me. yet his purpose is to bind us up with everlasting compaffions. Now the Devil labours to improve the forrows of the Mind to give a quite contrary conftruction: if they are afflicted,instead of saying, Sorrow may endure for a Night, but Joy will come in the Morning, or that for a little while God hath bidden himself, he puts them to fay, this Darkneß fhall never paß away. If the grief be little, he drives them on to a fearful expectation of worfe; as he did with Hezekiah, Efa. 38.13. I reckoned till Morning, that as a Lyon, so will he break all my Bones, from Day even to Night wilt thou make an end of If God purpose to teach us by inward Sorrows, our Pride of Heart, carelessness, neglect of dependance upon him, the bitternefs of Sin, or the like: the Devil will make us believe (and we are too ready to subscribe to him) that God proclaims open War against us, and refolves never to own us more. So did Job, chap. 19. 6. Know now that God bath overthrown me, and compaffed me with his Net: how often complained he, thou hast made me as thy mark, thou hast broken me afunder, thou hast taken me by my Neck and shaken me to peices? So alfo Heman, Pfal. 88.14. Why cafteft thou off my Soul? why hideft thou thy Face from me? 4. Upon this occafion the Devil is ready to envenome the Soul with finful wishes and execrations against it felf. Eminent Saints have been tempted in their trouble to fay too much this way, Job folemnly curfed his Day; Job 3.3. Let the Day perish wherein I was born, and the Night in which it was faid, there is a Manchild conceived, &c. So alfo Jeremiah, chap. 20. 14. Curfed be the Day wherein I was Born, let not the Day wherein my Mother bare me, be Blessed; Curfed be the Man who brought tydings to my Father, faying a Man'child is Born unto thee; and let that Man be as the Cities which God overthrew, and repented not. Strange rashness! what had the Day deferved? or wherein was the Meffenger to be blamed? Violent Paffions hurried him beyond all bounds of reafon and moderation. When troubles within are violent, a finall pufh fets Men forward; and when once they begin, they are carried headlong beyond what they first intended. 5. On this advantage the Devil fometimes imboldens them to quarrel God himself directly. When Job and Jeremiah carfed their day, it was a contumely againft God indirectly, but they durft not make bold with God at fo high a rate as to quarrel him to his Face. Yet Yet even this are Men brought to often, when their forrows are long-lasting and deep. The Devil fuggefts, Can God be faithful, and never keep Promife for help? can he be merciful when he turns away his ears from the cry of the miferable? where is bis pity when he multiplies his wounds without caufe? Though at first thefe curfed intimations do a little startle Men, yet when by frequent inculcating they grow more familiar to the Heart, the diftreffed break out in their rage, with thofe exclamations, Where is the faithfulness of God? where are his Promifes? bath he not forgotten to be gracious? are not his Mercies clean gone? And at last it may be Satan leads them a step higher, that is, 6. To a defparing defperatenefs. For when all Paffages of reliefare ftopt up,and the burthen becomes great, Men are apt to be drawn intorage and fury, when they think their burthen is greater than they can bear, and fee no hope of cafe, in a kind of revenge they exprefs their anger against the hand that wounded them. The Devil is officioufly ready with his advice of Carfe God and die, and they being full of anguish, are quickly made to comply with it. 7. When 'tis at this height, the Devil hath but one Stage more, and that is the fuggefting of irregular means for eafe. Rage against God doth not quench the inward burning;Blafphemies against Heaven eafeth not the Pain, the Soar runs ftill and ceafeth not, the trouble continues, the Man cannot endure it longer, all Patience and Hope is gone, what shall he do in this cafe? The Devil offers his Service, he will be the Phyfician, and commonly he prescribes one of these two things: 1. That 'tis beft to endeavour to break through all this trouble into a refolved prophaneness; not to ftand in awe of Laws, nor to believe that there is a God that governs in the Earth, but that this is only the bitter fruit of melancholy, and unneceffary ferioufnefs, and therefore 'tis beft; to eat, drink and be merry. If a Man can thus efcape out of his trouble,the Devil needs no more; but oft he cannot, the wounds of Confcience will not be thus healed. Then, 2. He hath another remedy which will not fail,as he tells them, that is, to destroy themselves, to end their troubles with their lives. How open are the Breafts of troubled Creatures to all thefe Darts? and were it not that God fecretly fteps in, and holds the afflicted with his right hand, 'tis fcarce imaginable but that wounded Confciences fhould by Sa tan's tan's fubtile improvement of fo fair an advantage, be brought to all this mifery. 8. Satan can afflict the Body, by the Mind. For these two are fo closely bound together, that their good and bad estate is shared betwixt them. If the Heart be merry, the Countenance is chearful, the Strength is renewed, the Bones do flourish like an Herb. If the Heart be troubled, the Health is impaired, the Strength is dryed up, the Marrow of the Bones wafted, &c. Grief in the Heart, is like a Moth in the Garment, it infenfibly confumeth the Body, and difordereth it. This advantage of weakening the Body falls into Satans hands by neceffary confequence, as the Prophets ripe Figs, that fell into the Mouth of the Eater. And furely he is well pleased with it, as he is an Enemy both to Body and Soul: But 'tis a greater satisfaction to him, in that as he can make the Sorrows of the Mind, produce the Weakness and Sicknefs of the Body: So can he make the Distemper of the Body (by a reciprocal requital) to augment the trouble of the Mind. How little can a fickly Body do? it disables a Man for all Services, he cannot oft Pray, nor Read, nor Hear. Sickness takes away the Sweetness and Comfort of Religious Exercifes; this gives occafion for them to think the worse of themselves; they think the Soul is weary of the ways of God, when the Body cannot hold out. All failures which weariness and faintnefs produce, are afcribed prefently to the bad difpofition of the Mind, and this is like Oyl caft upon the Flame. Thus the Devil makes a double gain out of Spiritual trouble. 9. Let it be alfo reckoned among the advantages which Satan hath against Men from trouble of Spirit, that 'tis a contentment to him to see them in their Miseries; 'tis a fport to him to see them (as Job fpeaks) take their Flesh in their Teeth, and cry out in the bitterness of their Souls; their groanings are his Mufick: when they wallow in Afhes, drown themselves in Tears, roar till their Throat is dry, fpread out their Hands for help, then he gluts his Heart in looking upon their woes. When they fall upon God with their unjust Surmifes, evil Interpretations of Providence, queftioning his Favour, denying his Grace, wishing they had ne ver been Born, then he claps his Hands and fhouts a Victory. The pleasanteft fight to him, is to fee God hiding himself from his Child, and that Child broken with fears, torn in peices with griefs, made a Brother to Dragons, a Companion to Owls, under restless Qq2 An Anxities, perpetual Lamentations, feeble and fore broken, their Strength dryed like a Potfheard, their Threat dry, their Tongue cleaving to their Jaws, their Bowels boyling, their Bones burnt with Heat, their Skin black upon them, their Flesh confumed,their Bones fticking out, chaftened with strong pain upon their Bed. This is one of Satan's delightful Spectacles, and for these ends doth he all he can, to bereave them of their Comfort, which we may the more certainly perfwade our felves to be true, when we confider the grounds forementioned, his malicious nature, the advantages of Spiritual Peace, and the disadvantages of Spiritual trouble. CHAP. Of the various Ways by which he hinders Peace. 1. Way by difcompofures of Spirit. Thefe Difcompofures explained, by fhewing, 1. What advantage he takes from our natural Temper; and what Tempers give him this. advantage. 2. By what occafions he works upon our natural Tempers. 3. With what fuccefs. (1.) Thefe Occafions fuited to natural Inclinations, raife great diStarbance. (2.) They have a tendency to Spiritual ・ Trouble. The thing proved, and the manner how, difcovered. (3.) Thefe Disturbances much in his Pow er. General and Particular Confiderations about that Power. Having and Comfort of God's Children, that Aving evidenced that one of Satan's principal defigns is a next endeavour a discovery of the various ways by which he doth undermine them herein. All inward troubles are not of the fame kind in themselves, neither doth Satan always produce the fame effects out of all. Some being in their own nature difquiets, that do not fo directly, and immediately overthrow the Peace and Joy of believing, and the Comforts of affurance of Divine Favour, as others do. Yet feeing that by all, he hath no small advantage against us, as to Sin and Trouble, and that any of them at the longrun, may lead us to question our intereft in Grace, and the Love of God, and may accordingly afflict us, I fhall speak of them all; which that I may do the more diftinctly, I fhall rank these trou-bles into feveral beads, under peculiar names, (it may be not altogether fo proper, but that the curious may find matter of excepti-. on to them) that by them and their explanation, the differen-. ces may the better appear. I diftinguifh therefore of a fourfold' trouble, that the Devil doth endeavour to work up upon the Hearts |