Works, Part 4 · Religious instruction · Chapter 64
CHAP. LXIIII. Of Sathans practises, and of Schisme and securitie.
THe Diuell setteth an high estimation of a man, for that (as wee may reade in the Gospell) hee thinkes himselfe whilest hee is in a man, to bee in a palace; but when he is out of a man, hee thinkes himselfe in a desert. Hereof it is, that being cast out, hee keepes such roring, foaming, and trembling, as is wonderfull. Paradise, one would thinke, might hauehave delighted him being so beautifull: yet hee esteemed it but as a wildernesse in respect of Adam.
2 The Diuell hath a palace of pleasure and a court of libertie for those that he his: but if wee will bee the Lords, wee must be hedged in and stinted, wee must not goe awrie. The Diuell will let you doe, speake and thinke what you will, the more libertie ye vse the betterDeut. 6. 3. 4. Sathans seruice. he liketh your seruice: but God hath a st…ct house, he will hauehave the heart, the minde, the soule, the bodie, and the whole heart: this is hard seruice: well, it is easie to enter seruice with the diuell, if one say, I will serue you freely, if another say, I will bee a retainer to you, but I will weare Gods liuerie, all shall be receiued, none refused. If you be well, the Diuell is well: if you be quiet, he is quiet, but this is a miserable seruice.
3 The Diuell is very painefull in his assaults. Hee workes with Christ, and doubles hisDauids adultorie. temptations on him, and pursueth him all his life long. When he gate Dauid once to con sent to adulterie, then he trebles his blowes, hee causeth him to make Vriah drunken, he vseth deceit, he causeth him to murther Vriah, yea, he murthered many with him, he wil not be contented with the borders, but he will assay to take the principall citie. Take Peter for an example: first he comes long behind: secōdly, he was haled in by the shoulders, thē he began to palter, after he denied Christ, not long after he sweareth, and last of all he curseth.
4 It is a part of the Diuell his sophistrie, as in good things, to seuer the means from the end, so in euill things, to separate the end from the meanes; Dauid ioyneth both together, Psalm. 119. I am thine, oh Lord saue me: The Diuell perswades vsus, that God will saue vsus, butHow Sathan shreds Scripture. makes vsus neuer looke to that, I am thine. In euill hee beareth vsus in hand wee may vse the meanes, and neuer come to the end, and so clips off halfe, as when he can suffer this, Eccles. 11. 9. Reioyce, O young man: he would leaue out this, but thou shalt come to iudgement. But these hath God ioyned together, and neither the subtiltie of youth, nor any witte of man, nor all the diuels in hell can separate them, the pleasures of the flesh▪ and the iudgements of GOD. As to our first parents, Ea…e yee shall not die; To whom some Salomon might hauehave saide, if it seeme pleasant to you, Eate it, but death shall come: So in these two that Ezekiel hath ioyned; the ease of the Pastour, and the blood required at his hands. He might hauehave saide, goe too, build you Tabernacles, where you may take most profit, and giuegive eare to nothing, yet God shall bring you to iudgement, God with a chaine of Adamant hath knit the pleasure of the world with iudgement, he that hath one must hauehave both.
5 It is often the pollicie of Sathan, to make vsus trauaile in some good things to come, when more fitly we might be occupied in good things present.
6 Wee must be proude against Sathan in CHRIST, and humble to all men in Christ.
7 Sathan will tempt vsus, though hee cannot ouercome vsus.
8 As GOD and his Angels are about vsus, so is the Diuell and his Angels: and as the good Angels hauehave not bene seene, but extraordinarily: so are the euill Angels, and he that depriueth himselfe of this meditation weakeneth his Faith. For it is to our comfort, thatSee the first part. though we be in daunger, and no man by vsus, yet GOD and his Angels are with vsus to keepe v… ▪ And this meditation ought also to humble vsus, that though in euill doing no man can see and hurt vsus, yet the Diuell, and euill spirits still houer ouer vsus. Againe, we must know, that as the Angels hauehave appeared to good men for speciall defence: so the soule spirites may appeare to some men for speciall sinnes: which euill spirites are not the soules of an…e departed, as in the blind papacie it was imagined, but the euill spirites in the Ayre, as the Apostle speaketh, Ephes. 6. 12. which are there truly called the Princes of the darkenes of this world, because they doe as Lords, command, and sway in the blinde soules of men, Ephes. 2. 1. 2. Iohn. 1. 4. 5.
9 Experience teacheth, that manie meddle with the matters of the Church, which are senselesse and barraine in the doctrine of Newe-birth. But alas, what if a man knewe all things, and knew not himselfe to bee a new man in CHRIST? all is nothing. Wee must stirre vp our owne sluggishnes, by the forwardnes we see in others, so shall we rightly profit by Gods graces in them.
10 If wee play with our owne affections, sinne in the ende from sport will spurre vsus to confusion: for though we be giuen to flatter and presume of our selues, that being twist orSecuritie. thrise spared we dare sinne againe: yet we must know that the Lorde will recompence his long carrying with wrath in the ende.
11 As a man being out lawed, may take his pleasure for a while, but whatsoeuer and wheresoeuer he may be taken, he must yeelde to the punishment which by verdict he is appointed: so the wicked on whom sentence of damnation is alreadie passed, may for a while shake off their paine with vaine pleasure, but afterward they shall bee arrested, and carried violently to the place of woefull execution. But for the godly vntounto whose conscience,Note. the assurance of their inheritance of heauen, by the euidence of the Gospell and …eale of the Spirit is ratified, all the diuels in hell shall not preuaile against them, but in death they shall bee warned to make their open appearance in the day of the resurrection, yet as honest and before the Iudge, and not as fellonious offenders.
12 It is a fearefull thing to be ouer quiet with our selues when we hauehave sinned: for theGriefe. way to draw sinne with Cart-ropes, is, not to bee grieued with sinne; and the casting or shaking of temporall griefe, is the way to eternall griefe. When wee hauehave sometime quaked at sinne, which wee hauehave seene in others, and afterward (although wee like it not yet) if wee dislike it not with as great indignation, as we were wont to doe, but by little and little weeFeare of sin. can well away with it: It is greatly to be feared, that by degrees wee shall fall into the same sinne or sinnes our selues.
13 Many that are not meere euill men by securitie, hauehave fallen into the hands of GodsSecuritie. iudgement.
14 It is the righteous iudgement of God, that there often is most deadly enmitie,Enmitie. where hath bene worldly and carnall amitie. If there bee any hatred risen betweene ourReconciliatio selues and such men, who hauehave bene our friends, let vsus examine our selues if wee …ought first to please God aboue all, and then to please them by good meanes.
15 Gods iudgements are most suddaine, and when men are in greatest delight. EuenSudden iudg ments. in the Sun-shine Sodome was destroied, and in the banquet time Iob… children were slaine: therefore wee are to learne to bee most warie and watchfull, and then most to suspect our selues when the world thinketh least of euill, and is most secure.