The Black Devil, Part 14 – Part 16
3. Trimnesse or curiosity. Garnished.
This ornature and fit furnishing of the House for Satans entertainment, is done by Hypocrisie: when the rotten Cabin of a foule heart is hung with gay hangings: when putidum et putridum cadauer, a rotten and stinking carkasse is hid in a Sepulcher painted ouer with vermillion: when a stenchfull dunghill is couer'd with white snow; here is a garnishing for the Deuill. He that can pray at church, and cousen at home; giuegive hi… debter faire words, and eate him through with vsury; which is to breake his head with precious balmes: hath bitternesse in his heart; whilst his tongue distils myrthe, and droppes hony: that man hath a house garnished for this vncleane spirit.
Satan will allow his Hostes to pretend sanctity, so they intend villany: aliud proponere, aliud supponere: to hauehave the cup vtterly rensed and cleansed; so it be within full of extortion and rancor: to guild ouer a poysonous pill: to pray in the Church, so they prey on the Church: this is a trimmed house, a chamber garnished for the Deuill. This Satan doth in an ambitious imitation of the Lord, who would hauehave his house garnished, as the Passeouer-chamber was trimmed.
God would hauehave the beames of his house Cedar, and the galleries of firre; like King Solomons Chariot; the pillars thereof are siluer, the bottome thereof gold, Cant 1. 17. 3. 10.the couering of it, of purple; the midst thereof beeing paued with louelove for the daughters of Ierusalē. He wold hauehave sanctification for the furniture; For this is the 1. Thess. 4. 3.will of God, euen your holines; and for ornaments, the graces of his Spirit. Thither he comes, and there he sups. Reuel. 3. Behold, I stand at the doore, and knock: Reue. 3. 20.if any man open vntounto me, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he shal sup with me.
The Deuil accordingly desires his house garnished; but the furniture is Sinne, and the ornaments opera tenebrarum, the workes of darknesse: And then, if you will, let this mansion be outwardly pargetted, and whited ouer. Make they shew of hauing the Holy Ghost on Sundaies, so they retaine the foule deuill all the weeke. These are they, that make Religion a masquery: lye, sweare, cheat, oppresse, scorne, ryot, revile, reuell; yet appeare at Church on the Sabboth; as if they came for a Pasport to do more mischiefe. The strength of their profession is but a gristle; which is indeed neyther bone nor flesh; neyther true religion, nor no religion. Like the speckled innocency of the Papists, in their ostentate charity, vncleane chastity, luxurious fasts, and meritorious treasons, in butchering Princes, and transferring kingdomes.
These hypocrites, being erst so themselues abused and deluded of Satan, perswade others to villany, by arguments of vertue. For an hypocrite will do nothing without a colour, and with a colour any thing. If thou be'st a good fellow, pledge this health: if a true gentleman, put not vp this disgrace without reuenge: if any charity in thee, maintaine this Parasite. Whereas it is the part of a good man to be sober; of a generous spirit to passe by an offence, saide the wisest King; and of a charitable man to succour the poore, not to maintaine the dissolute.
Yet all this madde troope of enormities must march vnderunder the Colours of religion. As those Rebels in the North, in our late Queenes dayes, of blessed Memory: who, when all their proiects and stratagems appeared manifestly to the ouerthrow of their gracious Princesse, yet concluded their Proclamation with, God saue Queene Elizabeth.
These are Satans white boyes, or rather blacke boyes; which hee killes, like the Ape her young, with kindnesse; and damnes with indulgence. He giues them a vaster Commission, then I hauehave read that Philip le Longe gaue the Iacobin. in Paris; which Charter had a reasonable extention; A portaillorum, ad portam Inferni, inclusiuè. This is the Pasport, which this great Captaine giues Hypocrites; From their owne gates to the gates of hell, inclusiuely.
This is that hypocriticall and halfe-turning to God; when the outward action is suppressed, and the hidden corruption lyes still foster'd in the heart. The apparance is masked, the affection not mortified. And though, like an Eunuch, he doth not beget palpable and manifest enormities; yet hath a lust, and itch, and concupiscence to them, and forbeares not in the darke, safe from the eyes of the world, to practise them.
A man, that doth outwardly refuse adherence to the world, for a colourable embracing of the word; yet inwardly, and in a hearty affection parts not with his former turpitudes, fulfils that on himselfe, which S. Basil once said of a Senator: that seemd to renounce the world, yet retain'd part of his illgotten riches, as Ananias kept backe part of the price of his Lands. Thou hast spoild a Se…our, and hast not made a Monke. So I may say of this man, Thou hast marr'd a worldling, and hast not made a christian.
Now the Deuill is content, thou shouldst remit some of thy grosse impieties, so thou retaine others. He cares not to be cast out by Idolatry, so he be kept in by Atheisme. He is well pleased, that Iudas should become an Apostle of Christ, so he be withall a Traitor. Let Abimelech giuegive hospitality to Abraham, so he purpose to abuse his wife. Let Herod heare Iohn Baptist proach, perhaps he wil cut off his head, for preaching against Herodias.
The Deuil is loth to be dislodged of ignorance, yet is content that error succeed in place. He is vex'd that truth should appeare to a man, yet if worldlines keepe fast hold of the affections, this is a cable rope to pull him in againe. If he loose the Sconce of the vnderstanding, yet giuegive him the Citadell of the affections. Any vnmortified, habituated, affected sinne, is a sufficient stirrop to mount him into his old saddle. Eyther let the soule stoop to fulfill the bodies base desires: or let the body imploy all his members, faculties, functions, to satisfie the soules lusts, and he is pleased.
The infernall Tyrant deales with men heerein, as the Egyptian Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites. Moses hath a Commission and command from God, to take with him the children of Israel, and to go three dayes iourney in the Wildernesse, to celebrate a Feast to the Lord. Pharaoh is very loth to loose the profite, which by the seruitude of Israel did arise to him; he will not suffer them. But when renewed plagues proue that there is no remedy, and a perpetuall vicissitude of iudgements enforce it; obserue how he would compound it.
1. Exod. 8. First, Goe ye, s…crifice to your God in Exod. 8. 25. ver. 26.this land. Nay saith Moses: It is not meet so to doe; for we shall sacrifice the abhominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Loe, shall we sacrifice the abhominations of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone vsus? That were a shame, and insufferable offence to them, to immolate beasts among them that worship beasts.
2. Goe ye, saith Pharaoh, if there be no remedy, euen into the Wildernesse, and sacrifice to your God: Verse. 2….but go not farre. Nay, saith Moses, we must go three dayes iourney. The limits and confines of the wildernesse will not serue our turnes; as if our Sacrifice should not smell of Egypt, we must go so far as our trauell can reach in three dayes.
3. Goe ye, saith Pharaoh, and so farre as now you desire, and your feete can measure in three dayes; but who must goe? Moses saith our sonnes and daughters, Exod. 10. 9.flockes and herds: for wee must hold a feast to the Lord. Not so, your little ones shall not goe, quoth Pharaoh. Goe ye that are the men, and serue the Lord, Verse. 11.for that was your desire: and they were driuen from his presence. But Moses requires that all may go; olde and young, sonnes and daughters.
4. Pharaoh, after the deuouring locusts, and palpable Exod. 10. 24.darknesse, cals againe for Moses and Aaron. Go ye your selues, and let your little ones go also: onelyonly let your flockes and your heards be stay'd. Nay, saith Moses, we must hauehave burnt offerings and sacrifices for the Verse. 26.Lord our God. Our cattell shall also go with vsus: there shall not a hoofe be left behind: for thereof must we take to serue the Lord our God.
Did Pharaoh regard their cattell aboue their little ones? or their children beyond themselues? No: but he deales by conditions and limitations, as loth to part with all at once. Therefore rather their cattell, then nothing. For he knew, they had couetous mindes; and when in the wildernes they wanted prouision, and were pinched with famine, they would returne backe againe for their cattell. EueryEvery yeelding concession, that came from him, was by force of the racke, he grants nothing, but on the compulsion of a iudgement.
So this spirituall and hellish Pharaoh hath had a soule long in his Egypt; and hath found him beneficiall and helpfull to his kingdome of darknesse in many seruices. The word preached comes, like Moses, to call him out of this bondage. Satan is afraid to be put out of Commons, franticke at the menace of expulsion: he wil not giuegive ground til he be forced, nor depart except plagued. But when hee perceiues no euasion, or remedy against Gods inuasion, he falls to indenting with niggardly grants and allowances.
1. Sacrifice here in this land: put on a mantle of religion ouer the old body. Be inwardly an Egyptian still, blacke and wicked, though an externall sacrificer. Let thy life be statu quo; shift not ground. Answere thou with Moses, No. I must change place, trauell a new way: from Egypt toward Canaan; from the region of darknesse, to the regiment of life.
2. Goe then, saith the Deuill, but not farre; keepe within my whistle: that when I beckon my hand with a bag in it, or giuegive you the call of vanity, you may heare and returne. No, Satan: I must go farre off; three dayes iourney from Egypt. I must not stay neere Sodom, nor in any of the Plaine, lest I bee destroyed. It is no repentance, that puts not on a contrary habite. Pride must bee turned to humility, Couetice to charity, Dissimulation to honesty, &c.
3. Well then, saith Satan, goe ye the men, but leaue the children behind you: let me hauehave your youth and strength, and when you are old talke of sacrifice & of religion. This is the Deuils dispensation, Youth must be born with. To dance, to dice, to drink, to ruffle, scuffle, weare fleeces of vanity on their heads, and to leaue no place without some vicious testimony of their presence, non est vitium adolescenti, is no fault in a young man. So the King of Babilon took not the men, but the children of the Iewes, to teach them the learning of Chaldea. Answere; Dan. 1.It is good to begin at the gates of our life to serue God; and from our birth to be Nazarites vntounto the Lord. Lest if the frame of our liues be built on a lasciuious, and riotous foundation of long practis'd wantonnes, Our bones be ful of the sinne of our youth, and it lyes downe with vsus in the dust: and when Iob. 20. 11.our bodies arise from the earth, our sinnes also rise with them to iudgement. No, Satan; youth and age, all the degrees of our life shall be deuoted to the seruice of God.
4. Yet saith Pharaoh, leaue your cattel; saith the Deuill, leaue your affections behind you. I must be content to let you come to church, heare, reade, ioyne in prayers; yet do not quite forsake me. Leaue me but a pawne, your affections, a secret liking to your former iniquities. No, Satan; God must be serued with all the heart, with all the soule, &c. we will not leaue so much as a desire to any sinne, wee wil not leaue a hoofe behind vsus. Indeed Satan willingly would not content himselfe with the bounds, but aimes at the whole Inheritance: he is not satisfied with the borders, but besiegeth the arch-city. Let vsus keepe him out of all, if we can: but since we must sinne, let vsus hold him occupied in some out-house, but be sure to keepe him out of the bed-chamber, from ruling in the heart.
You hauehave heere Satans egresse, and regresse; how he forsakes his Hold, how he forceth & striues for a re-entry. Let the same patience and attention sitte with you, whiles you sitte to heare his Ingresse; his fortifying of the Hold being taken, and prouision against future dispossession. This is manifested by his, 1. Associates. 2. Assault. For the former, he multiplyeth his troupes, and increaseth his forces: who are described 1. By their nature, spirits. 2. By their number, seauen. 3. By the measure of their malice, more wicked then the former.
1. Their Nature. Spirits.
And so both more capable of entrance, & more powerfull of retention: the easier to get in, and the harder to get out. We see what kind of possession the Deuill hath in this blacke Apostate, a spiritual and internall power. By which strong working and ruling in the hearts of the children of disobedience, he Ephe. 1. 2.hath gotten high titles, as the Prince, the King, the God of the world. Not that Satan is any such thing of himselfe, but onelyonly through the weakenesse of the vngodly, who admit him for a Lord of mis-rule in their hearts. Christ is the true and only Lord of heauen and earth: the Deuill is the Prince of this world, but meerely by imitation, the greatest part of the world being eyther his open or secret followers.
They are Spirits, full of tyranny, full of malice. Their temptations in this life testifie the one; and their torments in the next life (or rather death) shal declare the other. Here is thy misery, oh Apostate; illos dum spiritus occupat artus; whiles thy owne spirit doth moue thy ioynts, and other spirits persecute thy spirit, which is for euer and euer, thou shalt hauehave no release of bondage, no decease, no nor decrease of anguish.
2. Their Number. Seauen.
A certaine number is put for an vncertaine: by seauen spirits is intended a monstrous number of capitall sinnes. This expresseth a forcible seducing of Satan: before one spirit, now seauen more. Mary Magdalen had once in her seauen Deuils; this Apostate hath gotten eight.
It doth so prouoke and distemper Satan to bee cast out, that he meaneth and menaceth a fiercer assault; and rampires his recouer'd Fortresse with a septuple guard: that the security of his defence may giuegive defiance to all oppositions. Hee doth so fill the heart, as he filled the heart of Ananias. Act. 5. that there is no roome for the least drop of grace. Acts. 5. 3.Now hee that could not rid himselfe of one foule spirit, what will he do to encounter seauen with the former? The combate is but tollerably equall, whē one to one; but ne Hercules contraduos, two is ods though against Hercules: how then shall this weake man shift or deale with eight? If I might a little allegorize. The Papists make but seauen deadly sins. I am sure that Hypocrisie is none of them in their account. Hypocrisie might bee in this Apostate before; for he was Garnished; and now perhaps those other seauen are crept in to it: and so there are 8. in all. But indeed, as eueryevery sin is deadly, though out of their numeration and register: so by the addition of this number seauen, is signified an abudance of iniquities.