ntrial. Here when the \u2018messenger of Satan\u2019 will not depart, it is an\nadvice that hath the general approbation of holy experienced men,[480]\nthat we should despise the temptation, as an approved way to our quiet\nand ease; for while we think to repel such assaults by struggling with\narguments, we do but increase the force of them; as he that thinks to\nshelter himself against the wind, by holding up his cloak before him,\ndoth but derive upon himself a stronger blast.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is\nnot convenient to dispute the matter with Satan_. David in Ps. xlii.\n11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was \u2018cast down\nwithin him,\u2019 and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared\nhimself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a\nwrong course, he calls off his soul from, disquiet to an immediate\napplication to God and the promises, \u2018Trust still in God, for I shall\nyet praise him;\u2019 but in Ps. xi. 1, he is more aforehand with his work,\nfor while his enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects\nthe temptation at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and\nchaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to: \u2018In thee,\nLord, do I put my trust; how say ye then to my soul, Flee as a bird to\nyour mountain?\u2019 And there are weighty reasons that should dissuade us\nfrom entering the lists with Satan in temptations of inward trouble. As,\n\n[1.] First, _The determination of the sincerity of the soul and\nits converted state is a question of no small difficulty_\u2014a knotty\ncontroversy, more intricate and abstruse than those controversies that\nin the schools are of greatest name for difficulty; for this is liable\nto more weighty objections, and stands in need of nicer distinction. As\nDr Goodwin observes,[481] \u2018They that converse with dejected spirits,\nfind so much quickness and nimbleness of reasoning, turning every way\nto ward off the force of an argument brought for their consolation,\nthat even wise and able heads are oft put to a stand, and know not what\nto answer.\u2019 Would it then be fit to give Satan this advantage? or to\nadmit him so far into our reasoning? He that will invite Satan to such\na contest, shall be sure to have his hands full.\n\n[2.] Secondly, This kind of temptation doth usually _disable men\nfor arguing_; it oftentimes confounds the brain, stupifies the\nunderstanding, and weakens the memory. Heman complains of himself\nas \u2018distracted by terrors,\u2019 [Ps. lxxxviii. 15.] Job calls himself\ndesperate, [chap. vi. 26.] Such persons are not surely in a fit case to\nmanage a temptation with so cunning a sophister as Satan.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, If they descend into the battle, he is not only _too\nstrong for them, but commonly after a while they take Satan\u2019s part\nagainst themselves, and comply with him, concluding against their own\npeace_.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, _There is also a better way at hand than to enter into\na dispute_; and that is, by going to God by a present faith, love or\nrepentance, when the truth of any of these is questioned. It is a\ndifficult task to prove sometime that former acts of faith, love, or\nother graces were sincere. This may admit of such objections from a\nwounded spirit, that it will be hard to answer them; but in this case\nit is a nearer way to see if there be not in all these complainings\nsome present acts of these graces; whether such complainants are not\nwilling to embrace Christ upon any terms, whether they do not hate\nsin, whether they would not unfeignedly be reconciled to God, &c. It\noft falls out that this doth stay the trouble when examinations of\nformer acts do nothing for them. Some men are at more pains, as one\nsaith, to repair and fit an old building, than would serve to rear\na new one. Yet must it be remembered that though it were the best\ncourse to resist temptations of this nature at first, by avoiding\nunnecessary disputings, notwithstanding when this\u2014as I noted before\nof other temptations\u2014hath seized upon the heart and taken possession,\nthen shall we be forced to \u2018fill our mouths with arguments,\u2019 and\nwhether we will or no, must we undergo a contest. As we see in David,\nwho when his troubles had prevailed upon him, was forced to plead with\nGod, with himself, with the temptation, and to have recourse to former\nexperience, \u2018the days of old, and the years of the right hand of the\nMost High,\u2019 [Ps. lxxvii. 10,] and all little enough.\n\nAll that I shall further say concerning the inconveniences of\ndisputing with Satan, shall be to give you _the reasons manifesting\nthese unnecessary communings with him to be every way hazardous and\nunsuitable_. As,\n\n(1.) First, _It is an honour to Satan, and a disgrace to ourselves_.\nMen are loath to be seen contesting with persons of a far inferior\nrank, especially in such things which have procured to such a noted\ninfamy. It is a usual piece of generosity in men of spirit that they\nscorn to strive with a scold, or contend with a beggar, or be found\nin company of those that are under an evil name deservedly; and in\nmatters that are vile and base, it is highly disgraceful to admit\nthem to a debate. Such things will either get more credit than they\ndeserve, while they seem to be countenanced by a dispute, or else shall\ncommunicate their discredit to those that shall shew such familiarity\nwith them.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _By refusing to dispute temptations, we raise up in\nour hearts an active abhorrency of them, and by that abhorrency we\nare cautioned and strengthened against them_. It must needs awaken\nour hatred into a present activity against that sin, which our\nconsideration at first view presents to us so abominable, that it\ndeserves no other answer but to be whipped out of our sight. And when\nour heart is thus alarmed, it cannot but stand upon its guard. It is a\ncourse that holy men have taken to keep men at a greater distance from\nsin, to present it as a thing of greatest abhorrency; and that is the\nintendment of that expression, Rom. vi. 1, \u2018Shall we sin, that grace\nmay abound? God forbid,\u2019 The vileness of that abuse of gospel grace he\nshews by setting it below the merit of any serious thought; he sharpens\ntheir apprehensions against it by an outcry of detestation. The like\nhe doth, Eph. v. 3, where he endeavours to set their hearts against\nuncleanness and coveteousness, by telling them that it was unbecoming\nsaintship that such things should be \u2018so much as once named by them.\u2019\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Disputing is a secret invitation to the devil to urge\nthe temptation further_. We do but toy with him, and give him occasion\nto follow us. Eve found the truth of this by sad experience; she so\nmanaged herself, that she plainly intimated she had a mind to hear\nwhat the devil could say for the eating of the forbidden fruit; and\nso urged the prohibition of God, and the threatening, that she sought\nfrom Satan a confirmation of her secret unbelief rather than faithfully\nendeavoured a repulse of the temptation, and mentioned the threatening\nunder such terms of uncertainty and peradventure, as an objection which\nshe desired might be removed, rather than from a firm belief of that\ndeath spoken of, fortifying herself in her duty; by all which Satan\nwas so encouraged to proceed, that he presently confirmed her in her\ndistrust.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _These disputings usually return nothing of advantage\nto our account, but to Satan\u2019s_. We unnecessarily enter the lists\nwith him, and that upon very unequal terms, he being, as Saul said\nof Goliath and David, a \u2018man of war from his youth,\u2019 and we but\nweak, unskilful striplings. We go out of our trenches and leave our\nweapons behind us. We expose our naked breasts to all his darts, and\nby discoursing with him he gains time wherein the poison may more\npowerfully work upon our affections. If he was too hard for our first\nparents at this weapon, we, whose hearts are not so faithful to God as\ntheirs in innocency, but corrupted by Satan, who hath also a party in\nus, are not likely to come off with triumph.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, _These presage, consequently, an overthrow_. A parleying\ncity holds not long out. It implies in itself an inclination to yield,\nwhen armies are willing to treat. Daily examples and experience of\nthose that give up themselves to sin after communication with Satan\nsadly witness this truth.\n\nThe sum of this direction is this, that when a motion of sin is put\ninto our heart, instead of disputing where it may be avoided, we should\nperemptorily deny it and send it away with an angry rebuke or severe\nabomination: I may not do it; How can I do this wickedness? Get thee\nhence; or, \u2018The Lord rebuke thee, Satan.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\n _The third direction, of repelling a temptation without delay.\u2014The\n necessity of so doing.\u2014What a speedy denial doth contain._\n\n\nThe magnanimity of Christ, and the peremptoriness of his denial, we\nhave noted. We must further observe the immediateness of his answer;\nhe suffered not any of these motions to stay long with him; here was\nnot a _Cras tibi respondebo_, Come again to-morrow and I will answer.\nHe would not take time with the devil, but had his answer ready. No\nsooner was he tempted, but the temptation was repelled; for these\nexpressions\u2014\u2018But he answered and said;\u2019 \u2018Jesus said unto him;\u2019 \u2018Then\nsaith Jesus unto him,\u2019\u2014shew the quickness and speediness of these\nreturns, that he answered presently, forthwith. Hence we have a third\ndirection in our resisting of Satan, which is this:\u2014\n\n_Direct._ 3. _Temptations are best answered when they are presently\ndenied and forthwith repelled._ The direction is of great importance;\nit is not for us to pass by a temptation with silence, or to defer an\nanswer. For these reasons:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, The nature of temptations, _as dangerous or infectious,\ndoth sufficiently enforce a necessity of their speedy removal_. Things\nof danger require a sudden stop. If poison be taken into the body,\nwe speedily labour to cast it up, or to overcome it by antidotes. We\nlabour to stay the spreading of a gangrene presently. Who thinks it fit\nto delay when fire hath taken hold upon a house? The very opportunity\nof help is in the speediness of the endeavour. It is too late to bring\nwater when the house is consumed, too late to apply a remedy when the\ndisease hath conquered. They that consider what a temptation is, will\nsee no reason to move slowly in opposing.[482]\n\n(2.) Secondly, _Silence encourageth Satan_. It is not with him as it is\nwith men; it is the policy of some to overlook their petitioners, and\nby silence to scare them from any further address; but Satan hath more\nimpudence than to be put out of countenance by delay, and more active\nmalice than to be discouraged by silence; nay, it doth on the contrary\nembolden him. Modest requests are disheartened by silence, but such\nmotions which, by their nature, imply a disgrace, and carry no reason\nfor their acceptance but what they expect to find in the consent of\nthose to whom they are made, if they be not presently refused, they\ngive encouragement to hope for entertainment. An immodest request to\na chaste matron, if not forthwith expressly abominated, encourageth\nto further attempts. Sin being so great an affront to a holy heart,\nthe motion of it cannot be entertained with silence, but Satan is\nemboldened to expect consent in time, and follows his advantage\naccordingly. He usually flies at a valiant peremptory resistance; but\nif the pulse of the soul beat slowly upon the motion, he grounds his\nhope upon that, and is animated to a further procedure.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, _Our wills are apt to be inclined by delay_. Though grace\nhave made straight our crooked natures, yet we still carry such a sway\nto our former dispositions, that a small thing, having the advantage of\nour natural bias and inclination, makes us, like a deceitful bow, turn\nto our old stand. For the understanding and will of the regenerate are\nbut imperfectly good, the faculties that should obey are unruly. In\nsuch a case how dangerous may delays prove! Who will suffer a seditious\nincendiary in an army, formerly inclined to mutiny? Who will permit\nleaven to remain in that mass, which he desires may not be leavened,\nand not quickly remove it? Who will neglect a spark upon dry tinder,\nthat would not have it consumed, and not instantly put it out? If it\nwas so great a mischief to Eve in innocency, as hath been said, to\ndelay her peremptory denial, of how much greater hazard is it to us!\nDelays are dangerous to a very proverb, and silence may end in consent.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, _Silence is also some degree of consent_. It is strange\nto find a man delaying an answer to temptation, and yet no way guilty\nof consenting. In things that are to be opposed with care and hatred,\nno man can withhold his hand without blame. He that is not against\nSatan, who is to be perpetually resisted, is so far for him as he is\nnot against him. He that delays justice which is due, denies it. The\njudge in the parable was called unjust, not because he had devoured the\nwidow\u2019s house, but because he deferred to do her right.[483] He that\nhinders not evil when and as soon as he can, doth command and approve\nit. These are received axioms amongst men, and have the same truth in\nthem if applied to resistance of temptations. And this may further\nappear by considering, [1.] The weakness of the will in the regenerate.\nWhen our wills are really set upon good and against evil, yet we cannot\nsay they are perfectly for the one and against the other, but that\nthere is still some degree of averseness to good, and of inclination\nto evil in our wills, or else we should not meet with complainings of\nimperfections under sincere resistances; as in the apostle, \u2018The evil\nthat I would not, that do I,\u2019 [Rom. vii. 19.] [2.] The acts of the\nwill in consenting may be so sudden, short, and quick, that they may\nbe almost insensible, and as forward and ready as the motion. [3.] The\nwill may be interpretatively voluntary and consenting, when yet it\nforms not in itself any positive approbation. It may be guilty, in that\nit doth not more strongly and speedily dissent: for the suspension or\nnegation of the will\u2019s act, where it ought to act, cannot avoid the\ncharge of coming short of duty.\n\n(5.) Fifthly, Not to answer presently, _is to lose the best opportunity\nof answering_. It is less dangerous, more easy, more comfortable to\nbe speedy in denial. The sooner fire is put out, or the disease is\nstayed, the less hurt is done; and it is far less labour to quench a\nspark than a flame; to pluck up a young plant than an old standard;\nto kill the cockatrice in the egg. A temptation opposed speedily, is\nwith greater ease overcome, than after it hath settled though but a\nlittle: for it presently makes a party within us; our affections are\nsoon engaged, our understanding soon bribed, and then we have not only\nSatan but ourselves to oppose; and this self so divided, that when we\ncome to fight, our wills are against our wills, our affections against\nour affections, our wishes and prayers clash and contradict each other.\nAs Austin confesseth of himself: \u2018I prayed,\u2019 said he, \u2018and then feared\nlest thou shouldst hear me too soon; I desired to satisfy, rather than\nto extinguish lust.\u2019[484] At the first assault the soul is oft in a\nbetter posture, more unanimous and consistent with itself; then is\nthe golden opportunity of resistance. For, as one saith,[485] it is\nbetter to do it while reason is on our side, than when both reason and\naffection conspire against us. And, lastly, it would be more honour\nand satisfaction to us, rather not to have admitted such a guest,\nthan after such admittance into our thoughts to be forced to cast him\nout.[486] In the review of our actions we shall have more comfort to\nhave been resolute against any sin than to hold our peace.\n\nThe necessity of a quick and speedy rejection of a sinful motion\nis then beyond dispute, and there needs no more to be said for the\nexplanation of this direction, but an account of what is implied in a\nspeedy denial. It contains these four things:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, _That it must issue from a fixed determination against\nsin_. Some refuse a temptation with the same mind that carried Lot\u2019s\nwife out of Sodom, and are forced beyond their own inclination, but\nthese go not far till they \u2018look back;\u2019 and no wonder: for if he\nthat is sincerely peremptory against sin at the first motion, may by\nthe solicitation of the flesh be inclined afterward, there is little\nexpectation that he whom the first motion finds indifferent and but\ncoldly denying, should hold out long. But that refusal that must give\nany encouragement to hopes of success, must be an answer of holy\nindignation against the offer of temptation, and that confirmed into a\nserious resolve of heart not to yield.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _This positive denial must be also wisely jealous of\nSatan, in motions that are unlikely, or that may seem light, little,\nand not directly intended_. Though it may be but a transient glance,\nor a thing that is out of our road, yet must nothing be contemned\nor undervalued. Jealousy will take notice of small actions or\ncircumstances, and no less suspicious must we be of every proffer made\nto us, lest Satan by any means get an advantage against us.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _The refusal must be so quick, that it may be ready to\ntake the temptation by the throat_. At the first motion or rising of\nit in our mind, we must endeavour to stifle it in the birth, that it\nmay be as the \u2018untimely fruit of a woman that never sees the sun,\u2019 [Job\niii. 16;] we must not give it time to grow up to a rod of wickedness,\nbut must nip it in the earliest buddings of it. It is the nature of\ngrace, if we do but faithfully pursue the inclinations of it, to be\nquick in its opposition. So doth the apostle\u2019s phrase teach us, Gal. v.\n17, \u2018The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the\nflesh:\u2019 the spirit is as ready to repel, as the flesh to suggest. No\nsooner doth the one stir, but the other is ready with an opposition,\nand the reason of it is from the active contrariety that is betwixt\nthem; for so the word, \u1f00\u03bd\u03c4\u03af\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, there used, would express it; they\nare sworn enemies, animated by principles of constant opposition, as\nwater and fire are, which cannot meet in peace together, but a present\nnoise and combat is raised from this conjunction.\n\n[4.] Fourthly, When this is done, _we must endeavour to maintain and\nstick to our first disallowance_. A child of God, I know, in sinful\nyieldings of infirmity, may say as the apostle, \u2018What I do, I allow\nnot,\u2019\u2014that is, [1.] What he then consents to, he did not allow at the\nfirst, till importunity prevailed. [2.] Though his affections incline\nto sin, yet his constant settled judgment is against it; and though he\ndo it, he cannot say he approves it. Neither of these are the things\nI aim at; but this, that as the first motions of sins are disallowed,\nwe should endeavour to keep at that, to stand our ground, to withhold\nthe least after-delight or approbation. Not but that we must be forced\nsadly to acknowledge the real truth of what the apostle speaks in the\nplace last cited, that these different principles, which of them soever\ncarry the victory, do so impede one another, that when grace carries\nit, yet it cannot do the utmost it would or aims at; so that in the\nstoutest oppositions, there may be some secret degrees of allowance\nunavoidably; notwithstanding we must so manage our denial, that, if it\nwere possible, we should not afford the smallest inclination toward it;\nthe least, the better and nobler conquest.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\n _The fourth direction, of repelling a temptation by Scripture\n arguments.\u2014Of several things implied in the direction.\u2014The necessity\n of answering by Scripture arguments.\u2014The excellency of the remedy.\u2014How\n Scripture arguments are to be managed._\n\n\nThe next particular in Christ\u2019s answers to be observed by us is\nhis citations of Scripture as an invincible reason against all the\ndevil\u2019s temptations; he beats them all back with this weapon, \u2018It is\nwritten.\u2019 That this was written for our learning, and that, otherwise\nthan for our instruction, he lay not under any necessity of using\nthis method, hath been evidenced before, and it is a thing which\nall commentators[487] do take notice of. From this we have another\ndirection for the right way and order of resisting temptations, which\nis,\n\n_Direct._ 4. _That temptations are best repelled by arguments drawn\nfrom the word of God._\n\nFor the explanation of this, it may be considered what is first\n_presupposed in this direction_; for when it is affirmed that we must\nanswer by reasons from Scripture, this implies\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _That temptations are not to be opposed by groundless\nrefusals_. It is no way safe to say we will not, because we will not,\nnor to insist upon our own bare resolve; for this would be wilfulness,\nrather than an obediential refusal, and unwarrantable self-confidence,\nrather than a humble wrestling. There are some, of whom it may be\nsaid, as the prophet once charged the Jews, Isa. xxii. 11, that when\nSatan comes up against them, they look in that day \u2018to the armour of\nthe house of the forest,\u2019 they \u2018repair the wall,\u2019 and \u2018cast ditches\nfor fortification;\u2019 they prepare themselves to the battle \u2018in their\nown strength, but they look not unto the maker thereof,\u2019 to him who\nby his mighty power must fashion our hearts to resistance. The vanity\nof such undertakings is enough manifested in the event, for commonly\nsuch men go on in a bravado of resolution, but are so altered at the\nfirst appearance of the enemy, that they yield without a stroke. Who\ncould be more confident than Peter that he would not deny his Master,\nwhatever others did? and yet how soon did his heart fail him. We may\nwarrantably deny a sinful motion, without being explicit in our reason\nagainst it, especially in usual temptations, and when they thrust\nthemselves into our minds at such times when our thoughts are charged\nwith an attendance upon other duties, in which nevertheless the heart\nhath a secret and implicit regard to the command of God; but in no case\nmust we go down to the battle in the strength of a wilfulness, lest it\ngo against us. And thus do they who, when they are reproved for some\nmiscarriage, as of drinking, will presently with great confidence make\nengagements not to drink wine or strong drink, not to go into a tavern\nor alehouse, without any humble respect to duty, or the power of God\nfor the conquest of the sin; and accordingly we see that usually such\npromises and obligations do not hold; either they wilfully break them,\nor they become sinfully witty to make evasions for the practice of sin,\nwithout the breach of the oath or promise.\n\n(2.) Secondly, The direction supposeth that _we must deny the sin with\nthe arguments of greatest strength and authority_. There were occasions\nand hints of other answers to these temptations that offered themselves\nin Christ\u2019s way, and yet he waives them all, fixing only upon Scripture\nreasons as the best and strongest. It is no Christian wisdom to urge\nthose inferior considerations of shame, loss, inconvenience, &c. Some\nhave no other reason betwixt them and sin, but _What will men say?_\nor _What will become of me?_ But besides that, these would only be a\ntrain to bring on disputings, and that it is no way safe to venture our\nsouls upon such defences, when better may be had; for who will venture\nhis life upon a staff when he may have a sword? It is easy for Satan\nto break these bows, and to cut these spears in sunder. He can balance\nsuch reasons with equal reasons, and presently make us believe that we\nhave as good reason to commit the sin as those urged by us for the not\ncommitting of it.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, This direction of using Scripture reason doth clearly\nimply that _the force and power of Scripture is not in the words or\ncharacters, but in the mind and reason of it_; not that Scripture used\nas a charm or spell, as if the devil were afraid of the sound and words\nof it, can beat back the devil, but it is the authority of its command\nwhich works upon the mind the highest impressions of fear and care, and\nas a strong argument prevails with us to forbear. Notwithstanding the\nplainness and undeniableness of this inference, not only do ignorant\nmen bless themselves against the devil by repeating some phrases or\nsentences of Scripture impertinently, and such as have no direct\nsignification of the matter in hand betwixt Satan and them, as if the\ndevil could not endure to hear the _paternoster_, or durst not come\nwithin the sound of the name Jehovah, but also papists\u2014and of them\nsuch as might be supposed more considerate than to be carried by such\nconceits\u2014have placed a virtue in the words and sounds of Scripture,\nand therefore do they command, though under some limitations and\nrestrictions, the hanging of sentences of Scripture about the neck\nin scrolls, for the driving away of evil spirits, though in a clear\ncontradiction to the reason which they give in the general against\nthis course, which is this, that the \u2018power of Scripture is not in the\nfigures and characters, but in the mind and understanding of it;\u2019 and\ntherefore profits as \u2018pondered in the heart,\u2019 not as \u2018hung about the\nneck;\u2019 and upon as slender grounds do they place a more than ordinary\nvirtue, in the angelical salutation, in the seven words upon the cross,\nin the triumphal title, \u2018Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,\u2019 &c.[488]\nSuch kind of oppositions are but a mock to Satan. We cannot think to\n\u2018bore the jaw of this leviathan with a thorn,\u2019 or to come to him with\n\u2018this bridle,\u2019 or to \u2018play with him as with a bird,\u2019 [Job xli. 2;] he\ndurst allege scripture himself to Christ, and therefore it is not the\nphrase or sound that affrights him.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, The direction doth imply _an argumentative, proper,\nand fit use of Scripture commands or promises_. We see Christ urged\nnot any scripture indifferently, but he used fit words, and chose to\nhimself select smooth stones out of this brook to sling against this\nspiritual Goliath. Every temptation had an answer that doth most fully\nand properly confront it. He regarded the main of the temptation, and\nsuffered not himself to be diverted from that prosecution, by engaging\nhimself in that which might have been perplexed and controversial,\nthough he had a fit opportunity to reprove Satan for a dishonest craft\nof representing scripture in a sense of his own making, and so might\nhave rejected the temptation of casting himself down, as leaning upon a\nfalse foundation, in that God did not promise in Ps. xci. to preserve\nany that should presumptuously expect a protection while they run out\nof God\u2019s ways; yet he waived this answer, and opposed the assault by a\nplain scripture which chargeth the contrary duty.\n\nSecondly, Having seen what this direction doth imply in these things\nthat are to be removed from the sense and intendment of it, I shall\nnext, for ascertaining of the reality and importance of it, shew that\ntemptations are to be resisted by Scripture arguments, by these two\nevidences:\u2014\n\n(1.) First, _God\u2019s recommending of the commands of Scripture for such\na purpose_: Deut. vi. 6, \u2018These words which I command thee this day,\nshall be in thine heart: and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine\nhand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes,\u2019 &c. Whether\nthe latter part of the command is to be understood literally, as the\nJews apprehended and practised, though some think otherwise, is not\nnecessary to be asserted, seeing it is granted by all that they were\nto have the commands of the law so ready in their minds and memories,\nas if they had been written on their hands and upon their foreheads.\nThat God designed this precept for the resistance of sin and temptation\ncannot be doubted, and that the advantage which might hence arise to\nthem was not only the information of their minds, in point of sin and\nduty, is as unavoidable; for that and more is intended by that part of\nthe injunction, \u2018These words which I command thee, shall be in thine\nheart;\u2019 but when? Besides this information, which the knowledge of the\nlaw would afford them, and their humble compliance with it, as just\nand good, which would enable them to say, \u2018Thy law, O Lord, is within\nmy heart;\u2019 he further enjoins them the quick and ready remembrances\nof these laws, as if they were \u2018frontlets between their eyes, and\nsigns on their hands.\u2019 It can signify no less than this, that in so\ndoing they would be able to resist those motions by which Satan would\nseek to engage them to the violation of these commands. Neither need\nwe to doubt hereof, when Christ himself hath so fully taught us, by\nhis own example, in resisting temptations, the particular use of the\nremembrance of the law. In the New Testament the apostle is most\nexpress in this matter: Eph. vi. 17, \u2018Take the sword of the Spirit,\nwhich is the word of God,\u2019 where not only the use of Scripture commands\nand promises against Satan\u2019s suggestions is taught, but also the high\navail and potency of this weapon in reference to its end. It is called\na sword, and in that comparison it shews the active resistance which\nmay be made by it; and it is called, not a sword of flesh, for \u2018the\nweapons of our warfare are not carnal,\u2019 but \u2018of the Spirit,\u2019 to shew\nhow mighty it is in repelling Satan.\n\n(2.) Secondly, Another evidence of its usefulness is from _the success\nwhich the children of God have had in the right management of this\nweapon_. It is observable that while Christ answered by Scripture,\nSatan was silenced, and had not what to reply to the answer, but was\nforced to betake himself to a new temptation. David in many places\nhighly magnifies the power of the command, in the success he had by\nit; Ps. xvii. 4, he shews how available it was to preserve him in his\ncommon converse from the sinful snares laid before him, \u2018Concerning\nthe works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the\npaths of the destroyer.\u2019 In Ps. xviii. 22, 23, he tells us that he was\nshielded from the sins of his inclination and love, which are hardest\nto prevent, by the opposition that he gave to the motions of them, in\nsetting up the statutes of God against them; \u2018All his judgments were\nbefore me, and I did not put away his statutes from me; I was also\nupright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.\u2019 In Ps. cxix.\n11, he puts his _probatum est_ upon the head of this receipt, and\nspeaks of it as his constant refuge, \u2018Thy word have I hid in my heart,\nthat I might not sin against thee.\u2019 In Ps. xxxvii. 31, he speaks of it\nas a tried case of common experience to all the children of God, \u2018The\nlaw of God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.\u2019 I shall\nadd to this the experience of Luther, when, saith he, in Epistle to\nthe Galatians, \u2018the motions of the flesh do rage, the only remedy\nis, to take the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of salvation,\nand to fight against them; of this I myself have good experience; I\nhave suffered many great passions and vehement, but so soon as I laid\nhold of any place of Scripture, and stayed myself upon it, as upon an\nanchor, straightway my temptations did vanish away, which without the\nword had been impossible for me to endure, though but a little space,\nmuch less to overcome.\u2019[489]\n\n(3.) Thirdly, The excellency of this remedy will further appear from\nthese following reasons:\u2014\n\n[1.] First, In that it is _a universal remedy_. There can be no\ntemptation, either of seducement or of affrightment, but the Scripture\nwill afford a suitable promise or command to repel it. So that it,\nlike the flaming sword in the cherubim\u2019s hand at paradise, turns every\nway to guard the soul. I need not give instances of its power against\nsinful motions, having done that already, and of such temptations\nwhich war against the peace of the soul. I need but say this in the\ngeneral, that as the nature of such temptations is to disguise God,\nand to render him dreadful to us, in the appearances of wrath and\nincompassionate implacableness\u2014and this Luther sets down as a certain\nrule\u2014so have we in Scripture such declarations of the mind and tender\ninclinations of God, and such full and clear promises to assure us of\nthis, and those so adapted to every case, to every kind of hard thought\nwhich we might take up against him, that we may find enough in them\nto break all those malicious misrepresentations of Satan, and to keep\nup in our mind \u2018right thoughts of God;\u2019 which if we will adhere to,\nnot suffering such promises to be wrested out of our hands, nor our\nhearts to give way to malignant impressions of cruelty, revenge, or\nunmercifulness in God, though we be cast into darkness, into the deeps,\nwe may find some bottom on which to fix such beginnings of hope, as\nmay at last grow up to a spirit of rejoicing in God our Saviour; and\nin this case, when our heart and Satan dictate to us that God is our\nenemy, we ought, as it were, to shut our eyes, to refuse to hearken to\nour own sense and feeling, and to follow the word; but if we once give\nup the word of promise, it is impossible the wound of conscience should\nbe healed with any other consideration.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _This remedy is comprehensive of most other remedies\nagainst Satan\u2019s temptations_. In Eph. vi., there are several other\npieces of spiritual armour recommended, and yet there is such a\nmanifest mutual respect betwixt this and those, that any may conclude\nthat however they be distinguished in their names, yet they are\nconjoined in their operation. The girdle, so far as it relates to\ntruth of judgment and opinion, depends on the word of Scripture for\ninformation; the shoes, which are defensive resolves to walk with a\nsteady foot in the ways of religion, notwithstanding the hardships\nthat attend holiness, are prepared to us, by the comfortable and\npeace-bringing promises of the gospel; the righteousness which is our\nbreastplate, is only set forth and wrought out to us by the Scripture\nand its ordinances; faith which is our shield, and hope which is our\nhelmet, they neither of them act without the warrant and encouragement\nof it; and whereas other parts of the armour are defensive, this of\nthe Scripture is compared to the sword, which not only defends, but\nalso offends and beats back the enemy. If the matter be seriously\nconsidered, all these parts of armour are but these two, the graces\nof the Spirit\u2014faith, hope, patience in their sincere exercise, and\nthe word of Scripture as the instrument by and in which they shew\ntheir operations; so that all this armour being put to use, in every\nparticular temptation, it amounts to no more than this we are speaking\nof, viz., that sinful motions are to be rejected by a believing,\nsincerely resolute opposing of them, with arguments from the word of\nGod.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, Scripture, as it is the word and command of the great\nKing of heaven, hath _a daunting and commanding authority over the\nconsciences of men_. \u2018Where the word of a king is, there is power,\u2019\nEccles. viii. 4, and such is the majesty of a divine law, that it hath\npower over the consciences of those that are yet in their sins, and can\nwound, affright, constrain, and bind even the rebellious; so that so\nlong as they retain any of their natural impressions of a divine power,\nthey have some awe for his commands, which may be seen and argued,\nwhere it would be least expected, from the enragement of the hearts\nof sinners, when \u2018sin by the commandment,\u2019 accidentally, \u2018becomes\nexceeding sinful,\u2019 Rom. vii. 13, 14. For as that outrageous fierceness\ndoth arise from the contrariety that is betwixt a carnal heart and a\nspiritual law; so that contrariety would never work if the authority of\nthat law, having a power to restrain, and give check to the corruption\nof the heart, were not some way owned by the conscience; for where no\ncountermanding law is owned, there can be no irritating, provoking\nrestraint. This it can do to the vilest of men; but of how much more\npower may we imagine the word to be with good men, whose hearts tremble\nat the word, when they \u2018bind the law upon their heart,\u2019 and charge\ntheir consciences with it? It is surely \u2018quick and powerful, sharper\nthan a two-edged sword,\u2019 [Heb. iv. 12;] nor doth it only, by unlovely\naffrightments, terrify them from sin, but by commanding duty make the\nheart in love with it, so that it becomes a delightful satisfaction to\nbe preserved from the snare.[490]\n\n[4.] Fourthly, There is no argument that can be used against\ntemptations that can be more _afflictively discouraging to Satan_.\nSatan, as bad as he is, cannot but believe those truths which he knows,\nand he knows that there are many truths in Scripture which respect\nhim, as threatenings of punishment and divine vengeance; he believes\nthese things and trembles, James ii. 19. His unavoidable knowledge or\nremembrance of these things begets horror in him, he cannot but be\nunder a dread of these truths. What can be supposed so to wound him\nas the bringing these things to memory, by urging the command of God\nagainst him? Dr Arrowsmith[491] gives two instances of this kind, the\none of Christopher Haas in Sweedland\u2014from the epistle dedicatory to\nthe five tomes of Brentius\u2019s works\u2014the other of Daniel Cramer, rector\nof a school at Stettin in Germany; on both which the devil made a bold\nattempt in a personal appearance; from the first, demanding a catalogue\nof his sins in writing; from the other, demanding a paper in which\none of the students had obliged himself to Satan\u2019s service; they both\nreferred him to that text of Gen. iii. 15, \u2018The seed of the woman shall\nbruise the head of the serpent.\u2019 And this was retorted upon him with\nsuch a strong exercise of faith, that he presently desisted the suit\nand vanished.\n\n[5.] Fifthly, _This weapon cannot easily he wrested out of our hands_.\nWhen we urge a divine prohibition against a temptation, what can he\nsay in answer? he cannot deny it to be the word of God, or to be true,\nor that we are not obliged to it. He made none of these returns to\nChrist, but, by his silence, owned that it was God\u2019s holy command\nobliging us to duty. Neither dares he stand upon these exceptions to\nus, except he find our faith inclined to waver, or our minds weak and\nwounded by inward troubles of spirit; and when he puts on a boldness\nto deny Scripture to be the word of God, or that it signifies God\u2019s\nreal intendments in his threatening\u2014for by begetting unbelief of the\ntruth of Scripture, and by suggesting hopes of escape and pardon,\nnotwithstanding the violation of the commands of it, he wrests, when he\ndoth prevail, this weapon out of our hands\u2014yet he is forced to fetch\na compass, and by many previous insinuations to make his way to these\natheistical assertions. Thus he did with Eve, first, finding her a\nlittle inclinable, he dropped in privily something that might argue the\nimprobability of the threatened penalty, and then at last positively\ndenied it. But now if we hold to this, that \u2018the command is true and\nholy, and just and good,\u2019 he cannot wrest our plea from us.\n\n[6.] Sixthly, _Nothing doth more undermine temptations, by rendering\nthe reasons and motives thereof vain and empty, than doth the contrary\ncommands of Scripture_. Temptation hath always some enticement of\npleasure or profit, and these only seem to be taking or reasonable,\nwhile we consider not the word of God, as rotten wood or fish shine\nonly in the dark; but when we are urged with sinful pleasures, how\nmean, base, dangerous, and unlovely be they, when the command to the\ncontrary gives information that they are snares and lead to death, or\nthe provocation of the Almighty.\n\n[7.] Seventhly, _While we resist with Scripture arguments, we engage\nGod, whose command we would stand by, to go down to the battle with\nus_. We \u2018lay hold upon his strength,\u2019 and put obligations upon him\nto take us out of the snare, and to deliver us from him who is \u2018too\nstrong\u2019 for us.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, It remains that, in a word, I shew _how the commands or\narguments of Scripture are to be used in resisting Satan_, which is\nthus, When you have any sinful thought cast into your mind, presently\nreject the offer, by charging your heart with duty, from some opposite\ncommand; as if you be urged to acts of uncleanness, presently refuse,\nthus; No, I must not, God hath commanded the contrary, he hath said,\n\u2018Thou shalt not commit adultery.\u2019 If a covetous thought arise, reject\nit with this, God hath said, \u2018Thou shalt not covet.\u2019 If you be tempted\nto please the flesh, and follow vain delights, answer it with this, \u2018If\nye live after the flesh, ye shall die;\u2019 and the like must be done in\nother temptations.\n\n_Obj._ Some may perhaps think that this is easy work and quickly done,\nand that it seems to attribute a virtue and power to the words of\nScripture, as if Satan were charmed by the language or phrase.\n\n_Ans._ However at the first view this may seem easy, yet he that shall\nconsider how much exercise of grace goes necessarily to the right use\nof Scripture opposition, shall not see cause to slight it as common,\nnor yet to think that any virtue is attributed to the words. For,\n\n[1.] First, The Scripture here is only recommended _as a fit\ninstrument, and no further or higher praise is given_. Though therefore\nwe may attribute the whole of the conquest to the instrument alone,\nyet this hinders not, but that as an instrument peculiarly fitted for\nthese ends, we may commend it above all other instruments, as we may\njustly commend bread for nourishing above a stone, and expect more\nfrom it than from a chip; so have we reason to expect more by the use\nof Scripture against Satan, than from other means of defence which God\nhath not set up for that service.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _It is a concomitancy of divine power and aid that\nconquers for us_. The instrument is Scripture, but the power by which\nit works is from God.\n\n[3.] Thirdly, _Neither is it any careless formal use of Scripture\nexpressions that will give encouragement for expectation of a divine\nconcurrence_; but the use of Scripture in this business implies an\nexercise of all graces, for it is an urging of Scripture under a\nfourfold consideration.\n\n_First_, As being certainly persuaded of their truth, and fully keeping\nto that belief.\n\n_Secondly_, As being thankfully apprehensive of the holiness, goodness,\nand profitableness of the commands, and cheerfully adhering to them\nas the only way and means to bring us to union with Christ, and to\npreserve us in it.\n\n_Thirdly_, As being highly and indispensably obliged by them to perform\nthe duty commanded therein, and to avoid the sins forbidden.\n\n_Fourthly_, All this in a humble expectation of a divine help,\naccording to the promise of God. Now he that can plead the command or\npromise against a temptation in this manner, doth not do an ordinary\nwork, neither will he ascribe the success to the words and phrase of\nScripture.\n\nSome may, peradventure, wonder why Christ, by his example, had not\nrecommended prayer, seeing it is of such unquestionable use in our\nundertakings against Satan. But that inquiry may be fully satisfied,\nif it be considered that Christ did peculiarly prepare himself to this\nencounter by \u2018solemn fasting,\u2019 ver. 2, which doth include praying;\nfor such complicated duties are often denominated by that part which\nis extraordinary, and usually in Scripture a fast is only mentioned\nwhere prayer is chiefly intended. That this fast of Christ related to\nthe temptation, and that also as a means of preservation, hath been\nspoken of in its place; it remains only that from hence I add a fifth\ndirection.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\n _The fifth direction, of prayer, and of the seriousness required of\n those that expect the advantage of prayer.\u2014Of God\u2019s hearing prayer\n while the temptation is continued.\u2014Of some that are troubled more,\n while they pray more._\n\n\n_Direct._ 5. _That in all our endeavours of resistance, frequent and\nearnest prayers are not to be neglected._\n\nThis is so frequently recommended, and so fully handled by most\nauthors, that I shall refer you to such authors as particularly\ntreat of it; noting only that the apostle, in Eph. vi. 18, when he\nrecommends it to us in these words, \u2018Praying always with all prayer\nand supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all\nperseverance, and supplication for all saints,\u2019 he doth mind us that he\nthat expects the advantage of that duty must be peculiarly fitted, and\nseriously diligent in that work. For,\n\n(1.) First, _He must have a praying frame of heart_; he must \u2018pray\nalways,\u2019 or, as the apostle elsewhere, he must \u2018pray continually.\u2019 Not\nas if this duty must swallow up all the rest, and that a Christian\nhad no other services to attend than prayer, but that he must be on\na design to wrestle with God by prayer; and this must be constantly\ncarried on, though the acts of prayer be intermitted; and besides\nthat, in such cases, he may keep his usual stated times for that duty,\nhe must have his heart so much upon his design, that every occasion\nor offer of temptation will presently put him upon the duty; nay, he\nmust, in respect of the frequent intercourse of his heart with God\nin frequent ejaculations and breathings of soul, be as a man wholly\nresolved into that duty, as Paul was at his first conversion, who, as\nthat expression \u2018behold he prays\u2019 [Acts ix. 11] doth intimate, seems to\nhave been all prayer, and wholly taken up with that duty.\n\n(2.) Secondly, _He must pray in the spirit_, his soul must be truly\nin the duty. A more than ordinary earnestness is necessary at solemn\ntimes, he must put out all his strength, he must cry mightily, and with\nhis whole heart.\n\n(3.) Thirdly, When his spirit grows dull, _he must reinforce it_, watch\nhis heart he must; and if it be needful to quicken it up, he must add\nfasting or meditation, or whatever other means may be helpful.\n\n(4.) Fourthly, In this course _he must continue without giving off the\nduty_. Though God behave himself as if he minded not his cry, or took\nno notice of his hazard, yet without weariness must our supplications\nfollow him. It must be continued with \u2018all perseverance.\u2019\n\n(5.) Fifthly, _The heart that undertakes this must not be so narrow\nas to be centred upon his own concern only_. When he is melted into a\nspirit of meekness and compassion for others, and is not so solicitous\nfor peace or ease, that he could hug himself in his private enjoyment\nwithout concerning himself to tender and help those that are in the\nsame dangers, when his supplications are for \u2018all saints\u2019 as well as\nfor himself, then may he expect to receive an olive branch of peace\nfrom heaven in the return of his prayer.\n\n_Obj._ It is often objected by such, that they pray but are not\nheard; and that temptations continue, notwithstanding many cries and\nwrestlings.\n\n_Ans._ [1.] First, _It is a great mistake to think that prayers are not\nheard or do not prevail, because the temptation is not quite removed_.\nPrayers may be acceptable to God, and recorded among his remembrances,\nwhere the temptation, for exercise and other holy ends, may be\ncontinued.\n\n[2.] Secondly, _What God hath promised to such prayer, he fails not\nto make good_. He hath not promised to exempt us from temptation, but\nfrom the power and prevalency of it. If \u2018his grace be sufficient for\nus,\u2019 2 Cor. xii. 9, in the meantime, it is an answer as good as Paul\ngot when he was importunate; \u2018If together with the temptation he gives\nan issue, that we may be able to bear it,\u2019 1 Cor. x. 13, there is his\nfaithfulness in keeping promise. He nowhere promised that Satan should\nnot tempt, but that he should not prevail. While we can hold up our\nhands in the mount to God, and our praying frame will ascertain us of\nthis; \u2018for a man is never overcome by a temptation so long as he can\npray against it;\u2019 for so long he delights not in it so long he consents\nnot, and till he do consent Satan cannot prevail. Prayer will either\nmake the temptation give way, or the temptation will make prayer give\nway; but so long as we hold out with earnestness, the temptation cannot\nprevail.\n\n_Obj._ Some further object, that the more they pray they are the worse,\nand more infested by Satan than they were before they undertook that\ncourse.\n\n_Ans._ 1. _It may be they may have more trouble from Satan._ David\n\u2018thought on God, and his trouble was increased,\u2019 [Ps. xxxix. 3,]\nand no wonder. Satan\u2019s spite and fury puts him upon giving greatest\nmolestations to those of whom he despairs to subdue.\n\n_Ans._ 2. Secondly, But though they may be more troubled, _yet they may\nbe furthest from conquest_.[492] These disquiets are like the trouble\nof the working of physic, which at first taking may make a man more\nsick, and yet bring him nearer to a state of health and strength; fear\nnot then, faint not, resist faithfully, and to the utmost, and \u2018God\nshall bruise Satan under thy feet shortly,\u2019 [Rom. xvi. 20.]\n\n\nFINIS.\n\n\n\n\nINDEXES, &c.\n\n\nI.\u2014TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.\n\n  CHAP.           VER.        PAGE\n  Genesis  2.       23          21\n     \u201d     3.        1          22\n     \u201d     4.    11-16         288\n     \u201d     4.       26    431, 432\n     \u201d    10.        4         102\n     \u201d    49.       17          14\n  Exodus  22.       18          27\n  Deut.    6.       16         382\n     \u201d     8.        3         356\n     \u201d    18.       10      27, 28\n     \u201d    23.       18         137\n  Judges  21.   18, 20          78\n  1 Kings 20.       33         377\n  Job     11.       12           3\n  Psalms  37.       34         364\n     \u201d    91.   11, 12    402, seq.\n  Proverbs 3.       23         402\n  Isaiah  41.       23          25\n  Jerem.  18.        9          23\n  Ezekiel 33.       11         298\n  Daniel  10.       13          20\n  Malachi  3.        1         381\n  Matthew  4.     1-11    313, seq.\n     \u201d     4.        1     313-328\n     \u201d     4.        2     328-336\n     \u201d     4.        3     337-341\n     \u201d     4.        4    341, seq.\n     \u201d     4.        5     376-382\n     \u201d     4.        6    382, seq.\n     \u201d     4.        7    402, seq.\n     \u201d     4.        8    415, seq.\n     \u201d     4.        9    430, seq.\n     \u201d     6.       24    441\n  Luke    11.       24     91, seq., 97\n  John     2.   24, 25     24\n     \u201d     8.       54          14\n     \u201d    12.       24          17\n     \u201d    16.                   17\n  Romans   1.       28         143\n     \u201d     3.     7, 8         116\n     \u201d    14.       23         296\n     \u201d    15.       19         142\n     \u201d    16.       18         162\n  1 Cor.   4.       13          40\n     \u201d    11.       29         297\n  2 Cor.   2.       11          55\n     \u201d     4.        4          62\n     \u201d    11.        3         112\n     \u201d    12.        7         238\n     \u201d    13.        5         256\n  Gal.     1.       16         111\n     \u201d     5.     1, 2         200\n     \u201d     5.   20, 21          28\n     \u201d     6.        1         320\n  Ephes.   3.       10          23\n     \u201d     4.       17         144\n     \u201d     4.       27          12\n     \u201d     6.       12          20\n  Philip.  4.        7         210\n  Col.     1.       16      15, 16\n     \u201d     2.        8         203\n  1 Thes.  4.       16          20\n  2 Thes.  2.     9-11         142\n  1 Tim.   1.       20          17\n     \u201d     6.       20         162\n  2 Tim.   2.       16          17\n     \u201d     2.       26          56\n  Heb.     3.       13          53\n     \u201d     6.        4         301\n     \u201d    10.        2         255\n     \u201d    10.       26         301\n     \u201d    11.       37         440\n  James    1.       14          54\n     \u201d     1.   22, 29          55\n     \u201d     4.        4         441\n  1 Peter  5.        8      8, seq.\n  2 Peter  3.       16    411, 412\n  1 John   3.        8          13\n     \u201d     3.       12          12\n     \u201d     5.       16         299\n  Jude               9      19, 55\n  Rev.     2.       24         162\n     \u201d    11.       15          17\n     \u201d    12.       12          11\n\n\nII.\u2014GENERAL MATTERS.\n\n  Abhorrency, 457, 458.\n\n  Absconded, 163.\n\n  Accusations by Satan, 231, 232;\n    direful, 428.\n\n  Acontius, 169, 193, 207.\n\n  Acosta, 198.\n\n  Acquirements, 152.\n\n  Actions, of wonder and astonishment, by Satan, 30;\n    unreasonableness of some, 68;\n    mistake of, 188, 189;\n    Satan uses Scripture to promote sinful, 408.\n\n  Activity in duty, 212.\n\n  Adam, Melchior, 135, 147.\n\n  Additions, 124.\n\n  Admiration, 43.\n\n  Adonis, 180.\n\n  Adoption, Satan seeks to weaken, 374;\n    are all to maintain their? 375.\n\n  Adrianus, 178.\n\n  Advantage pursued by Satan, 45, 46, 251, 258, 259, 345, 346.\n\n  Adventurousness, rash, 320.\n\n  Adversary, Satan an\u2014malice, enmity, power, cruelty, diligence, 10.\n\n  \u00c6sop, 181.\n\n  \u00c6tius Spartianus, 178.\n\n  \u00c6tna, 173.\n\n  Affections, Satan uses, 67.\n\n  Afflicted, reasons for Satan\u2019s tempting the, 335, 336.\n\n  Afflictions, 222, 223, 273, 274, 335, 336, 427.\n\n  Affright, Satan seeks not to, 86, 87.\n\n  Affrightments, 238, 240;\n    grievous, 249, 427.\n\n  Afraid, be not of, Goliath, 311.\n\n  Agathocles, 40.\n\n  Aggravations, of sin, 83, 278, 279;\n    unjust, of sins of God\u2019s children, 299, 300.\n\n  Aims, Satan, various, in a single temptation, 353.\n\n  Alacrity, in duty, 212.\n\n  Alexander, 26, 68.\n\n  Alexander, (heretic,) 204.\n\n  Allegorical reflections, 163.\n\n  Allurement, 399.\n\n  Alterations, be jealous of, in worship, 433.\n\n  Alvarez, 174.\n\n  Alypius, 65.\n\n  Amazement, 303.\n\n  Ambrose, 446.\n\n  Americans, 17, 44.\n\n  Ames, or Amesius, 10, 57, 255, 288, 293, 384, 449, 456.\n\n  Androgeus, 39.\n\n  Anger of Satan, 12, 206;\n    angry disposition, 220.\n\n  Angel, Satan an, power of, 14, 15;\n    angels, strength of, _ib._;\n    Sadducees, opinions on, 49, 50.\n\n  Anguish and horror of Satan, 13.\n\n  Annoyance, temptation an, 456.\n\n  Answers, of Christ to Satan, 445, _seq._;\n    fit and pertinent, 445;\n    best from Scripture, 462, _seq._\n\n  Antichrist, 38.\n\n  Antiochus, 109.\n\n  Antony, M., 70.\n\n  Antony of Padua, 180.\n\n  Apion, 109, 110.\n\n  Apish imitation of divine things, 198.\n\n  Apochryphal adjections, 179.\n\n  Apollonius, 173.\n\n  Apollonius Tyan\u00e6us, 419.\n\n  Apostasy of Satan, 12.\n\n  Apostolici, 170.\n\n  Apparitions, 33.\n\n  Appearances, remarkable, of God, 279.\n\n  Applause, popular, 401.\n\n  Apprehensions, against God, 303.\n\n  Aptitude in the world to tempt, 441.\n\n  Aquinas, 31.\n\n  Arguings, fallacious, 113, 114;\n    partial, 452.\n\n  Arguments, deny sin with strongest, 463;\n    of Satan, 295, 296.\n\n  Arianism, 131.\n\n  Aristotle, 27, 179.\n\n  Arius, 204.\n\n  Armour, management of spiritual, 445.\n\n  Arrowsmith, 19, 102, 240, 327, 425, 467.\n\n  Arrogancy, 375;\n    of Satan against God, how shewn, 418, _seq._\n\n  Art, of Satan in setting forth temptations, lies in four\n    things, 421, 422.\n\n  Arthington, 146.\n\n  Askew, Ann, 455.\n\n  Assaults, of saints, by Satan, 18.\n\n  Assays, 247.\n\n  Assertions, bold, 167.\n\n  Aspersions, slanderous, 188.\n\n  Atheists, 48;\n    principles of, put out light, 82;\n    thoughts, 242;\n    persons troubled with atheistical thoughts, 243.\n\n  Authority of Satan, 17;\n    nature of, explained, 17, 18;\n    over persons and things, _ib._;\n    efficacy of, 18, 19.\n\n  Augustine, 15, 19, 22, 32, 38, 48, 52, 65, 117, 129, 147, 177,\n    179, 180, 201, 202, 324, 328, 393, 394, 395, 403, 418, 461, 468.\n\n  Averrhoes, 48.\n\n  Avicenna, 30.\n\n  Awe of sin, 93, 94.\n\n\n  Baal-zebub, 36.\n\n  Bad end, evident, 357.\n\n  Barlow, 53.\n\n  \u2018Barricades\u2019 of Satan, 98.\n\n  Baxter, 29, 146, 178, 181.\n\n  Bayne, 20, 220, 425.\n\n  Belief, facile, 154.\n\n  Bellona, 39.\n\n  Benedict, St, 174.\n\n  Bernard, 328, 403.\n\n  \u2018Beside,\u2019 195.\n\n  Best, of God\u2019s children hardly escape under temptation of\n    distrust, 368.\n\n  Beza, 22, 56, 373.\n\n  Bias, 151;\n    to error rather than truth, 151, 152;\n    by bodily temper, 152.\n\n  Bisnagar, 39.\n\n  Blasphemous thoughts congenial to Satan;\n    (1.) from his nature, 244;\n    (2.) practice, 245;\n    (3.) professed design, _ib._;\n    (4.) sad experience, _ib._;\n    injections, 304, 424, 425;\n    how Satan works to get man to, 425;\n    violent injections of, 426;\n    sudden glances of, imagination, 427;\n    reasons of this temptation, 427, _seq._;\n    advice to those tempted by, 429, 430.\n\n  Blessings, universal, 366.\n\n  Blinds, Satan, 62, 63;\n    by stirring up lust, proved, 68, _seq._;\n    how lust, 70, 71.\n\n  Bochart, 21.\n\n  Bodies, 66;\n    afflicted by mind, 218;\n    in co-partnership of sorrow, 309, 310;\n    Satan permitted to have power over, 378.\n\n  Bodin, 43.\n\n  B\u0153hmen, 166, 167.\n\n  Boldness, heroic, a snare to self-murder, 392.\n\n  Bolsecus, 187.\n\n  Boniface, Pope, 57, 58, 175.\n\n  Boyle, 394.\n\n  Bretterge, Mrs, 305, 309.\n\n  Bribes of Satan, 205.\n\n  Bridget, St, 173.\n\n  Broughton, 59.\n\n  Bucholcer, 199.\n\n  Burden of injections by Satan, 241.\n\n  Burton, 66.\n\n  Business, Satan\u2019s, to tempt, ours to resist, 339;\n    and how, 339, 340.\n\n\n  Cain, 288, 289.\n\n  Cajetan, 33, 462.\n\n  Calisthenes, 68.\n\n  Calovius, 132.\n\n  Calumnies, 186.\n\n  Calvin, 16, 20, 32, 50, 58, 65, 142, 167, 187, 210, 337.\n\n  Campian, 164.\n\n  Camus, 181.\n\n  Capel, 57, 58, 82, 326, 390, 392, 396, 428, 429, 449.\n\n  Cappellus, 165.\n\n  Cardan, 48.\n\n  Care, distressed, cease all, 310.\n\n  Carthaginians, 39.\n\n  Caryl, 57, 59, 425.\n\n  \u2018Catching away\u2019 the word, 87, 88;\n    Satan lies at \u2018catch,\u2019 243.\n\n  Cathari, 170.\n\n  Cato, 393.\n\n  \u2018Catoche,\u2019 212.\n\n  Causes, Satan knows, of things, 25;\n    second, 365.\n\n  Caution, great against Satan, 417.\n\n  Cedremus, 178.\n\n  Celestine, v., 175.\n\n  Chambers, 294.\n\n  Chamier, 19, 20, 181.\n\n  Change, Satan blinds by, a temptation, 77, 95, 96;\n    of nature of temptation, 369.\n\n  Cheats, 29.\n\n  Chemnitius, 203, 373.\n\n  Children, 151.\n\n  Chokes, Satan, the word, 88.\n\n  Cicero, 393.\n\n  Clarke, 35, 121.\n\n  Cleombrotus, 393.\n\n  Climacus, 426.\n\n  Coccius, 189.\n\n  Collinges, 215.\n\n  Comforts, inward, extinguished, 228, 229;\n    disturbances, scatter thoughts of, 229;\n    stock of, wastes, 229;\n    outward, little, 443.\n\n  Company, evil, 67.\n\n  \u2018Composition,\u2019 Satan gives a, in religious duty, 95.\n\n  Complainings, 373.\n\n  Complies, Satan, 78;\n    compliance with parties, 199, 200;\n    though not yet, opens way to sins, 428.\n\n  Confederacies and contrivances, 179.\n\n  Consent, \u2018threaped,\u2019 80.\n\n  \u2018Concealing,\u2019 70;\n    concealment of wounds, 307;\n    Satan tempts by, 421, 422.\n\n  Conclusions, direful, 334.\n\n  Condition, Satan takes advantage of our, in temptation, 346, 347.\n\n  Confident, warning from temptations, to the over, 325.\n\n  Confronting of Almighty by Satan, 418.\n\n  Conscience, wounded, 61;\n    in man, 62;\n    scared, 94;\n    molested, 231, 232;\n    scrupulosity of, 253;\n    doubting, 255;\n    evil, 255, 256;\n    denying, 257;\n    how distinguish between terrors of, and melancholy, 292;\n    total distress of, 292, 293;\n    terrors of, 391.\n\n  Consent, by silence, 460.\n\n  Consolation, for those troubled by blasphemy, 428.\n\n  Contrary commands of Scripture to temptations, 468.\n\n  Contrasts, between Christ and Satan, 209.\n\n  Coveting, 221.\n\n  Contempt, 221;\n    of religion, 334;\n    Satan seeks to bring Scripture under, 410.\n\n  \u2018Contemplative\u2019 heads, 243.\n\n  Contentions and disputes, 149.\n\n  Continuance, troubles of long, 295;\n    temptations of long, 426.\n\n  Contrivances, 87;\n    curious, 183.\n\n  \u2018Conversation,\u2019 careful, 437.\n\n  Conversion, time of, temptation, 47;\n    easy, 260;\n    conscience wounded, before and after, by God, 261, 262;\n    false notions concerning, 270, 271;\n    not always with terror, 270;\n    nor able to tell exact time, _ib._;\n    nor always accompanied with gifts of prayer, _ib._\n\n  Coppinger, 139.\n\n  Corinthian, church, 128.\n\n  Corrupted, duties worst of all, 103;\n    doctrines lead to corrupt practices, 137;\n    ingenuous, society of those who are, 190;\n    Satan seeks to corrupt God\u2019s worship, 431, 432;\n    reasons, 432, _seq._\n\n  Corruption stirred, 453.\n\n  Cortez, 41.\n\n  Courage, commanded, 448;\n    what spiritual, is, 449.\n\n  \u2018Courses\u2019 of sinners, 437.\n\n  \u2018_Crack_,\u2019 169.\n\n  Craft, (see _Subtlety_.)\n\n  Cramer, 467.\n\n  Credulous, 286.\n\n  Cross, Satan tempts by things, to our temper, why, 60.\n\n  Croy, de, 202.\n\n  Cruelty of Satan, 36-44.\n\n  Curiosity, adventurous, 156, 157, 451, 452.\n\n  Curse, of Satan, 12.\n\n  Curtius, Q., 68.\n\n  Custom, power of, 193, 194;\n    force of, 393.\n\n  Cyprian, 373.\n\n\n  D\u00e6dalus, 179.\n\n  \u2018Damnation\u2019 misapplied, 296.\n\n  Damocles, 444.\n\n  Darkness, Satan ruler of, 17.\n\n  Daunting, power of Scripture, 467.\n\n  David, temptations of, 56, 84.\n\n  Debauchery, atheistical, 157.\n\n  Deceits, 58;\n    in use of Scripture, 410.\n\n  Deceptions, 31;\n    all the devil\u2019s qualifications for \u2018deceit,\u2019 52, 53.\n\n  Degrees, of misery, 310.\n\n  Delay, 459.\n\n  \u2018Deliberate\u2019 determinations, 81, 82.\n\n  Deliberating, 452.\n\n  Deluded, 144.\n\n  Demons, 201.\n\n  Demoniacs, diseases, 50;\n    Mede on, 51.\n\n  Demonstrated, things, 153.\n\n  Demurs and delays, 89.\n\n  Denials, not disputing, in temptation, 451, _seq._;\n    best, and why, 459, _seq._\n\n  Departure, feigning, 91.\n\n  Dervises, 171.\n\n  Descartes, 64.\n\n  Designs, large, of Satan, 382;\n    unfaithful, of Satan in use of Scripture, 409;\n    Christ\u2019s temptations permitted by design, 445.\n\n  Desires, 54;\n    enlarge not, 443.\n\n  Despagne, 42, 148, 151, 405, 422.\n\n  Despair, 217;\n    is presumptuous, 386.\n\n  Devices, 23.\n\n  Devil, though a \u2018spirit,\u2019 a proper subject of sin, 10, 11;\n    wickedness of, capable of increase, 11;\n    has great occasions for malice, _ib._;\n    fall of, 11, 12;\n    power of, as a, 16, 17;\n    meaning of, as a word, 22;\n    denial of existence of, 48.\n\n  Devils, large number of, 19;\n    order among, 19, 20;\n    reality of existence of, argued, 51, 52;\n    believed in by the heathen, 52.\n\n  \u2018Devotional,\u2019 168.\n\n  Diana, 39.\n\n  Diascorides, 28.\n\n  Dickson, 141, 219, 242, 255, 390, 428.\n\n  Differences, in God\u2019s children, 114.\n\n  Dignity of God\u2019s children, a snare by Satan, 114.\n\n  Diligence, of Satan, 45;\n    instances of, 45, _seq._\n\n  Diodati, 50.\n\n  Dionysius, 19.\n\n  Directly and indirectly, Satan blinds, 73, _seq._\n\n  Disadvantage, fall of saints special, 315.\n\n  Disappointment of Satan certain, 14.\n\n  Discomposures of soul, 219;\n    effects of, 229;\n    devil works on, 230;\n    much sin in, _ib._;\n    obstruct duties, 230, 231;\n    devil accuses by, 231.\n\n  Discontents, 391.\n\n  Discouragements, 106;\n    Satan not easily discouraged, 376, 377;\n    Scripture, afflicting discouragement to Satan, 467, 468.\n\n  Discovery, Satan\u2019s contrivances to hinder, 87;\n    full of notions, and ways of, 165.\n\n  Disguises, the world\u2019s, 442.\n\n  Dispensation, divine, of spiritual sadness, 259, 260.\n\n  Disputes, 206, 207.\n\n  Disputings, kinds of, 451, _seq._;\n    actual, 452;\n    when we may, a temptation, 453;\n    when not, 454, _seq._;\n    a better way than, 457;\n    reasons why not, with Satan, 457, _seq._\n\n  Disquiet, Satan sometimes seeks only to, 61;\n    disquiets, 184;\n    advantages to Satan by, 211.\n\n  Distance between God and man by sin, Satan uses, 98.\n\n  Distempers, bodily, 427.\n\n  Distinctions, 78;\n    of the learned, show ignorance, 150.\n\n  Dismission of thought, 78.\n\n  Distractions in holy seasons, 46, 47, 79, 120;\n    before religious services, 123;\n    Satan raises, 211;\n    unfits for duty, 212.\n\n  Distresses, spiritual, 287;\n    complicated, _ib._;\n    have a further end, _ib._;\n    consent of the party, 287, 288;\n    higher degree, 288;\n    not all from melancholy, shewn, 290, 291;\n    God\u2019s deserting, _ib._;\n    weight of, 307.\n\n  Distrust, 335, 361;\n    of providence, passes to, of Sonship, 367.\n\n  Disturbances, outward, 121, 122, 224;\n    in Satan\u2019s power, 233.\n\n  Diverting of reason, 77.\n\n  Divisions, 134, 135.\n\n  Doctrine, false, in gorgeous attire, 195;\n    erroneous, 408.\n\n  Dominicus, 179.\n\n  Domineer, Satan doth tyrannically, 249.\n\n  Dominis de, 158.\n\n  Dreams, 404.\n\n  Dury, John, 164.\n\n  Duty, burden of, 106, 107;\n    want of success in, 107, 108;\n    dislike of, 109;\n    unnecessariness of, 115;\n    suspending, 116, 117;\n    vitiated, 123, 124;\n    hindered, 212;\n    difficult, 214;\n    unfruitful, _ib._;\n    sinful, _ib._\n\n  Dyke, 75.\n\n\n  Earnestness, take off, 117.\n\n  Ease, wrongly sought, 217.\n\n  Ecstasies, 404.\n\n  Effects, ascribed to wrong causes, 180.\n\n  Effeminacy, 221.\n\n  Egyptians, 162, 163.\n\n  Election, terrors about, 246, 247;\n    suspicions of non-election, 250.\n\n  Ellis, 164.\n\n  Empedocles, 173.\n\n  End, and means, 116.\n\n  Endeavours, constant course of Satan\u2019s, 129.\n\n  Endeavours, 303.\n\n  Endor, witch of, 34.\n\n  Ends, of things, used to blind, 74;\n    base, 119.\n\n  Enemies and rebels, Satan pursues men as, 100.\n\n  Enemy, \u2018sword of an,\u2019 305.\n\n  Engines by which Satan works: sophistry, 266;\n    Scripture abused, 267, 268;\n    false marks a sign of unregeneracy, 269-271;\n    misrepresentation of God, 271, _seq._;\n    comparisons with holy lives of others, 280;\n    lessens graces of saints, _ib._;\n    fear, 285, _seq._\n\n  England, New, appearances of Satan in, 44;\n    errors in, 160.\n\n  Enigmatical speaking of Satan, 26.\n\n  Enmity to God, 441, 442.\n\n  Enmity of Satan, 12, 13.\n\n  Ensnaring, ways of Satan, 425.\n\n  Entanglements, 71, 72.\n\n  Entice, 62.\n\n  Enticing to temptation, 454.\n\n  Entrance on special service, a time of temptation, 313, 314.\n\n  Envious disposition, 220.\n\n  Epiphanius, 129, 135.\n\n  Equality and inequality of privilege and duty, 115.\n\n  Error, 127;\n    Satan, great contriver of, _ib._;\n    reasons of Satan in, 130;\n    is sinful, 130, 131;\n    of an increasing nature, 131;\n    a plague, _ib._;\n    errorists, 131, 132;\n    leads to schisms, &c., 132, 133;\n    hinders reformation, 133, 134;\n    fixes atheism, 135, 136;\n    obstructs graces, 139;\n    punishment it brings, 140;\n    vileness of some, 144, 145;\n    unusual actions for, 145, 146;\n    blind even the wise, 146;\n    suddenness of prevalency, _ib._;\n    fury in spreading, _ib._;\n    from learned men, 149;\n    approbation given to, 154;\n    arguments for, 158;\n    countenance of Scripture for, 158, 159;\n    foundation of, laid near truth, 160;\n    promoted by excellence of those holding, 168;\n    captain and ringleader in, 169;\n    the ease and peace it brings, 183;\n    proffers of peace from, 184;\n    insensible procedure of, 190;\n    gradual fixing, 191;\n    garb of, 195;\n    avoidance of one for another, 204;\n    puts on truth\u2019s clothes, 207;\n    Satan uses Scripture to promote, 408.\n\n  Escape, possibility of, from penalty, 76.\n\n  Eusebius, 129, 145, 198, 202, 203.\n\n  Eve, temptation of, 56, 57, 82.\n\n  Evil company, 67.\n\n  Example, evil, 67.\n\n  Excess, 124, 125.\n\n  Exchange, a temptation, 95, 96;\n    secret, 96.\n\n  Execrations, against self, 216, 217.\n\n  Experience of Satan, 24.\n\n  Extenuations of sin, 76.\n\n  External things, 152.\n\n  Extreme, Satan runs from the, and why, 383.\n\n  Extremes, 73.\n\n\n  Fables, lying, 181;\n    instances, _ib._;\n    traditionary, 197.\n\n  Failure of God\u2019s children under temptation of distrust, 368.\n\n  Faith, false notions of nature of, 270;\n    weakened, 371.\n\n  False citation of Scripture, 411.\n\n  Familists, 160.\n\n  Fancy, fancies, 31, 123;\n    Satan works on, 422.\n\n  Fascination, 140, 141, 442.\n\n  Fashion, sins out of, 96.\n\n  Fast of Christ, 328, _seq._;\n    why, 329, _seq._\n\n  Favour, special, a time of temptation, 314.\n\n  Favourable, too, opinion of self, 285.\n\n  Fears, suspicious, 246;\n    impressions of, 251, 252;\n    come by fits, 252, 253;\n    return, 253;\n    add to the weight of other troubles, _ib._;\n    not always accompanying conversion, 270;\n    an engine of temptation, 285;\n    increase of, 304;\n    prepare for Satan\u2019s most dismal suggestions, 365;\n    make all seem the sword of an enemy, _ib._;\n    no advice eases, 305, 306;\n    lead to conclusions of misery, 306;\n    threefold, 447, 448;\n    what, forbidden, 448, _seq._\n\n  Februation, 43.\n\n  Feigning departure, 91.\n\n  Fenner, 67, 73.\n\n  \u2018Finishing\u2019 of sin, 83, _seq._\n\n  First temptation, Christ\u2019s, 346, _seq._\n\n  Fixes, Satan, thoughts, 237.\n\n  Follows, Satan, with a high hand, 99.\n\n  Food of the soul, Satan robs of, 101.\n\n  Foretell, Satan can, 26.\n\n  \u2018Formal\u2019 use of defences, Satan allows, and why, 380, _seq._\n\n  Forsake, three ways Satan seems to, designs, 91, _seq._\n\n  \u2018Forty days,\u2019 329, 330.\n\n  Foxe, 308, 440.\n\n  Frances, St, 174.\n\n  Fratricelli, 166.\n\n  Friends, Satan tempts by\u2014examples, 330.\n\n  Fruition of peace, 184.\n\n  Fuel, Satan seeks his own, 13;\n    of lust, 441.\n\n  Fuller, 28, 406.\n\n  Funckius, 408.\n\n  Furious fits, 225;\n    Bible examples, 225, 226.\n\n  Future, whether Satan knows the, 25.\n\n\n  Galen, 48.\n\n  Game, after-, 242.\n\n  Garnet, 180.\n\n  Gellius, 182.\n\n  Gerson, 238, 426, 430.\n\n  Gilpin, John, 146, 395.\n\n  Glances, transient, 251.\n\n  Glanvil, 29, 30.\n\n  Glauber, 164.\n\n  Gnostics, 166.\n\n  God, the source of all happiness, 3, 4;\n    quarrelled, 217;\n    misrepresentation of God\u2019s nature, 272;\n    providence, 272-274;\n    in the works of his Spirit, 274, 275;\n    misrepresented as a tyrant, 298;\n    as designing men\u2019s ruin, 299.\n\n  Gods, false, 201.\n\n  Godwyn, 28, 40, 198.\n\n  \u2018Goeth out,\u2019 _not_ \u2018cast out,\u2019 97.\n\n  Gomesius, 164.\n\n  Good, seeming, 351, 352;\n    hindrance of greater, 352.\n\n  Goodwin, (misspelled Godwin,) 24, 57, 61, 62, 261, 456.\n\n  \u2018Gospels,\u2019 counterfeit, 189.\n\n  Grace, restraining, 93;\n    growth of, not always visible, 271;\n    mistaken signs of, _ib._;\n    Satan lessens, of saints, 280, _seq._;\n    tempts in relation to, 281, _seq._;\n    extraordinaries of, _ib._;\n    special assistances, _ib._;\n    eminencies, _ib._;\n    Satan tempts when, is weakest, 284, 285;\n    hinders not temptation, and why, 323, _seq._\n\n  Gradual, Satan in temptations, 341, 342;\n    reasons, 342.\n\n  \u2018Great\u2019 temptation, what, 342;\n    external, complex, perplexing, _ib._;\n    proceeded on advantages, greater power of Satan, to abominations,\n      professed benefits, provoking, engagement of all natural powers,\n      some warranted as duty, 343.\n\n  Greenham, 95, 97, 115, 116, 461.\n\n  Gregory, 338, 440.\n\n  Gregory the Great, 202.\n\n  Grief fixed, contentment in, 215, 216.\n\n  Grievous sins, 295.\n\n  Grotius, 442.\n\n  Guessing of Satan, 24.\n\n\n  Haas, 467.\n\n  Habits, vicious, 152.\n\n  \u2018Habituated\u2019 sin, 24, 453, 454.\n\n  Hacket, 139.\n\n  Han, 29.\n\n  Hakluyt, 178.\n\n  Happiness, impatient desire of, 393.\n\n  Harvey, 187.\n\n  Haste in sinning, 81.\n\n  Hatred against Satan, 122.\n\n  Hatred of Satan, 12.\n\n  Hazard, 46;\n    to life by some lusts, 69;\n    and disadvantage by abuse of services, 103;\n    of duties, 110, 111;\n    ways of religion said to be of intolerable, 317;\n    ways of, 394, 395.\n\n  Heart, the stage of all action, 3, 4;\n    God and Satan meet in, 4;\n    the \u2018deceits\u2019 of, point to Satan, 53;\n    enticed, 62;\n    sottish, 78, 79;\n    prepared for venomous impressions, 215;\n    hard and impenitent, 302, 303;\n    Satan seeks to withdraw, from God and to enslave to sin,\n      shewn, 433, 434;\n    prevails, 434, 435;\n    not right with God, 435.\n\n  Heathen, 153.\n\n  Heightening of duty, 115;\n    of jealousies and fears against Satan, 123;\n    of the sins of the tempted, 318, 409.\n\n  Heightens, Satan, grace, 280, 283.\n\n  Hell, 9.\n\n  Helmont, 30.\n\n  Heph\u00e6stion, 68.\n\n  Heresies, 412.\n\n  Heylin, 180, 182, 187, 428.\n\n  Hiding, necessity of, duty, 113.\n\n  Hindrances, external, 104.\n\n  Hobbs, 29, 50, 337, 416.\n\n  Hobson, Paul, 176.\n\n  Honeywood, 375.\n\n  Honour, God\u2019s, at stake, 366.\n\n  Hooper, 455.\n\n  Hope, 46;\n    give not readily up, 375.\n\n  Hopelessness of prevailing, 80.\n\n  Horace, 109, 173, 401.\n\n  Huffing = hoving, or heaving, or swelling, 77.\n\n  Humility, excess of, 108, 109.\n\n  Humours, 224.\n\n  Hunger of Christ, 347.\n\n  Hunting of his prey, by Satan, 45.\n\n  Hypocrites are presumptuous, 386;\n    varnish on, 410, 411.\n\n\n  Ignorance variously shewn, 147, _seq._;\n    conversion of the ignorant, results, 260.\n\n  Ignorant devout, humbled by Satan, 247, 248.\n\n  \u2018Imaginary,\u2019 143.\n\n  Imagination, Satan\u2019s use of, 65, 66, 250.\n\n  Imitations of divine services and Bible incidents, 102, 198, 419;\n    Satan imitates God by pretence of teaching, 403.\n\n  Impetuosity, 426.\n\n  Impressions, dismal, of Satan, 305.\n\n  Importunity, 79;\n    impudent, 243, 244.\n\n  Impotent, mind rendered, 229.\n\n  Impulses, 406.\n\n  Incas, 198.\n\n  Incessant, Satan in temptation, 331;\n    things relating to such, 331, 332;\n    encouragement under, 332.\n\n  Inclinations, 66, 152, 155.\n\n  _Indicia_, 25.\n\n  Indignation of Satan, 12.\n\n  Indisposition of body, 104, 105;\n    of soul, 105.\n\n  Indirect courses, 335.\n\n  Infectious, temptations, 459.\n\n  Infirmity, 75, 76, 188.\n\n  \u2018Ingenuousness,\u2019 48;\n    submissive, 120;\n    feigned, 275.\n\n  Injects, Satan\u2019s temptations, 61;\n    impetuousness of, 122;\n    injections of terror, 238;\n    impetuous, 239;\n    incessant, _ib._;\n    odious, 239, 240;\n    abhorrency, 240;\n    difference between atheistical injections and temptations, 242;\n    of abominable sin, 250, 251.\n\n  Injury, 222.\n\n  Insight, Satan has deep, 26.\n\n  Insolency, 418.\n\n  \u2018Inspiration,\u2019 false, 172, 405.\n\n  Insult = triumph, 448.\n\n  \u2018Intercepting\u2019 of light by Satan, 70.\n\n  Interest, Scripture contrary to, 409.\n\n  \u2018Interest\u2019 shaken by light, 90.\n\n  \u2018Internal\u2019 work, 114.\n\n  Inventions, self-devised, 379, 380;\n    human, in divine worship, 434.\n\n  Invisible, Satan in temptation usually, 330.\n\n  Invitation, secret, to Satan by disputing, 458.\n\n  Invocation of saints, 201.\n\n  Inward temptations and outward distresses, 333;\n    terrors and trouble, 456;\n    reasons for not disputing with Satan in, 456, _seq._\n\n  Iren\u00e6us, 19.\n\n\n  Jackson, 424.\n\n  James, 189.\n\n  Jenison, 22, 24, 180.\n\n  Job and Satan, 13.\n\n  Josephus, 27, 40, 49, 110, 179, 198, 406, 409.\n\n  Jostle, 105.\n\n  Joy not received, 229.\n\n  Jugglers\u2019 words, 166.\n\n  Julian, 164, 194, 208.\n\n  Junius, 242.\n\n\n  Karsten, 173.\n\n  Kent, maid of, 180.\n\n  Kimchi, 381.\n\n  Kingdom of Satan, 433, 434.\n\n  Kneperdollin, 146.\n\n  Knowledge of Satan, 21, _seq._;\n    measured by that of Adam in innocency, 21;\n    by names given to him, 22;\n    nature of, 22, 23;\n    natural, experimental, accessory, _ib._;\n    imperfection of, 147;\n    nature of, 148;\n    unsuitableness of our capacities, 148, 149.\n\n\n  Laced\u00e6monians, 39.\n\n  Lamech, 289.\n\n  Language, strange, 166.\n\n  Lapide, a-, 373.\n\n  Lathbury, 180.\n\n  Law, enmity and opposition of the, 85.\n\n  Lawful, seeming, 351, 352;\n    to be seriously weighed, 353.\n\n  Leaving, of, sins, 119.\n\n  Legion of temptations, 79.\n\n  Leigh\u2019s _Critica Sacra_, 10, 27, 141, 425.\n\n  Leyden, John of, 139.\n\n  Libanius, 195.\n\n  Light of nature, of Scripture, &c., 55;\n    Satan opposes, and how, 90, 91;\n    prevailing power of, 94.\n\n  Lightfoot, 40, 227, 289, 313, 329, 333, 351, 356, 381, 415, 417.\n\n  List, 294.\n\n  Livy, 178.\n\n  Loretto, 172.\n\n  Lorinus, 300.\n\n  Lucas Brugensis, 416.\n\n  Lucian, 48, 179.\n\n  Lust, Satan acts on, 63;\n    how, 64.\n\n  Luther, 21, 340, 456, 466.\n\n  \u2018Lying\u2019 spirits, 87;\n    downright, 189;\n    Satan carries on his designs by, 421.\n\n  Lyra, 22.\n\n  Lysimachus, 110.\n\n\n  Maccovius, 127.\n\n  Machiavel, 110.\n\n  Maimonides, 28.\n\n  Malice, of the devil explained and evidenced, 10, 11;\n    very great, 12, 13;\n    instances of, 13, 14;\n    of wicked men, 14;\n    against God, 101;\n    against believers, 258.\n\n  Manton, 54, 62.\n\n  Marks, false, of regenerate and unregenerate, 269-271.\n\n  Martin, St, 340.\n\n  Martyr, Peter, 106, 132, 143.\n\n  \u2018May-be,\u2019 253.\n\n  Meanness of religious service, outwardly, 111.\n\n  Means, abandoned, 310, 311;\n    to an end, plausible, 357;\n    failure of ordinary, a strong engine of temptation, 360;\n    examples, 360, 361;\n    why Satan uses this, 362.\n\n  Mede, 51, 52, 172, 201.\n\n  Melancholy, 245, 248, 250, 265, 289, 290, 291, 427.\n\n  Mercerus, 370.\n\n  Mercies, particularly promised, 366.\n\n  Messalians, 170.\n\n  Minos, 39.\n\n  Miracles, whether Satan can work, 31;\n    counterfeit, 177;\n    testimony to truth, 182;\n    Satan\u2019s advantage to feign, _ib._;\n    God reveals by, 405.\n\n  Misapprehensions, of state, 88, 369.\n\n  Miscarriages, 125, 188, 275, 301;\n    used by Satan, and difficult to answer, 275, 276.\n\n  Miseries, Satan delights in men\u2019s, 218;\n    of others, 223, 224.\n\n  Misrepresentation of God by Satan, 298;\n    how, 298, 299.\n\n  Mitigation of barbarous rites, 42.\n\n  Mohammed, 179.\n\n  Mondus, 179.\n\n  Montanus, 139, 166.\n\n  Montezuma, 39, 41.\n\n  More, 29, 30, 50, 430.\n\n  Munster, 166.\n\n  Murder, self-, 390;\n    Satan aims at two ways, and by various means, 391, _seq._;\n    indirectly sought by Satan, and how, 394, 395;\n    be aware of this temptation, 395;\n    defences against, 395, 396;\n    one of Satan\u2019s great plots, 395;\n    a high iniquity, _ib._;\n    danger of, 395, 396;\n    give no occasion for, by discontent, 396.\n\n  Murmuring, 79.\n\n  Musculus, 170, 325, 328, 424, 431, 446.\n\n\n  Names given to Satan, 338.\n\n  Narsinga, 39.\n\n  Nature, (see _Secrets_,) Satan knows operations of, 32, 33.\n\n  Nayler, 419.\n\n  Necessity, of sinning, 75;\n    plea of, 347;\n    reasons, 347, 348;\n    cheats on this plea, 349;\n    must not be deceived by, _ib._\n\n  Needful, service presently, 117.\n\n  Negligence, 117.\n\n  Nicholas, H., 160, 162, 166, 167.\n\n  Notions, hidden, 162;\n    and ways, 165.\n\n  Novatus, 166.\n\n  Nudipedales, 170.\n\n\n  Obedience, temptation to withdrawment from, 455.\n\n  Observation and study of Satan, 24.\n\n  Obsessions, 35.\n\n  Occasions, fit, 45, 65, 81;\n    extraordinary, 92;\n    much in Satan\u2019s hands, 235;\n    prepares, 235, 236;\n    awakens old, 236;\n    aggravates, 236, 237;\n    offered, 251;\n    fit, 295.\n\n  Opinions, \u2018corrupt,\u2019 74.\n\n  Opportunity, suitable, 92, 93;\n    hindrances of, 116;\n    best, for answering, 460, 461.\n\n  Origen, 163, 201.\n\n  Outbreakings against God, 334.\n\n  Outcries, doleful, 309.\n\n  Outward distress and inward temptations, 333, 334, 365;\n    comforts those whose are little, 443.\n\n  Outward not inward, 123, 124.\n\n  Ovid, 27, 197.\n\n  Owen, 203.\n\n\n  Particular trust in God, 365.\n\n  Passionateness, 67.\n\n  Passions, 62;\n    nature of, 67, 68;\n    discompose, 105, 106;\n    stirred up, 206;\n    Satan sets on work, 236, 237.\n\n  Paterculus, 393.\n\n  Peace, inward, 183;\n    fruition of, 184;\n    Satan\u2019s efforts against, 209;\n    fruit of holiness, 210;\n    gives inward strength, _ib._;\n    to get, a duty, 210, 211;\n    a badge of kindness, 211;\n    disturbed by Satan, 224.\n\n  Performance, manner of, of duty, 113.\n\n  Peripatetics, 48.\n\n  Perkins, 202, 241, 288, 293, 294, 415, 424, 431.\n\n  Persecutions, 37, 88.\n\n  Petrus, 300.\n\n  Philastratus, 178.\n\n  Phrases, Scripture, 161.\n\n  \u2018Pickeer,\u2019 137.\n\n  Pinnacle of temple, 381.\n\n  Piscator, 141, 142, 210, 340.\n\n  Place, sanctity of, does not hinder Satan, 379.\n\n  Places, holy, most dishonoured by Satan, 102.\n\n  Plainness, 196.\n\n  Platerus, 265, 291, 369.\n\n  Plato, 21, 27, 202, 203, 393.\n\n  Plausible, 356, 357;\n    how Satan makes an end, 357.\n\n  Pleasures, worldly, a great engine of Satan, 438, _seq._;\n    best overcome by, 386, 387;\n    reason why Satan uses so much, 387, 388;\n    deceitful contrivances for this sin, 388, 389;\n    special watchfulness against, 389, 390;\n    how, 390;\n    how brought about, 398, _seq._\n\n  Plenty, worldly, a temptation, 427;\n    snares of, 444.\n\n  Plessis du, 201.\n\n  Pliny, 32.\n\n  Plutarch, 26, 39, 44, 48, 201.\n\n  Poisonings _v._ witchcrafts, 27, 28.\n\n  Polanus, 31.\n\n  Polybius, 181.\n\n  Pomponatius, 48.\n\n  Pool, (Matthew,) 13, 28, 34, 42, 61, 356, 361, 424.\n\n  Popery and paganism, 200, 202.\n\n  Porphyrins, 44, 48.\n\n  Porphyry, 164.\n\n  Porta, 31.\n\n  Possession, how Satan maintains, 83.\n\n  Possessions, 34, 35.\n\n  Power of Satan very great, 14;\n    though fallen, still great, proved, 16;\n    instances, _ib._;\n    explained, 142, 143;\n    and promise of God, 364.\n\n  Prayer, a spear, 101;\n    included in fasting, 469;\n    in all resistance, is to be added, 470;\n    seeming not heard, 471.\n\n  Precipitancy, 80.\n\n  Precipitated, 65.\n\n  Prejudice, 90, 106.\n\n  Pre-occupate, 422.\n\n  \u2018Perverse\u2019 misrepresentations, 85.\n\n  Presumption, 383;\n    what it is, 383, _seq._;\n    instances of, 384, _seq._;\n    Satan\u2019s engine, 385;\n    proved by his common practice, 385, 386.\n\n  Pretences, specious, 162;\n    of friendship, 350;\n    wonder such not seen through, 358.\n\n  Prevalency, Satan\u2019s expectation of, 372.\n\n  Pride, 114, 125, 206, 220, 397;\n    what it is, 397 _seq._;\n    warning against, and why, 399, 400;\n    how to guard against, 400, 401;\n    Satan\u2019s means to excite, 401.\n\n  Prideaux, 131, 135, 173, 181, 189, 192.\n\n  Privileges, perverse confidence in, 401.\n\n  Profane dispositions, 112.\n\n  Professions, hollow, 435, 436.\n\n  \u2018Professors,\u2019 sins of, 112.\n\n  Proffers, Satan liberal in, 423.\n\n  Promise, Satan seeks to separate us from the, 374;\n    he does not deny, but questions and inquires, _ib._;\n    next more plainly suggests, _ib._;\n    urgeth the miscarriage, 374, 375;\n    puts on proof, 375.\n\n  Proposal of temptation, 61.\n\n  Prosperity, outward, 184, 185;\n    of wicked, 222.\n\n  Providence, distrust of, the nature of distrust of sonship, 370;\n    leads to distrust of spiritual favours, 370, 371;\n    provoking to God to distrust him, 371, 372;\n    Jealousy against God\u2019s, 372, 373;\n    a great deep, 373;\n    eternal displeasure not to be measured by, 373.\n\n  Providences, worst interpretation of, 216.\n\n  Provocations, given by Satan, 235.\n\n  Provokings, 37, 90.\n\n  Proxy, 61.\n\n  \u2018Publican,\u2019 109.\n\n  Purchas, 39, 40, 41, 42, 171, 172, 197, 198, 199, 393.\n\n  Purgatory, 208.\n\n  Pursuit, Satan sometimes abates, and how, 95.\n\n  Pythagoras, 173.\n\n\n  Quakers, 167.\n\n  Questions to be determined for peace of the soul, 259.\n\n  \u2018Quick,\u2019 44.\n\n  Quickness of Satan, 19, 25.\n\n  Quiet, Satan keeps all, and how, 85, _seq._\n\n\n  Reason, overcome by lust, 69, 70;\n    corrupted and perverted by Satan, 72;\n    how this is done, 73, _seq._\n\n  Rebuke, a first, does not drive Satan away, 376, 377.\n\n  Recidivation, 277.\n\n  Recommended, use of Scripture in resisting temptations, by God, 465.\n\n  Refreshment, soul, 260.\n\n  Refuge, lies a, 185, 186.\n\n  Refusal, Satan seizes any advantage in our way of, 377.\n\n  Refusals, groundless, 462, 463.\n\n  Regenerate and reprobate, 257.\n\n  Reiteration of sins, 83, 426.\n\n  Rejection, must contain four things, 461, 462.\n\n  Religion, what offers for study, 3;\n    inward and outward of, 5.\n\n  \u2018Relucts,\u2019 conscience, 78.\n\n  Remedy, excellence of Scripture as a, shewn, 466, _seq._;\n    includes all others, _ib._\n\n  Remembrance, things brought to, 406, 407.\n\n  Representation, wrong, of duties, 113.\n\n  Reproaches, 109.\n\n  Reprobates, 288.\n\n  Reserves, 354;\n    reasons of Satan\u2019s policy in this, 354.\n\n  Resist not, fly temptations, 447;\n    why, 448.\n\n  Resistance, 79, 80;\n    stout, 333;\n    objections answered, _ib._\n\n  Restraint on Satan, 60.\n\n  Retreat, Satan hinders, 98.\n\n  Revelation, to Satan, 25, 26;\n    credulity, concerning, 174;\n    God gives, 174, 175.\n\n  Revenge, spiteful, of Satan, 428.\n\n  Reynolds, 66, 143, 370, 383.\n\n  Rivetus, 33.\n\n  Rossa, Domina, 43.\n\n  Ruffinus, 180.\n\n  Rules, of Satan, in tempting, 59, 60.\n\n  Rutherford, 106.\n\n  Ruthwell, 122.\n\n\n  Sacrifices, set on by Satan, 41.\n\n  Sadducees, opinions of, 48, 49, _seq._\n\n  Sadness, spiritual: several degrees thereof, 254, 255;\n    instances of, 258;\n    provision for in Scripture, _ib._;\n    reasons of, 258, _seq._;\n    three classes troubled with, 260;\n    times of, from Satan: conversion, 263;\n    repentance for some great sin, 264;\n    discomposure of spirit under affliction, _ib._;\n    prepared by atheistical thoughts, _ib._;\n    melancholy, 264, 265;\n    sickness or death-bed, 265, 266.\n\n  Saints assaulted by Satan, 18;\n    examples, _ib._;\n    intercession of, 201, 202.\n\n  Sakes, Christ tempted for our, shewn, 445, _seq._\n\n  Satan and God meet in the heart, 4;\n    discovery of intrigues of, _ib._;\n    devices and deceits of, 4, 5;\n    likely to oppose the acceptance of \u2018_D\u00e6monologia Sacra_,\u2019 4, 5;\n    subtlety and craft of, 52, _seq._;\n    business to tempt, 338;\n    proofs, _ib._, _seq._\n\n  Satisfaction in duty hindered, 213.\n\n  Savonarola, 161.\n\n  Scaliger, 198.\n\n  Scarecrows, theological, 83.\n\n  Schoolmen\u2019s classification of knowledge, 22.\n\n  Sclater, 20, 31, 142, 143, 183, 338.\n\n  Scoff not at the judgments of Satan\u2019s temptations, 311.\n\n  Scot, 27, 28, 34.\n\n  Screw, temptations like a, 355.\n\n  Scripture, Satan has great understanding of, 26;\n    never faithfully, and why, 40;\n    warrant for error, 159;\n    hidden notions in, 162, 163;\n    abused or perverted, 267-269;\n    uses always, and why, 407, 408;\n    base ends he turns it to, 408, 409;\n    unfaithful in, how, 409, 410;\n    all to be tried by, 414;\n    compare Scripture  with, _ib._;\n    force of, not in mere characters, 463, 464;\n    argumentative use of, 464;\n    shewn to be intended by God, 465, _seq._;\n    how, thus recommended, 469.\n\n  Scultetus, 337.\n\n  Second temptation, Christ\u2019s, 382, _seq._\n\n  Secrecy of Satan\u2019s movings, 33;\n    of Satan, 70, 71;\n    assurances of, 88, 89.\n\n  Secrets of nature, searches into, 3;\n    small discoveries of, _ib._;\n    not to be made our sole business, _ib._;\n    more weighty matters than, _ib._;\n    made use of, 32;\n    servants of Satan, 434, 435.\n\n  Security, men hushed in, 97, 125, 314.\n\n  Seducers, women, 191.\n\n  Selden, 425.\n\n  Senarcl\u00e6us, 340.\n\n  Senault, 67.\n\n  Seneca, 393.\n\n  Sennertus, 27, 29.\n\n  Senses, 64;\n    Satan tempts through, 422, 423.\n\n  Sensual pleasures, 394.\n\n  Serenus, 202.\n\n  Sermons, _D\u00e6monologia Sacra_ delivered as, 5.\n\n  Servants, men of Satan, 434, 435.\n\n  Services, religious, opposed by Satan, 100.\n\n  Severities, 170, 171, 232, 233.\n\n  Sextus, 24.\n\n  Shame, gloried in, 69.\n\n  Sickness, 223.\n\n  Side of Christ, 449.\n\n  Signs, 405, 406.\n\n  Silence, 459.\n\n  Simon Magus, 419.\n\n  Sin, deceitfulness of, charged on Satan, 53, 54;\n    all acts of, through Satan, 54;\n    by deception, _ib._;\n    pleasures of, set forth, 74, 75;\n    finished, 83;\n    leads to more, 84;\n    change of heinous, for as heinous, 69;\n    long continued in, tempted by Satan, 248;\n    Satan heightens, of the regenerate, 276, 277;\n    delight in, heightened by Satan, 421;\n    made small, 436;\n    reasons of this, 437.\n\n  Sincerity, determination of, difficult, 456.\n\n  Sinful, where it is not Satan\u2019s interest to tempt to things sinful,\n    he will to good, 351, 352.\n\n  Skill of Satan, 26.\n\n  Slaves, 36.\n\n  Sluggishness, spiritual, 105.\n\n  Small things, Satan pursues, 13, 14, 75;\n    temptations, 343, 344.\n\n  Socrates, 205.\n\n  Soldiers, Christ\u2019s, counsels to, 450.\n\n  Solicitation, 62, 79, 84.\n\n  Solitude, 321, 322.\n\n  Sophisms of Satan, 75.\n\n  Sophistry, 266, 267.\n\n  Soul \u2018precious,\u2019 8;\n    vigilance in care of, _ib._;\n    body, 371.\n\n  Sovereignty, acts of, by Satan, and why, 419, 420.\n\n  Sozomen, 194, 208, 381.\n\n  Spanheim, 49, 321, 329, 330, 337, 351, 377, 381.\n\n  Speaking, distresses force to, 307.\n\n  Speeches, fair, 165.\n\n  Spira, 308.\n\n  \u2018Spirit,\u2019 Satan regarded as a, 15;\n    takes part in temptation, 317.\n\n  Spirits, nature of, 152.\n\n  Sprenger, 380.\n\n  \u2018Standard,\u2019 461.\n\n  Statues, 177.\n\n  Stephens, 401.\n\n  Stillingfleet, 136, 166, 173.\n\n  Sting of Christ\u2019s first temptation, 351.\n\n  Stock, Richard, 164.\n\n  Straits, 366.\n\n  \u2018Strange\u2019 things, 122;\n    language, 166;\n    encouragements to those who think their temptations, 325, _seq._\n\n  Stratagems of Satan, 158.\n\n  Strength, of Satan, 10, 11, _seq._;\n    services in our own, 118.\n\n  Strictness, 170;\n    pretences of religious, 171;\n    holy, think not less of, from Satan\u2019s temptations, 311.\n\n  Studies, Satan man, 59;\n    why, _ib._\n\n  Stumbling-block, 214, 215.\n\n  Submission to God\u2019s will, 365, 366.\n\n  Subtlety, of Satan, 47, 52, _seq._, 55, 56;\n    instances of, 56, 57;\n    why Satan uses, 57, 58;\n    and violence, 243.\n\n  Success, less or more, of Satan, 103;\n    in use of Scripture, 465, 466.\n\n  Sufficiency, self-, 398.\n\n  Suggestings, secret, 412.\n\n  Suggestions, Satan drops, 70, 71, 237;\n    tendency of, 414.\n\n  Suitable temptations, 59.\n\n  Superstitions, 39.\n\n  Support, secret in temptation, 318, 319;\n    in absence of ordinary means, 329.\n\n  Surprisal, sudden, 71, 194;\n    strange, 251.\n\n  Suspect kindness of Satan, 350.\n\n  Suspicious fears, 246, 248, 249;\n    wisely, 413.\n\n  Swinkfieldians, 166.\n\n  Sylvius, \u00c6neas, 440.\n\n  Sympathy, excess of, 221.\n\n\n  Taautus, 197.\n\n  Tacitus, 41, 178.\n\n  \u2018Taking,\u2019 122.\n\n  Takingness of certain expressions accounted for, 167.\n\n  Tauler, 166.\n\n  Temper, passionate, 233;\n    cool and calm, tempted by Satan, 234, 235.\n\n  Temple, Christ set on, 377;\n    how taken to, 377, 378;\n    pinnacle, 381.\n\n  Temptation, time of Christ\u2019s, 313;\n    why permitted at special seasons, 315;\n    use of the knowledge of this, 316;\n    how Christ was carried to, _ib._;\n    place of Christ\u2019s, 321, 322;\n    the end of, 322;\n    why Christ submitted to, 322, _seq._;\n    what expectation of success could Satan have in, 323, _seq._;\n    manner of, 340;\n    Christ\u2019s first, 346;\n    rise of, _ib._;\n    preparation for second temptation, 376;\n    time, _ib._;\n    place, 378, 379;\n    third, of Christ, 415;\n    place, _ib._;\n    object, 415, 416.\n\n  Temptations, management of, by Satan, 26;\n    in general, 58;\n    above, 77, 78;\n    violence of, made worse than they are, 318;\n    end of God in permitting, _ib._;\n    harmlessness of, 278;\n    when the sting is taken out, 319;\n    not to run into, _ib._;\n    why, _ib._;\n    nothing will hinder Satan from any, 323, 324;\n    may be without guilt or impurity, 325, _seq._;\n    how to know when, are of Satan or of ourselves, _ib._, _seq._;\n    specially, in extraordinary, 327, _seq._;\n    the affliction of, 328;\n    Christ\u2019s, compared with ours, 344;\n    the first, _ib._;\n    Satan in, usually follows a beaten path, 345;\n    vile, infectious, not to be disputed with, 454, 455.\n\n  Tempted, spiritual state of the, 318.\n\n  Tergiversation, 314, 315.\n\n  Terror, flashes of, 293, 294.\n\n  Terrors of cursed reprobates, 288.\n\n  Tertullian, 39, 146, 189, 203.\n\n  Texts misapplied by Satan, 402.\n\n  Theocritus, 27.\n\n  Theodoret, 69, 115, 187, 207.\n\n  Theodosius, 68.\n\n  Third temptation, 415.\n\n  Thoughts, whether Satan knows men\u2019s, 23;\n    what in, out of his reach, 23, 24;\n    how far he can pry, 24, 25;\n    distraction of, 120, _seq._;\n    atheistical, 243;\n    blasphemous, 244;\n    keep up high and honourable, of God, 373.\n\n  \u2018Threaping,\u2019 80, 168, 243, 297.\n\n  Thrusting into perilous places, 396.\n\n  Title-page, original, of _D\u00e6monologia Sacra_, 2;\n    of Part I., 7;\n    of Part II., 126;\n    of Part III., 312.\n\n  Tophet, 40.\n\n  Torlachs, 171.\n\n  Trances, 404.\n\n  Troubles, advantage taken of, 79;\n    cause distraction, 80;\n    further, 226, 227;\n    examples of, 227, 228;\n    doubtful inquiries as to grounds of, 241;\n    God limits, to do good by, 262;\n    according to truth, 262, 263.\n\n  Trust, take not things on, 413.\n\n  Truth, Satan acknowledges, for evil ends, 102;\n    God\u2019s interest in, 127;\n    modified, 155;\n    error near, 160, 161;\n    Satan seeks to corrupt the professors of, 188;\n    corrupting established, 192, 193;\n    despiting of, 199;\n    deprive, of convincing power, _ib._;\n    bribes in relation to, 205;\n    error clothed in, 207.\n\n  Tyrannus, 179.\n\n  Tyrus, Maximus, 116.\n\n\n  Unacceptable, services rendered, 118.\n\n  Uncalled-for temptations, 319;\n    when, 319, 320.\n\n  Unfaithful, Satan in dealing with Scripture three ways, 409, 410.\n\n  Universal, Scripture, a, remedy in temptation, 466.\n\n  Unpardonable sin, 300.\n\n  Unsanctified texts describing, used by Satan, 275.\n\n  Unseasonable services, 119.\n\n  Unsettle, from foundation, 183.\n\n  Unsuitableness of our hearts to services, 108.\n\n  Unthankfulness, 216.\n\n  Unwarranted, relief, 363;\n    men put to, shewn, 364.\n\n  Unworthiness, 108, 109.\n\n\n  Valerius Maximus, 178.\n\n  Valesians, 170.\n\n  Variety in worship, shews Satan\u2019s corruption, 431.\n\n  Varnish on a bad end, 357.\n\n  Varro, 418.\n\n  Vergerius, 308.\n\n  Vespasian, 178.\n\n  Vexations of spirit, 233, 234.\n\n  Vilest thoughts of God, 426.\n\n  Virgil, 27, 39, 141, 254.\n\n  Virtue, name of, given to what is bad, 73.\n\n  Visible, Satan sometimes, 340;\n    reasons, 341.\n\n  Vision, Christ\u2019s temptation not a, why, 337, _seq._;\n    God reveals by, 404.\n\n  Vitzilliputzli, 198.\n\n  Vives, 32, 42, 44, 202, 395.\n\n  Voice, God revealed by, to Satan, 403, 404.\n\n\n  Wariness, 413.\n\n  Watchfulness, imitate Satan\u2019s, 359.\n\n  Ways, various, of Satan, 46.\n\n  Weapons, Satan deprives us of, 100.\n\n  Whitaker, 164, 175.\n\n  Wickedness, of Satan capable of increase, 11.\n\n  Wieldy = yielding, 79.\n\n  Wierus, 44.\n\n  Wight, Mrs, 375.\n\n  Wilderness, scene of Christ\u2019s temptation, 321;\n    why, 321, 322.\n\n  Will, 55.\n\n  Willis, 237, 265.\n\n  Wills and shalls, 82.\n\n  Witchcraft, 27, 29.\n\n  Wonders, 31.\n\n  Working of thought, 451.\n\n  Worldly pleasure, great engine of Satan, 438, _seq._;\n    how so, 441, 442.\n\n  Worship, Satan sets himself up for, 101, 102.\n\n  \u2018Wounded\u2019 spirits, 36;\n    in regenerate and reprobate, 257, 258;\n    conscience by God and Satan, question on, 261.\n\n  Wrath, Divine, sense of, 308.\n\n  Wresting, import of Scripture, by Satan, 296, 411, 412;\n    seen in results, 412, 413;\n    Scripture, a weapon not easily, out of our hands, 468.\n\n\n  Xavier, 179.\n\n\n  Young persons, troubled by Satan, 247.\n\n\n  Zanchius, 17.\n\n  Zeal, pretences of, 394.\n\n  Zeilan, 39.\n\n  Zembla, Nova, 177, 178.\n\n\n             BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n [1] Works of Sibbes, vol. i. pp. 25, 142.\n\n [2] New America. By W. H. Dixon. With Illustrations from Original\n Photographs. 2 vols. 8vo. 1867. (Hurst and Blackett.) Vol. i., pp.\n 134-137.\n\n [3] See Appendix A., lii-lv.\n\n [4] From above, and other parallels, it will be seen that Burns only\n put more tersely and memorably an old sentiment in his\u2014\n\n \u2018The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man\u2019s the gowd for a\u2019 that.\u2019\n\n\n [5] Nicolson and Burns\u2019s Cumberland and Westmoreland, vol. i., p. 26.\n\n [6] I owe hearty thanks to the Rev. Thomas Lees, M.A., Wreay,\n Carlisle, formerly Curate of Greystoke, for much help in tracing out\n birth-place, &c., and throughout; also to Archdeacon Cooper, Kendal,\n for his prompt and full answers to my queries.\n\n [7] See Memoirs of Alderman Barnes, edited for Surtees Society by\n W. H. D. Longstaffe, Esq., of Gateshead, p. 143. As I write this,\n these Memoirs are passing through the press; and I am indebted to Mr\n Longstaffe for early proof-sheets of the notices of Gilpin contained\n in the Manuscript. No common service is being rendered by Mr L. and\n the Surtees Society, to Ecclesiastical History, in so lovingly and\n competently preparing these important memoirs, which shed light on\n innumerable events and names, from sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.\n An abstract of the more interesting passages was published in 1828 by\n Sir Charles Sharpe, 8vo, pp. vii. and 35. I have to thank J. Hodgson\n Hinde, Esq., of Stelling Hall, Stocksfield, for this scarce pamphlet.\n\n [8] See Longstaffe\u2019s Barnes, as before. The Manuscript now belongs to\n the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-on-Tyne.\n\n [9] So called after Ketel, son of Eldred, son of Ivo de Tailbois,\n first Baron of Kendal, who came over with William the Conqueror.\n\n [10] Canto vi., stanza 33, \u2018Robin the Devil\u2019 and Col. Briggs. See also\n \u2018Annals of Kendal,\u2019 (1861,) pp. 55, 56.\n\n [11] The Commentator on Philippians; cf. my Memoir of him, prefixed\n to the reprint of his masterly book, p. vii. Since this Memoir was\n published, I have discovered that Dr Airay was son of Bernard Gilpin\u2019s\n sister Helen. See the Apostle\u2019s \u2018Will,\u2019 in the Surtees\u2019 volume of\n \u2018Wills and Inventories, from the Registry at Durham,\u2019 (1860,) Part\n II., pp. 83-94. So that the Gilpins and Airays were related. I have to\n thank William Jackson, Esq., Fleatham House, St Bees, for calling my\n attention to this. It explains obscurities in the life of Airay, and\n gives a key to Bernard Gilpin\u2019s special interest in him.\n\n [12] The Life of Bernard Gilpin. By William Gilpin, M.A., Prebendary\n of Salisbury. With an Introductory Essay by Edward Irving. 1824. Page\n 123.\n\n [13] That is, Richard Sibbes; Memoir, as before; Works, Vol. I. p.\n xxxi.\n\n [14] Shakespeare, _As you Like it_, ii. 7.\n\n [15] In a large quarto manuscript volume of \u2018Memoirs\u2019 of the Gilpins,\n drawn up by the Prebendary of Salisbury, (_supra_,) now before me by\n the kindness of its possessor, Charles Bernard Gilpin, Esq., Juniper\n Green, Edinburgh, I find the following concerning the above points:\n \u2018He was the son of a younger brother, and being born to no estate,\n applied the first years of his life to the study of physic. But\n feeling a stronger inclination to divinity, he laid aside all thoughts\n of practising as a physician, and changing entirely the course of his\n studies, _he took his degrees in divinity_; but at what university, I\n _find no account_,\u2019 (page 1.)\n\n [16] See Appendix B. I have here gratefully to acknowledge the\n painstaking of Mr T. A. Eaglesim, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford,\n by himself and the Bursar of Queen\u2019s, in examining every likely source\n of information.\n\n [17] See Appendix C, for some of these.\n\n [18] Barnes\u2019 Memoirs, page 141, as before. The Maitland Club\n \u2018Munimenta\u2019 of the University of Glasgow, (4 vols. 4to,) gives a\n \u2018Richardus Gilpin, Anglus, entered 11th January,\u2019 1717,\u2014none other.\n\n [19] As before, pp. 141, 142.\n\n [20] Account, vol. ii. 157.\n\n [21] The \u2018Life\u2019 of this singularly original and inventive Prelate is\n so scanty and unworthy of his fame, that we do not wonder at no notice\n of his Savoy ministry, or of Gilpin as his assistant. Calamy is rarely\n wrong in his facts.\n\n [22] 2 Vols. folio, 1708.\n\n [23] Walker, \u2018Sufferings,\u2019 page 306.\n\n [24] _Ibid._\n\n [25] _Ibid._ In various authorities the ground of Moreland\u2019s ejection\n is given as \u2018ignorance and insufficiency\u2019\u2014whatever the latter may\n mean; but as Walker, who is usually referred to for it, makes no\n such statement, I have not adduced it. It is sufficient that the\n Commissioners were picked men for intellect and character; and\n that wherever _data_ remain, their decisions are almost invariably\n warranted by the premises.\n\n [26] \u2018A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr John Noble of Penruddock,\n near Penrith, in Cumberland, March 14, 1707-8. By Samuel Audland. To\n which is added a Postscript concerning the Deceased, by another hand.\u2019\n London (reprinted) 1818, pp. 37, 38. The little \u2018Chapel\u2019 wherein\n this Sermon was preached still remains, and has now as its minister\n the Rev. David Y. Storrar, who occupies it as a mission-charge of\n the United Presbyterian Church (of Scotland). This congregation\n originated, it is believed, from those who could not remain in the\n Parish Church of Greystoke after Gilpin left and Moreland returned;\n and thus is of the oldest of the Presbyterian congregations in\n England. See above tractate, whence we learn that on Dr Gilpin\u2019s\n \u2018motion,\u2019 the Nonconformists of Greystoke \u2018called\u2019 another to fill\n his place for them. Then the Narrative continues: \u2018Mr Anthony Sleigh,\n a native of the same parish, and bred in the College of Durham, was\n obtained to become their minister, and so continued about forty years,\n though he had only slender [pecuniary] encouragements there. Their\n meeting was held mostly in the house of John Noble, and sometimes\n under covert of the night, as Christ\u2019s disciples sometimes did,\u2019 (page\n 44.)\n\n [27] As before, pp. 3, 4.\n\n [28] Ecclesiastical History of England, from the Opening of the\n Long Parliament to the Death of Oliver Cromwell. 2 vols. 8vo. 1867.\n (Jackson, Walford, and Co.) See vol. II., c. viii., _et alibi_.\n\n [29] Mr Stoughton justly speaks of the strange neglect of these\n important MSS.\n\n [30] Stoughton, as before, _sub nominibus_.\n\n [31] Burton\u2019s \u2018Cromwellian Diary,\u2019 ii. 531, where the \u2018Ordinance\u2019 is\n given _in extenso_, with notes by the editor, [Rutt.]\n\n [32] I suspect few know this rare and very valuable tractate. Its\n title-page runs, \u2018A Model for the maintaining of Students of choice\n abilities at the University, and principally in order to the Ministry.\n Together with a Preface before it, and after it a Recommendation from\n the University, [this bears the signatures of Worthington, Arrowsmith,\n Tuckney, Whichcot, Ralph Cudworth, and William Dillingham;] and two\n serious Exhortations, recommended unto all the unfeigned lovers of\n Piety and Learning, and more particularly to those rich men who desire\n to honour the Lord with their substance.\u2019 [1658-60.] There is a\n characteristic letter in it from Baxter.\n\n [33] Herbert: The Temple; Church-Porch.\n\n [34] Here again I owe thanks to Mr Lees of Wreay, as before; also\n to Rev. David Y. Storrar, Penruddock, and the present curate of\n Greystoke, (Mr Raby), for result of searching through the \u2018Registers,\u2019\n which have some curious entries.\n\n [35] \u2018A Critical and Chronological History of the Rise, Progress,\n Declension and Revival of Knowledge, chiefly Religious. In two\n Periods. 1. The Period of Tradition, from Adam to Moses. 2. The Period\n of Letters, from Moses to Christ. Second edition. By Henry Winder,\n D.D. To which are prefixed Memoirs of Dr Winder\u2019s Life. By George\n Benson, D.D.\u2019 London: 1756. 2 vols. 4to.\n\n [36] I have left unquoted the process by which Winder was (1.) seduced\n to, and (2.) recovered from Quakerism, though the reader will do well\n to consult it.\n\n [37] The \u2018Noble\u2019 Postscript says, \u2018Somewhat remarkable happened at\n his resuming the pulpit, which some living (1708) can tell, but I\n omit it.\u2019 Moreover, Morland\u2019s return was against the wishes of the\n parishioners: for the narrative continues, \u2018After this some offered to\n put up one Mr Jackson in the pulpit: which the contrary party did so\n violently oppose with threats to crush them into the earth, that Mr\n Jackson went with them to the parsonage-house, and preached there,\u2019\n (p. 43.) M. died in about a year.\n\n [38] As before, p. 6.\n\n [39] \u2018A good old aunt of mine\u2014mother of the present Mr Fawcett of\n Scaleby Castle\u2014took particular pride in shewing a certain very large\n room in her Castle. Her theory was that this was one of the great\n attractions of the place in Dr Gilpin\u2019s view: for here he would have\n room enough to preach to as many people as were likely to attend, and\n liberty also: Scaleby, as she observed, being at just such a distance\n from Carlisle as to place him beyond the operation of the Conventicle\n Act.\u2019\u2014_Charles Bernard Gilpin, Esq., Juniper Green, Edinburgh._\n\n [40] _Ibid._, p. 9.\n\n [41] That is James Fawcett, Esq. I do not know how sufficiently\n to acknowledge the courtesy and kindness of Mr and Mrs Fawcett in\n furthering my Gilpin inquiries. Besides early drawings and recent\n photographs of the Castle and grounds, I have had an ancient\n unpublished family-volume of rare interest confided to me. It is\n entitled \u2018An Accompt of the most Considerable Estates and Families in\n the County of Cumberland, from the Conquest unto the beginning of the\n Reign of K. James the First.\u2019 The original MS., an inscription informs\n us, is supposed to have been \u2018writ by an ancestor of Mr Denton\u2019s of\n Cardow during ye time of his imprisont. (as \u2018tis said) in ye Tower\n upon a Contest yt happ\u2019ned to be betwixt him and Dr Robinson, then\n Bp. of Carliell.\u2019 This \u2018copy\u2019 seems to have been taken about 1687. I\n cull the following _memoranda_ concerning Scaleby from this precious\n little volume: \u2018Ye Castle ... took name first of ye buyldings there\n wch they call Scheales or Scales, more properly of ye Latin word\n Scalinga, a caban or cottage. When King Henry 1st had established\n Carliell [Carlisle] he gave yt lordship unto one Richard the Ryder,\n whose surname was Tylliolf, who first planted there habitations. From\n him it descended by one or two degrees unto Symon Tylliolf in ye later\n end of King Henry 2d\u2019s tyme. His son, Piers Tylliolf or Peter, was\n ward to Geoffrey de Lucy by the king\u2019s grant about ye tyme of K. John.\n This Geoffrey de Lucy did bear ye cap of maintenance before K. Richard\n 1st at his coronation. Sr. Peter de Tilliol, kt., son of Sr. Robt.,\n dyed, A.D. 1434: 13 Henr. 6, having enjoyed his estate 67 years. He\n had issue one son who dyed without issue in 1435, when the estates\n were divided between two sisters and co-heirs, Isabella and Margaret.\n Isabella had married one John Colville, and his son Wm. succeeded and\n died 1479, leaving two daughters, Phillis and Margaret. The eldest\n was married to Wm. Musgrave. Margaret, the 2d daughter, married to\n Nicholas Musgrave, and transferred Scaleby, Haydon, and other Lands to\n his posterity. Sr. Edwd. Musgrave, Kt., son of Wm., married Katherine\n Penruddock: he built or repaired part of ye Castle at Scaleby A.D.\n 1606.... Sir Wm. Edwd. Musgrave, Bart., of Nova Scotia, who afterwards\n suffering great losses on ye account of his faithful service to K.\n Charles I and K. Charles ye 2d, he was forced to dismember a great\n part of his estate. He sold Kirklevington to Edmund Appelby, Houghton\n to Arthur Forster, Richardby to Cuthbert Studholm, and _Scaleby_ to\n Richard Gilpin, who now [1687] enjoys ye same together wth Richardby,\n wch he also purchased of Michael Studholm, _fil_ Cuthberti,\u2019 [p. 432.]\n [On Scaleby, cf. pp. 429-435.] There are similar interesting notices\n of Greystoke, or Graystock, or Graistock, which is explained to mean\n \u2018a badger,\u2019 [cf. pp. 311-315,] going back with old lore to Syolf, and\n Phorne, and Ranulph in the days of the 1st Henry, on to the Dacres,\n and Norfolks, and Arundel. Scaleby Castle has been much enlarged,\n together with the Estates, and the visitor of the district will find\n it a delightful pilgrimage. The older trees are all the more venerable\n that one knows Dr Gilpin himself \u2018planted\u2019 them.\n\n To shew the way Royalists suffered themselves to speak of even so\n \u2018moderate\u2019 and so inestimable a man as our Worthy, simply because he\n continued conscientiously a Nonconformist at enormous sacrifices,\n I add here a quotation from the \u2018County\u2019 History: N. and B.\u2019s\n Westmoreland and Cumberland, as before, vol. ii. p. 459: \u2018Scaleby: Mr\n Sandford\u2014in the true spirit of those times\u2014speaking of Scaleby, says,\n \u201cIt was sometime the estate of Sir Edward Musgrave of Hayton, baronet;\n but now sold to Mr Gilpin, a quondam preacher of the fanatical\n parliament, and his wife, Mr Brisco\u2019s daughter, of Crofton, brethren\n of confusion in their brains; knew what they would not have, but knew\n not what they would have, if they might chuse.\u201d\u2019 This \u2018reviling\u2019 is\n High Church charity; and it is wondered at that Nonconformists retort\n sharply when occasion offers.\n\n [42] As before, pp. 6, 7.\n\n [43] \u2018Life\u2019 of BERNARD GILPIN, as before, p. 128, _seq._ The\n coincidence is certainly striking of the double offer, at the distance\n of fully a century, of a bishopric, and the same bishopric, to two\n Gilpins, and a double declinature and actualisation of the \u2018_nolo\n episcopari_.\u2019 This and even more remarkable, because more intricate\n and manifold, repetitions, in the Lives of the elder and younger\n Edwards of America, [Cf. Memoir of the latter, prefixed to his Works,\n Vol. i. pp. xxxiii, xxxiv. Andover, U.S. 1842.] have been turned to\n excellent account in refuting the so-called objections of scepticism\n and rationalism to the repetition of the incidents and miracles and\n sayings of the Lord in the Gospels.\n\n [44] Further on, and in his epitaph, we shall find allusions to the\n declined bishopric, as having greatly added to the influence of Dr\n Gilpin, as the acceptance of one by Reynolds neutralised even his\n worth, and stains his memory indelibly.\n\n [45] As before, pp. 9-11.\n\n [46] For information on Hammond, consult Calamy, Palmer, Longstaffes\u2019\n Barnes, as before, and the different Newcastle \u2018Histories,\u2019 &c.\n\n [47] \u2018Peace and Holiness: in Three Sermons upon Several Occasions.\u2019 By\n Ignatius Fuller, [of Sherrington, Bucks,] 1672, 12mo, pp. 3, 4, 6, 8.\n\n [48] Surtees Society: edited by Raine, 1861, pp. 172-174.\n\n [49] Bourne\u2019s \u2018Newcastle,\u2019 _s.n._\n\n [50] Quoted by Villari, Vita di Savonarola, vol. ii., lib. iv. cap. 6:\n cf. Trollope\u2019s Florence, iv. 178, 179.\n\n [51] Carlyle\u2019s Cromwell, vol. iv. 151-153.\n\n [52] Barnes, as before, p. 142. Besides authorities already named,\n I am under obligation to Dr Bruce (author of \u2018The Roman Wall\u2019) for\n Turner\u2019s \u2018Sketch\u2019 of his Church in Newcastle; also to Mr James\n Clephan, Newcastle, for his valuable Paper, \u2018Nonconformity in\n Newcastle Two Hundred Years Ago.\u2019 A new edition of the latter will\n doubtless correct certain inadvertencies and misprints in an otherwise\n well-timed and vigorous tractate.\n\n [53] I must cordially acknowledge my obligation to Sir James Y.\n Simpson, Bart., M.D., for putting me in communication with the Leyden\n Professor.\n\n [54] Copies of this \u2018Disputatio,\u2019 which Gilpin must have neglected to\n deposit in Leyden, will be found in the Bodleian and in the British\n Museum \u2018Libraries.\u2019\n\n [55] As before, p. 142.\n\n [56] Raine\u2019s \u2018Depositions\u2019 as before: foot-note by Mr Longstaffe,\n pp. 172, 173. Theologically, _William Durant_ was unquestionably\n evangelically orthodox, and in no sense, save that the Church-property\n is held by the Unitarians, can he be called the \u2018founder\u2019 of their\n Church in Newcastle. By the same plea Matthew Henry of Chester,\n and scores of others, might be claimed as \u2018Founders\u2019 of Unitarian\n congregations. I state this simply as matter-of-fact, and not\n controversially. I may observe that Gilpin\u2019s \u2018Letter\u2019 to Stratton\n (onwards) more probably indicates the commencement of the Unitarian\n \u2018separation.\u2019\n\n [57] See Calamy, and authorities, as before.\n\n [58] This Sermon, from some unexplained cause, is extremely rare and\n high-priced. I was indebted to Mr Wilson, Tunbridge Wells, for a copy.\n\n [59] Account, p. 57.\n\n [60] Given in \u2018A Brief History of Protestant Nonconformists, and\n of the Society assembling in the Old Meeting-house, High Street,\n Stockton, 1856,\u2019 [by Rev. J. Richmond,] p. 16. Mr Clephan of Stockton\n was good enough to send me this careful little volume.\n\n [61] Turner, in giving the above extract, misled by 1699, imagines\n it must refer to some other Dr Gilpin. He forgot that the year did\n not begin then until March 25; so that, while under our reckoning it\n was 1700, under the old it was 1699; and hence the marking until the\n change of the going and coming year, _e.g._, 1699-1700.\n\n [62] I have to thank Mr Clephan, as before, for getting me this.\n\n [63] \u2018The Worthy of Ephratah,\u2019 1659, 12mo, pp. 46, 47.\n\n [64] Mr Pell, [as before.]\n\n [65] Mr Manlove, [as before.]\n\n [66] Mr Calvert.\n\n [67] Dr Gilpin.\n\n [68] Job.\n\n [69] Pr\u00e6sidium et decus meum.\n\n [70] \u2018Satan\u2019s Temptations.\u2019\n\n [71] The Bishoprick of C-\u2014- le.\n\n [72] A Journal of the Life of Thomas Story: containing an Account of\n his remarkable Convincement of and Embracing of the Principles of\n Truth as held by the people called Quakers: and also of his Travels\n and Labours in the Service of the Gospel: with many other Occurrences\n and Observations. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, printed by Isaac Thompson and\n Company, at the New Printing Office on the Side. MDCCXLVII. Apart\n from the light under which everything is seen, this book is a perfect\n repertory of facts on the moral and religious condition of our country\n at the period. There are innumerable sketches of persons and places of\n mark all over North and South, given with a transparent _naivet\u00e9_ and\n occasional raciness of wording that is very taking. Story continued to\n be received on the most friendly terms by the Gilpins, and by sons and\n daughters after Dr Gilpin himself was dead. Cf. pp. 470-473.\n\n [73] It may be well to give in a foot-note Story\u2019s account of\n another and later visit to Dr Gilpin:\u2014\u2018The same evening I visited\n Dr Richard Gilpin, formerly mentioned, having still a great respect\n for him and all his family. He was an eminent physician and preacher\n among the Presbyterians at Newcastle; to which place he had removed\n from Cumberland after the Revolution. And with him also I had some\n discourse about matters of religion; in which he discovered more\n passion and prejudice than became his high profession or years, and\n could not bear any contradiction. But I advised him to beware of that\n spirit, for it wanted mortification: and this I did in a calm and\n respectful mind, which reached the better part in him, and brought\n it over the evil; and then I left him in a loving temper. For though\n he was naturally high, and the most eminent and celebrated preacher\n of that profession in the North, and from his very early days deeply\n prejudiced, and almost envious, against Friends, yet he heard me with\n more patience\u2014though that was little\u2014than he ever did any other.\u2019\u2014P.\n 100.\n\n [74] By the favour of Mr Nichol I have had one hundred large-paper\n copies of this edition of \u2018D\u00e6monologia Sacra\u2019 thrown off\u2014quarto: and\n prefixed is the portrait of Gilpin, and a fac-simile of a portion of\n this manuscript.\n\n [75] _Vide_ Leigh Crit[ica] Sac[ra]. [Quarto, 1650, &c.\u2014G.]\n\n [76] The accuser of the brethren: Rev. xii. 10; Gen. iii. 3; Job i.\n\n [77] Quia inordinatam excellentiam affectando, ordinatam amiserunt,\n ideo de aliorum excellentia dolebant, et ad eam oppugnandam maliciose\n ferebantur.\u2014_Am. Med._ lib. i. cap. 11. [Amesius \u2018Medulla Theologica,\u2019\n 1627. 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [78] Vide Pool \u2018Synop.\u2019 in loc.\n\n [79] Quid inter se distant quatuor ista vocabula, dicant qui\n possunt, si tamen possunt probare qu\u00e6 dicunt; ego me ista ignorare\n confiteor.\u2014_Enchirid. ad Laurent._, cap. 58.\n\n [80] Instit., lib. i. cap. 14, sec. 8.\n\n [81] Ps. xvii. 14; Luke xv. 12, and xvi. 25.\u2014G.\n\n [82] \u03c3\u03ba\u03cc\u03bb\u03bf\u03c8, Arrows[mith], Tract. Sacr., lib. ii. cap. 8, sec. 3.\n\n [83] Lib. ii., Enchir., cap. 58.\n\n [84] Panst., vol. ii. lib. ix. cap. 11. [Daniel Chamier, author of De\n \u0152cumenico Pontificio. Died 1621.\u2014G.]\n\n [Footnote 85: Sclater, _in loc._]\n\n 86: Cal[vin] Instit., lib. i. cap. 14, sec. 8.\u2014[As before, see sec.\n 5-9.\u2014G.]\n\n 8 Bayne on Eph. vi. 12.\n\n [88] Bayne, _Ibid._\n\n [89] Calvin, _in loc._\n\n [90] \u1f18\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2, Eph. vi. 12.\n\n [91] Hierozoicon, part 1.\n\n [92] Principaliter ad Diabolum referenda est calliditas.\n\n [93] Cognitio Vespertina et Matutina. Barth. Sybill\u00e6 otium Theol. p.\n 361. Aug. in 3 Gen. et Civitat. Dei., lib. xi. cap. 29. Dr Jenison\u2019s\n \u2018Height of Israel\u2019s Idolatry,\u2019 p. 31. Ipsam creaturam melius ibi, hoc\n est, in sapientia Dei, tanquam in arte qua facta est, quam in ea ipsa\n sciunt.\u2014_Aug._, Civit. Dei., _ibid._\n\n [94] \u039d\u03bf\u03ae\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1, \u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03bf\u03b4\u03b5\u03af\u03b1\u03c2, \u03b2\u03ac\u03b8\u03b7.\n\n [95] \u0393\u03c5\u03bc\u03bd\u1f70, \u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c7\u03b7\u03bb\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1.\n\n [96] Query, \u2018immanent\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [97] Dr Jenison\u2019s \u2018Height of Israel\u2019s Idolatry,\u2019 p. 35. _Vide_\n Godwin\u2019s \u2018Child of Light,\u2019 p. 65.\n\n [98] Quest. Peregrinarum p. 392. D\u00e6mones cognoscunt cogitationes\n nostras, quantum ad subjectum, objectum et affectum, non autem quantum\n ad finem. Sciunt quid cogitamus, sed ignorant ad quem finem.\n\n [99] Deprehendas animi tormenta latentia ex \u00e6grotorum facie. S\u00e6pe\n tacens vocem verbaque vultus habet.\n\n [100] Invictus eris Alexander.\u2014_Plutarch in vit Alexandri._\n\n [101] Non non superabit Gallus Apulum. Ibis redibis nunquam per bella\n peribis.\n\n [102] Scot, \u2018Discovery of Witchcraft,\u2019 lib. vi. cap. 1.\n\n [103] Antiq. lib. iv. cap. 8.\n\n [104] Here quotations are given somewhat imperfectly and inaccurately\n from Ovid and Virgil. The following are correct:\u2014\n\n \u2018Non facient ut vivat amor Medeides herb\u00e6 Mistaque cum magicis venena\n Marsa Sonis.\u2019 Ovid, Art. Amand., ii. 98, 99.\n\n \u2018Has herbas atque h\u00e6c Ponto mihi lecta venena. Ipse dedit M\u0153ris:\n nascuntur plurima Ponto. His ego s\u00e6pe lupum fieri et se condere silvis\n M\u00e6rim, s\u00e6pe animas imis excire sepulchris.\u2019 Virgil, Bucol. Ecl. viii.\n\n \u03a6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03af\u03b1, philtrum, et magicas actiones qu\u00e6 in imaginibus, et\n characteribus, certis verbis, ac similibus consistunt, significat.\n Unde pharmaceutria appellatur, Idyllium ii. Theocriti et Eclog. viii.\n Virgilii. Et Antiquos etiam vocabulum \u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2, pro omni veneficii\n genere, quo vel hominibus, vel jumentis, vel frugibus, seu carmine,\n seu aliis modis nocetur, accipere, manifeste patet ex Platone, lib.\n x. de Legibus. Et apud Aristot. Hist. Animal., cap. 25, \u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03af\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2\n nominantur. Et Apocal., cap. 18, \u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03af\u03b1 pro pr\u00e6stigiis et impostura\n sumitur.\u2014_Dan Sennert._, tom. iii. lib. vi. part 9. cap 2.\n\n [105] Fuller, Pisg. Sight., lib. iv. cap. 7, p. 128. Maimon[ides.]\n _Vide_ Pool, _in loc._\n\n [106] Godwin\u2019s Jewish Antiq., lib. iv. cap. 40, Pool, _in loc._\n\n [107] Witchcraft is reckoned as distinct from murder in Gal. v. 20, 21.\n\n [108] Scot Witchcraft, lib. vi. cap. 2.\n\n [109] Hobbes\u2019 Leviath., cap. ii. p. 7.\n\n [110] Tenison, Hobbes\u2019 Creed Exam. Art. 4, p. 63. [Tenison, Archbishop\n of Canterbury: \u2018The Creed of Mr (Thomas) Hobbes Examined.\u2019 London,\n 1670, 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [111] Baxter: \u2018Sin against the Holy Ghost,\u2019 p. 83. J. Glanvil:\n \u2018Considerations of Witchcraft,\u2019 p. 6. Tenison against Hobbes, Art. 4,\n p. 59.\n\n [112] _Vide_ Epist. D. Balthasaris Han. M.D. _in calce_, tom. iii.\n Oper. Dan. Sennerti _de f\u0153mina fascinat\u00e2 in cujis cute, liter\u00e6_ N.B.\n not\u00e6 Crucis \u2671 \u00e0 capite ad calcem, cum astronomicorum et chymicorum\n characteribus, ros\u00e6 figura in dextra et trifolii in sinistr\u00e2\n artificios\u00e8 picta cum Anno Christi 1635, cor servatoris telis\n transfixum, et imago stulti, cum verbo Germanico _Narr_, procumbebant.\n [Dr More.] Mr Baxter _ut supra_. Dan. Sennertus, tom. iii. lib. vi.\n par. 9; varias historias enumerat de morbis incantatione inductis. Ex.\n Jo. Langio, Alex. Benedicto, Cornel. Gemm\u00e6, Foresto, et aliis.\n\n [113] Helmont. Magnet. Vuln. Cura., sec. 87.\n\n [114] Dr More:\u2014Death consists not so much in an actual separation of\n soul and body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the body for\n vital union. What is the meaning else of that expression, \u2018Whether in\n the body or out of the body I cannot tell,\u2019 except the soul may be\n separated from the body without death?\u2014_J. Glanvil_, \u2018Witchcraft,\u2019 pp.\n 15, 18.\n\n [115] Helmont, _ubi supra_. Avicenna; _vide_ Barthol. Sybilla.; Perig.\n Qu\u00e6st, p. 401. Nescio quis teneros oculos, &c. Glanvil, \u2018Witchcraft,\u2019\n p. 24; Helmont, _ut supra_, sec. 102. Satan itaque vim magicam hanc\n excitat (secus dormientem et scientia exterioris hominis impeditam) in\n suis mancipiis.\u2014_Glanvil_, \u2018Witchcraft,\u2019 p. 18.\n\n [116] Polanus, 1632.\n\n [117] Tho[mas Aquinas] Cont. Gent., lib. iii. cap. 101, cited by\n Sclater on 2 Thes. ii. 9. [4to, 1627, pp. 148, 149.\u2014G.]\n\n [118] Sclater, _in loc._\n\n [119] Magia Naturalis, lib. ii. cap. 17.\n\n [120] Calvin, _in loc._\n\n [121] Civit. Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 18.\n\n [122] De Civit. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 5, 6.\n\n [123] Plin., lib. xxviii.\n\n [124] _Vide_ L. Vives Comment. in lib. xxi. cap. 6. De Civit. Dei.\n\n [125] Determinata activa ad determinata passiva applicando.\n\n [126] Tho., Cajetan, Delrio.\n\n [127] Barth. Sybilla Pereg. Qu\u00e6st., p. 372.\n\n [128] Rivetus.\n\n [129] Scot. \u2018Witchcraft,\u2019 lib. vii. cap. 12.\n\n [130] _Vide_ Pool Synops. _in loc._\n\n [131] _Vide_ Clark\u2019s Lives. [\u2018The Lives of Thirty-two English\n Divines.\u2019 Folio. 1677. 3d ed. p. 671, _seq._\u2014G.]\n\n [132] God of a fly, or fly-god.\u2014G.\n\n [133] De Civit. Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 52.\n\n [134] Tertul. Apolog., cap. 9.\n\n [135] Purchas, Pilgrim., part i. lib. viii. cap. 10.\n\n [136] _Idem_, part i. lib. v. cap. 11.\n\n [137] Iphigenia Sacrificata, de qua.... Sanguine placastis ventos et\n virgine c\u00e6sa.\u2014_Virg._ Plut. Paral., cap. 66.\n\n [138] Godwyn, \u2018Moses and Aaron,\u2019 lib. iii. cap. 8.\n\n [139] His \u2018Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions\n observed in all Ages,\u2019 1614, folio; and his \u2018Pilgrimes,\u2019 5 vols.\n folio, 1625-26.\u2014G.\n\n [140] Lightfoot on Acts vii. 43.\n\n [141] Godwyn, \u2018Moses and Aaron,\u2019 lib. iv. cap. 2.\n\n [142] On the Via Flaminia: Aur. Vict. de Viris Illustr. cap. 27, sec.\n 8: Tacitus, _Ann._ xiii. 47.\u2014G.\n\n [143] Purchas, Pilgr., part i. lib. v. cap. 11, [_e.g._, Juggernath in\n India.\u2014G.]\n\n [144] Pro vita hominum nisi vita hominis reddatur, non posse deorum\n numen placari, arbitrantur.\u2014_Jean d\u2019Espan._, [_i.e._, John Despagne.]\n \u2018Popular Errors\u2019 [in the Knowledge of Religion. London, 1648, 8vo.\u2014G.]\n cap. 18.\n\n [145] _Vide_ Lud. Capel. _de voto_ Jepht\u00e6, [_ac corban._\u2014G.] sec. 9.\n _Vide_ Pool Synops. Crit. on 2 Kings iii. 27.\n\n [146] Purchas, Pilgr., part i. lib. v. cap. 16.\n\n [147] Purchas, _ibid._\n\n [148] Diod. Siculus, Biblioth., lib. xx. Lod. Vives on Aug. De Civ.\n Dei, lib. vii. cap. 19.\n\n [149] Purifying sacrifices for the _manes_ of the dead, offered in\n _February_.\u2014G.\n\n [150] \u2018Astonishment.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [151] Porphyrius, lib. ii. De Abstinent. Plutarch. Lod. Vives in Aug.\n De Civ. Dei, lib. viii. cap. 13.\n\n [152] \u2018Alive.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [153] Wonder-working Prov[idences] for N[ew] E[ngland], lib. i. cap.\n 10.\n\n [154] \u2018Ingenuousness.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [155] The Peripatetics. Porphyrius. Aug[ustine], De Civ. Dei, ib. x.\n cap. 11. Galen.\n\n [156] Cassius ad Brutum ex Plutarch, in vita Bruti.\n\n [157] _Vide_ Spanheim, Dub. Evang. part iii. dub. 29.\n\n [158] Lib. ii. de Bello Jud. c. 7, \u03a8\u03c5\u03c7\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u1f74\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f70\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u2019\n \u1f81\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u03c9\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u1f70\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9.\n\n [159] Fuit illa quidem olim Sadduc\u00e6orum opinio, per angelos nihil\n designari quam vel motus quos Deus hominibus aspirat, vel ea qu\u00e6 edit\n virtutis su\u00e6 specimina.\u2014Instit., lib. i. cap. 14, sec. 9.\n\n [160] Diodati: his \u2018Notes\u2019 were published in English, 1664, folio, and\n in various lesser forms.\u2014G.\n\n [161] Hobbes Lev., cap. 34, pp. 212, 214.\n\n [162] Dr More\u2019s \u2018Mystery of Godliness,\u2019 lib. iv. cap. 6, sec. 10.\n\n [163] Lib. i. p. 85, on John x. 20.\n\n [164] Mede, \u2018Apost. Latter Times,\u2019 p. 19. August. De Civ. Dei, lib.\n ix. cap. 11, 19.\n\n [165] _Vide_ Barlow, Exer. Metaph., Exer. 2. Flac. Script. Tract. 6,\n p. 479.\n\n [166] Manton on James i. 14.\n\n [167] Voluntas sequitur ultimum dictamen intellectus practici.\n\n [168] James i. 22, 29, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03b6\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2.\n\n [169] \u03bd\u03bf\u03ae\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1. Thus Satan, Jude 9, disputed, urged sophisms about the\n body of Moses\u2014\u03b4\u03b9\u03b5\u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf.\n\n [170] \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03ba\u03c5\u03b2\u03b5\u03af\u1fb3.... \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03bf\u03b4\u03ad\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03bb\u03ac\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2. \u03c0\u03bb\u03b5\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd\n dicit qui avaritia vel aliis malis artibus lucra comparat.\u2014_Beza._\n\n [171] _Vide_ Capel. Temp., p. 27; Will. Paris in Ames Cas. Consc.,\n lib. ii. cap. 19; Goodwin, Child of Light, p. 47; Caryl on Job i. 14.\n All are volunteers; he never constrains any, neither can he; the will\n is never forced by him, neither can it be.\n\n [172] \u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03ac\u03b6\u03c9 \u03b1 \u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03c9.\n\n [173] Calv. Instit., lib. iii. cap. 20, sec. 46.\n\n [174] Capel. Tempt[ations,] p. 26. [1635, 12mo.\u2014G.]\n\n [175] Caryl, _in loc._\n\n [176] \u05d8\u05d5\u05e9 circumspexit, lustravit.\u2014Metaph.\n\n [177] Child of Light, p. 45. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [178] _Vide_ Pool: Synops. _in loc._\n\n [179] Dr Goodwin, \u2018Child of Light.\u2019 [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [180] Manton, _in loc._\n\n [181] Descartes, Ant. le grand, Philosoph. Vet., &c.\n\n [182] Spectavit, clamavit, exarsit, abstulit inde secum insaniam qua\n stimularetur redire, &c.\n\n [183] Spelled \u2018precipated,\u2019 which is noted as a transition-form found\n elsewhere.\u2014G.\n\n [184] _Vide_ Calvin, _in loc._\n\n [185] Burton\u2019s Melanch., part i. sec. 2, p. 93. Reynold\u2019s Treat. of\n Passions, cap. 4.\n\n [186] Reynolds, _Ibid._\n\n [187] _Vide_ Fenner, \u2018Treat[ise] of Affections.\u2019 J. F. Senault of\n Passions, p. 30.\n\n [188] Ego autem seram immortalitatem precor regi.... Hominem\n consequitur aliquando, nunquam comitatur divinitas.\u2014_Curt._, lib. viii.\n\n [189] Immoderata animi concitatione impulsus ... facinus crudele et\n nefarium commisit.... Iracundia ... velut tyrannus, omnia suo metu\n gubernans, ruptis habensi, et jugo rationis excusso, gladios inique\n contra omnes distrinxit.\u2014_Theod. Hist. Eccles._, lib. v. p. 587.\n\n [190] Fenner, Epistle Dedicatory to \u2018Mystery of Saving Grace.\u2019\n\n [191] _Vide_ Dyke, \u2018Deceitfulness of the Heart,\u2019 p. 139, &c.\n\n [192] \u2018Arguing\u2019 = to maintain a thing against contradiction.\u2014G.\n\n [193] Capel, \u2018Temptations,\u2019 [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [194] Query, \u2018steams\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [195] As Absalom his servants watched when Amnon\u2019s heart was merry\n with wine.\n\n [196] Greenham\u2019s Works, p. 793.\n\n [197] Greenham, p. 796, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [198] Syntag., part. i. disput. 2. Thes. 20-22.\n\n [199] Arrowsmith, Tact. Sacr., lib. i. cap. 5, sec. 9.\n\n [200] Rutherford, \u2018Divine Influences.\u2019\n\n [201] Horace: Ser. i. 5, 100.\u2014G.\n\n [202] Jos[ephus] cont. Apion, lib. vi. cap. 2. [More accurately: for\n the former about the Grecians, lib. ii. cap. 8; about the ass-head,\n lib. ii. cap. 7; and about _sabatosis_ = buboes, lib. ii. cap. 2. The\n writings of Apion against the Jews, except in the fragments preserved\n by Josephus, have perished.\u2014G.]\n\n [203] Jos. cont. Apion, lib. i. [sec. 34.\u2014G.]\n\n [204] Greenham, p. 35, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [205] Theod. Eccles. Historia.\n\n [206] Greenham, p. 35, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [207] Query, \u2018most part\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [208] \u2018Ingenuousness.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [209] _Vide_ Clark\u2019s Lives. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [210] Deus est prima veritas essentialis, verbum Dei prima veritas\n normalis.\u2014_Mac. Distinc. Theol._ cap. i. [The quotation is from the\n posthumous work of Maccovius \u2018Distinctiones et Regulas Theologicas et\n Philosophicas.\u2019 Amstel: 1656, and various subsequent editions.\u2014G.]\n\n [211] \u1f11\u03bd\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b4\u03bf\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5, \u03c4\u2019 \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9.\n   Transcriber\u2019s Note: probably a misquote of\n   Aristotle\u2019s Physics, book 1.\n   \u1f11\u03bd\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c4\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u03bf\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, \u03c4' \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\n   \u201cOne absurd thing being granted, others follow\u201d\n\n [212] Si Wittenbergenees admittant universalem gratiam, Huberiani\n introducent universalem electionem, Pucciani fidem naturalem,\n naturalist\u00e6 explodent Christum et scripturas.\u2014_Prid._, _Lect._ iii. p.\n 34. [The _Lectiones \u2018Theologic\u00e6\u2019_ of John Prideaux: Oxon. 1651, &c.\u2014G.]\n\n [213] Consid. Th. Soc. Proemial, p. 65.\n\n [214] Excitata a Luthero bestia apocalyptica, et non irritata tantum,\n sed sauciata multorum venabulis, ultimum fere omnium bonorum judicio,\n efflasset spiritum, nisi spiritus isti inauspicati tam heroicos\n distraxissent et retardassent impetus.\u2014_Prid_[_eaux_], _Orat. de Spir.\n Seduct._, p. 95. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [215] Melch. Adam. in vita Theol.\n\n [216] Query, \u2018ways\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [217] \u2018Discourse of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome.\u2019 [Works. 1710.\n 6 vols., folio.\u2014G.]\n\n [218] \u2018Pickeer\u2019 in Spanish means to \u2018rob or pillage;\u2019 a \u2018gipsy\u2019 in\n English dialect [Sussex] is called a \u2018picker\u2019 or tramp, _e.g._,\n Shakespeare, Hamlet, iii. 2.\u2014G.\n\n [219] See the story of Mr Copp[inger.]\n\n [220] Fascinatio est spiritus impostoris vehementior operatio, qua\n noxium aliquem errorem in dogmate vel praxi\u2014doctrin\u00e6 san\u00e6 contrarium,\n sed sophisticis pr\u00e6stigiis depictum\u2014pro veritate incautis hominibus\n obtendit, iisque efficaciter persuadet, ut errorem eum confidenter\n amplectantur, strenu\u00e8 defendant, et zelo, non secundum Deum,\n propagant.\u2014_Dickson_, _Therapeut. Sacra_, lib. iii. cap. 7.\n\n [221] \u0392\u03b1\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03c9, Grammaticis dictum esse placet quasi \u03c6\u03b1\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03c9, id est,\n \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03ac\u03b5\u03c3\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, quo pertinet illud, _Virg._, _ec._ iii. Nescio\n quis teneros, &c. _Vide_ Piscator, _in loc._, and Leigh. Crit. Sac.\n\n [222] Neque tantum quod se decipi passi fuerint eos arguit, sed\n quadam veluti magica incantatione deludi.\u2014_Calvin_, _in loc._ \u0391\u03bd\u03cc\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\n mente alienati\u2014eorum lapsum magis dementi\u00e6 esse quam stultiti\u00e6,\n arguens.\u2014_Calvin._\n\n [223] \u1f14\u03bd \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u03af\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u1f10\u03bd \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6.\n\n [224] Sclater, _in loc._ [1627. 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [225] [\u2018Imaginative.\u2019\u2014G.]\n\n [226] Licet ei (Deo concedente) species, imagines et simulacra rerum\n falsarum effingere in imaginaria hominum facultate, ita ut falsa pro\n veris eis demonstrentur, deinde potest incendere atque inflammare\n appetitum eorum ad ea incredibili alacritate pr\u00e6dicanda, &c. Pet.\n Martyr, _in loc._ Reynolds, Treat. of Passions, chap. 4, p. 27, [as\n before.\u2014G.]\n\n [227] Ferunt quendam nomine Montanum\u2014spiritu quodam maligno abripi,\n et de repente furore et mentis insania exagitatum bacchari; atque mox\n non solum temere garrire, sed peregrinas quasdem voces fundere et\n prophetare\u2014Nonnulli illum tanquam insano spiritu pr\u00e6ditum, d\u00e6monio\n agitatum increpabant. Ita Christopher. interp. _Euseb. Histor.\n Eccles._, lib. v. cap. 15.\n\n [228] Baxter\u2019s \u2018Confession of Faith,\u2019 p. 3, in the margin, [1655.\n 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [229] See his story called the \u2018Quaker Shaken.\u2019\n\n [230] Plura nescio quam scio.\u2014Epist. 119, cap. 21. Melch. Adam in vita.\n\n [231] D\u2019Espagne, Popular Errors, sec. 2, cap. 12. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [232] Query, \u2018unanswerable\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [233] D\u2019Espagne, Popular Errors, sec. 2, chap. 4. [As before.\u2014G]\n\n [234] M. Anthony de Dominis, who became Dean of Windsor. Died 1624.\u2014G.\n\n [235] See the narration called \u2018The False Jew.\u2019\n\n [236] See the book called \u2018Wonder-working Providence for New England.\u2019\n\n [237] Savonarola, \u2018Triumph. Crucis,\u2019 lib. ii. cap. 2, [_i.e._, \u2018De\n Veritate Fidei.\u2019 Florent. 1497. Folio.\u2014G.]\n\n [238] As _Ibis a scarabeo accipitris pulchritudinem participat_; by\n which they signified the moon borrowing its light from the sun.\n\n [239] \u2018Concealed.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [240] Whitaker, Def. lit. sententia adv. Dur\u00e6um., lib. ii. p. 88.\n Parum a docta quadam insania discrepat. [The title of this famous book\n is as follows: \u2018Responsionis ad Decem illas Rationes, quibus fretus\n Edmundus Campianus certamen Ecclesi\u00e6 Anglican\u00e6 ministris obtulit in\n causa fidei. Defensio contra Confutationem. Joannis Dur\u00e6i, Scoti,\n Presbyteri, Jesuit\u00e6. London, 1583, 8vo. Richard Stock translated the\n \u2018Controversy,\u2019 1606, 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [241] _Vide_ Lumen Chymieum Crollii Basil. Chymic, in prefatione.\n Glauber de signatura Salium, p. 31, 38.\n\n [242] Lud. Cappelli, Spec. in Eph. vi. 19. [Spicilegio post messem ...\n Geneva, 1632, 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [243] It is painful to find Gilpin thus indiscriminately condemning\n John Tauler\u2019s \u2018_Theologia Germanica_:\u2019 which, by Miss Winkworth\u2019s\n recent translation, has entered on a new lease of deserved\n popularity.\u2014G.\n\n [244] Dr Stillingfleet, \u2018Idolatry of the Church of Rome.\u2019\n\n [245] Dicas eos mera tonitrua sonare, nam communi sermone spreto,\n exoticum nescio quid idioma sibi fingunt, visi sunt suos discipulos\n supra c\u0153lum rapere.\u2014_Calvin in Jude_ 13.\n\n [246] \u2018Out-contradicted\u2019 or \u2018argued.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [247] \u2018Devoted,\u2019 = over-attached.\u2014G.\n\n [248] \u2018Talk,\u2019 or \u2018report.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [249] Acontius\u2019 \u2018Stratagema Satan\u00e6,\u2019 lib. viii. p. 406, Oxon. [1631.\n 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [250] Jerome, Theophylact, Lyra, &c.\n\n [251] Atque hac ratione seducta est, astu Satan\u00e6, innumera hominum\n multitudo, qu\u00e6 ut viam vit\u00e6 ambularet, arctam illam ingressa est, qu\u00e6\n instinctu Satan\u00e6 per humanas est ad-inventiones inducta, [maxime eorum\n qui in monasteriis vixerunt.] Postea quam vidit Satan viam suam qu\u00e6\n ad mortem ducit, traduci, e\u00f2 qu\u00f2d sit lata, et quod multi per illam\n ambulent, c\u0153pissentque quidam arctam et strictam qu\u00e6rere, qu\u00e6 non\n tereretur \u00e0 multis, callido consilio effecit, ut pro vera via vit\u00e6,\n arriperetur ea, qu\u00e6 quidem esset stricta via, ver\u00f2 vit\u00e6 non esset,\n &c.\u2014_Musculus in Mat._ vii. 13. [1548. Folio.\u2014G.]\n\n [252] Purchas\u2019 Pilg., lib. i. cap. 10, out of Eusebius, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [253] _Vide_ Purchas\u2019 Pilg., iii. chap. 5.\n\n [254] \u2018Apostasy of the Latter Times,\u2019 p. 7.\n\n [255] Prideaux, \u2018Orat. X. de spir. Seductoribus,\u2019 [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [256] Mt. \u00c6tna: Diog. Laert., viii. 67, 69-71: Horace, _ad Pizon_,\n 464, &c. Cf. Karsten, Empedoclis Agrigent. Carm. Reliqu\u00e6, p. 36, &c.,\n and Apollon. ap Diog. Laert., viii. 52.\u2014G.\n\n [257] Lib. ii. cap. 45, p. 87. [Diego Alvarez?\u2014G.]\n\n [258] Whitaker, Di[sputatio de Sacra] Script. contra [Robertum\n Bellarminum et] Stapletonum, lib. i. cap. 10, p. 121, [1588, 4to,\n has been translated and edited for the Parker Society by Professor\n Fitzgerald, 1849, 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [259] Query, \u2018confirmed\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [260] Miraculum voco, quicquid arduum aut insolitum, supra spem aut\n facultatem mirantis apparet.\u2014_Aug. de utilitat. cred. contra Manich._,\n cap. xvi.\n\n [261] Spelled \u2018statuas.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [262] Johnson\u2019s relat. in Hakluyt, tom. i.\n\n [263] Misprinted \u2018Cedremus,\u2019 instead of Cedrenus Georgius. See Smith\u2019s\n \u2018Dictionary,\u2019 _sub nomine_.\u2014G.\n\n [264] Cornel. Tacit. Histor., lib. iv.\n\n [265] \u00c6tius Spartianus _in vit._ Adriani.\n\n [266] De secundo bello Punico.\n\n [267] Mr Baxter, \u2018Full and Easy Satisfaction, [which is the true and\n safe Religion.\u2019 1674. 4to.\u2014G.] cap. 4.\n\n [268] Nihil fecit Christus quod Franciscus non fecit, imo plura fecit\n quam Christus.\u2014_Barthol. de Pisis lib. conformitat._, fol. 1149.\n\n [269] Query, Xavier, often spelled Xavierus?\u2014G.\n\n [270] Arist., lib. i. de anima.\n\n [271] Antiquitat. Jud\u00e6., lib. xviii. cap. 14.\n\n [272] Eccles. Hist., lib. xi. cap. 25.\n\n [273] See Lathbury\u2019s \u2018Guy Fawkes.\u2019 1840.\u2014G.\n\n [274] De Civitate Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 6.\n\n [275] Purchas, \u2018Pilg.\u2019 Asia., lib. i. cap. 17. Heylin, \u2018Cosmography,\u2019\n p. 689.\n\n [276] \u2018Height of Israel\u2019s Idolatry,\u2019 cap. 12.\n\n [277] Hist., lib. xvi.\n\n [278] Loc., lib. xi. cap. 6. [Query, Camus, Bp. of Belley\u2014the\n reference being to his \u2018Agathonphile.\u2019 Rouen, 1641?\u2014G.]\n\n [279] _Vide_ Chamier, Panst., tom. 5, lib. ii. cap. 15.\n\n [280] Prideaux, Orat. de impost, mendaciis; Rome\u2019s Triumphs; Mr\n Baxter\u2019s \u2018Safe Religion,\u2019 p. 168. [1657. 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [281] Query, \u2018cunning\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [282] [Gellius, x. 12.\u2014G.] Heylin, \u2018Cosmography,\u2019 p. 399, [1666\n folio.\u2014G.]\n\n [283] For all above, see Heylin, as before.\u2014G.\n\n [284] Sclater in loc. \u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2 for \u03b3\u03bd\u03ce\u03bc\u03b7, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [285] Theod. Hist., [_sub nominibus_.\u2014G.]\n\n [286] _Vide_ Harv\u00e6i, Pr\u00e6fat. in Sang. Circulo; and Heylin, Cosmogr.,\n p. 399.\n\n [287] Apolog., cap. 7-9, 39.\n\n [288] Coci Censura Patrum, [Query, the _Thesaurus Catholicus_ of Joan.\n Coccius.\u2014G.]; Dr James, De Corrupt. Scrip. Concilior, [1688, 8vo, and\n re-edited by Cox, 1843, 8vo]; Prideaux, De Pseudo-Epigraphis, [as\n before.\u2014G.]\n\n [289] Matth[ias] Prideaux, Introduct. Histories. [1655. 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [290] Stratagema Satan\u00e6, lib. iv., [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [291] Sozom. Eccl. Hist., lib. v. cap. 16.\n\n [292] \u2018Beside\u2019 Antioch in Syria. Cf. Libanius, Monod. de Daphn\u00e6o\n Templo, iii. 334.\u2014G.\n\n [293] Purchas, Pilg., lib. i. cap. 17, [as before.\u2014G]\n\n [294] _Vide_ Scaligeri notas in Euseb. Chron., p. 244.\n\n [295] Lib. ii.; mentioned also by Josephus, Antiq. Jews, lib. x. cap.\n 1.\n\n [296] Purchas, Pilg. America, lib. ix. cap. 12. [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [297] Purchas, Pilg. America, lib. ix. cap. 12. [Inca or Incas.\u2014G.]\n\n [298] Purchas, Pilg. America, lib. viii. cap. 13, [as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [299] Ita diabolus hoc egit, ut divinum miraculum in Jud\u00e6a editum\n vilesceret, fidem authoritatem amitteret, et tanti operis gloria ad\n turpissima idola rediret.\u2014_Bucholcer._\n\n [300] Apostasy of the Latter Times. [Works, 1677, folio, pp. 623,\n _seq._\u2014G.]\n\n [301] De Civitate Dei, lib. viii. cap. 14, 18.\n\n [302] _Vide_ Du Plessis, Of the Trueness of Christian Religion, cap.\n 22; Origen, Cont. Cels., lib. viii. p. 416; Plutarch in Vita Thesei et\n Demetrii.\n\n [303] Lib. ix. Epist. 9.\n\n [304] Lib. ix. Epist. 71.\n\n [305] Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscindere impossible est.\n _Vide_ Perkins\u2019s Prepar[atives] to Demonst. of the Prob[leme of the\n forged Catholicisme or Universalitie of the Romish Religion, 1613,\n folio.\u2014G.], cap. 3; [Eusebius] Pr\u00e6par. Evan., lib. xiii. cap. 7.\n\n [306] De Civit. Dei, lib. viii. cap. 27. Ornamenta sunt memoriarum,\n non sacrificia mortuorum.\n\n [307] Non video in multis quid sit discrimen inter eorum opinionem de\n sanctis et id quod Gentiles putabant de diis suis.\n\n [308] [Ex quibus] veteres mihi videntur hoc consilio vires\n humanas sic extulisse, ne, si impotentiam diserte essent confessi\n [primum] philosophorum [ipsorum] cachinnos, [quibus cum tunc\n certamen habebant,] excuterent.... Scriptur\u00e6 doctrinam cum\n philosophi\u00e6 dogmatibus dimidia ex parte conciliare studium illis\n fuit.\u2014_Institut._, lib. ii. cap. 2, sec. 4.\n\n [309] Plato, lib. x., de Rep. Dial.\n\n [310] De Pr\u00e6par. Evang., lib. xi. cap. ult.\n\n [311] Chemnitii, Exam. Concil. Trident, p. 3, in Hist. Purgator., cap.\n 1.\n\n [312] Hinc prima mali labes, dum c\u0153lestia mysteria et tremenda\n Christianorum sacra Gentilium notionibus et vanis ceremoniis\n attemperare voluerint.\u2014_Owen\u2019s Disser. De Verbo_, sec. 16.\n\n [313] Socr[ates] Eccles. Histor., lib. i. cap. 3.\n\n [314] Contentionibus amittitur veritas, et multi eo adiguntur, ut\n postea nihil constitui posse certi sibi persuadeant, atque ita\n religionis omne studium abjiciant.\u2014_Acontius_, _Strat[agema] Satan\u00e6_,\n lib. i. p. 23.\n\n [315] Theod. Eccles. Hist., lib. i. cap. 2.\n\n [316] Sozom. Eccles. Hist., lib. v. cap. 15.\n\n [317] Piscator, _in loc._\n\n [318] Calvin, _in loc._\n\n [319] An \u2018apoplexy,\u2019 Gr. \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c7\u03b7.\u2014G.\n\n [320] Collins \u2018Cordial,\u2019 part ii. p. 154. [Misprint for Collinges,\n whose \u2018Cordial for a Fainting Soul\u2019 (1649, 4to) is one of the richest\n of Puritan experimental treatises; and not less so his \u2018Intercourses\n of Divine Love,\u2019 (2 vols. 4to. 1673-83.)\u2014G.]\n\n [321] Differunt inter se casus anim\u00e6 \u00e6gr\u00e6 et casus conscienti\u00e6 \u00e6gr\u00e6,\n &c.\u2014_Dickson_, _Therap. Sacr._, lib. i. cap. 2. [Edinburgh, 1656,\n 8vo.\u2014G.]\n\n [322] Query, \u2018revolve\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [323] Bayne, _in loc._\n\n [324] Misprinted \u2018may.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [325] 2 Kings xx. 6. _Vide_ Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [326] _Vide_ Willis de anima brut., cap. 8, 9.\n\n [327] Irritamenta, terriculamenta.\n\n [328] In calce, tom. iv. p. 973. Talis stimulus datus fuit apostolo.\n\n [329] Horrore sui sic implent animum, ut tantum non pectus ipsum\n expectorare videantur,\u2014ad quorum pr\u00e6sentiam natura vel depravatissima\n contremiscit.\u2014_Arowsmith. Tract. Sacr._, lib. ii. cap. 7, sec. 6. [For\n \u2018Tract\u2019 read \u2018Tactica Sacra.\u2019 Cambridge, 1657, 4to.\u2014G.]\n\n [330] Perkins, Cases of Conscience, lib. i. cap. 10, sec. 2.\n\n [331] \u2018Treatise of Imaginations,\u2019 cap. 3.\n\n [332] _Vide_ Dickson, Therap. Sacra., lib. iii. cap. 26, sec. 7.\n\n [333] The construction of this paragraph is involved and inaccurate,\n but the thought is sufficiently plain, when from \u2018for when he\n designs,\u2019 &c., down to \u2018advantage,\u2019 is placed in parenthesis.\u2014G.\n\n [334] Arguing against contradiction.\u2014G.\n\n [335] \u2018Immanis in antro Bacchatur vates,\u2019 \u00c6neid, iv. 6, 78.\u2014G.\n\n [336] \u2018Artful\u2019 = unreal.\u2014G.\n\n [337] Spelled \u2018assays.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [338] Ames, \u2018Case Consc.,\u2019 lib. i. cap. 9.\n\n [339] Dickson, Therap. Sacra, lib. iii. cap. 1.\n\n [340] _Vide_ Goodwin\u2019s \u2018Child of Light.\u2019 [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [341] Willis, de anima Brut., cap. 9, de Melancholia.\n\n [342] Query, \u2018misapprehension\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [343] F\u00e6l. Plateri prox. med., cap. 3, de mentis alienatione.\n\n [344] \u2018Ingenuousness.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [345] \u2018Relapse.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [346] \u2018Evident.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [347] Query, \u2018above\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [348] Treat. of Desertions.\n\n [349] Ames, \u2018Cases of Consc.,\u2019 lib. i.\n\n [350] Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [351] \u2018Preceding,\u2019 or \u2018inviting.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [352] _Vide_ Fel. Plateri. observ., lib. i., in mentis alienatione.\n\n [353] Lib. i. de mentis alienatione.\n\n [354] Treatise \u2018Of Desertions.\u2019\n\n [355] Ames, \u2018Cases of Consc.,\u2019 lib. iv. cap. 9.\n\n [356] \u2018Selvage,\u2019 or border.\u2014G.\n\n [357] Lorinus _in loc._; Barth. Petrus _in loc._\n\n [358] _Vide_ her story in Clark\u2019s Lives. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [359] Query, \u2018inexpressible\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [360] [Foxe,] Acts and Mon., cap. 8, p. 938.\n\n [361] Mrs K. B. [Mrs Katherine Bretterge, as before.\u2014G.]\n\n [362] Numb. iv. 3. _Vide_ Lightfoot, \u2018Temple Service and Harmony.\u2019\n Lev. viii. 6, 12.\n\n [363] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._\n\n [364] Non nobis expedit esse sine tentationibus; non rogamus ut non\n tentemur, sed ne inducat in tentationem.\u2014_Aug. in Ps._ lxxiii.\n\n [365] Tentationem experiuntur ac sentiunt hi, qui ex animo pietati\n student.\u2014_Musculus_, _in loc._\n\n [366] Capel, \u2018Tempt.,\u2019 part 1, cap. 4, sec. 1.\n\n [367] _Ibid._, part 1, cap. 4.\n\n [368] Ill\u00e6 plerumque suggerunt, qu\u00e6 natur\u00e6 gratiora, idque placide\n et gradatim, ita ut mens sui compos maneat in ipso \u00e6stu, h\u00e6 autem\n impetu plusquam humano irruentes, fulguris instar, ocyus quam solent\n passiones dianoetic\u00e6, &c.\u2014_Arrowsmith, Tactica_ [_Sacra_] _I._, lib.\n ii. cap. 7, sec. 6.\n\n [369] Horrore sui si implent animum, ut tantum non pectus ipsum\n expectorare videantur, dum ea perpetim dictitari sentit, et dolet,\n ad quoque pr\u00e6sentiam, natura vel depravatissima contremiscet.\u2014_Idem,\n Ibid._\n\n [370] Aliud est tentari, aliud tentationem recipere. Tentari et non\n in tentationem ferri non est malum.\u2014_Aug._, _De Bono Persever._, lib.\n ii. cap. 6. Mordet Satan cum ad consensum trahit, latrat solum cum\n suggerit.\u2014_Bernard._\n\n [371] Musculus, _in loc._\n\n [372] _Vide_ Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [373] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._\n\n [374] Spanheim, _in loc._\n\n [375] Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [376] Hobbes\u2019s Leviathan, cap. 45, p. 354.\n\n [377] Calvin, Scultetus.\n\n [378] Tenison Hobbes\u2019s \u2018Creed Exam.,\u2019 p. 65.\n\n [379] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._\n\n [380] Non mirum est Christum permisisse se circumduci a diabolo, qui\n permisit se a membris sui crucifigi.\u2014_Gregorius._\n\n [381] Aquinas, Sum. part 1, q. 114, art. 2. Homines instrumentaliter,\n mundus materialiter, Satanas efficienter.\u2014_Sclater on 1 Thes._ iii. 5.\n\n [382] Piscat., _in loc._\n\n [383] O Fratres adjuvate me, ne peream, nonne videtis D\u00e6monum agmina,\n qui me debellare, et ad Tartara ducere festinant, quid his astas\n cruenta bestia?\u2014_Cl._ Senarcl\u00e6us in Epist. ad M. Bucerum, &c., tells\n of a country man, at Tribury, [\u201bFriburg\u2019?\u2014G.] in Germany, to whom the\n devil appeared in the shape of a tall man, claiming his soul, and\n offering to set down his sins in a scroll.\n\n [384] Putting into a \u2018dilemma.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [385] Eccles. Hist., lib. iii. cap. 11.\n\n [386] Antiochus put Eleazer and the Maccabees in mind of this excuse,\n If it be a sin to do contrary to your law, compulsion doth excuse\n it.\u2014_Josephus on the lives of the Maccabees._\n\n [387] Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.\n\n [388] Query: \u2018Thaumaturgia\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [389] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._, and Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [390] _Vide_ Lightfoot, Harmon. in Mat. iv. Pool Synopsis, in Deut.\n viii.\n\n [391] Query, \u2018Maintained\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [392] Ps. cxvi. 11. Pool, Synopsis, _in loc._\n\n [393] Alii damnatos se putant, et quod Deo cur\u00e6 non sunt.\u2014_Platerus\n Tract. Melan._, cap. 33.\n\n [394] Quis est ille Deus, ut serviam illi? quid proderit si oraverim?\n si pr\u00e6sens est, cur non succurrit? cur non me carcere, inedia,\n squalore confectum liberat? &c. Absit a me hujusmodi Deus.\u2014_Mercerus\n ad Gen._ cap. xi fol. 230. [Misprinted in text and note \u2018Mercennus.\u2019\n M.\u2018s \u2018Commentary\u2019 on Genesis was a posthumous work, edited by Beza,\n 1598, folio.\u2014G.]\n\n [395] Dr Reynolds, Serm, on Hosea xiv., ser. 4.\n\n [396] Query, \u2018Wearying\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [397] Beza, Chemnitius.\n\n [398] Serm. de jejunio et tempt. Christi. Unitas naturarum exc\u00e6cavit\n Satanam.\n\n [399] See their relations in print. [Brooks, _s.n._\u2014G.]\n\n [400] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._\n\n [401] Bodin, p. 147.\n\n [402] Plurimum sunt pr\u00e6servativa locorum, hominum, et jumentorum,\n verba tituli triumphalis nostri salvatoris, dum scilicet per quatuor\n partes loci, in modum crucis inscribuntur, Jesus \u2671 Nazarenus \u2671 Rex\n \u2671 Judeorum \u2671, ritibus ecclesi\u00e6 servatis et veneratis, ut per aqu\u00e6\n benedict\u00e6 aspersionem, salis consecrati sumptionem, et candelarum in\n die purificationis et frondium in die palmarum consecratorum, usum\n licitum vires d\u00e6monis imminuunt, se muniunt.\u2014_Sprenger_, _Malleus\n Maleficarum_, part 2, quest. 1. Licitum est aqua benedicta, qu\u00e6cunque\n honesta loca, hominum et jumentorum, in salvationem hominum et\n jumentorum aspergere.\u2014_Id. ibid._\n\n [403] Query, \u2018warfare\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [404] Sozomen, Eccles. Hist., lib. v. cap. 18.\n\n [405] Mal. Malefic., part 2, quest. 11, cap. 1, 3.\n\n [406] In Delic. Evang.\n\n [407] Spanheim, Dub. Evan. _in loc._\n\n [408] Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [409] Dr Kimchi, _in loc._\n\n [410] Reynolds on Passions, chap. 23, p. 238.\n\n [411] Non ideo peccatur, quia nimis sperat in Deum; sed quia nimis\n leviter ac temere, sine ullo fundamento.\u2014_Ames_, _Medul._, lib. ii.\n cap. 6, sec. 33.\n\n [412] Dickson, _in loc._; Capel, Tempt., part 2, cap. 9.\n\n [413] Capel, Tempt., part 9, cap. 9, citing Augustine for it.\n\n [414] Capel, Tempt., _ibid._\n\n [415] Seneca, De Providen. cap. 2. Liquet mihi cum magno spectasse\n gaudio deos\u2014dum gladium sacro pectore infigit. Non fuit diis\n immortalibus satis spectare Catonem semel.\n\n [416] Aug., De Civit. Dei, P. 1, cap. 22. Major animus merito dicendus\n est, qui vitam \u00e6rumnosam magis potest ferre quam fugere. Et humanum\n judicium pr\u00e6 conscienti\u00e6 luce ac puritate contemnere.\n\n [417] As in the kingdoms of Biznagar\u2014_Purchas_, _Pilgr._ lib. v. cap.\n 11\u2014and in the Philippian islands.\u2014_Ibid._, cap. 16.\n\n [418] Perire membratim et toties per stillicidia amittere\n animam.\u2014_Sen._, epist. 101.\n\n [419] Cicero, 1 Tus. quest. Nihil urgebat aut calamitatis aut\n criminis\u2014sed ad capessendam mortem\u2014Sola affuit animi magnitudo.\u2014_De\n Civ. Dei_, lib. i. cap. 22.\n\n [420] De Civit. Dei, lib. i. cap. 27.\n\n [421] _Vide_ Boyle\u2019s Reflections, sec. 2, med. 10.\n\n [422] Query, \u2018Stukeley\u2019?\u2014G.\n\n [423] See the Narrative of Jo. Gilpin, called \u2018The Quakers Shaken.\u2019\n\n [424] De Civit. Dei, lib. i. cap. 20. Non occides, non alterum, ergo\n nec te; neque enim qui se occidit, aliud quam hominem occidit.\u2014_Aug.\n De Civit. Dei_, lib. i. cap. 22. Et Comment. Lod. Viv. _Ibid_.\n\n [425] Tempt., part 2, cap. 9.\n\n [426] Digito monstrari, et dicier, Hic est.\u2014[_Horace._\u2014G.]\n\n [427] Quis vero tam bene modulo suo metiri se novit, ut eum assidu\u00e6 et\n immodic\u00e6 laudationes non moveant?\u2014_H. Stephens._\n\n [428] In Ps. xiv., In viis, nunquid in pr\u00e6cipitiis? Non est via h\u00e6c\n sed ruina, et si via, tua est, non illius.\u2014_Bernard._\n\n [429] Anthores se vit\u00e6 scelest\u00e6 immund\u00e6que testantur, perhibentur\n tamen in adytis suis secretisque penetralibus dare qu\u00e6dam bona\n pr\u00e6cepta de moribus, quibusdam velut electis sacratis suis; quod si\n ita est, hoc ipso callidior aduertenda est et convincenda malitia\n spirituum noxiorum.\u2014_Aug. Civit. Dei_, lib. ii. cap. 26.\n\n [430] Mal. Malefic., part 2, Q. 1, cap. 9.\n\n [431] Jean D\u2019Espagne, \u2018Popular Errors,\u2019 p. 76. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [432] Holy War, lib. iii. cap. 24.\n\n [433] Wars of the Jews, lib. vii. cap. 13.\n\n [434] Funcius in his Chronol. tells the like of one in Crete, that\n called himself Moses, anno 434, who persuaded the Jews to follow him\n for the repossessing of Canaan. [\u2018Funckius.\u2019\u2014G.]\n\n [435] Josephus, Anti. Jud., lib. xx. cap. 2.\n\n [436] Etsi semel videatur verax, millies est mendax, et semper fallax.\n\n [437] \u2018Ingenuousness.\u2019\u2014G.\n\n [438] Though it was Scripture that Satan urged to Christ, yet he\n rejects his inference as false, because contrary to other plain\n scriptures prohibiting not to tempt the Lord.\n\n [439] Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [440] Perkins, Com. _in loc._ Deut. xxxii. 49, and xxxiv. 1.\n\n [441] Hobbes\u2019s Leviath., cap. 45, p. 354.\n\n [442] Lightfoot, Harm. _in loc._\n\n [443] So also Lucas Brugensis thinks _in loc._\n\n [444] Varro, De Cultu Deorum.\n\n [445] De Civit. Dei, lib. vii. cap. 34, 35.\n\n [446] A long-exposed mistake, from a mis-reading of an inscription.\u2014G.\n\n [447] Solinus, cap. xxvii. and xl.\u2014G.\n\n [448] D\u2019Espagne\u2019s Popular Errors, sec. 1, cap. 4. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [449] \u0394\u03cc\u03be\u03b1, \u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1, \u03c3\u03c7\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1, Ps. xxxvii. 1, and xlix. 16; Jer. xlv. 5.\n\n [450] Perkins, \u2018Combate,\u2019 _in loc._ Musculus, _in loc._\n\n [451] Levis, nullius ponderis; leviter de aliquo sentire.\u2014_Jackson_,\n _in loc._ Pool, Synopsis, Crit. _in loc._\n\n [452] Selden and Leigh, \u2018Critica Sacra.\u2019 [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [453] Bayne, _in loc._ Arrowsmith, Tactica Sacra, lib. ii. cap. 8.\n\n [454] Caryl, _in loc._\n\n [455] Tom. iv. col. 973.\n\n [456] Scala Paradisi, gradu 23.\n\n [457] Spiritus blasphemi\u00e6, scaturigo est cogitationum adeo horribilium\n adeoque molestarum, ut ejus tentatio plerumque quasi martyrium\n est.\u2014_Guil. Paris_, lib. de tenta. et resist.\n\n [458] Magis a dolo metuendum est quam a violentia adversarii, caveat\n \u00e6ger ab impatientia, infidelitate, murmuratione aliisque peccatis qu\u00e6\n clam insinuantur.\u2014_Dickson_, _Therapeut. Sacra_, lib. ii. cap. 29.\n\n [459] Heylin, \u2018Cosmogr.\u2019\n\n [460] Capel \u2018Tempt.,\u2019 part 2, cap. 3.\n\n [461] F\u00e6da tentatio magis vincitur fugiendo quam\n aggrediendo.\u2014_Gerson_, tom. ix. col. 976.\n\n [462] Mystery of Iniquity, lib. i. cap. 9.\n\n [463] Musculus, _in loc._, and Perkins, _in loc._\n\n [464] Drusius, Lightfoot, Tremellius, &c.\n\n [465] \u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05e2\u05dc vel a \u05d1\u05dc\u05d9 _non_ et \u05e2\u05d9\u05dc _jugem_, absque jugo; vel a \u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\n _non_ et \u05e2\u05dc _supra_, vel a \u05d1\u05dc\u05d9 _non_, et \u05d9\u05e2\u05dc _profuit_, homo inutilis.\n\n [466] \u1f00\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7, ab \u00e0 priv. et \u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, _via_.\n\n [467] Honoribus magis homines provocare quam tormentis cogere\n studuit.\u2014_Nazianzen._\n\n [468] Foxe, Acts and Mon. [Sub nominibus.\u2014G.]\n\n [469] Grotius, _in loc._\n\n [470] The famous Captain John Smith, the Founder of Virginia.\u2014G.\n\n [471] Damocles.\u2014G.\n\n [472] Si ad imperium ejus lapides possunt fieri panes, ergo frustra\n tentas; si autem non frustra, filium Dei suspicaris.\n\n [473] Musculus, _in loc._\n\n [474] Vide arma quibus tibi non sibi vicit.\u2014_Ambrose._\n\n [475] H\u00e6c armatura non tam Christo Filio Dei quam nobis illius\n tyrunculis convenit, uti tamen ille voluit, ut nos suo doceret\n exemplo, perinde atque si fortis quidam Gygas hostem non suis, sed\n tyrunculi sui armis feriat et prosternat.\u2014_Musculus._\n\n [476] Query, \u2018warfare\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [477] Capel, Tempt., part 2, cap. 9; Ames, Cas. Consc., lib. ii. cap.\n 18, sec. 14.\n\n [478] Query, \u2018steam\u2019?\u2014ED.\n\n [479] Hooper?\u2014G.\n\n [480] Tentatus a Satana cum nullum evadendi modum sentis, simpliciter\n claude oculos, et nihil responde, et commenda causam Deo.\u2014_Luther_,\n tom. iii. f. 396. Sicut tutissimum est canem latrantem contemnere,\n et pr\u00e6terire, ita una vincendi ratio est contemnere rationes Satan\u00e6,\n neque cum iis disputare. Satan nihil minus ferre potest quam sui\n contemptum.\u2014_Id._, f. 376; _Ames, Cases of Consc._, lib. i. cap. 6.\n\n [481] Child of Light, cap. 7, p. 41. [As before.\u2014G.]\n\n [482]\n\n Sero medicina paratur, Cum mala per longas convaluere moras.\n\n\n [483] Differre justitiam est negare justitiam. Qui non prohibet cum\n potest, jubet.\n\n [484] Ego adolescens petieram a te castitatem, et dixeram; da mihi\n castitatem, sed noli modo; timebam enim ne me cito exaudires et cito\n sanares, malebam expleri quam extingui.\u2014_Confes._, lib. viii. cap. 7.\n\n [485] Greenham on Ps. cxix. 101.\n\n [486] Turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur hospes.\n\n [487] Ideo Jesus omnes illas tentationes solis sacris Scripturis\n vicit, ut doceret nos sic pugnare et vincere.\u2014_Cajetan_, _in loc._;\n _Jansenius_, &c.\n\n [488] Malleus Mallefic, part 2, qu\u00e6s. 11, cap. 6. Virtus evangelii est\n in intellectu et non in figuris, ergo melius in corde posita prosunt,\n quam circa collum suspensa.\u2014_Barthol._, _Sibilla Peregr._, qu\u00e6s. dec.\n 3, c. 9, q. 9.\n\n [489] Canon est, quod in omnibus tentationibus\u2014alium fingimus Deum\n esse qu\u00e0m sit, putamus enim Deum tunc non esse Deum sed horribile\n spectrum.\u2014Tom. iv. f. 147. Reclamat (Sathan) in corde tuo, te non\n esse dignum ista promissione\u2014est autem opus ardenti oratione, ne\n extorqueatur nobis promissio.\u2014_Luther in Gen._, cap. 21, f. 188. Cor\n dictat Deum adversum verbum Dei, sequi debeo non sensum meum.\u2014_Idem_,\n tom. iv. f. 156. Nulla alia re potest sanari hoc vulnus conscienti\u00e6,\n quam verbo Divin\u00e6 promissionis.\u2014_Id._ tom. iv. f. 400.\n\n [490] Quam suave mihi subit\u00f2 factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum,\n et quas amittere metus fuerat, jam demittere gaudium erat.\u2014_Aug.\n Confes._, lib. ix. cap. 1.\n\n [491] Tact. Sacr., lib. i. cap. 3, sec. 6.\n\n [492] That is, from being conquered.\u2014G.","title":"D\u00e6monologia Sacra; or, A Treatise of Satan's Temptations: In Three Parts","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":300394}