OR, A TREATISE O F Satans Temptations : The Second Part. CONTAINING The manifold Subtilties and Stratagems of Satan, for the corrupting of the minds of Men with Errour; and for the deftruction of the Peace and Comfort of the Children of God. London, Printed by J. D. for Richard Randel, and Peter Maplifden, PART II. CHA P. I. That it is Satan's grand Defign to corrupt the Minds of Men with Errour. The Evidences that it is fo. And the Reafons of his Endeavours that way., N Ext to Satan's Deceits in tempting to Sin and against Duty, his defign of corrupting the Minds of Men by Errour calls for our fearch; and indeed this is one of his principal endeavours, which takes up a confiderable part of his time and diligence. He is not only called in Scripture an Unclean Spirit, but also a Lying Spirit, and there are none of thefe curfed qualifications that lie idle in him as by his uncleannefs we may cafily conjecture his attempts upon the Will and Affections to defile them by Lult; fo by his Lying we may conclude that he will certainly lirive to blind the Underftanding by Errour. But a clear difcovery of this we may have from. thefe Confiderations. First, From God's intereft in Truth, in reference to his great defigns of Holine and Mercy in the World. Truth is a Ray and Deus eft priBeam of him who is the Father of Lights. All revealed Truths ma veritas ef are but Copies and Transcripts of that Effential, Archetypal Truth. fentialis, Verbum Dei pri. Truth is,the Rod of his Strength, Plal.1 10.2. the Scepter of his Kingma veritas. dom by which he doth fubdue the hearts of Men to his obedience normalis. Mac. and service in converfion. Truth is that Rock upon which he Diftine Theol. hath built his Church, the foundations are the Prophets and Apostles, cap. 1. Eph. 2. 20. that is, the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apoftles, A a 2 in 1 Tim. 3. 15. Joh. 17. 17. in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Truth is that great depofitum committed to the care of his Church, which is therefore called the pillar of Truth: because as Princes or Rulers put their Proclamations on Pillars for the better information of their Subjects, fo doth his Church hold out Truth to the World. Holiness is maintained by Truth, our ways are directed by it, - and by it are we forewarned of Satan's Devices. Now the Prince of Darkness carrying himfelf in as full an oppofition to the God of Truth as he can in all his ways, God s intereft in Truth will fuffciently discover the Devil's defign to promote Errour; for fuch is his hatred of God, that (though he cannot deftroy Truth, no more than he can tear the Sun out of the Firmament, yet he will endeavour by corrupting the Copy, to difgrace the Original; though he cannot break Chrift's Scepter, yet by raifing Errour he would hinder the encrease of his Subjects; though he cannot remove the Rock upon which the Church is built, he will endeavour to shake it, or to interrupt the Building, and to tear down God's Proclamation from the Pillar on which he hath fet it to be read of all; and if we can conceive what an hatred the Thief hath to the Light, as it contradicts and hinders his Defigns, we may ima❤ gine there is nothing against which the Devil will ufe greater contrivances than against the light of Truth: He neither can, nor will make a league with any, but upon the terms that Nahaf 1 Sam. 11. 3. propounded to the Men of Jabefh-Gilead, that is, that he may put out their right eye, and fo lay it for a reproach upon the Ifrael of God. 'Tis the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us into Truth, and by the rule of contraries 'tis the Devil's work to lead into Errour. Secondly, Though the Scripture doth charge the Sin and danger of Delufion and Errour upon thofe Men that promote it, to the deception of themselves and others, yet doth it chiefly blame Satan for the great Contriver of it, and exprefsly affirms him to be the grand Deceiver: Inftruments and Engeniers he must make ufe of to do him fervice in that work, but till it is the Devil that is a Lying Spirit in their Mouths; tis he that teacheth and Acts 13. 10. prompts them,and therefore may they be called (as Elymus was by Paul) the Children of the Devil, or (as Cerinthus of old) the firft-born of Satan. The Church of Corinth, among other diftempers, laboured under dangerous Errours, againft which when the Apostle doth induftrioufly fet himself, he doth chicfly take notice, 1. Of the falfe falfe-Teachers who had cunningly wrought them up to an aptitude of declining from the fimplicity of the Gospel thefe he calls falfe-Apostles, as having no commiffion from God, and Satan's Minifters, 2 Cor. 11. 13, 15. thereby informing us who it is that fends them out and imploys them upon this crrand. 2. He efpecially accufeth Satan as the great Contriver of all this evil; if any fhut their Eyes against the Light, he gives this for the principal caufe, that the God of the World blinded their Minds: If Cor. 4.4. any tumbled at the fimplicity of the Gospel, he prefently blames the fubtilty of the old Serpent for it, 2 Cor. 11.3. When falfe Doctrine was directly taught, and varnished over with the glorious pretexts of Truth, ftill he chargeth Satan with it, Verf. 14, No marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light; where he doth not only give a reafon of the corrupting or the adulterating the Word of God by falfe-Apoftles, as Vintners do their Wines by mixtures, (a Metaphor which he makes use of, ON cap. 2. 17.) that they learned it of Satan, who abode not in the Truth, but was a Lyar from the beginning But alfo, he further points at Satan, to furnifh us with a true account of the ground of that cunning Craft which thefe deceitful Workers ufed, while they metamorphofed themselves, by an imitation of the way and manner, zeal and diligence of the Apostles of Chrift; they were taught by one who had exactly learned the Art of Imitation, and who could, to all appearance, act to the life the part of an Angel of Light. And to take away all objection or wonder, that fo many with fuch feeming earneftnefs and zeal, fhould give up themselves to deceive by falfe-Doctrine: he tells us that this hath been the Devil's work, from the first beguiling of Eve, verf. 3. and that as he then made ufe of a Serpent for his Inftrument, fo ever fince in all ages he hath made fo often, and fo much ufe of Men as his Emiffaries, that it fhould now neither feem a marvel, nor a great matter to fee the Devil at this work by his Agents. ή μέγα. Thirdly, That this is Satan's great defign, may be further ver. 14, 15. cleared from the constant courfe of his endeavours. The Parable of the Tares, Matth. 13. 25, fhews, that Satan is as bufie in lowing Tares, as the Malter of the Field is in fowing Wheat; that by Tares, not Errors in the abstract, but Men are to be underfood, is evident from the Parable it felf; but that which makes Men to be Tares, is Sin and Erreur: fo that in a complex fenfe, we are taught how diligent the Devil, (who is exprefsly fignified by 1 the * θαυμασόν. |