SECT. I.

FIrst, In his nature he is both a Spiritual and an Intel­lectual Essence, in each of which respects his advan­tage over man is very great, who in the most refined, and supream part of his beeing falls as far short of an Angel, as a small glittering sparke doth of a fair and [Page 12] well pollished Diamond, or a twinkling star, of a reful­gent Sun. An Angel (saith Bellarmine in his heavenly Scale) is a most perfect and spiritual substance. But the Soul is a Spirit imperfectly, and by halves; as being the form of an earthly body, and part of a man, who is a middle kind of Creature, and hath something in common with Angels above him, and with Beasts which are below him. As a Spirit therefore Satan can convey himself and his suggestions both to the Under­standing and Will, in a more intimate and efficacious manner than any humane Agent possibly can. For when one man becomes a Tempter to another, he useth the mediation of the outward Senses, to which he can only apply and communicate the object; but he cannot by any Physical or natural power gain an immediate access unto the internal faculties of the soul, and lodge the temptation, as Josephs Steward did the Cup, in Benjamins Sack without his privity. But such is the power of this infernal Angel, as that though he be totally debarred from all kind of intercourse with the immediate and immanent operations of the Rea­sonable soul, and can no more look into the thoughts, and musings of the heart, than a common eye can pry into the bowels of the earth, and describe those nume­rous conceptions with which it travels in its womb; yet he can as easily get into the Fancy, which is next to that mysterious Chamber of the Soul, which to God alone is all light, and to every created power all dark­ness, as any man can enter into a room, that is pos­sessed of a Key that gives him free admittance. And he can make use of all those Species and Signatures of things that are lodged in it, disposing and ordering them as a Painter doth his many Colours, that lye confusedly before him in their several She [...]s, to express [Page 13] the Portraiture and Image of that Person, which he would delineate by them: And he can both continue and reiterate the presentation of the objects which he offers to the fancy, as oft and as long as it pleaseth him. Now, how much such a power, when permit­ted by God, can further a complyance in the soul to all those suggestions which the Father of lies doth secret­ly instill, we may easily conjecture, if we d [...] but a little consider, what the natural use of the Fancy is both to the Understanding, and the Will. To the Understanding it is a prompt assistant in matter of inven­tion to supply it with variety of objects whereon to work; and from the quickness of its operation, the multiplicity, levity, and volubility of the thoughts do chiefly arise, which when they become excessive through an undue, and over-hasty obtrusion of the Species, are to be deemed both in natural and moral things as a disease, and distemper of the Faculty, rather than a power or perfection; in regard that the worth of some objects doth justly require an immoration and fixed stay of the thoughts upon them. To the Will its office is to elicit and excite its desires towards some conveni­ent and pleasing object, in which for the most part it is so successful, as that oft times plausible Fancies do more take and sway with the Will, than knotty and severe Arguments; there being a natural aptness in men to be moved by such inducements, as carry in them more beauty to entice, than force of reason to compel; the freedom of the Will being seemingly less infringed in the one than in the other. When there­fore that Satan, by reason of the spiritualness of his being, can have such a free access unto the Fancy, and can improve all the images and representations of things that are in it, to the insinuating of himself, [Page 14] and his Serpentine suggestions both to the Understand­ing and Will, and that so inwardly, as that he is said to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, Joh. 13. 2. To fill the heart of Ananias to lye to the Ho­ly Ghost, Acts 5. 3. So powerfully, as that the Scripture useth the same word to express the working of Satan in the Children of disobedience, Eph. 2. 3. by which it sets fo [...]h the efficacious, and powerful working of God in Believers, Phil. 2. 13. How can it otherwise be but that he must needs be a powerful, and prevailing adversary? But yet this difference must be put be­tween the operations of the one and the other, that the Spirit of God works by divine infusions of grace, which effectually sway the soul to an assent or consent, Satan only by moral perswasions, which may be power­ful to sollicite, but not to constrain. And in this re­spect he is (as Hierom truly stiles him) Host is infirmus, qui non potest vincere nisi volentem, A feeble and weak enemy, who can only overcome him that yields, not him that resists; and hurts him that puts his weapons into his hand, not him that keeps them in his own.

Secondly, As he is a Spiritual, so he is also an In­tellectual being; and by the same Law of Creation, by which he excells man in the one, he far also outstrips him in the other. Now, if in the understanding of Adam there was such an inbred force and power, that when God brought all the Creatures to him as their Lord, to see what he would name them, Gen. 2. 19. the did in their name characterize the nature, and not give it unto them at random, (as the Socinians wickedly imagine, who make him little above the stature of a Child in Knowledge.) How much more must the An­gelical nature be endowed with innate, and implanted [Page 15] Species of things, that are more universal and exten­sive unto several objects, it being the most supream in the Hierarchy of intelligent Creatures, for whose sake all natural objects were made that they might be known and discerned by them. True it is, that Satan by his voluntary defection from God hath lost that glorious Robe of holiness that made him a Peer of heaven, and dignified him with the title of a Son of God; and hath also (as I conceive) impaired his na­tural abilities, so as that he is become in power, wis­dom, and knowledge inferiour to those glorious Inha­bitants of the Sacred Pallace, who have kept their first estate, and not departed from that purity that is as ancient as their being. For why should not the sin of Angels operate as strongly upon them, as the lapse and disobedience of man did upon him, whose Spiri­tuals were thereby wholly destroyed, and his Naturals sorely maimed. But though his Fall hath debased his being, yet it hath not totally changed it, he hath still the nature though not the perfection of an Angel, and though he be inferiour to them, whose equal originally he was in all kind of endowmen [...]s, yet still he retains so great a superiority over the Elementary, Sensitive, and Intellectual part of the world, as that he is not only dreaded for his power, which sometimes he puts forth in wonderful effects; but is also adored for his wis­dom and knowledge as a God, by many Nations in it. And it is observable, that Beelzebub, who 2 Kin. 1. 2. is called the God of Ekron, in Luk. 11. 15. is termed the Prince of Devils. In the Kingdom of sin and dark­ness he is a God, but in the Kingdom of grace he is a Devil, and more gastly than hell it self by his sinful deformity; and though he seldom of never appears in that dress, but palliates and gilds his suggestions, as [Page 16] that they sometime seem to be rather illapses from heaven than smoake arising from the bottomless pit, and to savour more of Angelical purity than of Dia­bolical filthiness; yet is he not therefore to be the less observed by us, but it stands us in hand to be the more watchful that have such a Serpent to deal with, that can hide his deadly poyson with a beautifull and shi­ning s [...]in. And if the Ancient Church, while Austin was a Manichee, and a busie wrangler against them, were wont to pray, (as Possevine in his life reports) Ab Augustini Logicâ libera nos Domine, Lord deliver us from Augustines subtilty and reasonings; How much more have Believers need to make the like prayer, and often to reiterate it, Lord deliver us from the Arts and Fallacies of Satan, whose malice is great, whose abilities are matchless, and do transcend the line of humane wisdom, when drawn out to the utmost period of its extension.

But besides, as the measure of his knowledge is more full and ample, so the manner of his knowledge and apprehending objects is more noble and perfect than the way by which man comes to the knowledge of things that are before him. The Schools, which abound with many intemperate Nicities, and curious Disputes about the understanding of Angels; (in which they justly incur the increpation of the Apostle, Col. 2. 18. of intruding into those things which they have not seen,) though in other particulars they are not a little divided, yet in this Position their Consent is well in the general, that Angels are Creaturae intelligen­tes, sed non ratiocinantes: Beeings that are full of know­ledge, but not such as exercise a plurality of intellecti­ons in reasoning and Argumentation as we do, whose knowledge is much built upon Deductions, and Con­sequences, [Page 17] that are derived from confessed principles. They grant Angels knowledge not to be simultaneous, but successive; so as that they know hoc post hoc, one object after another; but it hath not any dependency, so as to know hoc ex hoc, one thing by or from another, but by one single view or intuition, they fully discern the object that is before them; as a man doth the face of a friend as soon as he beholds him, without the least hessitancy, or enquiry who he is. Now if we should take it for granted that the knowledge of An­gels is thus exact, and that at first sight the same object is better understood by them, than it can be by the many and most pregnant conceptions of the humane intellect, it must needs evince the abilities of Satan in tempting to be such, as that man cannot but be as unmeet an adversary to enter into the Lists with him, or to maintain a dispute against him, as the young In­fant would have been to have resisted the Sword which Solomon called for, to divide it between the two Har­lo [...]s. But I shall not need to wind up the knowledge of Angels to so high a key of perfection, or to abet the common opinion of the School, to make it any part of the Basis or proof in demonstrating the power of the Devil as a Tempter. For I conceive with Ca­meron and others, that their knowledge is arguitive, (as he terms it) and not intuitive, and that they do reason from the effect to the cause, from the sign to the event, as is apparent in those Conjectures that they make about the thoughts of men, which no Angel either good or bad can otherwise discover, than by some com­motion which they cause externally in the body, or internally in the Passions; Only such is the marvelous quickness and agility of their Conceptions, as that their intellectual motions are in respect of ours as the [Page 18] motion of the Sun in the heavens, to the motion of the shadow on the Diall; like the swift flight of an Eagle to the creeping of a Snail; or the readiness of an expert Arithmetician, to a slow and unskilful Accoun­tant, who can in a fewer minutes resolve that which you demand of him, than the other can in many hours, or happily daies. And this vast imparity which is be­tween the Angelical and Humane understanding is enough to make good this first demonstration of Sa­tans ability to tempt, as he is both a spiritual and intellectuall Essence. I shall now proceed to ano­ther.

SECT. II.

THe second Demonstration which aptly confirms the same truth with the former is from the durati­on, and long experience of the Devil, who is thereby be­come skilful to destroy, and to have his temptations like the Arrows of a mighty expert man, none of which re­turn in vain, Jer. 50. 9. In Scripture as he is for his na­tural endowments, often stiled [...], a knowing or intelligent one, so he is for his acquired subtilty called an old Serpent, Rev. 12. 9. having been well nigh as long a Tempter, nay, a murderer, as he hath been an Angel. Who must needs therefore by the many revo­lutions, and successive generations of men, in which he hath not been an idle spectator, but a busie actor, be more versed in this Art and Mystery of wickedness, than he was in the non-age and infancy of his being, when he first cloathed himself in the shape of a Ser­pent. For it is proper only to God, to whose know­ledge all things are present, at all times, and before all times, not to be taught by experience. But there is no Creature so perfect in its knowledge, but it may [Page 19] and doth learn something for the time present, and to come, by the times which are past. Experience is li [...]e the honey that Jonathan tasted, which enlightened his eyes, and made him more fit for action, than he was before: It begets an aptitude for the managing of such affairs, which youth can no more undergo, than David could the Armour of Saul which he had not tried. Who is more meet to minister Physick to a weak and crazy patient, than an ancient and well practised Physician? Who more able to medicine a wounded Spirit, and to ease a troubled Conscience, than an holy and experienced Divine? Who may be better trusted to fit at the Helm of a State than such persons whom years have made both venerable and prudent? It was the rash advice of Rehoboams young Counsellours, that had well nigh lost him his Crown, and occasioned the ten Tribes to fall off from the House of David, and to form themselves into a di­stinct Kingdom, 1 Kings 12. 20. They seemed in their Counsels to exercise more mettal and courage than the old men that stood before Solomon his Father, but the other discovered more wisdom. New Liquor when first tunned works and stirs more in the Cask, than other; but yet is as unfit to be drawn as their Counsel was to be followed. It was also the unmeet choice of persons in the Council of Arimine, deputed by the Orthodox unto the Emperour, that did (as Sulpitius judiciously observes) much injure the truth, they send­ing young men that were, Parum docti, & parum cauti, little learned, and as little cautious in the weighty Affairs of Religion, with which they were entrusted; when the Arrians sent an equal number of their facti­on, who were, Senes callidi, & ingenio valentes, Aged men and crafty, well furnished with wit and learning, [Page 20] whereby they easily prevailed against them. And what other issue could be expected when unskilful No­vices were to take up the Wasters against ancient and cunning Masters of the fence? It is multitude of years that teacheth wisdom (saith Elihu,) Job 32. 7. and produceth those mature fruits, which youth, that is like a Plant not well rooted, is unable to bear. Homer, who extolls his Nestor as an Oracle for wisdom, as a Fountain for fluency and sweetness of speech, doth yet withall make him as wonderfull for his age, as peerless for his perfection. Josephus also attributes the Art of Astronomy to the Patriarches of the first Age, who taught their Posterity the motions of the Heavens, and the courses of the Stars, by certain Monuments and Pillars in which they had set down the observati­ons, which themselves had experienced in those many Centuries of years to which the life of man was then ex­tended. It being one end (as some have deemed) of Gods giving unto them so long a time above others, that they might be the Authors of this Science unto after Ages, which otherwise after that great Systole or contraction of mans life by God himself, would hard­ly, if at all, have been attained to. If then time and experience be so requisite to knowledge and wisdom, as that it is in some things the genuine Parent of it, and in other things the great improver of it; How much then must five thousand years experience enable Satan to tempt, who hath all his time been as diligent an observer of men, as he hath been an Ad­versary against them? How skilful must he be in this his black and accursed Art, who hath compiled his temptations into Systemes, which he hath in readiness by him, and doth with much Art continually make use of; being one that knows not in the least what it is [Page 21] either to forget, or grow old. Sublunary beings, though they do from time receive a maturity and perfection, yet it is not extended in a Parallel line with their du­ration; as they have a time of beauty and strength, so also have they an age of deformity and weakness; and by their long fitting under the deathful shades of the wings of time, are at last wasted and worne out. But Satan feeles none of its powerfull impressions; time hath rather still added to him, then taken ought from him, multiplying continually those experiences which increase his subtilty, and advantage him in tempting, as I shall shew in three Particulars.

First, His long experience, as a Tempter, hath made him exact in descerning, and choosing the fittest seasons for it, the right timing of which hath a power­full and effective influence into all kind of Enterpri­ses whatever. Upon whose Sword doth victory most constantly build its Triumph, then his, who is most diligent in espying, or improving of advantages against his enemy? whose intreaties and perswasions do with sweetness more allure, and with mildness overcome the harshness and severity of some Mens temper, then his, who observes mollissima fandi tempora, the softest and most calme seasons of speech? Whose Husbandry is crowned with a more successfull harvest than his, who is most prudent, and circumspect about the Seed­time? Opportunity is the joynt of time, and he who wisely can hit it, is never disappointed in his aimes. One blow on the Iron as it comes glowing and spark­ling from the Forge, doth more easily bow it, and fa­shion it, then many re-doubled stroakes, when it is re­turned to its natural coldness. One timely pull doth more facilitate the raising of the Bell, then many un­skilfull and laborious tuggings at the Rope. Now, as [Page 22] there are none equally watchfull to Satan to espy any advantages; so there are none alike knowing to di­scern the very nick of time when the Temptation will be most prevalent. Man often miscarries, and his un­dertakings become like Immature Births, because he knowes not his time, Eccles. 9. 11. But Satan is more successfull in his, because he acts from experience, and fully understands when and how to apply himself, to every age and constitution. All his methods of temp­tations are like to the Aphorismes of Physitians, which are nothing but the Collections of experimental ob­servations, drawn into rules, to direct and order their practise by. And as Galen makes the two Legs, upon which the whole Body of Physick doth stand, to be rea­son and experience: so may I say, that the two chief parts in which the art of the Devils subtilty in tempt­ing doth consist, are the greatness of his natural know­ledge, and the length of his experience.

Secondly, His Experience, which now amounts to above five thousand yeares, doth much advantage him in Tempting, as it makes him dexterous, and ready in the obviating of difficulties, and replying to every doubt that is made, when any suggestion is propounded and urged by him. For though Satan can with great artifice palliate and disguise the deformity of sin, by giving it a false complexion, by drawing a veil over it, or by shewing it halfe-fac'd; as Apelles painted King Antigonus to conceale the want of his eye: Yet there are but few temptations to scandalous and gross sins, but at first propounding they startle the Consciences of natural Men, much more of others, and raise a cloud of objections, which must be scattered, before their con­sent can be gained. Now the objections, or doubts which arise in Mens mindes of this present Age, are [Page 23] no other then what Satan hath again and again met with in every Generation and Succession of Men; yea almost in every Person, when tempted by him to the same or like sin. And as he still expect; for the future to find the same reasonings, to hinder and keep off a compliance with his suggestions; so what replies or answers he hath experienced to be most prevalent, ei­ther for perverting the knowledge, or staggering the faith of the tempted, them he still makes use of from time to time, to remove the same prejudices that stir in others, when set upon by him, to commit the same sin. And this it is which oftentimes startleth and perplex­eth many Christians, not onely that they are tempted to sin, but that their pleas and arguments against it are so suddenly answered, and replyed unto: No sooner can they Ob. but the old Serpent will Sol; and like a subtil sophister have alwayes somewhat to return to whatever they can Object. But if they did consider that as the evils to which they are tempted are no other then what hath been suggested unto thousands, so their arguments brought against them are no other, then what he hath been thousands of times acquainted with, and replyed unto, they would not so much wonder at his nimbleness in this kind, nor take the way of argu­ing as most convenient to Oppose him. Christs incre­pation Avoid Satan, Matth. 4. 10. did more foil him then all Reasonings and Authorities produced: And the safest way for us to come off clear with him, is ra­ther to be resolute in a flat denial, then busie in an ea­ger dispute. When Naomi saw that Ruth was stedfast­ly minded to go with her, the left speaking unto her, Ruth 1. 18.

Thirdly, His experience anim [...]tes him with confi­dence to assault the best and holiest of Saints, if not to [Page 24] extinguish their light, yet to eclipse their lustre, if not to cause a shipwrack, yet to raise a storme, if not to hin­der their happy end, yet to molest them in their way. Such practises he hath found not onely to have some suc­cess against the strong, but to intimidate and discourage the weak, who are apt from the particular foiles of re­nowned Christians in the Faith, to make sad conclusi­ons against themselves, and to cry out, Quid facient tabulae, si gemant columnae? What shall the spars and rafters do, if the pillars of the building tremble? What shall the reedes and willowes do, if the cedars be sha­ken? Who is he that hath wrastled with him, and not halted? Who is he that hath entred the Field against him, and not been wounded by him? Was not Noah a just Man, and perfect, one that walked with God, when all flesh had corrupted their way, smitten with the darts of this Apollyon between the joynts and the har­nese? Was not Lot, whose righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the unlawful deeds of Sodom, en­ticed by his arts into the complicated lusts of drunken­ness and incest? Was not David, (a Man after Gods own heart) a sad instance, both of his power and Mans frailty? when through his instigation be makes a se­cond crime to be the vizard of a former; and to cover the deformity of his Adultery, first becomes a Tempter to send Ʋriah drunk to his Bed; and then a Murderer when that will not do, to dispatch him to his Grave? How then shall I, who fall as far short of them as a win­ters day doth of a Summers day, who have neither that life, heate, or heavenly influences, with which they were filled, be ever able to stand? But yet, as no Man ought to presume that there are any degrees of Grace, that will exempt him from Satans on-sets, who is not afraid to war with Michael and his Angels, Rev. 12. 7. [Page 25] much less with the Woman and her Seed; so none ought to despair, by reason of the weakness of his Grace, of maintaining a Conflict with him, because though his rage hath been great, and his stratagems many, yet hath he never been able to make the Seed of Grace, in its conception, to prove abortive; nor to de­stroy a Believer in his swadling-bands, much less in his Armour.

SECT. III.

A Third Demonstration, which may farther evince the abilities of Satan in Tempting, is, that it is the onely design and business that he hath propounded unto himself, and hath prosecuted with most unwearied dili­gence, ever since he hath become of an holy Angel an impure Devil.

First, It is the grand and sole business in which he layes out himself, and thereby becomes not onely more dexrerous in it, but also more formidable. It is an Ita­lian Proverb, Liberamea ab homine unius negotii: Lord deliver me from a Man who hath but one business to do; he will be sure to minde and tend it, and thereby get many advantages against an incumbred adversary, who can never obtain the least against him. For it is with the powers and faculties of rational beings, as it is with other things, which become more or less active, and vigorous, according to the combination or division which they undergoe: Many small wax lights, which of themselves burn faintly, when put into one Totch or Taper, send forth a bright and shining flame: ma­ny little Bells which tinkle together to the pleasing of Children, when melted, and cast into one great Bell, do affect the ear with a more solemne and awfull [Page 26] sound: and many single Threads, which snap asunder with the least touch, when twisted together make a strong Cable, which can withstand the fury and vio­lence of a storm. So it is with the Mind, the more it is scattered and divided through multiplicity of ob­jects, the more weak it is; and the more it is fixed on one single Object, the more masculine and strong are the operations of it, either in good or in evil. And therefore David, who desires to excell in holiness, makes it his Prayer, Psalm 86. 11. that God would unite his heart to fear his Name: Hierome reads it, Unicum fac cor meum; Make my heart one: that is, incline it onely to thy fear; implying thereby, that divided in­terests in the heart do both distract and weaken it: When the Scripture likewise would set forth the won­derfull depravation of Mans estate, it saith, That every Imagination of his heart was onely evill continually, Gen. 6. 5. There is not the least contrary Principle to check, or to restrain those ebullitions of lust, which slow and ascend from the heart, as water from a Fountain, and sparkes from a Furnace. Now thus it is with Sa­tan, he is wholly bent to evil, and makes it his onely study to dive and search into Men, that he may the bet­ter fasten his temptations upon them. It is the question which God puts to him, Job 1. 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job? or as the Septuagint renders it, Hast thou attended with thy Minde? In which is implyed what his practise and end is, in going too and fro in the earth; he doth not travel it as a Pilgrim, but as a Spy, that observes narrowly every person and thing as he passeth along: He sets not forward a step but he doth as it were debate every Mans estate, temper, age, calling, company, that so he may with the greater ad­vantage tempt to evil, and thereby bring Men into the [Page 27] same misery and condemnation with himself. And in­deed whosoever duly weighes the perfect antipathy that is in Satan, both unto God and Holiness, can hardly con­ceive in what other thing he should exercise himself, then to tempt and solicit Men to sin. For such is the greatness of his malice, that, as the Schooles deter­mine, it cannot admit any farther degree of augmen­tation, his will being immovably fixed to evill as its ul­timate end. Needs therefore must his malice and hatred dispose him to the doing of such evills as may bear a proportion to the greatness of it. And wherein can it in a higher way discover it self, then in design­ing, and effecting the ruine of the souls of Men by pernicious Counsells and devices? If there be any one thing in which so discontented a Person, as Satan is, can take delight, it is in his Trade of Seduction, and De­struction, in making others as irrecoverably lost and mi­serable as himself.

Secondly, As tempting and ensnaring of Men is his onely business, so his diligence in it is matchless. He was going too and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it in Jobs time, Job 1. 7. and in Peters time he was a roaring Lyon, walking about, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. 5. 8. The Beasts of the earth, though they hunt after their Prey, yet when the Sun ari­seth, and Man goeth forth to labour, they gather them­selves together, and lay them down in their Dens, Psalm 104. 22. But this infernal Lyon is restless in his motions, and compasseth the earth with as much unweariedness as the Sun doth the Heavens. It is true be tempts others to idleness, but himself is never idle. The Fowler is desirous that the flying Bird would alight upon the ground, or perch upon some Tree; but all the while he is in motion, that when it so doth it [Page 28] may the better become his mark: So the Devil, he doth what he can to lull others asleep in idleness and sloth; but he then ceaseth not to shoot his darts, and to spread his snares. When Samson was asleep on Da­lilahs knees, she caused his Locks to be cut off, Judges 16. 19. and wrought all that mischiefe upon him, that terminated not in the loss of his eyes, but in the loss of his life. While the Servants slept the enemy came and sowed his Tares, Matth. 13. 25. Oh! how well would it go with Christians, if the diligence of their Adversary would provoke them to watchfulness, and kindle in them an holy industry unto all good, that so they might approve themselves to be Dei Milites, Gods Souldiers, to sight against all evil: and Operarii Dei, Gods Workmen and Servants in doing all good. Sure it is their complaints would be fewer, and their comforts would be greater. But alass! what a sad complaint may I now take up, and whilest I speak of the diligence of the Evill One, mourn over the securi­ty and negligence of most Professors, amongst whom a waking Eye, and a working Hand are as rare to be found as a Sword and a Spear among all the People of Israel, 1 Sam. 13. 22? How few are there that have taken the alarum though they be called upon, so as to stand upon their Watch against temptations? How hard is it to perswade Men that to walk circumspectly is a duty? or, that to be diligent in their Callings is one of the best Antidotes to preserve the Soul from the putrefaction of lusts, and to fence it against the Incursi­ons of an Affiduous Tempter? It is a common Pro­verb that the Lyon is not so sierce as he is Painted; and it it a received opinion that the Devil is not so hurtfull an Enemy as he is represented to be. It is no wonder then if his designs be so successfull, and his Triumphs [Page 29] many, when the greatest part of Men are no way anxi­ous to proportion their care and watchfullness, either to the greatness of their own danger, or their adver­saries diligence.

SECT. IV.

A Fourth Demonstration, which may discover the power of Satan to tempt, is taken both from the Num­ber of the evil Spirits, and the Unity of their Counsels, which meet all in one common center of an irreconci­lable hatred to Gods glory, and Mans happiness.

First, Their Numbers are great, which renders their Power, as well as their Counsells exceeding dreadfull. Weak things, which when few are contemptible, when seconded with multitude become irresistable. Cater­pillars, Frogs, Locusts, Flies, by the excess of their number make the proud heart of Pharaoh to stoop, who cannot free himself or his Kingdome from such impo­tent Adversaries. The Whale, of which God saith, that upon the earth there is not his like: He is a king over all the children of pride, Job. 41. 33, 34. Of all crea­tures by Sea or Land, that pride themselves of their might and strength, he is the chiefe; and yet Pliny saith, that the Herrings do by their vast numbers op­press and destroy sometimes the biggest Whales. How dreadful then must that opposition be, that ariseth from such creatures, that are for their nature powerfull, and for their numbers past finding out. The School men who would seem to be expert Benjamites to hit at a hairs breadth every mark at which they aime, and not miss, speak as confidently of the number of good and evil Angells, as if they had looked into the Muster-Roll both of the Heavenly host, and the Infernall Legions, [Page 30] and yet their assertions have as little agreement with each other, as the testimonies of the false Witnesses concerning Christ, no two of them speaking the same thing. Aquinas conceives the number of them in their Creation to exceed incomparably all material substances, and his reason, as Estius sets it down, is, because the more perfect any beings are in their nature, the greater is their excess, either of Magnitude, if they be corporeal, or of Number, if they be incorporeal. As therefore the Heavenly Bodies, which are most per­fect, do wonderfully surpass all inferiour bodies in quantity; so do the spiritual Angells in number. Now of these vast numbers, say some, the one halfe become Apostates. Others, from a mistake of that place, Rev. 12. 4. of the Dragons drawing of the third part of the Stars of Heaven after him, have fondly concluded, that a third part of them fell, when as it plainly speakes of a defection in the Church. Others again have made the number of fallen Angells equall to the number of the elect Men that shall be saved, who are to supply the breach that was by their defection. But what light o [...] evidence do any of these positions carry in them, that may gain the understanding of sober Men to a beliefe of them? are they not nicities, that are as unfit to build upon as the dreames of sick Men? It is enough that the Scripture, though it acquaint us not with the certain number of good or evill Angells, that of the one it tells us, that there are thousand thousands that Mi­nister unto God, and ten thousand times ten thousand that stand before him, Daniel 7. 10. And that there is an in­numerable company of Angells, Heb. 12. 22. And that it represents unto us the evill Angells by a King­dome, which implies multitudes; and by a Prince whose greatness lies to the extent of his condition, and the [Page 31] number of his Subjects. Surely we need no Hermits Visions to inform us that the air is full of malignant Spirits, and the earth of their snares to entrap the inhabitants of it. St. Paul points out to us their num­ber as well as their power, when he faith, that we wrastle not with flesh and bloud, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this World, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph. 6. 12. Oh! what a troublesome passage must every Christian expect in his way to heaven, who is to conflict with Armies of these infernal Anakims? How necessary is it that he put on the Armour of God for protection, and fight in the strength of God to obtain a victory? For in his own might no man can prevail. If Elijah, a Prophet of an Heroick Spirit, complained of his be­ing left alone to contest with the Priests of Baal, and the Idolaters of Israel, so as to grow weary of his life, how apt will the best of men be to faint and sink in the long and sharp Conflicts, that must be undergone with the Combined forces and powers of darkness, if not aided and supported by the strength of Christ? If therefore we would be successful Combatants in this Spiritual Warfare, we must do as David did, who pre­pared to encounter Goliah by disarming himself of his warlike Habiliments, going forth only in the name of the Lord of Hosts; we must put off all carnal confi­dence, which will be as unuseful to us as Sauls Armour was to him, and be strong only in the Lord, and in the power of his might, this is that that will both animate us in the fight, and give unto us an assured victory in the Issue.

Secondly, As their Number is great, so their Unity and agreement is wonderful. In Satans Kingdom are no divisions, Mat. 12. 26. In his Armies no mutinies [Page 32] for want of pay, no complaints of hard marches, though they be continually compassing the earth to and fro. That there should be an Union amongst the heavenly Host is not strange, in regard they are all as so many melodious Instruments tuned to one Key; as so many Needles touched with the same Loadstone, which fix­eth them invariably to one point: they dwell with him, and in him who is love it self. But is it not matter of admiration, that an entire oneness, which is so much wanting on earth, should be found in hell? What is Hell but the Common Sewer and Drain into which those Lusts of Pride, Wrath, Envy, and Bitterness, from whence Wars do arise, do empty themselves? Have Devils any love? Is there any print of that noble quality, which is as amiable as the Sun to be found in the territories of darkness? What then is that Liga­ment or Cement, that so firmly ties and conjoyns them together? It is no other but a perfect hatred both to God and man, it being the one thing designed by them to rob God of his glory, and man of his hap­piness and to effect this the Conspiracy is strong, and League inviolable. The good Angels rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner; and the evil Angels at his de­struction: The ruined sinners are the only Trophies and spoyls of Hell. Oh! blush then ye Saints, who have so many Sacred bonds to unite you to God, and also to one another, and yet by Divisions are set at a distance from each other, making the enemies vali­ant, as the Historian speaks, by your discords. Are you not all the Brethren of one Father, God blessed for ever? And of one Mother, Jerusalem, which is above? [...], Brethren of the whole bloud, like Joseph and Benjamin? Have you not sucked the same breasts? And been nursed up with the same [Page 33] sincere milk of the Word? Are you not all [...], joynt heirs of the same glorious inheritance reserved for you in the heavens? Are you not led by the same Spi­rit of God, who is a Spirit of love and goodness, and doth not Generare accipitres, sed columbas, beget birds of prey, but Doves whose Bills are never seen to be bloudy in the least? Shall not then love effect that in you, which a cursed hatred doth in Devils? They are one by a Common principle of wickedness, which runs through them; and shall not you be one who are so closely knit together with so many and such strong ties? That the lustful Goats should push at one another is no matter of wonder, but that the tender Lambs should doss and strike at each other cannot but be for a lamentation.

SECT. V.

A Fifth Demonstration of Satans power and ability to tempt, is, From his great and strange artifice to convey suggestions to evil after such a manner into the heart, as that they cannot be distinguished from the lustings and ebullitions of depraved nature. It is not only difficult to find out any certain Character between Malum se­minatum, & innatum, morsum serpentis, & morbum mentis; The evil that is sown, and the evil that is in­bred, between the bitings of the Serpent, and the disease of the mind, as Bernard expresseth it; but it is, as he conceiveth, wholly impossible: He profes­sing that after much search and study he could never clearly know, Quid cordi, quid hosti tribunt, what he may charge upon his heart, and what upon the Temp­ter. Now his advantage of thus insinuating, and wind­ing himself into the bosome doth much promote and [Page 34] further a compliance with his suggestions, because men are more apt to be swayed by such thoughts which they look upon as the naturall births of their own hearts, than ever they would be by such which they discern to be sorrain, and to be injected from an irreconcilable and a sworn Enemy. If any Print or Signature of Satan did in the least appear in his suggestions, by which the tempted might discover when the motions to any sin did come from him, and when from themselves, nei­ther his success not their danger would either of them be so great by far as now they both are. For it cannot be reasonably imagined that any should so readily close with, or hearken un [...]o what they find him to be the Prom­pter of, as to what they deem to have its rise from their own breast, without any other mover than themselves. The bird takes the Egg or Young for its own, though laid or put into the nest by another hand, which there­fore it doth with an unwearied diligence both hatch and feed; but if it should once descry it to be other­wise, it would forthwith cast it out and destroy as spu­rious. And so those sinful motions, which are injected into mens hearts by the evil one, but reputed by them to be no other than the natural births of their own minds, are more dandled in their thoughts, and sooner gratified by an actual compliance than ever they would be, if discovered to have their original from the Tempter. When Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the People, 1 Chron. 21. 1. It was not by making such impressions, as might evi­dence him to be the Counsellour of the fact, but by exciting such affections of vain-glory and self-confi­dence, which naturally abound in the hearts of Princes when their Armies are victorious, and the face of their Affairs like a serene Sky without any mixture of Clouds. [Page 35] Thus Benhadad grows in his demands upon Ahab, as if he would try what it was that he dares deny, by ad­ding a second Message to his first, in which he inlargeth the terms of his submission to the searching of his house, and the houses of his Servants, and the taking away of whatsoever is desirable in their eyes, and be­ing refused the doing of it, he proudly boasts, that the dust of Samaria shall not suffice for handfuls for all the people that followed him, 1 Kings 19. 10. And so Senacherib, fleshed with the many Conquests that he had obtained over divers Nations, swells with pride, till he breaks into blasphemy: Who are they among all the Gods that have delivered their Country out of my hands, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hands? 2 Kings 18. 35. Yea, good Hezekiah had his heart so far lifted up within him by the fulness of his Treasures, and the multiplicity of his provisions both for War and Peace, as that he vainly boasts of them to the Em­bassadours of the King of Babylon, 2 Chron. 32. 31. And from such latent seeds of pride, which breed in the best of hearts, as moths in the finest garments, did Satan kindle this inordinate desire in David, of his knowing the number of his warlike forces, which the just expostulations of Joab and the Captains of the Host could not allay. He delighted in this thing, and the Kings word prevailed, 2 Sam. 24. 3. Thus also in tempting of Christ, he makes use of Peters natural af­fection to his Master to disswade him from suffering death, Mat. 16. 22. Little did Peter suspect that the words which he spake, Satan prompted, and that he was but an Instrument to convey the poyson of a temptation as black as hell into his Saviours bosome, the consequences of which would have been more dis­mal than if the Stars had dropt from heaven, and the [Page 36] Sun been blotted out of his Orb, or the whole Crea­tion had become as shrivelled Parchment before the fire. For what had become of all the Chosen of God, must they not have died in their sins, if Christ had not died for their sins? Must not heaven have been empty of glorious Saints within, though thick set with gliste­ring Stars without? Must not the work of Redemption have been like the structure of an unwise builder, who began to build, but never finished what he had begun? But alas all these astonishing evils were not in the least discerned by Peter, much less designed. Little did he think of being a Tempter to his Lord, or of recei­ving such a check from Christ, as to have his name gi­ven to him whose work he did: Get thee behind me Satan. And in this mysterious and hidden way doth he still manage his suggestions both in the hearts of Be­lievers, and others also, that so their compliance might be the more facile to the evil to which he tempts, while he is not detected to be the first mover to it. Old Isaac would not have been perswaded to have eaten of Jacobs Venison, though he greatly loved it, if that he could either by questioning him who he was, or by feeling his hands, have discerned him not to be his Son Esau. So thoug [...] men have a secret liking to the sin to which they find themselves moved, yet if the instigations unto it did appear to them to come from Satan, it would rather make them tremble, as Isaac did when Jacobs subtilty was found out, than any waies beget in them further hankerings to hasten the fulfilling of it. But that which makes the mystery of these his undiscerned impressions the more strange is, that though in the same temptation he reiterate the deception again and again, yet is it not more perceived by us at the last than it was at first. We are still at as great a loss to [Page 37] trace out any difference between his injections, and the natural lustings of the heart to evil, as we should be to find the path of a Serpent upon a Rock, who though he passeth often over it, yet leaves not, as worms and snails do any filth or slime behind him that may descry his various and crooked windings.

SECT. VI.

A Sixth Demonstration, with which I shall shut up this first general Head of Satans ability to tempt, is from the sutableness that is between his Suggestions and corrupt reason. He cannot in the least offer violence to the soul, or break in upon it by a forcible entry whe­ther it will or no; The body may be liable to his vio­lence, but not the soul. The Assertion of Bonaven­ture is a truth, Inducit Diabolus, immutat Deus, nemo cogit. The Devil may allure, God only can effectually change, but none can compel us. When therefore he tempts to sin, he insinuates himself by such Topicks that are pleasing to Carnal Reason, and apt to beget a ready compliance with his suggestions. Prophane and Atheistical wretches he bears in hand that Religion is but a cunning and devised Fable, a meer Scare Crow, set up by Preachers to keep simple and weak People in awe; That Heaven and Hell, things so much spoken of, are but imaginations, the one a pleasing dream, and the other a false fire, that frights more than it hurts, and that they which seem to dread it most, are yet som­times venturous enough to do such things from which a flaming Tophet should wholly restrain them. Now what dry rinder sensual hearts are to such suggestions that fall upon them as sparkes, who can be so blind, as not to perceive? Are not their secret wishes? Oh I [Page 38] that there were no God to judge them, no hell or pri­son of burning flames to torment them? Do they not what they can to cut off the hand of Conscience that it may not smite them? And to put out its eyes that it may not see them? How easily then are they drawn into that opinion which they would gladly have to be a truth? And how justly left of God to such horrible delusions, that sinning without fear they may perish without remedy? Others again, who by Convictions are awakened to some more serious apprehensions of God and Religion, by specious suggestions he per­swades that the strictness of life, which some few pre­tend unto, is but an affectation of singularity, in which they strive not so much to be like God, as to be unlike their neighbours, that it is an heavy yoke which they put upon themselves, and none of that easie yoke and light burden, which Christ commands them to take upon them. They need not fear but that they shall speed well enough though they be not so scrupulous as others, who stick at every small matter, as if Salvati­on consisted altogether of Punctilioes, and could ne­ver be obtained without an Arrival at the highest pitch of Sanctity. If they pray sometimes when they think of it, read the Scripture when their leasure best serves them, and see the Church now and then in fair wea­ther, it is as much as needs. Are not these whispe­rings of the Serpent of an enchanting nature? Are not these kind of reasonings sured to most mens tem­pers, who in Religion affect rather to discover that in­visible point where Grace and Nature part, than to pur­sue after the attainment of a perfect stature in holiness? Who think that a taste of Godliness, like a little Phy­sick on the knives point is more desirable than the ma­king of it a mans dayly food? The Verse in Gellius, [Page 39] which Lipsius in his Politiques saith pleaseth him, Re­ligentem oportet esse, religiosum nefas, hath many more approvers of it than himself, who deem a slight tin­cture of Religion useful to themselves, and yet nauseat as some abominable thing, the deep and double dye of it, so as to have it like a prevailing principle to give a Law and Rule to their whole Conversation. As then the ground becomes fruitful, not by receiving, but by liking of the Seed that is cast into it, so Tempta­tions become successful, not by the hearts bare recepti­on of them, but by its secret relishing and affecting of them. If Satan, who is the evil Seeds-man, scatter any seeds of Temptations, to which the heart is Solum subactum, as a prepared and disposed soyl by the corrupt principles that lodge in it, they will quickly sprout forth into acts, and grow into a root that will bear G [...]ll and Wormwood. Can I then better put a period to this first General than by giving the good Christian a brief, yet serious Caution, of listening to those corrupt rea­sonings, with which Satan doth often feather those Arrows of Temptations, that are shot out of his Bow, that they may the better reach the mark to which they are directed? Man is a Reasonable Creature, and is apt to be swayed by any thing that carries a semblance of Reason, and if sin come in any such dress, the Will is soon gained to embrace the motion, and the sin it self to be finished, which the Apostle tells us bringeth forth death, James 1, 15.

SECT. I.

FIrst, It is a pernicious device and wily stratagem of Satan, To tempt by method, and by the practise of lesser sins to make the way more facile for the commission of greater. He casts down none suddenly from the Pina­cle of an high profession into the lowest Abyss of [Page 41] wickedness, but leads them rather by oblique descents and turnings, lower and lower, untill their steps at last take hold on hell. The beginnings of sin, as well as of grace, may fitly be resembled to a grain of Mustard­seed, which is of all seeds the least; but the growth of it is such, that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Sin appears at first like Elijahs Cloud, and afterwards darkens the whole face of hea­ven: Or is as the head of a River, which hath nothing of breadth or depth, yet by its running encreaseth and swells into the similitude of a Sea: Small offences by Satans industry become the Parents of signal Crimes. Hath not anger, which sets no other bounds to it self than bloud and death, taken its rise from a small dis­gust or dislike; as sometimes a mortal Gangrene from a slight prick of an Artery? Have not compleated im­purities often derived themselves from the glance of a wanton eye? Or from some light and foolish gesture? What was the beginning of those complicated sins in David, his Murder and Adultery, was it not an un­hallowed look? Did not Lust, which like a moral Jaundice spreads its deformity over the whole man, dis­cover it self at first in the Eye? It is Calvins Observa­vation, that the Kingly Prophet in those Expressions, Psalm 1. Of walking in the counsel of the ungodly, of standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful, points out how by little and little men turn aside from the right way. First, they hearken to wicked Counsels and Sollicitations to sin, which are as the seed of evil actions; and then the Devil enticeth them to joyn themselves in fellowship with sinners, till at length they become proud mockers, scorning both the reproofs of men, and the Judgments of God; and through depraved principles of Conscience, speak [Page 42] good of evil, and evill of good. Now, how this gradual manner of Satans tempting serves his design of drawing men to sins of the greatest scandal and presumption, we may easily see if we do but consider that lesser sins make way for greater four waies.

First, By way of deception, little sins men conceive of, as they do of slight distempers of the body, that if need be are soon mastered and overcome; an or­dinary Apozem or decoction, a gentle Sweat, or a few Meals abstinence, are prescriptions valid enough to make a clear riddance of the one; and a resolution or two taken up, of leaving what hath been done, or of doing otherwise than before, will as readily cure the other. But there is no Custome so weak that hath not more power over our nature than we intended first to give it, insomuch that many have been over­born with those actions, the effects whereof they pre­sume to be at their own dispose. For as Children turn round so long in sport till at last they fall down when they would stand, so there are many who indulging themselves in little slips and failings, bring themselves to such an evil dizziness of mind as throws them down when they purpose to stand and to break off from the paths in which they walked. When therefore a man finds that he is tempted to sin because it is little, and may at any time be as easily left as taken up, let him look upon it as a double imposture of the Devil, who if he make it seem little in or before the doing of it, can make it appear much greater when it is done: Or if he would perswade him that it may without diffi­culty be left, let him remember there is a wide diffe­rence between running up a hill, and running down a hill; he that runs up a hill may stop when he will, but not so if he runs down: So if a man be climbing the [Page 43] hill of grace he may sit down, or slack his pace as he pleaseth, and shall not want happily Arguments good store to move him to it; but if he be once stepping down the hill of a bad life, he can hardly give over till he come to the very bottom of it, till he hath finished his sin, which when it is finished brings forth death, James 1. 15.

Secondly, By way of disposition. Small sins are as the priming of a Post or Pillar, that prepare it for the better receiving of those other Colours that are to be laid upon it, and in which it is to stand: or as the prae­vious dippings of the wooll in divers liquors, that it may drink in more fully the tincture of the Scarlet. They beget powerful inclinations in the soul to greater sins, and make a way for their entrance by corrupting mens apprehensions of sin, both in respect of its deformity, and its Magnitude, no sin being equally gastly, and big to look on to him that admits of fami­liarity with the least of sins, as to him that abstains from all appearance of evil. It is Josephus his Obser­vation, That Solomons foul defection to those stupen­dious impieties of Idolatry, and inordinate love of many strange women, did take its beginning from some lesser slips and failings against the Law of God; as his setting the Brazen Sea upon twelve Oxen, and making the Figures of Lions and Cherubims upon the borders of it. And to him, and other ancient Hebrews, who are of the same Opinion, doth Grotius incline, adding also his multiplying of Chariots and horses against the express Command of God, Deut. 10. 17. as another lapse in the way before his strange departing, and forsaking of the way. I shall not make it my work to determine what special warrant Solomon might have for what was done by him about things of the Temple, which would [Page 44] free him from that part of the Charge; but this I think that whosoever shall look into his Penitential Book of the Preacher, may easily find that his Fall was not Per­pendicular, and such which at once cast him as low as ever any of the Holy Men of God fell, but a sinking and sliding downwards by degrees; and from him learn, who was the Wisest Man that ever was or shall be, that it is not wisdome that will keep a Man from the worst of sins, if he once allow, or favour himself in lesser evills.

Thirdly, By way of Substraction, and withholding of that which may hinder the Commission of greater sins, the powerfull preservatives against presumptuous evils are an awfull fear of God, and a heart touched with the due sense of sin; How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God, was Josephs Plea to his Mistriss, when she tempted him to folly, Gen. 39. 9. and Davids heart, when tender smote him for an irreverent touch of Saules garment, as well as for the cruell Murder of Uri­ah, 1 Sam. 24. 5. Now both these will a customary living in small sins waste and destroy, by making the heart brawny and stiff: a path that is trodden onely by the foot of a Childe, will, by its often going upon, con­tract a hardness as well as the beaten Road, and so will the heart in which little sins have a common passage too and fro, as well as the heart that is as the high-way that leades to destruction; for all sin hath the same tendency, though it do not work the effect in the like degree. As then they who would keep themselves from a con­firmed Stone, use daily helpes to carry away the smal­ler gravell, so to prevent a flinty and obdurate heart, the care must be constant, and the practise frequent of purging the conversation from little sins. Oh, if once the exercise of this duty be neglected, it can hardly be imagined how suddenly Men come to do worse than [Page 45] ever. Whence is it that Men sport themselves in the commission of those sins, at the mention of which they would once have trembled? and brutishly wallow in the midst of that mire, the least speck of which they would not formerly should have been found upon their garments? Is it not from their compliance of lesser sins, that make them grow regardless of greater? Is it not from their neglect of the fear of God, a power­full Antidote against the growth of sin? this is made the cause by God himself of Israels multiplyed wicked­ness, Jer. 9. 3. They proceed from evill to evill, and they know not me saith the Lord.

Fourthly, By way of Palli [...]ion and hiding them when done. All sin, as it hath death for the w [...]ges of it, Rom. 6. 23. so it hath shame for the companion of it; thence it is that Men seek to cover one sin with another, deem­ing it better to be guilty of two faults, then to be evict­ed of one. And usually a greater sin is made the co­vering of a lesser, as the vizard which is worn to dis­guise and hide a Person, is more deformed then the Face that it is put upon. Sarah at the Angells Tidings that she should have a Childe laughed, and when he ob­serves it, she denies it, Gen. 18. 15. to hide one sin she commits another, she tells a lye to free her self from the charge of laughter. And this second sin, if cir­cumstances be weighed, will be found greater then the first. David, to conceale his Adultery with Bath­sheba covers it with the Murder of Uriah her Husband: A strange Fig-lea [...]e to spread over so soule a Crime; but whether will not the shame of sin drive a Man? if so holy a Person as David make this his security, ha­ving done evill to do worse. And thus also that excel­lent Woman Eudocia the Empress, and Wife of Theo­dosius the younger, (as Sixtus Senensis relates the Story) [Page 46] having an Apple given unto her by the Emperor of a won­derful bigness, that had been presented unto him as a ra­rity, she bestowes it upon Paulinus, a learned Person; and for that cause of great intimacy and familiarity with her, he not knowing from whom the Empress had received it, tenders it to the Emperour, hereupon the Emperour sendeth for his Wife, asketh her for the Apple, she fearing because of his earnest enquiring after it, that her giving it away might displease the Emperour, made answer, that she had eaten it; he urged her to tell the truth, she swore that she had eat it: upon this the in­censed Emperour brings forth the Apple as a Testimo­ny against her, and in his jealousie killed innocent Pau­linus, and hated his Wife, who before was greatly be­loved by him. Is it not then matter of complaint as well as of wonder, that this practise should be the common salve that many use to make others to deem them innocent when they have done evill, to add to denialls oathes, curses, and bitter imprecations, of themselves, little regarding what guilt they contract before God, so they may but seem blameless before Men. But let such know, that they sow the Winde, and shall reap the Whirle-winde; and that as they cover one work of darkness with another, God shall add one judgement to another; and by the scorching flames of his Wrath shall make them to read the Truth of that divine Maxim, He that hideth his sins shall not▪ prospor, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy, Prov. 28. 14.

SECT. II.

SEcondly, A second device and circumvention of Satan is, A vexatious and restless importunity in ur­ging to the doing of that sin to which he tempts, In a temptation are three parts.

First, Suggestion; or the casting of evill thoughts into the Minde, John 13. 2. It is said that the Devill put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master; Immisit ut sagittam: He threw, as a Dart, that thought into him, finding it then a sit season both for him to make such a Motion, and for Judas to receive it.

Secondly, Perswasion; or the backing of the sugge­stion with Arguments, which may sway the understand­ing to approve and incline the will to consent to that evill as good. And then he presseth sometime by way of Terror, propounding sad events, that will undoubt­edly follow, if there be not a yeilding to do what is suggested. Thus many are moved to a practise of stealing and couzening, through a conceived fear of want and penury, which will else inevitably fall on them. Others unto lying and perjury, to preserve their life and liberty, which may be otherwise hazarded, if not lost. Thus Peter both denied and forswore his Lord to save himself from that danger, which his being with him might otherwise have exposed him unto. Sometimes by way of enticement, setting before them the profit and advantage that will accrew by their com­plyance with his motion. And thus Ahabs Prophets, through the suggestion of a lying spirit, perswaded him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead, because of the prosperous success that should attend his undertaking, 1 King. 22. 21. And with a far more alluring bait would the De­vil [Page 48] have courted our Saviour, to have done homage and fealty unto him, by promising to invest him in a right to all the Kingdomes of the World, upon that single condition, Matth. 4. 9.

Thirdly, The last part is a vehement and continued instigation to put in a speedy execution what is suggest­ed; and this is the utmost extent of Satanical Power, 1 Chron. 21. 1. It is said Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the People: The Sy­riack renders it, Praecipitem tulit Davidem; He hurri­ed David headlong, not by compelling him, but with instance, again and again inforcing the motion till it was effected, notwithstanding Joabs just expostulations and averseness to it. The Fencers rule which (saith Lypsius) is repete double, and follow the blow when made, is Satans practise to the tempted, who pursues oft times his suggestions with that violence, as to rob them of their sleep, that they may wake to his tempta­tions, to urge them, whether in company or alone, whe­ther in their callings, and recreations, or in their so­lemne duties to God, to give them no freedome nor re­spit, till he gaine that from them by importunity, which he could not by argument and perswasion. Now how powerfull a meanes this is to obtain an end when per­sisted in, and after received denialls and repulses, to turn opposition into a yielding, the Scripture will fur­nish us with full and pregnant evidence. What was it that drew from Samson the discovery of that secret that cost him his life, but Dalilahs restless importunity? who pressed him daily with her wordes, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, Judges 16. 16. He whom the combined power of the Philistines could not overcome, is foiled by the flattering solicitations of a Woman; so as to become both their laughter, and [Page 49] their prey. What was it that made the unjust Judge in the Parable to resolve of avenging the Widow of her enemies? but a fear, least by her continuall coming she should weary him, Luke 18. 5. The Originall word [...] is very emphaticall, which Beza renders, Ne me obtundat; least she should beat or buffet him. It is the same with that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep under my Body, and bring it into subjection, alluding to the Roman Cestus, in which kinde of Fight, or Cuffs, it was the aime of the adversary to bring each other to stoop and fall under his blowes. Yea our Saviour seem­eth to ascribe a more prevailing power to importunity then to friendship, that the one will extort what the other cannot intreate, Luke 11. 8. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet be­cause of his importunity he will rise and give him. Can it then be matter of wonder to any Christian, as if some strange thing had befallen him, to find himself not one­ly tempted to evill, but incessantly pressed with vehe­mency to the doing of it? Or need he, as not knowing the cause of his trouble inquire as Rebekkah did, Why am I thus? Is not Satan a subtile enemy? and is it not his designed aime to make the life of every believer un­comfortable, or unholy? the one by an irksome impor­tunity to evill, the other by a consent and yielding to the doing of it? Is it not one of his ar [...]s and methods to work a despondency in those that resist him, by con­tinuing his assaults after a long and tedious conflict, in which they have born up against him, that so despair­ing to be Conquerours, they may yield themselves Cap­tives? yea hath he not by this policy staggered many Christians; so as to make them say, Malum illud ver­bum, victus sum, that evil word (as Parisiensis calls it) I am overcome? and so to choose rather to do the sin, [Page 50] then any longer to endure the trouble of his assaults. True it is haply that such who have not experienced the continued violence of Satans instigations in this kind, of putting them upon the Commission of a par­ticular sin, may judge it no hard task to persist in the deniall of it, and to turne a deafe eare to all his Solli­citations and Importunity, it being easie to conceive many things to be more facile then we finde them to be when assayed. But to them who thus think, let me recommend a due weighing of these three considera­tions.

First, The frailty and weakness of the Flesh; which can as ill bear long temptations, as long afflictions: What the length of afflictions will expose unto, David hints to us, when he saith, The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, least the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity, Psalm 125. 3. And will not the rod of the wicked one do as much by its long con­tinuance? The Devill knoweth (saith Luther) that we are earthen Vessels, which cannot alwayes bear multi­plied knockes, and violent stroakes; and therefore those of whom he cannot obtain his will by force, and fraud, he seeketh to overcome by a continued impor­tunity, and this way he vanquisheth many, who want patience to endure, though they have at first courage to re­sist.

Secondly, The art that Satan mingleth with his vio­lence; His urgency, is not to a course and way of sin, but to the single act and commission of it. That which is often repeated and sayed over by him in his pressing of it, is, do it but once, try this time onely, Why not once? Why not now? Is it not better to ease our selves of the vexation by yielding once to the motion, then to be alwayes under it? He knowes that if a sin be once [Page 51] committed it will leave a proneness to do it again: and if the terrors of doing of it, which are commonly greatest at first, be once broken through, it will not be a matter of difficulty to obtain the consent to the do­ing of it the second and third time, because the heart must needs be less bent against it in Prayer, and the power of grace and faith less vigorous to resist it, when weakened by yielding to sin, Conscience also less tender and affected with the sense of it.

Thirdly, The inequality of temper which is in the best; Grace that makes the opposition to Temptations, that are both violent and long, doth not alwayes work alike in the Soul, no more then the Pulse beates alike in the Body; it hath sometimes operations that are quick and strong, and at other times such as are slow, and languid, there being none that stand quite out of the shadow of sin, though out of the region of death. Can it therefore be an easie work to bear up against Satans pressing instigations unto evill, when the spiritual part is often clogged, and made less active by the Flesh, yea, when it is weakened by its treachery? Surely were it not that the bowels of Christ were moved in him unto his when in such a condition, as he was towards Peter when Satan desired to have him, that he might sift him as wheat, their faith would faile. Let me then bespeak compassions for all those, who labour under restless importunities of the Tempter, dayes, moneths, yeares, prompting them to some one sin, being no more able to flee from them then to out-run them­selves, or to cast them off, then to shake off their own Flesh. To any that have tasted the sweetness of holi­liness, what can be more hatefull then daily instigations to sin? And to such who understand the blessedness of Communion with God, what can be more bitter, then [Page 52] to find themselves fast chained as it were to a Devil, who makes such applications of vile objects to their fancy continually, that they cannot turn in the least from? If it were burthensome to Antipheron Orietes, whom Aristotle reports to behold alwayes his own Image standing before him; how irksome must it needs be to a gracious heart, to be alwayes haunted with the spectacle and image of some sin as black as Hell? May I not say then on their behalfe, what He­zekiah spake by his messengers to Isaiah the Prophet, 2 Kings 19. 3. This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy, wherefore lift up a Prayer for them: O Pray, that God would be their shield, and his power might be manifested in their weakness, that the Evill one might not touch them with any assimilating touch; who though he do molest them, may not yet defile them; and though he fight against them, may not yet prevaile over them; but that with the temptation God would make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it.

SECT. III.

A Third Device and Policy of the Prince of dark­ness; Tenebrifer not Lucifer (as Bernard stiles him) is, a ceasing to tempt, or after some short conflict to faigne a flight, not from necessity, but from designe. It is said, Josh. 8. 15. That Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before the Men of Ai, and fled by the way of the Wilderness: But it was to draw them from their fenced City into the Power of an Ambush, set to en­snare them: And this among other stratagems which Brasidas in Thucidides calls [...] belli, the thefts of War, Satan often useth, dissembling a flight, that [Page 53] thereby he may the better steal a victory, and bring un­looked for mischiefes upon those from whom he seems to fly. Parisiensis saith, it is omnium insidiarum peri­culosissima, of all his snares and wiles the most dan­gerous: because that as he designes it for evill ends, so it seldome misseth of success; few heeding to observe whether his flight be pretended, or reall; whether his ceasing to tempt be out of skill, in order to some hid­den design, or out of constraint caused by the resistance of faith. I shall therefore indeavour to show: First, What Satan aimes at in his seeming flight: Secondly, How to distinguish it from that which is reall, and forced by the firme opposition which Faith makes against him, and the victory that it obtaines over him.

First, By this Policy he seekes to infect, and swell the heart with pride, which to keep down and destroy is one great end of Gods suffering his to be tempted. Pride is a sin which it is hard to kill or to starve, so sutable a Soyle is the heart to nourish it above all other sins whatsoe­ver, and so apt is every occasion to make it put forth afresh; but nothing doth more quicken and actuate it then greater atcheivments. It is Tacitus his observa­tion, Rebus secundis etiam egregii duces insolescunt, Re­nowned Generalls are puft up with success, especially against an enemy of repute and eminency. And is there any adversary that can contribute more to his glo­ry who puts him to slight, then the great Dragon, that old Serpent, called the Devill and Satan? Is not he the Prince of the Aire, and the God of the World? are not his Territories full of Captives, whom he hath mi­serably enthralled? Hath he not more Vassalls then Christ hath Subjects? Must it not then be matter of just glory and triumph, to defeate and overcome him, by whom such multitudes are vanquished? But yet as [Page 54] he that striveth must strive lawfully; so he that glorieth must glory lawfully, which must be in the Lord, in the power of whose might he is made strong, else his glo­rying will be both his sin and snare. And this Satan so fully understands, as that in the heat of a Tempta­tion he makes certain Cessations and unexpected re­tirements, on purpose to deceive by the vain hopes of a supposed victory. And are not many by this de­ceipt lifted up, as if their Conflict were at an end, and the Field wholly won by them? Do they not pride and please themselves in thinking how they shook off the infernal Viper with as much ease, and as little hurt to themselves, as Paul did that Viper that came from the bundle of sticks, and fastened on his hand? Do they not slight others who complain of long and sore tem­ptations with which they are buffeted, as if they did spring rather from their weakness, than the power of the Tempter? Oh when men thus set imaginary Crowns on their own heads, how unlike are they to those holy Elders who cast their Crowns before the Throne of God, saying, Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory, and honour, and power? And how like unto him whom they think they have foiled? By being tainted with that sin of pride which cast the Angels out of heaven, and condemned them to be reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the judgment of the Great Day.

Secondly, By this Art he seeks to induce a spirit of se­curity, and to possess the heart with vain presumption of a future peace and freedom from his assaults, than which nothing can prove more fatal to a Spiritual Warfare. That saying of Epicharmus, [...], Remem­ber to distrust, is more useful Counsel to none than to a Christian when not frowned upon by the World, nor [Page 55] molested by Satan; for changes will come both from the one and the other: The World will prove a false Friend, the Devil a true Tempter. After three sharp repulses given him by our Saviour, he departed only for a season, Luk. 4. 13. And can we expect that he will be beaten out of heart, and made a Coward by us? When resisted, and put to slight again and again, he will return, if not to conquer, yet to vex. But no­thing will more hasten his return than a drowsie secu­rity, that is the season which he watcheth for, that is the end of his ceasing to tempt, and his seeming de­parture; and when he finds us, like the men of Laish, living careless and at ease, Judg. 18. 7. then he smites, not as the good Angel did Peter, to awaken him, Acts 12. 7. but, as the fierce Danites, to kill and de­stroy as much as in him lies. Then it is that he sows those noxious tares that come up afterwards to the pre­judice and hurt of the good Seed, Mat. 13. 25. Then it is he comes and brings seven worse Spirits with him, making the last state of that man more miserable than the first, Luk. 11. 26. Let none therefore please them­selves in a sinful ease and rest from temptations, as if the work were wholly done, when in truth nothing is done; but let them look how they come by it, and exa­mine whether it be not a practise of the Enemy, rather than a reality; whether it spring not rather from a ceasing of the Tempter to stir, than from a victory obtained against him, now how to difference the one from the other is the next particular that I am to descend unto.

To find out therefore the truth of the one from the imposture of the other, I will set down briefly these three Rules.

First, Look what means and wayes of resistance have [Page 56] been used to put Satan to flight; Have instant prayers been made to God? Have the goings out against him been in the power and might of Christ? Hath the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, been set against the motions of sin, and the pressing insti­gations of the Tempter? What is it that hath at any time been done to put a period to the Conflict? For as Livy saith, Stultitia est, sedendo, ac votis debellari credere posse: It is a folly to believe that by sitting still, and naked wishes, Enemies can be conquered and overthrown: Victory attends upon the diligent and industrious, not upon the slothful. If then tempta­tions vanish and disappear we know not how, and that no account can be given of the Calm and Peace that we do enjoy, as the fruits of prayer and other means used for the obtaining of it, we have cause to be jealous that the freedom and rest we have is but an Artifice of the Adversary to make us secure, and thereby the more easily to ensnare us: Nemo enim celerius opprimitur, quam qui nihil timet; none being sooner vanquished than he who fears nothing.

Secondly, When ever Satan is really worsted, sin is wounded. He is never put to flight but Lust receives a mortifying blow, for the fight is both made and main­tained by Faith, and other graces of the Spirit, which carrie in them more immediate opposition unto sin than unto Satan, it being the great work of every one that is begotten of God to keep himself that the wicked one touch him not, 1 Joh. 5. 18. Not that he tempt him not, but that he defile him not by any assimilating touch: And this is the only way by which a Believer can be said both to resist him, and also to overcome him; we cannot kill the Devil, nor weaken in the least his power, but as we mortifie Lusts which are the [Page 57] matter that he works upon, and the less of it he finds in us, the less able he is to hurt us. If therefore a Temptation go off, and the heart be not set more against sin, so as to loath and hate it, which is an in­terpretative murder of sin, as well as of our Brother, 1 Joh. 3. 15. So as to pray and watch more against it, we cannot well conclude our rest and ease to be good when it wants grace as its companion, and the quiet fruits of righteousness as its evidence, Heb. 12. 11.

Thirdly, When the wicked one is overcome and driven to a flight, there will abide upon the soul a lively senseof so great a mercy, which will manifest it self in a deep appre­hension of those treacheries, and deceits that the heart did abound with in the hour of tryal, and a self abhorrency for them in an humble and thankful acknowledgment of strength and power from Christ, whereby it is un­able to fight a good fight, and to obtain an happy vi­ctory, in a careful treasuring up the experience it hath had of Gods faithfulness in its greatest straits, in a timely preparation and laying in of spiritual provisions for another concounter, as knowing that its warfare will not be compleated till it come to heaven. These, and such like effects, are the issues of those Temptations in which Satan is put to flight, and the ground of it is, because it is done in the exercise of those means and graces of the Spirit as alwaies leaves the soul in a better temper than it found it.

SECT. IV.

A Fourth device of this spiritual Abaddon is touching the end and the means wherein he puts cheats upon thousands, either by dividing between the one and the other, or by busying them in the use of false and [Page 58] ineffectual means to attain it, or by causing them to use good means in an undue and sinful manner.

First, It is a piece of Satans Sophistry to separate between the means and the end, and to make men to presume, that though the one be neglected the other may be ob­tained; to this folly he would have tempted our Savi­our, Mat. 4. 6. When he set him upon the Pinacle of the Temple, he would have perswaded him to have cast himself down, and there given a proof both of his Son­ship and Gods fatherly care of protecting of him, but as it is a sin to distrust God in the want of means, so it is no lesser sin to presume to be saved without them when they may be had; It is not an honouring of God by an absolute trust in him, but a tempting of him by a wanton pride in subjecting his power to act and work according to our pleasure; but yet though Christ hath armed men against this Sophism of the Tempter by his own example, who would not betake himself to reli­ance on God for safety in an extraordinary way, when not debarred of the common and usual way. How great are the number of those [...], who tempt God by unwarrantable practises, throwing themselves into needless dangers and extremities that his power may appear in their deliverance and preservation? Cassian I remember tells a Story of three persons, who in the confidence of Gods providing for them took a tedious journey into a Desart, in which two of them miserably died with hunger, the third only returned as a sad spectacle of their folly. And Brentius hath a Relation of an Anabaptist Woman, who invited many Friends to Supper, but took no care to have any thing to set before them, fondly presuming that the Table should be furnished by God. But what are these pre­sumptions, in which men thus divide between the end [Page 59] and the means, any other than the scorn and laughter of those who deride their folly, and yet through the seduction of the Devil become guilty of far greater. When they are Confident of heaven, and Careless of holiness, they are secure of the end, and yet tread not one step in the way that should bring them to it. Are not these as vain as those who expect a Harvest with­out a Seeds time? Can any perish with more clear self­convictions of Gods Justice in condemning them than these? Do they need to look into the Decrees of God to see the roots of their miscarriage? Or into their own Consciences? May not they say, the Serpent hath beguiled them, while they have hearkened to his Counsels, who was a lyar, and a murderer from the beginning?

Secondly, The subtilty of Satan, touching the end and the means, is seen in his putting of men upon the pursuit of those waies and mediums, which do not in the least serve or conduce to that end for which they are used: So that though the intended end be good, yet they fall as equally short of it, as those who do nothing at all to obtain it, and are like misguided Patients, who by their Medicines are not cured, but killed. And who can count the thousands, or rather Myriads, that are held under the power of this delusion of the Devil? May we not ask the most of those who busie themselves in seeking a state of happiness, why do you lay out your mony for that which is not bread? Or why are you as those who build in the fire, where the structure con­sumeth as fast as it is raised? Let us look abroad a little, and see if it be not a truth: And shall we need to take a view of that strange and sudden spread of Mahume­tanism? Where the Seductions of a bruitish Impostor have prevailed to the deluding of Nations and King­doms, [Page 60] who have subjected themselves to his Laws, and are drunk with the expectation of his carnal pro­mises? Or shall we confine our Prospect to the Roman Profession of Religion? Who though they impropri­ate salvation to themselves, and exclude all others, who come not within the Pale and Verge of their Church, have yet dangerously swerved from the rule and path of life. Harlot-like they have laid the dead Child in the room of the living Child, their own cor­rupt Fancies and Inventions in the place of Gods Insti­tutions, and in the observation of lying vanities forsake their own mercies. God hath set in the Church, not as a trimmed Lamp in the Sanctuary, but as the fixed Sun in the Firmament, the good Word of his Truth, to discover fully the knowledge of his Will, which is the just measure of all that obedience which he both re­quires and rewards: But they in this great Luminary have found, what some Astronomers have of late disco­vered in the Sun, Vultum maculis infectum, A face stai­ned with dark spots; and therefore charging it with obscurity and defectiveness have betaken themselves to unwritten traditions to be the guide and rule of their Faith as well as the Word, though all the light in them be but as the blaze of a Candle in the Socket that is nei­ther sweet nor certain. God hath stiled himself, A God hearing prayer, and that unto him all flesh shall come, Psal. 65. 2. But they have imparted this Divine Honour to Saints, for which they have neither Precept, Pro­mise, or Example in the Scripture, robbing God of the glory of his goodness, whose arms are alwaies stretched out to receive those that come to him in Christs name, whose bowels are ever yearning towards their necessi­ties, and ready to prevent their prayers with his bounty. And then what need can there be of heavenly [Page 61] Courtiers to render him more propitious to the fulfilling of their requests? God hath made eternal life to be of Grace, not of Workes, that it might be sure, it is his gift, Rom. 6. 23. It is his Promise to them that love him, James 1. 12. Fecit se nobis debitorem non aliquid ànobis accipiendo, sed omnia promittendo: He hath (saith St. Augustin) made himself a Debtor, not by receiving ought from us, but by promising all unto us. But they going about to establish their own righteousness, have chosen rather to plead their title unto it by way of right and justice, and to assert a dignity and value in their Workes, to which the reward is due, not of Grace, but of Debt: Can we think these are apt Mediums to bring the Soul and Sal­vation together? or that they are not rather as Chaines of Glass more specious then strong? Are they not ar­tifices rather then realities, brought in by those, who in the Apostles Dialect are seducing Spirits? 1 Tim. 4. 2. And imbraced by those who received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved? 2 Thess. 2. 10 Have we not then just ground to depart from the Tents of these Men, as Israel did from the Tabernacle of Ko­rah, Dathan and Abiram, and to touch nothing of theirs, least we be consumed in all their sins? They may return unto us, but we cannot return unto them; according to Gods command to the Prophet, Jer. 16. 19. Unless we should change the Truth of God into a lie, and serve the Creature more then the Creator, who is blessed for ever.

Thirdly, The subtilty of Satan touching the end and the means, is seen, in making men to miscarry in the use of right Meanes, by their using of them in an undue manner, and so to faile of the end for which they are appointed by God. And this is the way by which he prevailes over multitudes of Professors, whose [Page 62] Duties, though done, daily prove wholly fruitless in the issue, because of their heedless manner of performing them. Prayer is the key of blessing, which onely opens the Treasures of heaven, both in regard of grace and comfort; and yet how many ask and receive not, be­cause they ask amiss? The eccho doth not return an answer to every sound; no more doth God to every Prayer. Duties without life provoke God rather then please him; and gratifie Satan rather then trouble him. He cares not how much Men hear, or how often they Pray, if that he can but allay their intention and fervency in both, either by distracting their Mindes, or deading their Affections, so as to make them the Scele­tons of duties, without a Soul to enliven and actuate them; naked formes, without any power of Godliness. How contemptible doth God speak of his own Institu­tions, when done in a careless and loose manner? When Israel came to appear before him, he asketh who hath required this at their hands to tread his courts? Isai. 1. 12. Incense is an abomination, New Moones and Sabbaths he cannot away with, Vers. 13. He curseth them as deceivers that have in their Flock a Male, and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing, Mal. 1. 14. And threatneth to spread the dung of their Solemne Feasts upon their fa­ces, Mal. 2. 3. Is it not then matter of wonder as well as of complaint, that those who own the appointed Ordinances of God to be the sole Rule of giving glo­ry to him, and obtaining good from him, should yet for the most part satisfie themselves in the doing of Duties rather then in the fruits they reap from them? Is it not an interpretative omission, though not a formall neglect, to make that to be the task of the outward Man, which should be the employment of the whole Man; to be the work of the Lip, which should be the service of the [Page 63] heart? Will a Prayer, that is like an Arrow from a slack Bow, which never pierced the breast, ever pierce the Heavens? Will the hearing of the Word, in which the running Sands in the Glass are more eyed then the Mi­nister, as giving hopes of a close, ever convey its sweet­ness to such an hearer? Will a Sabbath that is spent onely in the forbearance of Bodily Labour, without any Ascentions of the Soul to God in holy Meditation, or Breathings after him in servent Prayer, either fill a Man with the fore-tastes of Heaven, or make the frui­tion of God in an eternal Sabbath to be deemed as his onely happiness? And yet such overlie Schemes, such Bodily exercise, which profiteth not, are the Services which most give unto God, presuming also that he is as well pleased with them as themselves, whilst through the Devils craft, and the deceitfulness of their own hearts, they look upon them as evidences to difference them from both the Prophane, who reject the thing that is good, and from the erroneous, who are led out of the right way by the Fancies and Inventions of Men.

SECT. V.

A Fifth Device and Policy of Satan is his strange and artificiall disguising of objects, so as to make them to appear to be what they are not, yea, contrary to what they are in truth, and reality. When Tamar designed to accom­pany with Judah her Father-in-Law, she put her Wi­dowes garments off from her, and attired her self as an Harlot, and sat in an open place, Genes. 38. 14. that she may the better effect her purpose, and what the issue was the story tells us. So oftentimes when Satan would allure and tempt to sin, he presents the object, not in its naturall dress, but clothed in such a manner, [Page 64] as best suites with what he aimes at, as may be easily seen both in his attractives unto evill, and disswasives from good.

First, Evills which have a deformity inseparably cleav­ing unto them he hides and palliates Virtutis minio (as Bernard speakes) by giving them a superficial die and tincture of virtue, whereby he many times deceives the incautious, and serves also the hypocrite with specious pretences: How doth the covetous Person, whom the Lord abhorreth, Psalm 10. 3. please himself in his sor­did Parcimony, as if he onely practised frugality, and followed the Counsell of our Saviour, of Gathering up the fragments, that nothing be lost? John 6. 12. With what a shew of Religion doth he deny bread to the hun­gry, and cloathing to the naked, whilest he shelters himself under the assertion of Paul, that if any pro­vide not for his own house he hath denyed the Faith, and is worse than an Infidel? 1 Tim. 5. 8. And yet his hand is shrunk up towards the one, as well as to the other. He turnes away from the stranger under a pretended care of Providing for his Family, and he robs them of their due necessaries, by making thrift a Cloak for his avarice. Is not also the Laodicean, or luke-warme Pro­fessor, under the like delusion, in regard of the appre­hensions he hath of his spirituall estate? Who is it that prides himself more in his moderation and discretion, as if he alone had hit the Golden Meane, and joyned the wisdome of the Serpent, and the innocency of the Dove together, being not over-heated through the fie­ry passion of zeale, nor frozen and stupid through the dissoluteness of Atheisme and Prophaneness? And yet may not we say, that which is highly esteemed among Men, is abomination in the sight of God? hath he not expressed how irksome such a temper is to him, [Page 65] when for this very cause he threatens an whole Church to spew it out of his Mouth? Rev. 3. 16. Yea, and seemes to wish it rather to be wholly cold, then to have such an imperfect participation of both the extreames; not but that cold is more remote from heate then luke­warmness; but yet as it is a state, or condition, it is worse, because Men are very rarely, and with great dif­ficulty recovered out of it; being like to those who lie in pleasant Dreames, and are loath to be awakned out of them. It is Cassians observation, which the experi­ence of others may seale unto as a truth; Ex frigido saepe fit calidus, & calido quandoque frigidus, at rarissi­mè ex tepido sit calidus; That oft times of cold one is made hot; and of hot sometimes one returnes to be cold; but seldome or never do any from luke-warm come to be hot.

Secondly, As he allures to evill, by covering its defor­mity with his artificiall Paint and Varnish, so as to entitle it to the name of a virtue, rather then of vice, or sin; much like to a deceitfull Coyner that stamps the Kings Image upon his spurious Mettall, to make it pass the more unsuspected: So on the other hand, when he would disswade from good, he represents it under the most con­temptible forme and appearance, to create such prejudices and dislikes against it, as may cause them to apprehend that it is naturally of that complexion in which it appeares to them; that by this meanes Men may scorne the Profes­sion of it, rather then imbrace the Practise of it, and look upon it as a thing that rather detracts from their worth and esteem, then adds ought to it. No broken glass can render a beautifull Face more distorted and mishapen, either by multiplying the parts, or misplacing of them, then he doth the most amiable things of grace and holiness. Is it not through Satans subtilty that [Page 66] Religion it self hath such an unpleasant aspect in most Mens eyes? Is it not through the mists that he raiseth that it seemes to be a dark and opake body, and not a bright and glorious Luminary, which fills the breast in which it is seated with light and peace? It is he that suggests to the Atheist, that to disdain it is a piece of reason; and to the Prophane, that to neglect the Profes­sion of it, though they own the Principles of it, is a point of Gentility. It is he that makes the World judge the zealous Christian to labour of a Phrenzy, and the pati­ent Man, that beares injuries without revenge, to be a coward and stupid Person, that resents not affronts; and he that exerciseth self-deniall to his unruly appetite, and curbes with a strong reine the desires of the Flesh, to be no better then a Stoicall Foole, who seekes to re­duce Men to the condition of stocks and stones, and to extirpate all affections as excrescencies of Nature, ra­ther then to cherish them as its genuine offspring. O how powerfull are the arts and effascinations of this in­fernal Magician, who can thus make Men best pleased with that estate, in which they are rebells to God, and slaves to lusts; and from which they can expect no­thing but amazements, horrors, and distractions of minde, which will at one time or other afflict those who prostitute their Consciences to such impieties, as have in them the highest mixture both of folly and mad­ness? Have we not need to minde Men of Christs Counsell, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement, John 7. 24. When so many easily fall in love with guilded abominations, and greatly disesteem and scorn what is truly noble and Divine, by the uncouth vizards that are put upon it? Have we not need to set before Mens eyes that Woe that is denoun­ced against them that call evill good, and good evill, that [Page 67] put darkness for light, and light for darkness, Isai. 5. 20. When not a few are under the power of strong delusi­ons, and believe a lie? Surely it is not unnecessary in this Age of prodigious looseness, wherein this impo­sture of Satan hath so far prevailed, as that it is thought plea enough to defend the worst of Debaucheries, and to vindicate them from censure, by the putting upon them some gay name; which is much at one, as if a Leper should expect to be reputed clean, because he hath co­vered his foul Ulcers with costly Cloathing: or as if a Patient should be in love with his disease because the Physitian calls it by some name which he hath on pur­pose invented to please his fancy.

SECT. VI.

A Sixth Device, or Machination (which like the net cast on the right side taketh multitudes; or like the Bow of Jonathan, and the Sword of Saul, never re­turnes empty) is Satans ensnaring of all sorts of Persons in the use of lawfull things. The Adage is not more common then true, Licitis perimus omnes; that we are undone by lawfull things, rather then by sins: the smooth and deceitfull stream carries mo [...]e to the whirl­poole, which irrecoverably sucks them in, then the rough and loud waters, which affright Passengers from venturing upon them; Oh this is a great snare. Ma­ny Men can give no account of Time, Parts, States; but Hunting, Drinking, Hawking, &c. Satan by his art and cunning making Men to transgress the bounds in the use of Pleasures, Recreations, nay even neces­sary things. Therefore take heed what you do, or how you walk, and be sure to set boundaries to your selves, remembring that excess may turn that which is good [Page 68] into an absolute evil; eating may become gluttony, in­dustry in a Mans Calling may become covetousness, recreations may become looseness, when they are un­bounded, and not according to the rule and Warrant of the Word.

SECT. VII.

THe seventh Wile of Satan is, suiting his temptations to the Ages and Conditions of men.

First, Unto Ages: He observes Young Years, Mid­dle Age, Old Age; so also to the Ages in Christianity, as the Apostle John shews, 1 Epist. c. 2. 12, 13, v. where he writes to Babes, Young men, and Fathers, as those that are subject unto several temptations, and so had need be cautelous.

1. Young men he tempts to Lust and Wantonness, therefore Paul bids Timothy flee youthful lusts, 2 Tim. 2. 22. And O that I might prevail with young men to possess their Vessels in holiness, and to remember their nature is that nature Christ hath taken on him. It is the Apostles Argument, 1 Cor. 6. 19. Your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost.

2. He tempts middle Ages to a [...], he stirs up an itch of honour, and of being some great ones, of building their Families, and laying foundations of a name; and in this very snare many are caught, who by this very temptation have their thoughts, and minds so possessed, as that they wilfully resist light, and put themselves upon courses, that turn away their hearts from God. It is the thought, and project of many a man, that after he hath feathered his neast, and done so, and so, he will bethink himself of his soul. Thus sundry of the Popes sought the Popedom by unlawful Arts, especially Sylvester the Second, &c.

3. He hath temptations for Old Age [...], Co­vetousness, Peevishness.

Secondly, He observes the Condition of men as well as their Ages, and Constitutions, the Estates in which [Page] men are set. If men be afflicted and sad in Spirit, such he affrights with fears, and fancies, that are as gastly as the evils themselves; A melancholly person, whose fancy is like a broken Glass, he fills with Jealousies, Surmises, that make it swell as the Water of Jealousie did the belly of the guilty woman. O a dark heart is Satans shop to hammer his temptations in. If a man is poor, then he tempts him to turn stones into bread, as he did Christ when he was hungry. If rich, then to turn bread into stones, that is the Devils Alchymy. Thus he works with mens States, Conditions, and with their Humours, and Passions, as Agrippina, when she poysoned her Husband Claudius, mingled the poy­son with the meat which he loved most.

SECT. VIII.

THe eighth device is, the insinuation of many suggestions and temptations in such an indiscernable manner, and way, as that we cannot discern, and diffe­rence them from the reasonings. and thoughts of our hearts, which if men could, they would not so easily hearken unto. Bernard, in his 32. Serm. on Cant. saith, Nulli hoc mortalium possibile puto, ut discernat inter morsum serpentis & morbum mentis, I think, saith he, it is scarce possible for any man to put an exact difference between the biting of the Serpent, and the concupi­scence and pravity of the mind. So again in the same place, Non accepi fateor, unde assignem certam notionem inter partum cordis, & seminarium hostis. I have nor, saith he, attained to assign any distinction between the Birth the heart travels with, and the evil Tares the Enemy sows and casts in; it is most uncertain what I should attribute to my self, what to him. Now if [Page 71] Satan can thus cast in suggestions, in such an insensible manner, he must needs gain an advantage, because this way the gates of the soul are more readily opened to him. If men did apprehend such and such suggestions came immediately from the Devil, they would abhor to yield or hearken to them.

But when they apprehend them to be nothing but motions, and desires arising in themselves, they are more apt to entertain a parly, and to comply with them. If Peter, when he tempted Christ to spare him­self, Mat. 16. 22. had conceived it had been from the Devil, certainly he would never have said it; but he looked upon it only as the stirring of his own affection. If David had thought, that the provocation to number the People had sprang from Satan, he would not have been so earnest in it. But that which makes this Wile of Satan more dangerous, is, that though he have ma­ny times circumvented us in this kind, yet we know not how to beware of him. If one through shew of Friendship, or through slattery hath been injurious to us, we can ever after beware of him, and not admic him to counsel us; but here it is otherwise. When Satan hath come to day, and deceived us in this kind, he may come again to morrow, and do it, because we cannot discern between his suggestions, and our own thoughts. Yet we may suspect them, when we find that they are (1.) Against nature, such where the very shadow of a thought peeping out strikes the flesh into a trembling. (2.) When sudden and violent like lightning. (3.) When without reasonings, being ac­companied with importunity.

But the best remedy against this Wile is not to be curious in the search to distinguish between his sugge­stions, and our concupiscence, but to be careful not to [Page 72] consent, and to remember Omnis mali cogitatio, est an­tiqui serpentis caput, (as Parisiensis out of Jerom speaks,) that evil thoughts are the head of the old Serpent.

SECT. IX.

THe ninth Wile, which is a very great subtilty and device of Satan, is in his delusions about Doctrine, in seducing and drawing men a side into errour by plausible Opi­nions and Doctrines, that seem to come near the Scripture in shew, and being like unto it as Alchymy is like Gold. Such are, as Epiphanius saith of the Cantharides, Au­ricolores, but they spit poyson venenum ejaculantur. A pregnant instance of this we have, 2 Thes. 2. 1, 2. and 1 Pet. 4. 7. Some false Teachers (for Satan hath his Apostles and Ministers as well as Christ) came with the plausible Doctrine of Mortification; For what could tend more to Mortification than the thoughts of the nearness of the Day of Judgment; and to strengthen this opinion, they pretend they came to the knowledge of this truth, partly by Revelation from the Spirit, partly by computing the Years, and partly by some­thing the Apostles had written. Now, what was there in this opinion that was hurtful? Two things may be said for it, (1.) That it is an opinion that comes very near the Scripture; doth not Peter say almost the same thing, Be sober and watch, the end of all things is at hand, [...]. Nay, doth not Paul say the very self-samething, 1 Cor. 10. 11. The ends of the World are come. (2.) It tends much to Mortification, and the practice of holiness, Do you think men would not live holily if they did apprehend the Day of Judgment near, that it would be shortly? Would not this keep [Page 73] down abundance of corruption? How doth Jerom profess himself overawed with this, that he thought he heard the sound of the last Trumpet whatsoever he was a doing?

But to discover this Wile, let me again tell you two things: (1.) Wherein it differs from the Scripture. (2.) To shew the danger of it.

First, It differs from Scripture thus, the word Peter uses is [...], appropinquat, approaches; and so Paul saith, the ends of the world are coming. But the word Paul expresses their opinion by is [...], instat, it shall be upon them living, hoc anno, as Grotius saith, this year; and so the word is in other places used for things present, 1 Cor. 3. 22. [...], all are yours, things pre­sent, Rom. 8. 38. Now they said the day of the Lord is upon us; it is a word, as Grotius saith, noting proxi­mity, nearness. So that their drift was to bring the day of the Lord within such a small space, as within a year or few months.

Secondly, Wherein lay the danger of it, what got Satan by it? To shew the hurt of this opinion, he might aime at three things by it.

1. It might occasion liberty in sin, some might rea­son as they 1 Cor. 15. 13. Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall dye. The rage of wicked and ungodly men might put them into excess of riot, Rev. 12. 12. Satan himself hath great rage, knowing his time is but short: and so wicked men, when they know their time is but short, that they have but a little space to take their fill of sin in, they might be brought to a greater animosity against what was good, and to a greater ex­cess in all that was evil.

2. It might work a great deal of consternation, and dejection in weak Christians, whom the very thoughts [Page 74] of so great and sad a day approaching might either with trembling, or fear, or many jealousies over­whelm.

3. The main end was this, to weaken the authority of Scripture; admit but a lye in Scripture, and all its Authority will fall to the ground. Let it be once en­tertained or taught by Scripture or divine Revelation, that Christ shall come at such a time, and this time not answering, now faith comes to be weakened; as the delay of Christs coming bred scoffing in some, 2 Pet. 3. 4. and made others say, there is no Resurrection, or that it is past already.

And thus Augustine, in his 80 Ep. writing to Hesi­chius, that was troubled in this kind, and apt to think the day of judgment might be such a time, thus advi­ses him, to beware how he leaned to such opinions, reproaches and insultations of enemies, Multos infir­mos a Christianâ fide avertentium, dicendo tam fallacitèr regnum esse promissum, quam fallacitèr dicebatur cito esse venturum. That many weak ones would be drawn by them from the Christian Faith; and they would say there was no more certainty in the thing it self than in the Prediction, that it should be so suddenly; And he adds, Qui dicit dominum citius esse venturum optabilius loquitur sed periculosius fallitur. The Doctrine of Christs speedy coming is more desirable, but the mistake is more dangerous. So that the danger is in this, a man may call in question many other truths, as well as them which before he thought he did believe. Therefore let me speak to you that are Christians, do not think those Doctrines that seem to come near, and be like the Scripture, may presently be entertained, or hearkened to, but be sure that they come up to the Scripture, and be adaequate to the Rule, if not, they are in no wise to be hearkened unto.

O that we had in this kind the Zeal and Affection of our Fore-fathers, who did contend for the truth, that they would not lose an Iota, one tittle of it. The Council of Nice would not gratifie Arrius in a Let­ter, [...] and [...], he would grant Christ was of a like, not of the same substance. By the sound he seemed to come near the truth. But as two men upon the top of two Mountains seem so near they can shake hands, but must go a great way before they meet. So it is here, they seem near the truth in words, but were a great way off it. And so the Nesto­rians in acknowledging the Virgin Mary [...], not [...], a letter only changed, but made a wide diffe­rence; and so the Latine and Greek Church, in the procession of the Holy Ghost, differed in a Preposition. The Greek would grant the Holy Ghost to proceed by the Son [...], not [...]; and so for the filioque added to the Nicene Creed. Truth must not be lost by things that come near it; if any Doctrine come not up to the Scriptures, it must be rejected. If it go beyond them, it is straw and stubble on the foundation. If it fall short, it is errour also. Remember that corrupt opi­nions, like Changelings, are many times laid in the place of the right Child, which is Truth. O foolish Galatians, saith the Apostle, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? a Metaphor taken from those that use Witchery, and present false shapes to the eyes, as the Witch of Eudor did the likeness of Samuel to Saul; but remember this is a Wile of Satan, who him­self abode not in the truth, Joh. 8. 44. Labour to have the Signature of all Divine Truths imprinted on your minds. Veritas animae pabulum, as Lactantius cals it, Truth is the food of the soul. It is Sponsa humani intellectus, ex eâ generat sobolem, as Parisiensis, the Spouse of the [Page 76] Understanding, by which it hath issue. It is a part of that Armour the Apostle calls Armour of light. Con­verse then much with God the Father of Lights, James 1. 17. with the Word, which is a Book of light; with the Saints, the Children of light, if you would escape this Wile.

SECT. X.

THe tenth Subtilty of Satan when these things will not do, then under pretence of setting up the Spirit, and Revelations, he labours to cry down the Word of God, and all the ordinary Ministerial Officers Christ hath appoin­ted in his Church, and all Doctrines and Explications of Scripture are cashiered and rejected. These are [...]. Our first worthy reformers found a bit­ter conflict herein: For they no sooner had prevailed to restore the Gospel, and expel the darkness of Pope­ry in Germany, and other parts, but straitway Satan sows his Tares; they called those that adhered to the Scriptures, Vocalistae, Literalistae, Vocalists, Literalists; and hereby they made the work of Reformation odi­ous, as Eli his Sons made the Sacrifices of the Lord to be abhorred. And as in Superstitious times he kept down the truth by Superstition, and pompous Cere­monies, so in times of Reformation by pretended Re­velations, and Teachings above the Word. And this the Apostle doth much aim at when he saith, 2 Cor. 11. 14. That Satan transforms himself into an Angel of light. This delusion I speak the rather of, because that in these times wherein Reformation hath been much pretended, the World by pretences of Revelations, and impulses of the Spirit, hath cast off the Word. This Art he improves two waies:

First, Some are meer pretences, when wicked and wretched miscreants do on purpose, and knowingly use this way as a pretence to colour all their wicked­ness. Thus Mahomet, to colour his wickedness in the seducing the people, pretended the fits of the Falling sickness he was troubled with to be certain Ecstacies and Ravishments, at the appearance of the Angel Ga­briel, and the Dove picking the Corn out of his Ear to be the appearance of the Holy Ghost. And thus often times those who use such cursed pretences come to be admired, and esteemed, who else would have been ac­counted as nought. As Augustine speaks of two Dona­tists, Primianus, and Maximianus, that if they had not taken that way, Primianus might have been Po­stremianus, and Maximianus might have been Mini­miamus.

Secondly, He improves this subtilty by deluding the fancies of men with a concurrence of pride, and self­admiration, so as to entertain thoughts that none know so much of God, nor have such secret Communion with him as they, and that thereby they have sundry particulars above all the world revealed to them. Thus some have magnified themselves in particulars, that have been revealed to them, that have come to pass.

Acosta the Jesuite tells us of one that was a very great Schollar, that through delusions and fancies fell into such a conceit, as he believed he had holiness gi­ven unto him above Angels, and that he was the Sa­viour of the world in regard of efficacy, and Christ in regard of sufficiency; that he had the Hypostatical Union offered to him, and that he did refuse it. Thus Satan puffs men up with pride, that he may make them instruments of confusion and ruine to the Church. [Page 78] Therefore as an Antidote against this keep to the Word, 2 Pet. 1. 19. You have a more sure word of Pro­phecy. Notwithstanding all Satans Stratagems to adul­terate it by Hereticks, to destroy it by Tyrants, to debase it by prophane scoffing at it, yet hold to the Word, ad Legem, & testimonium, if they speak not according to them, it is because there is no light in them.

SECT. XI.

THe eleventh Wile, by which Satan winneth and allureth many to the hazard and peril of their Eternal welfare, is by the working many lying Signs, and Wonders, and Miracles. That look as God, for the ad­vantage of his Gospel, did at the first publishing it confirm it with many Miracles, and Wonders, Heb. 2. 4. So Satan, for the facilitating a belief the better to his lyes, and falshood, doth put forth much of his power in the working of lying signs and miracles. This the Scripture often expresses as a policy above all he almost useth, Mat. 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs, and false Prophets, and shew many signs and wonders. Rev. 13. 13. 2 Thes. 2. 9. Where the coming of that man of sin is described to be after the working of Satan, [...], with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. Which words do imply, as I conceive, both the manner, & means of Antichrists working. (1.) The man­ner of Antichrists working is after the way and manner of Satans working; that is, it holds proportion unto that way that he useth to take. (2.) It is by the means of Satan; he as a fast friend of Antichrist puts out his power in his behalf for the working many lying signs and wonders: which are called lying signs and wonders in two respects: (1.) In regard of their [Page 79] formality, they want that which should constitute a true miracle. For a Miracle truly called, is the doing some work extraordinary that runs into the senses ex­ceeding the power of any Creature, as to make the Sun stand still in the Heavens by a word, &c. Now, all Satans workings are but sometimes a deceiving of the sense, as Pharaohs Magicians; sometimes a deluding of the fancy; sometimes there is an exposing of secret things of nature to the sense of the Ignorant, who not knowing the depths of nature, think it a wonder; sometimes by applying of Actives to Passives, all which fall short of Miracles. (2.) They are called lying in regard of the end of them, they tend to draw from the truth, and therefore are not to be credited, Gal. 1. 8.

SECT. XII.

THe twelfth subtilty of Satan is to assault and afflict Christians with such temptations as to their knowledge and experience are unheard of, which happily they never heard any others to be tempted to, nor believe that ever any but themselves have had experience of. This Parisiensis calls, Extraneitas tentationis, temptations that they cannot parallel or sample. Now, when Christians are exercised with such temptations, it exceedingly ama­zes them, as new Engines and weapons, not before seen by Souldiers in former fights, do amaze the Soul­dier, and take off his courage; and as new diseases, of which Physicians have had no experience, do most pose and trouble them, and oftentimes discourage both Patients, and Physicians. So oftentimes new tempta­tions do most amaze and sad the soul.

Hence come those complaints tempted ones do ut­ter, [Page 80] No body was ever troubled as I am, who was ever assaulted with such blasphemous thoughts, such Atheisti­cal injections, as I dare not speak or mention? Sure if I were not worse than others, I could not have such thoughts; if I were not forsaken of God, he would not suffer me to be thus tempted. But in this case you must remember what Paul speaks to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 10. 13. There is no temptation happened to you but what is common to man; I may truly say to such, they think it new, yet it is that which some Christian or other have had experience of. You know what Elias said to God, and what Gods answer was, Rom. 11. 3. saith he, I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him, I have reser­ved to my self seven thousand men, &c. So you think you are alone in this or that temptation, but alas there are a thousand in the Militant Church that are affli­cted with the same temptations, and Stratagems of Satan.

SECT. XIII.

THe thirteenth Wile is about holy duties, and that (1.) In putting us to do good duties upon wrong ends, which wholly alter their property. It is a true Axiom in Philosophy, Quod forma in naturalibus, finis in mora­libus, What the form is in naturals, the end is in mo­rals. In moral things the end specificates the action. Jehu's slaying Ahabs Children, was not obedience, but murther, though done by Gods Command, Hos. 1. 4. God required it as a righteous satisfaction to Ju­stice, but Jehu did it out of ambition, therefore God saith, I will avenge the bloud of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. Alms are good when they come like oyl that [Page 81] makes no noise, but not when a Trumpet is blown before them. Prayer is good when it comes from Zeal, but it is but howling when it comes from lust, Hos. 7. 14. Worshipping God is good, but if it be for base ends it is but self-seeking. Oh therefore look to all duties, God must not only be the Object, but the End; Worship must have no end below it self.

Or (2.) Satans VVile is, when he cannot hinder from duty, then he endeavours to spoyl them; he will excite to duties, but to do them unseasonably. It is the commendation of a duty when it is done in season, Psal. 1. The blessed man brings forth his fruit in due sea­son. Now, when he cannot put out the Candle, he will make it sparkle and flair, as in Martha, Luk. 10. 40, 41. or he will turn affection the wrong way. The Jews were zealous for the Law, and he stirs up that against the Gospel. Saul had a conscience of serving God, 1 Sam. 13. 12. and he forceth him to offer Sacrifice. The Corinthians were at first too remiss towards the In­cestuous Corinthian, after too severe; he sees some heat, and he drives it on too much; [...]he will make us tyrannize in some service, and some duties he will make tyrants unto us, his aim is by marrying Religion and Tyranny to discourage men from Religion.

(3.) His design is to press Christians with some violent assault when they are preparing themselves for duty, or to afflict them so in the duty, that it may be rather their work to keep off the fowls from the Sacri­fice, than to give up themselves to God in the duty as they should do. Therefore he presses Christians with extraordinary discouragements when they are to per­form extraordinary duty, that if he cannot keep them from ordinary, he may keep them from extraordinary duties, and labours to make them so uncomfortable, [Page 82] as many are afraid to perform them. Thus many are kept month after month, and year after year, from ever medling with the Sacrament (who will pray and hear,) through the violent assaults of Satan, so that some have given over duties for a kind of ease, rather than be so assaulted. All I shall say to this is, whatever your discouragements are give not over.

Satan may imbitter a sweet duty by his temptations, but he shall not make it ineffectual; while you are wrastling and striving, his design is but by this violence to make you give over, to choose rather to walk in a kind of peace, than to maintain a war in the perfor­mance of duty.

SECT. XIV.

THe fourteenth Wile is by suffering false remedies to prevail. The Devil suggests these to keep men from the true, and tells men, as Samson did Dalilah, if he be so and so used he shall be overcome. Thus the Jews used their Phylacteries, as [...], remedies against inchantments. And those two Commandments upon which Christ saies hang the Law and the Pro­phets, the Christians did, from the superstitious Jews, write them in Schedules, and hang them about their necks, as little Gospels; but those were portanda in corde, non in corpore, as Jerom saith well upon Mat. 23. they were to be laid up in the heart, not to be worn about the body. So the Papists use Salt, Spittle, holy Water in their Exorcisms, but these the Devil, that hellish Leviathan, esteemeth less than the Leviathan, in Job 41. 27. doth of Iron, which he esteemeth as straw, and of Brass as rotten wood. Beware then of his counterfeit weapons; think not these things will [Page 83] affright the Devil, rather look up to God, as David, who praies, that God would turn the counsel of Achitophel to foolishness, 2 Sam. 15. 31.

SECT. XV.

THe fifteenth Wile, is by making false Syllogisms, by which he works upon the guilt of conscience, and this consists in laying to our charge sins of omission or com­mission, in which the Major or Minor is false. As now he will lay to our charge many particular sins and corruptions committed by us, as pride, hypocrisie, self-respects, and so many duties omitted, or done overly. Which temptation if drawn in a Syllogism, either the first or second proposition is false.

He in whom such sin raigns as hypocrisie is, is not the Child of God. But such a one art thou, &c. the Minor here many times is false. It is true, a Child of God cannot be an hypocrite, but he may have hypo­crisie in him; the best way therefore to resist this temptation, is to try whether hypocrisie reign in thee, and this he will press by aggravating the evil, and ex­tenuating the good, that he may bring men into trou­ble. Sometime by making false Majors, as that to relapse into the same sin is not compatible with grace, and for the trial he gives false rules and stan­dards to judge by. Thus he troubles weak Christians, about their graces and comforts, by false Syllogisms. He aggravates their imperfections in the former, tells them what falls they catch when they would run; what distractions they meet with when they most in­tend their minds, and how can Gods Eye, that is pure, behold these things with delight? Now to discover the fallacy of this Argument: You must know, that as we [Page 84] are not to place the strength of our confidence in our own righteousness, as if it would abide the severity of Gods trial, For how can man be justified with God, Job 25. 4. So the perfection of our righteousness is not to be mea­sured by the perfectness of the work, but by the upright­ness of the will, and sincerity of the endeavour aspi­ring towards perfection. Every failing doth not make a man an hypocrite. Jehoshaphat had many failings, he made a League of amity with Ahab, 2 Chron. 18. 3. He went to Ramoth Gilead with him, notwithstanding Micaiahs Prophesie against it, 2 Chron. 18. 27, 28. Though re­proved by Jehu the Prophet he joyns in a special League with Ahaziah, Ahabs Son, 2 Chron. 20. 35. He bestows his Son upon Ahabs Daughter, 2 Chron. 21. 6. Yet God reckons him a holy man, 1 Kings 22. 43. It is said, He turned not aside from that which was right in the sight of the Lord. If therefore obedience be interrup­ted, cast not away your confidence. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father. You have to do with a God, that will make thy works at last more than at first. So in point of comfort he argues: If thou hadst faith thou wouldst have joy and peace; but thou hast no joy, therefore no faith; for 1 Pet. 1. 8. Believing ye rejoyce. Now to answer this we are to know, that Faith is the root upon which all true joy grows, it is the flower whereof that is the stalk, but it is not alwaies to be found flourishing upon it. There are three sea­sons when joy is most eminent, and when God doth most abundantly dispence it.

(1.) In young Christians, in Lambs whom he car­ries in his bosome, Isa. 40 11. With joy and comfort that they may be strengthened. God would not carry Israel by the way of the Philistims, Exod. 13. 17. Lest the people see war, and repent.

[Page 85](2.) After great storms God makes broken bones to rejoyce, Psal. 51. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones thou hast broken may rejoyce. After storms come the greatest calms; after his Children have been in the Depths, the greatest Exalrations.

(3.) When God calls men to witness his truth, Acts 27. 23. When Paul was to appear before Caesar, God sends an Angel to comfort him. We must consi­der, there may be the root when there is not the fruit; that which Faith is to look at, is what the Gospel re­veals. Now the Gospel doth not reveal that we shall have no sorrow or trouble, but that the Covenant of peace shall not be removed from us, Isa. 54. 10.

SECT. XVI.

THe sixteenth Wile is to perswade Christians whom he doth thus afflict to keep his counsel, so as either through shame or fear they dare say nothing, like men that have foul diseases, had rather dye than tell the Physician. Like the Lacedemonian Boy, that suffered the Fox to eat out his bowels, and would not reveale it; So many suffer temptations to eat out their hearts. Thus Satan wounds, and would not have Christians complain; he tempts, and sollicites, and would not have Christians to ask counsel, and so many times the burden falls the heavier, and the wound smarts the more. Whereas if experienced Christians were ac­quainted with them it might be a help to them; as Wind stifled in the bowels of the Earth shakes it, but finding passage does no harm; so oftentimes the very opening the Devils temptations is enough to scatter them. We should therefore seek for remedy, by communicating our grief to wise Christians, that will [Page 86] pray for us, and not deride us; and not gratifie sin in that it loves so well, viz. to be concealed and hid.

SECT. XVII.

THe seventeenth Wile, is to assault us in such tem­ptations wherein we least suspect our selves, and to which happily neither constitution, nor any custome of ours carries us, but only the present occasion draws forth our corruption. Thus men that are many times by nature patient, and exceeding pittiful, yet sudden­ly transported into a passion, become cruel. Thus Theodosius the Emperour, upon a meer passion, one of his Souldiers suffering an injury, put to death at least three thousand in Thessalonica. Some of the Ancients are of opinion, that the Devil stirred up the Israelites to make the Golden Calf that he might put Moses in a heat, who was the meekest man, that so he might break the Tables of the Law, and might not reprove their sin. Therefore suspect your selves prone to every sin, do not repose any thing upon Constitu­tion, &c.

SECT. XVIII.

THe eighteenth Wile, Hopes of returning out of sin by a speedy repentance, and a timely revocation. But where is the promise of return? Are there not rather dreadful threatnings, of permitting such to go on to final Apostacy? It is easie to throw thy self head­long from the Pinnacle of the Temple, but thou caust not stay thy self from falling without a Miracle; Our hearts are like Spring-Locks, will shut of them­selves, [Page 87] but will not open without a Key. Non est laus stetisse in pinaculo, sed stetisse, & non cecidisse, as Augu­stine saies: It is is no commendation to stand on the Pinacle, but to keep out standing, and not to fall, when we are in such danger.

SECT. XIX.

THe nineteenth Wile, to keep raw, and smarting, any wounds, that the Spirit hath inflicted upon the conscience of any poor soul. True it is, Satan is not able to afflict immediately and really the conscience of a man, no more than he is able to comfort a mans conscience; as it is Gods Prerogative to know the heart, so it is to afflict and comfort the heart. But yet Satan may help to keep the wounds raw, by disturbing the fancy, and filling them with horrour, and terrour; he may shake and rattle the Chains, though he cannot put them on upon any poor soul, and thereby keep them from comfort which is their portion; and there­fore when terrours so affright, as to the prejudice of all medicines, we may suspect the hand of Satan in them.

SECT. XX.

THe twentieth VVile is to draw aside the soul to some sin when it is in the pursuit of some great mercy, or neer the enjoyment of it, that so either their hands may be weakned in the pursuit, and give over through the ap­prehensions of their own guilt, which alwaies weakens confidence, or else may help to spoyl the sweetness of it in the enjoyment. Thus when Israel was nigh the enjoying of a great blessing, the Land that God had promised: Upon the borders they fall a murmuring, [Page 88] by their hearkening to the Spies, who had brought an evil report upon the Land, Num. 13. 32, 33. It is a Land that eateth up the Inhabitants, and the people that we saw in it were men of a great stature, and there we saw the Giants, &c. So that hereby they neglected the du­ty, and let the mercy at a low rate. So that those that are beggars, and expectants of any great mercy, had need to be watchers too.

SECT. XXI.

THe one and twentieth VVile, to make the duties of a Christians general and particular calling interfere and clash one with another. There is a double calling in which every man is set: There is Vocatio ad faedus, & vocatio ad munus; or as we use to speak, a general, and a particular calling, it is termed our general calling, not only for its extent, but because the things we are cal­led to are but one and the same, and common to all; we are called to the same duties, to the same promi­ses, to the same profession, &c. The particular calling is that in which men are not called to one and the same duty, but do act according to several gifts, one in this employment, another in that. Now both these are to be performed regularly, and this is the excellency of a Christian when he so orders his particular calling, that it doth not eat up the time that is due to his general calling, and when he so orders his general calling, as that it doth not take away the time that God hath allotted for his particular calling; now Satans great Art is to disturb Christians in the performance of these. Some therefore are never quiet, but when they are hearing, praying, &c. but their particular callings and relations they never mind; this is Satans design to [Page 89] disturb them by putting them upon prayer, when di­ligence is required in their particular calling. O [...]h [...]rs he takes off from hearing, and praying, and those du­ties which belong to Christians, as such, under pre­tence they must provide for their Families; that so while they care for their bodies, they may altogether neglect the care of the inward man. Therefore know it is a great part of a Christians prudence, and that which affords a great deal of comfort, duly to manage both callings, when you do not let the time of your callings devour the time of your duties, but let your soul have its portion of your time as well as your body. Separate then your souls for a season to go up in the Mount, and converse with God, that you may be more sit when you come down again to converse with men in your particular callings.

SECT. XXII.

THe two and twentieth, and last Wile, is that which the Text hints, an endeavour of Satan to bring us from one extream to another, that we may be kept from the golden mean, wherein Grace stan [...]s as well as Vertue, which you know is seated between two Vices, as Solomons Throne was between two rows of Lions. And this device he uses in matters of sin, in matters of duty, and in matters of Doctrine.

In matters of sin. Thus the incestuous Corinthian, is first puffed up with pride, and sins presumptuously, and then when by the Censures of the Church he is awakened to see his sin, then he is well nigh swallow­ed up with sorrow.

In religious duties, first he tempts to a neglect of them, or such a rigorous tyranny, that makes many to [Page 90] groan under them, and lye under woful snares. And this device he accounts the more prevalent, because we are apt to think oft times that the very work of grace lies in the highest opposition to that sin or vice that sit­teth heaviest upon our hearts, when as indeed sins and vices are not only opposite to vertues, but one to ano­ther, be sure therefore remember grace lies in a mid­dle way. Sorrow for sin is not desperation, confi­dence in God is not presumption, but the middle way, Faith leaves both extreams, and closes with God ac­cording to the Rule of the Word.

So again in matters of Doctrine. Basil writing against Sabellius to overthrow his Haeresie, uttered some incon­venient expressions about the Trinity. And Augu­stine in his zeal against the Pelagians who slighted Bap­tism, was carried out so that he became durus pater infantum, pronouncing those dying unbaptized not to be saved. But I shall not insist any longer upon that second general, the enumeration of Satans VViles.

SECT. I.

CHristian Sobriety and Watchfulness. This we have from the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring Lion, &c. Sobriety stands in a moderati­on towards the things of this life. Pleasures, Riches, Honours, they are the usual baits with which Satan hides all his hooks, and temptations, that so they may not be easily discerned, and an immoderate thirsting, a keen eager appetite after these things, is the ready way to bring a Believer into the midst of snares. They that will be rich, saith the Apostle, 1 Tim. 6. 9. whose desires and appetites are filled with the great things of the world, fall into many snares: Sometimes to strain their consciences by deceit; sometimes to do evil acti­ons, it may be to make the stream of their actions great by the bloud of others. But now as we must be sober in tempering our hearts, and affections, so we must be watchful, which is a duty required of us as Chri­stians, but indispensably necessary as we are Christian Souldiers, engaged in bello semper, et si non in praelio, as Livy speaks, alwaies in a War, though not alwaies in battel; a Christian hath no peace but in his consci­ence, and the grave. Nay, it is an irreconcileable Controversie, it is [...], Venenata non fe­runt [Page 92] inducias, a war without a truce. Therefore a Christians life is c [...]lled a Warfare; they are trained up non in deliciis, sed in castris; not in the pleasures of a Court, but the hardiness of a Camp. Christ, who is their he [...]d, is therefore called in Scripture, a man of war, Exod. 15. 3. A Leader, and Commander to the People, Isa. 55. 4. A Captain, Heb. 2. 10. And Chri­stians, who are his Members, Souldiers, 2 Tim. 2. 3. Thou therefore as a good souldier of Jesus Christ endure hardship; their course of life, a fight, 1 lim. 4. 8. They which oppose them, enemies, Luk. 1. 71. Their tem­ptations, assaults, 1 Pet. 2. 11. This, as Chrysostome saith, is confirmed by the authority of God himself, Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thy seed and the seed of the Ser­pent. Therefore we must carry our selves as Souldiers, and maintain our watch. Now, though watching in the first signification doth relate to the body, and doth imply more than to awake from sleep, for it is Cautae attenti [...], quâ res aliqua diligenter curatur; it is a heed­ful care and observing any thing we desire to keep safe; yet in a metaphorical sense it is applyed to the mind, and so it is a circumspect, and wise care in observing the frame and deportment of the whole soul. It is (1.) a circumspect care, so those two words the Apostle useth a [...] ou [...] prayer do import, Eph. 6. 18. [...], which signifies such a watching as not to lay the eyes together, of [...], minimum quid, sic gry apud Latinos, and [...] somnus, it notes not the least tendency to sleep. It is a Military kind of Speech, saith Grotius, from the watchings in war, which are usually most strict. Ano­ther word is Col. 4. 2. [...], which Eustachius de­rives of [...], susci [...]o, such a watching wherein men do stir and rouze up themselves. (2.) It is a wise care; watching is nothing else but the exercise of prudence. [Page 93] (3.) It must be of the whole soul, every faculty must be observed; as at every Avennue there is a Sentinel, so on every Faculty there must be a watch. And have not we need thus to watch against sin, and unto duty? Shall Satan be watchful, and we be drowsie? Shall he continually go about seeking whom he may devour, and shall not we be circumspect to consider how we may deliver our selves out of his paws? It was certainly an up­braiding to the Disciples, Mar. 14. 33. Simon, sleepest thou? Could you not watch one hour? Judas non dormit, Judas doth not sleep: They were not so diligent to save their Master, as Judas was to betray him. And is it not a great reproach to a Christian, that he is not so watchful to save himself, as the Devil is to destroy him? Exercise watchfulness over your corrupt natures; the devil may tempt us, but he cannot hurt us without our consent; he hath astutiam suadendi non potentiam cogendi; he may perswade, but he cannot compel: our Corrupt nature is the tinder upon which Satan strikes all his sparks; as Birdlime is made of the dung of birds, so Satans snares are made out of the dispositions that are in the heart to sin. The Alchymists that boast of turning Iron into Silver, Copper into Brass, assign the ground from the subalternation of Mettals, that there is a disposition in those Mettals to receive the Perfectum of the other. So Satan forms his tempta­tions, upon our innate disposition, he draws out into act those latent dispositions in us. (2.) Watch over the Peccatum in deliciis, over the master sin, the bosome sin, watch strictly over this.

SECT. II.

THe second Antidote is Resolution and Christi [...] courage; This is as necessary as watchfulness. [Page 94] Watchfulness is good to prevent evil, and Christian Resolution to undergo it. And we have need of Re­solution, for he that will be a Christian must expect opposition; we must not think to pass out of Aegypt without Pharaohs pursuing us: Or to travel through the wilderness of this world without opposition from these Amalekites. Satan will be in arms against us if he perceive but thoughts of our departure. If once we be but big with any holy resolutions, he will persecute us, as he did the woman in Rev. 12. Therefore be resolute. This the Apostle exhorts to, Eph. 6. 10. Finally Bre­thren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, put on the whole Armour of God. Why? That you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. Take up resolution in the name of Christ to hold out, Judg. 20. 22. The men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set the Battel again in array. Libentius te insequitur ad­versarius fugientem, quam sustineat repugnantem, & au­dacius insist it a tergo quam resistat in faciem, as Bernard, He doth more willingly pursue than fight, and he is more bold when we turn our backs, than when we set our faces against him: Courage and constancy will bring victory. If you resist, you overcome; he may perswade, but cannot force. It was all Eve complained of, Gen. 3. 13. that the Serpent deceived her, not that he constrained her; and therefore he chose the Serpent, Non quia fortior, sed quia callidior, not because he was the strongest beast in the field, but because he was more subtil. To encourage our selves, consider we have a better Captain, better Armour: He fights with fleshy weapons, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. Our own resolution is nothing without God. Satan knows there is nothing [Page 95] so mutable as man, it is proper to him, as immutability is to God. And lastly, we have a better reward.

SECT. III.

THe third Antidote, in resisting the Wiles of Satan, make use of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in two particulars: First, As a pattern to know how to resist temptations. And secondly as an aide and succour.

First, In resisting temptations, make use of Christ as a pattern, who did combate with Satan to teach us to combate. The first promise God made to fallen man was, That the seed of the woman should bruise the Ser­pents head, Gen. 3. 15. And the first work Christ un­dertook after his solemn inauguration into his Office was to fulfill this promise, as we see in Mat. 4. by en­tring the field, and coping with him and all the powers of darkness in a single duel. Now, as Abimeleck said to his followers, Judg. 9. 48. What you have seen me do, that do you. So Christ our Captain bids us look unto him, and observe him in these four particulars:

1. Observe the weapon Christ chose to foyl him by, and to resist all the temptations of Satan withal; he could by his power have rebuked and silenced him, as easily as he did the winds and waves, but he doth it by the Word; and to variety of temptations he useth but one weapon, the Word. Against temptations to distrust, against temptations to presumption, to blasphemy, saith Christ, it is written, man liveth not by bread. And again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt, &c. Now in this let Christians take Christ as an Example to resist Satans suggestions by the Word; take your Arrows from that Quiver, your advice from that unerring Oracle, I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee, [Page 96] Psal. 119. The Word both discovers Wiles, and for­tifies against them. It first discovers all the temptati­ons of Satan, it is a Chrystal Glass in which you may see all the turnings and windings of this old Ser­pent. Bernard compares Christians, that are diligent in the Word, unto those Doves, in Cant. 5. 12. that sit by the waters, because they can in them the better discern the motion of the Hawk in the Heavens: So the Word discovers the snares of Satan. When Jo­shua and the Israelites were not careful to ask counsel of God, they were caught by the policy and craft of the Gibeonites: So when you neglect to consult with God and his Word, no wonder if the policy of Satan pre­vail against you, Jer. 8. 9. They have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? Secondly, It for­tifies against the Wiles of Satan, and furnishes with many weapons and Arguments against them. If he promise great things, and so would seduce you that way, look into the Word, and there are better things than he can promise. For Satan can promise nothing, but either thou hast it already, (and the same water is sweeter from the Fountain than when it passes through a sink,) or thou hast better, thou walkest among fewer snares, thou hast an overplus of spiritual goods for thy defect of earthly. Consider, the offers of Satan are not for comforts but snares, not for the use of life, but the provisions for sin. If he threaten, look into the Word, there are greater and sadder threatnings. What is his wild-fire, to fiery indignation, to snares, fire and brimstone, a horrible tempest, that the Lord threatens to rain down upon sinners, Psal. 11. So that in every kind you are furnished by the Word.

And here let me commend to you the excellency of this Weapon our Saviour made use of: It is called by [Page 97] the Apostle, Rev. 1. 16. The sword of his mouth, and by the Apostle Paul, The sword of the Spirit. And there is no sword like this, as David said of Goliahs. All must give place to this. That Culter Philosophicus, that was by a strict and daily observation of the stars, made so as that it would cut in sunder an Anvil; Alexanders sword that cut the Gordian Knot; Ehuds sword that killed Eglon King of Moab, must give place to this, that cuts asunder all the gins and snares of Satan. The power of the VVord is seen in this, that though it hath all disadvantages to hinder its operation: Yet the VVord of Gods mouth doth not return void. If applied to great persons, it makes them tremble. Where the word of a King is there is power, Eccles. 8. 4. and who may say unto him, what dost thou? Yet with it Elijah wounds Ahab, 2 Kings 21. 19. Paul doth but brandish it, and Felix trembles, Felix in his Robes, Paul in his Chains. Micaiah, a Prisoner, pronounceth death to Ahab, 1 Kings 22. 27. The most secret sins the VVord finds out, and cuts off the first risings and stirrings of it. The VVorld alwaies sto­macked it, yet the VVord gets ground and is effectual, as Augustine saith, Come to a man in a Lethargy and pinch him, come to a man in a Phrenzy and tye him, Uterque irascitur, sed uterque sanatur; both are angry, but both are cured. But alas, how is this spiritual weapon neglected, undervalued, abused?

Some men know not the VVord, have no weapon in their houses. They care not the Scriptures should speak any thing to them; Like that Cardinal Rivet mentions in his Orthodoxus Catholicus, who after he had heard Beza's Oration in the Possiack Convention, Utinam aut ille mutus fuisset, aut nos surdi essemus, I would either he had been dumb, or we deaf. Alcibiades hit a Schoolmaster a box of the ear, because he had not [Page 98] Homers VVorks in his School; how much more may we be angry with those that have not the Bible in their houses? Others undervalue the Scriptures, as Politian, that rejected them, as unfit for his polished stile, and yet spent all his time upon trifles. Calderinus disswaded his Schollars from reading the Scriptures, yet Com­mented upon Virgils filthy Poesie of Priapus. But take heed of despising the VVord. Take heed of bringing to it proud hearts. As some wear Swords to shew their gilded Pummels, and velvet Scabbards, so many use the VVord for ostentation, rather than to ward off wicked suggestions with it.

Secondly, As you should observe Christ in the choice of his VVeapon, so make use of the skilfulness and aptness of Christ in the applying the VVord to the temptation, and in making use of the VVord against the variety of Satans temptations. You may observe how aptly, and readily Christ makes use of several Scriptures in resisting temptations, Mat. 4. 4. It is written man shall not live by bread alone, and therefore we should depend upon the Providence of God in the midst of straights. It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, Ver. 7. and therefore we should not pre­sume to expect blessings without the use of means, when God vouchsafes them to us. It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, Ver. 10. therefore we must not blaspheme him, and give his honour to ano­ther. Now all these Scriptures our Saviour brings them out of one Book of God, they are all taken out of Deu­teronomy. Now if one Book will afford such plenty, what then will the whole Book of God? We should therefore furnish our selves with variety of Scriptures against variety of temptations. A Christian that is well skilled in the Word is like one that hath a Plaister ready [Page 99] to lay on as soon as the wound is made, and thereby the danger is prevented. Therefore study the Scriptures, that you may have Antidotes against this and that tem­ptation, that you may have wherewith to answer Satan. Alsted (as I remember in his Cases of Conscience) tels of one Johannes Gatius that was so perfect in the Scriptures, that it was thought if all the Bible had been lost, yet it might have been in a great measure recove­red by his dexterity and readiness in it. It is a great commendation to be ready in the Scripture, but to be so ready as to improve it upon all occasions against temptations is the glory and excellency of a Christian. Get a skill in the Word, that you may have it in a rea­diness, and be able to apply it. It is true, knowledge is the eye of the soul, which must direct how it must be applied. Ignorant men pervert it to their own destru­ctions, they wound themselves, not their enemies. But general discourses are like the beams of the Sun dispersed in the air, which warm and chear; but parti­cular application is like the beams collected in the burning glass, which unites the beams, and makes them burn. Apply the word to thy self, if thou art tempted to Covetousness, remember life consists not in abun­dance. If to uncleanness, the Lord knows how to re­serve the wicked, 2 Pet. 2. 10. Especially them that walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness, Heb. 13. 4. Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge. If to inordinate fear, apply Luk. 12. 4. If to distractions in trou­blesome times, that of Psal. 55. 22. Cast thy burden up­on the Lord. Thus have the Word in readiness, like Solomons Worthies, Cant. 3. 8. that had their sword on their thigh, ready to be out of the sheath presently, and labour for skill to manage it.

Thirdly, Look to Christ as a pattern in his constancy [Page 100] in resisting temptations; in his perseverance against renewed assaults; our Saviour was long in the field, he was forty daies together tempted, Mar. 1. 13. Those that are recorded in Mat. 4. were after the forty daies. When he had fasted forty daies, then the Tempter came, and perswaded him to turn stones into bread; the Evangelists record only those chief and last temptations. Now let us learn of our Captain to fight a good fight without discouragement, and without changes; though temptations change, yet let not us change, though they be multiplied, yet let us keep on our warfare and main­tain our courage.

Fourthly, Make use of Christ as a Pattern in the manner of resisting. Thus, by proportioning the resi­stance to the rise and growth of temptations; when temptations rise higher, and are more gross, then we are to be more earnest, proportioning our resistance according to the vileness and sinfulness of them. That temptation of Christ to blasphemy, Christ did reject and resist in another manner than he did the two for­mer. There he only answers, it is written, but here he saith, Get thee behind me Satan. He doth not only re­sist it by the Word, but expresses a loathing and an indignation, and so should we when temptations assault us, that strike immediately at Gods glory, we should express a loathing, and abhorrency of them; and cer­tainly, such temptations to Atheism, Murder, Blas­phemy, &c. are best resisted by abhorrency of them, and loathing them, not by disputing with them, as Parisiensis saith. Some temptations are resisted per fugam, by flight, as flee fornication. Some per indigna­tionem, by indignation, as a man hath his anger moved when he is offered nothing near the worth of his Com­modity. So when a man is tempted for trifles to sin [Page 101] against God, and hazard his soul, Sola unius syllabae pro­nunciatione ejus jacula confringuntur, &c. It is enough to resist such temptations with that interjection, Fie, fie upon such filthiness, fie upon such blasphemy, and this is by many thought the safest way.

Secondly, You must make use of Christ as your aid and succour, as well as your pattern; not only as a pat­tern to know how to fight, but make use of his power and strength to fight the better. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Eph. 6. 10. And Heb. 2. 18. He is said to be able to succour them that are tempted. Go not into the field therefore alone. In prophane Duels, wherein men challenge one another the field for small punctillioes of honour, or happily for worse things, (in which, as Bernard saith, Unus lethaliter peccat, alter aeternaliter perit, One mortally sins, and the other eter­nally dies,) they seldom appear without Seconds, that they may see there be no wrong done, and that they may call for aid if need be. Much more should Chri­stians in this divine Conflict, and wrastling with Satan, take Christ along with them. We should not go in the strength of our own resolutions, or our own vows, but we should go against Satan, as David did against the Philistim, 1 Sam. 17. In the name of the Lord. VVhen we do so, we alwaies prevaile, and when we do other­wise, we are alwaies foiled. No conflicting with Satan but in Gods strength; remember Christ is able to suc­cour, he hath an ability of sufficiency, and an ability that arises from experience.

SECT. IV.

THe foutrh Antidote is to be abundant in the use of prayer; as faith is the best of graces in resisting [Page 102] Satan, so prayer is the best of duties. The neglect of prayer was the beginning of Sauls fall, as most of the Fathers interpret that place, 1 Sam. 14. 19. VVhen Saul commanded the Priest to withdraw his hand from the Ark. They say of the Palm tree, that all its strength lyeth on the top; it is true of a Christian, all his strength lies above. There is a threefold use of prayer. (1.) As a duty, for prayer is an offering, the Prophet compares it to Incense; Psal. 141. A Sacrifice is but a visible prayer, and prayer is nothing else but an audible Sacrifice. (2.) As a dignity, when a man doth abstract himself from earth, and grow into a familiarity with God; it is a Mount Tabor, wherein the soul hath ad­mirable transfigurations, and sees not Moses and Elias, but God. (3.) There is a necessity of prayer, for God hath left prayer as our City of refuge on all occasions to flee to. Paul would have the Thessal. pray, [...], without ceasing, 1 Thes. 5. 17. The Ephesians [...], Eph. 6. 18. There is no duty at all times so seasonable and useful as prayer. When we want blessings, prayer is the Key whereby we unlock the Treasury of heaven, and gain the blessings we need. When we are assaulted by Satan, it is one of the best weapons we can use to defend our selves with. When David knew not how to withstand the wisdom of Achitophel, who was then as an Oracle of God, he praies, Lord turn the counsel of Achitophel unto foolishness, 2 Sam. 15. 31. So do thou pray, O Lord turn the counsel of this hellish Adver­sary into folly. So when Jehoshaphat was in a great strait, the Captains of the Enemy having beset him about, 2 Chron. 18. 31. Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and moved them to depart from him. This now is our way to betake our selves to prayer, as Bernard excellently saith, Gravis quidem nobis tentati [...] [Page 103] sua, sed longè gravior illioratio nostra: His Temptations are grievous to us, but our Prayers are far more grie­vous to him. You do not know how you wound his head with Prayer, when he bruises your heel with Temptations. Therefore be much in prayer, it works deliverance from men, from devils, from all the straits you can be surrounded with. For this cause, saith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 12. 8. I besought the Lord thrice, viz. when he was under the buffetings of Sa­tan. Pray, saith Christ, that you enter not into tempta­tion; so pray that you fall not under temptation when you are entred. Prayer, it delivers out of temptation, Mat. 26. 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into tempta­tion. In tentationem cadit, qui ad orationem non vadit, saith Chrysologus, he is sure to go into temptation that goes not to prayer. In temptation it gives a supply of strength, Exod. 17. 11. Moses Sword was stronger than Joshuahs. And then it buckles on all our armour about us, for prayer is Armatura armaturae, the Ar­mour of the Armour; and though it have no distinct part to which it is applied, yet it must be used with every piece of the Armour, without which all the Ar­mour will be as no Armour.

SECT. V.

THe fifth Antidote is, Take heed of giving place to the Devil. It is the Apostles counsel, Eph. 4. 27. That is, yield not the least compliance with any tem­ptation of Satan, Malae cogitationes sunt antiqui serpen­tis caput, saith Jerom, The thought of evil is the let­ting in the head of the old Serpent, by which he will quickly wind in his whole body.

When you parly with Temptations, and take them [Page 104] by little and a little into your thoughts, which at the first rising you should spit at, the victory is half got by Satan. It is not good to let poyson melt upon the tongue, it should be presently spit out. Daliances with temptations have proved fatal unto many, of which many instances might be given. It is a remar­kable saying of Solomon, Eccles. 10. 13. of a foolish man, the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, but the end of his talk is mischievous madness. If you admit the one, the other will follow.

SECT. VI.

THe sixth Antidote is, Take heed of venturing upon the occasions of sin, and coming near the borders of temptation; do not expose your selves to them. Ber­nard, in his 3 Sect. de fragmentis septem misericordiarum, saith of himself, Tribus modis memini, me servatum; That he was preserved from sin three waies: Occasi­onis substractione, by withdrawing the occasion; Resi­stendi datâ virtute, by having power given to resist; Af­fectionis sanitate, by having his affections healed and changed. For I had, saith he, easily fallen into many sins, Sed Deo miserante, &c. but God having mercy on me, did not suffer such an occasion to apprehend me. Job saith of himself, Chap. 31. 1. I have made a Cove­nant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? And Solomon bids those that are given to wine, not to look upon it when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth it self aright, Pro. 23. 31. Objects have in them a kind of efficiency, and they do work the heart accordingly to good or bad, as men are in themselves good or bad. The beholding of Jesus Christ, and the eying of him in his death and suffering, is an [Page 105] excellent and powerful means to mortifie lusts and cor­ruptions. So to quicken any lust, or corruption, is to present the object to the sense, and the mind, which doth suddenly awaken those corrupt dispositions, and inclinations that are there, and call them out as the pre­sence of the Iron doth that vertue that is in the Load­stone. Some Physicians say, that every body hath in it a natural Balsome, which will of it self heal any wound or hurt the Creature hath received, provided it be kept clean from extrinsick putrefaction: But we are so far from this naturalBalsome, that we have in us a natural poyson, that is, original sin, that receives corroborati­ons as it were from every object and occasion. Thus the Scripture tells us, that Eve her self, when in in­nocency, saw the fruit that it was good, and was thereby induced to taste of it, the bitterness whereof she found unanswerable to that what it promised to the sight. Take heed therefore of coming near the borders of temptati­ons; beware of objects and occasions that may enflame you; our hearts are powder, and therefore we must take heed of sparks. Give not an indulgence, nor liber­ty to the eyes. Solomon when he played the Critick, he did not withhold his eyes from whatsoever he desired, Eccl. 2. 10. But when you are to do the office of Chri­stians, you must circumscribe, and confine your eyes and other senses. And if you would mortifie your eyes, mortifie your hearts; the eye and the heart have a great sympathy. The way to keep your selves from being hurt by objects and occasions, is to keep the heart pute, to subdue sin there. Laying the Medicine to the heart, is like putting it to the wound: The other is like lay­ing it to the weapon, that is not so natural. We must therefore lay a strict Law upon every member of our body, yet we must not think so to look to the heart, as [Page 106] to neglect the outward man. In Navigation, Cosmogra­phy is no less useful than Astrology, because all the ob­servations of the Stars, are in reference to the earth, and to the place to which they sail: And in our spiritual Voyage to heaven, it is no less requisite that we study the Map of our own earth, than to study the Globe of heaven whither we are sailing.

SECT. VII.

THe seventh Antidote against the Wiles of Satan, is diligence and industry in your calling. The Bird while it is flying is safe, but when it sits and perches upon a tree, it becomes an object for any instruments where­with to shoot it, and destroy it: And so a Christian; when he is busie in his Calling, is in a great measure safe from temptations, but when he becomes idle, and doth not busie himself in that station God hath set him in, he becomes fit ground and soyl for Satan to sow any temptation and lust in. Idleness exposes the soul to all its spiritual enemies; and whereas it is the devils busi­ness to tempt us, it is an idle mans business to tempt the de­vil. It is a good answer to the devil when he tempts to sin, Non licet, it is not lawful to do it: but it is a stron­ger, and better in somes opinion, Non vacat, I am not at leisure. I cannot attend such motions. Such answers do put Satan beyond his usual arts, they put him more to a loss. He had much rather enter a dispute about the lawfulness, than be turned off with, I am not at leisure. It is a golden rule Divines give to tempted persons, to be diligent in their Callings; as I remember it was Jeroms advice to his friend Rusticus, Semper boni operis aliquid, facito, ut diabolus semper te occupatum inveniat; To be al­waies doing some good, that the devil might alwaies [Page 107] find him imployed. Think of this, you who run out of your Callings, who neglect your Callings, who think it a piece of bondage to be subject to a Calling. Alas you are the nearer to temptation, and the more subject to be taken in his Wiles, Hoc habet ignavia, ut interdum secura sit, tuta verò nunquam. This is the misery of idle­ness, an idle man is sometimes secure, but never safe. Ille tutus, cui nullum imminet periculum, securus qui non curat periculum. He is safe who is above danger, he is secure who fears no danger.

SECT. VIII.

THe eighth Scripture Antidote, is sincerity of heart; which many understand by the girdle of truth, Eph. 6. 14. Truth in its Latitude is by some understood in this place, but I shall propose it in a double conside­ration: First, Doctrinal, and so truth implies a con­formity in our understandings to the will and mind of God. Truth in the general is nothing but the confor­mity of one thing to another, whereof one is the Sam­pler, the other the Exemplification. The Sampler or Pattern is God, and the mind of God in his Word, and unto that ought every one to have their judgement and understanding so conformed, as to have it agreeing with it, and not to admit of other impressions, that are dif­ferent from the Word of God. Thus in Scripture we are warned not to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Do­ctrine, Eph. 4. 14. To hold fast the pattern of wholsome words, 2 Tim. 1. 12. Secondly, Truth may be morally considered, as it is opposed to hypocrisie, and so it is the correspondency of our outward actions to our in­ward affections, for as our inward affections must have their stamp from God, so must they endeavour to print [Page 108] their true stamp upon our actions, as the seed that is sown in the ground, beareth the like seed above ground, and the fruit is not unlike the tree; no more should we in our moralities, sustain one person in our bosome, ano­ther in our countenance. This Aquinas calls simplicity, Subjicit virtuti veritatis simplicitatem, à quâ tantum ra­tione, distinguitur, docetque illam nominari simplicitatem ex eo quid non tendat in diversum, as Cressolius observes, saith he, he refers simplicity to the topick of truth, from which it is only rationally distinguished, and in­forms us that it is called simplicity, because it doth not tend to divers things, as inwardly to intend one thing▪ when outwardly it pretends another. This the Scripture holds forth, Josh. 24. 14. Fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity, and in truth. Psal. 51. 6. Thou lovest truth in the inward man. Now both these branches as they are in­cluded in this girdle of truth, so they are both necessa­ry to withstand the Wiles of the Tempter. Get your judgements setled in the knowledge of the truth, so as not to be removed from it as the Galatians were, Gal. 1. 6. for it is the method of Satan, to hold forth false Do­ctrines in the similitude of divine truths, by which he deceives the eyes of their judgements, who are unstable in the waies of God. And here he begins in the judg­ment, that is first corrupted, and then derives its con­tagion to other faculties; as the bloud-shed eye is first vitiated, and then represents all objects of its own co­lour; be sure therefore to keep sound your judgment. Oh into what an Abyss of errour will corrupt principles in the understanding lead men into? But then labour also for sincerity and uprightness of heart, which alone works constancy and perseverance. Let there be no hypocrisie in your profession of Religion. Labour to be Nathanaels and Jacobs. Get this in opposition to double minded­ness; [Page 109] diversity of interests will make the mind unsta­ble in all its actions. [...], A double-minded man, saith the Apostle James, is unstable in all his waies, like a Wave of the Sea, tossed to and fro. But when the heart is sincere, and single in the waies of God, when a man doth with a single eye look at God, and his glory, he is greatly secured against Satan. Satan cannot do with him as he doth with another man. This girdle of truth is his ornament, and his strength.

SECT. IX.

NInthly, I will lay down one general Rule, or Antidote, drawn from War; those that write about Rules, and matters of War, give this as general counsel, as it is laid down by Vege­tius, de re mil. Lib. 3. c. 26. Quicquid tibi prodest adversario no­cet, quicquid illum juvat, tibi semper officit. Whatsoever is pro­fitable to the Enemy, is hurtful to you, and whatsoever is profi­table to you, that is hurtful to your Enemy. For his gain is our loss, his rise our fall, his honour our shame, his help our hinde­rance. Therefore study with your selves what that is may advan­tage Satan in any kind, and be sure that is hurtful for you: And if there be any thing profitable to you, that is hurtful to Satan. As Prayer, Heavenly Meditation, Converse with Promises, Society with the Saints, all these, and many other of the like, must needs be good for us, because they are detrimental to Satan.

SECT. X.

TEnthly, and lastly, As a powerful Antidote against Satans temptations, have an eye often to Scripture encouragements. The War into which a Christian is entred, who wrastles with the Prince and powers of darkness, is a fierce war, but yet you are not without encouragements in this War. If your enemy be great, God hath furnished you with good Armour, Put on then the whole Armour of God, Eph. 6. 13. it is called Gods Armour, because it is made by God. The Hebrew uses to put the name of God to things, to note the excellency of them. No Weapons will serve to fight [Page 110] against the devil but Gods, nothing will make you shot-free but the Armour of God. Now, as your encouragement is in having this Armour, so your safety lies in putting on the whole Armour; it hath all the same Maker, it is all the same Mettal, not like N [...] ­buchadnezzars Image, the head Gold, the breast Silver; all is alike precious, and all alike useful. Now therefore put on your Armour. If your Enemy be subtil, you have an expert Captain. If the brunt and conflict be hard, look often to the Crown that is promised, Jam. 1. 12. Will not a Crown make a full recompence? Si victo­riosi fuerimus hic illic erimus gloriosi, as Bernard saith. If here we are victorious, there we shall be glorious, having instead of a Helmet a Diadem, for a Sword a Palm, for a Shield, Chlamidem deauratam, a Cloak or Mantle wrought with Gold; for the Breast­plate the Robe of delight. And is it not in the mean time better, Premi, quam perimi, to be kept low, than utterly ruined? Is it not better to bear the weight of our Armour, than feel the fiery darts of the malignant one? If you dread because Satan is a fiery Ser­pent: Remember Jesus Christ is that Brazen Serpent who can heal all his stings. If you are afraid of his roaring because he is a Lion, 1 Pet. 5. 8. [...], a devouring Lion, and a roaring Lion: Remember Jesus Christ is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; he is a Lion for valour, as the other is for cruelty. You have then three great encouragements, your Captain is stronger, your Armour better, and your Reward excellent, and glorious. And therefore when you think the pressure is hard, and the fight bloudy, remember these are the things which use to encourage other Souldiers, and should much more encourage Christian Souldiers.

And now do not lay up these Antidotes in a paper, as you use to do Antidotes that are prescribed by a Physician, that you will use when you please, but use these continually, have them about you in a readiness. Satan is alwaies tempting, he hath alwaies fiery darts about him, though he doth not throw them. He is al­waies biting at the heel, therefore be you alwaies ready to make resistance. And do not think these things are useful in times of great trial, but not now. This is a Wile of Satan to keep you from profiting, and therefore look on what hath been said, as a Call from heaven to awaken you to diligence in your Christian War­fare, and to resist him who hath many devices to destroy you, and who abounds in all subtilty and industry to bring his devices to pass.