as he opposeth virtue and truth; just as wicked men do among ourselves.. Indeed, we men are under strong temptations from the flesh, and the objects that relate to it; but the spirits we are speaking of, may be under as strong temptations of some other kind, that we are not acquainted with; they may, by some finful pursuits and compliances, have funk themselves into the last degrees of moral pravity, and even be more wicked than the wickedest man in the earth, more blind to the goodness of God, and more fearless of his wrath. Nor are fuperior natural abilities an absolute security against the very worst moral corruption: for we do actually find, that great knowledge and understanding are so far from always making men good and virtuous, that, on the contrary, these are often in a high degree the instruments of fin and disobedience; being wholly employed in finding out pleas and pretexts for the most abandoned iniquity.

Thus you fee it is very possible such vicious spirits may be, may be mixed among us, and be permitted to tempt us; and, according to Scripture representations, they are very dangerous enemies. For,

I. Satan is continually going about feeking all advantages against us, Job i. 7. The Lord faid unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Satan answered, and faid, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And from the query in the next verse, Haft thou confidered my fervant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and also from what our Saviour faith to Peter, Luke xxii. 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath defired to have you, that he may fift you as wheat; it appears, that he is inquisitive into the characters of men, and bufily seeks, and gladly lays hold of any occafion to try, and, if possible, to overthrow their integrity. I Cor. vii. 5. Defraud you not one the other, except it be with confent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

II. We may suppose a spirit of fuperior faculties to be very fubtle in understanding our various conftitutions and inclinations, and the particular fins to which our circumstances do expose us; and in laying his baits, and addressing his temptations accordingly.

III. Such a tempter can apply a great variety of machinations, devices, [νοημαία, 2 Cor. ii. 11.] and wiles [μεθοδειας, Ephef. vi. 11,] to deceive. This is seen in the case of Eve. And in tempting our Lord, it is very observable, how he varied his devices, and shifted the scene of temptation, to fix, if possible, fome stain upon his spotless mind. He can put himself into any shape, either of terror, or pleasing allurement; either as a roaring lion, or an angel of light, [2 Cor. xi. 14). Sometimes he works by his agents, employing those who are already infnared to draw in others; so Eve was his tool to tempt Adam: sometimes injecting into our minds unrighteous, impure suggestions, [Luke xxii. 3. Alls v. 3.] sometimes taking the word out of our heart, [Luke viii. 12.] or mixing tares with the good feed, [Mat. xiii. 25.] and corrupting our minds from the fimplicity that is in Chrift.

But then, all this must be understood under the following restrictions.

1. That the Devil can neither hurt us, nor so much as attempt to hurt

D 4

Of the Devil's Temptations. CH. XII. hurt us, further than God permits. He is not like the pretended evil god of the Manichees, eternal, self-existent, almighty, and independent, but as much under the power of God as the weakest reptile under our feet. When God gives him a commission, he cannot act beyond it; and when he has no commission, he is chained up and can do nothing. He is therefore no other than an agent, entirely and always in God's hand, to be used as he sees fit.

2. Nor can he any ways pollute our minds, further than we ourselves do consent. If God permits, possibly he may work upon the humours of the body, he may inflame our passions, abuse our imaginations, or suggest evil things to our thoughts; but unless we willingly admit those impressions, he cannot possibly stain our confciences with fin.

3 God hath not only furnished means and strength to refift him, but hath appointed that, if we do resist him, he shall be conquered and vanquished. Jam. iv. 7. Resist the Devil, and he will, he shall, he must, Aee from you; not by his own choice, but by the will and power of God. The God of our peace and safety shall bruise Satan under our feet. And such a victory shall turn to the praise and glory and establishment of our virtue. Hence it follows,

1. That it must be our own act and deed if we are overcome by the temptations of the Devil. It is common for people to confider themselves as altogether passive in this case, and to ascribe the wickedness they commit to the power of temptation; whereas, in truth, fo far as we are tempted effettually, we are active, we consent and agree to the temptation, we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed, Jam. i. 14. Satan tempts, yet can have no advantage over us but what we choose to give him. And therefore,

2. It must be an aggravation of any crime, that it was done under the power and influence of this wicked spirit. For we must be the children of disobedience, we must have abandoned ourselves to wickedness, before Satan can work in us. If Satan can fill our hearts, confider in what a wretched condition we must be. We must have abused the faculties of our minds; we must have despised all the riches of Divine Goodness; we must have shut our eyes against the light of faving truth, hardened our hearts against the fear of God, feared our confciences, stifled many and strong convictions, done despite to the Spirit of Grace; we must have withdrawn ourselves from God, till he hath forsaken us; we must have advanced from one degree of iniquity to another, till our hearts are prepared to be the feat and refidence of the unclean spirit, the murtherer, the father of lies, the prince of darkness, A condition unspeakably deplorable!

With men of virtue and piety he hath no power, though he may vex and affault them, but only with the vicious; and they not only imitate his wickedness, which is bad enough, and conftitutes him their father, but likewise are under his government, which is still worse, and conftitutes him their prince and ruler. Moft dreadful cafe, to be the children of such a father, the subjects of such a prince, the children of perdition, the fubjects of the enemy of all righteousness! To have the powers of our minds, defigned for the noblest acts and enjoyments, under the dominion of error and lust; to have the spirits created for eternal happiness

CH. XIII.

Of the Consequences of Adam's Tranfgreffion.

/

57

in union with God, in slavery to the vilest of beings; to have the fouls for whom Christ shed his blood, to deliver them from iniquity, to purify them into the Divine Image, and to prepare them for everlasting salvation, -to have those souls quite insensible to all that is true and excellent, heavenly and divine, guided by the grand deceiver, in the power of the destroyer, and by him pushed on in the way of iniquity to eternal perdition; how frightful is the reflection! how dreadful mult the state of fuch fouls be!

To prevent our falling into such a fad condition, and to secure ourselves from the encroachments of this wicked spirit, let us ever be mindful that we have fuch an enemy, and that, without due care and circumspection, we shall fall under his power. Let us carefully guard our hearts, and observe well the temper and frame of our minds, that we may seasonably restrain every inordinate affection, and immediately reject every evil thought and suggestion which starts up in our minds.. Be fober, be vigilant. Nothing gives this adversary greater advantage than sensual indulgences. Mortify the flesh with the affections and Jufts. Shun all intemperance and excess; and never dare to venture, how little soever, into the way of temptation and fin. And let us be fure to keep close to God in prayer, and other exercises of religion. Thus we shall put ourselves under the banner of the Prince of Life, the Lord Jesus Chrift, and shall be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Confequences of ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION.

Gen. ii. 7, to the End.

WE are now come to a very grand point in Theology, the Fall of Man, or the Consequences of Adam's Tranfgreffion upon himself and his pofterity. Which Consequences Divines, both Papist and Proteftant, have generally, and for a long tract of time, represented to be those that follow, namely, "the guilt of Adam's first sin imputed.

to, or charged upon, all his pofterity a total defect of that righ" tequsness wherein he is supposed to have been created the cor"ruption of the human nature, whereby all mankind are utterly in" disposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, " and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which cor"ruption of our nature is the fource of all wickedness that is committed " in the world. - Further, by Adam's Tranfgreffion all mankind were "deprived of communion with God and all, as foon as ever they "come into the world, under his displeasure and curse, being by na"ture the children of wrath, bond-laves to Satan, justly liable to all " punishments

CH. XIII. " punishments in this world, and in the world to come, to an ever" lasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, the most " grievous torments in foul and body without intermiffion in hell-fire

" for ever."

This is an affair of the most dreadful importance, and requires to be examined with all poffible care and impartiality; for an error in this point will affect the whole scheme of Chriftianity, pervert and abuse our confciences, and give us very wrong notions of God and of ourselves. Upon this article I have examined the Scriptures, with diligence and impartiality, in the treatise entitled The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, proposed to free and candid Examination in the study of which this is a proper place to exercise your thoughts and judg

ments.

[* Adam having transgressed the law, not only lost a claim to life, but became obnoxious to death, which was death in law, or eternal death. And had the law been immediately executed, his pofterity, then included in his loins, must have been extinct, or could have had no exiftence at all; for, the covenant of innocence being broken, there was no covenant or constitution fubfifting upon which Adam could have the least hope of the continuance of his own life, and confequently, could have no profpect of any posterity. Thus in Adam all die. While things were in this state, under broken law, and before a promise of favour, or grace, in this interval, for any thing Adam could know, he, and the whole world in him, were utterly lost and undone for ever. But our merciful God and Father had quite different views; he graciously intended to make Adam's fin, and his being exposed to eternal death, an occafion of erecting a new dispensation, a difpenfation of grace in the hands of a Mediator. According to which, Adam was assured that he should not immediately die, but should live to have a pofterity by his wife. So Adam understood what the Lord God faid, ver. 15. upon this he gave his wife a new name, (ver. 20.( הוה Life, or Lifegiving, for joy that mankind were to be propagated from her, when he expected nothing but immediate death in consequence of his tranfgreffion.]

And

[+ God graciously intended, after Adam's Tranfgreffion, to erect a difpenfation of grace, for the redemption of mankind; which grace was declared, and, consequently, which dispensation was established, (Gen. iii. 15. And I will put enmity, &c.) before the sentence of death was pronounced upon Adam (ver. 19. Dust thou art, and to dust thou halt return). Death therefore, in that sentence, stands under the new difpenfation, or the difpenfation of grace, and for that reason cannot be Death in Law, or eternal death; but death in DISPENSATION, or death appointed for wife and good purposes, and to be continued only so long as God should think fit. And thus also all die in Adam; thus by man came death; thus by one man fin entered into the world, and death by, or in confe

quence

• Take this in, as a note, p. 18 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at the paragraph, 1. Whereas Adam bad before, &c.

+ Take this in, as a note, p. 66 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at No. Immediately upon the annulling the first covenant, &c.

quence of, his fin. But it was the high and glorious purpose of God, that his beloved Son, the feed of the woman, having, in our flesh, performed the most perfect and complete obedience, should be invested with dominion and power to raise all men from the dead, and to give eternal life to all them that tread in the steps of his obedience. Thus, as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead; for, as in Adam all die, fo in Christ sball all be made alive. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. Thus, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made finners, so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. Rom. v. 18, 19.]

H

ERE Cain and Abel perform an act of religious devotion, by way of Oblation or Sacrifice. The question is, whether this kind of worship was of divine or human institution. They who are of the latter opinion alledge, "that we read of no command from " God for facrificing; therefore men did it of their own heads, out of

a grateful inclination to return unto God some of his own blef-. fings, and to acknowledge him the abfolute proprietor of all their enjoyments; though they had no directions from him about it." Answer. This seems highly improbable. For how came Abel to offer his Sacrifice in faith of God's acceptance, (Heb. xi. 4.) if his faith had nothing to warrant it but his own imagination? Human imagination, or opinion, never was, or ever can be, either the ground or object of faith. It is faid, Gen. iv. 4. that God had respect to, or shewed his approbation of, both Abel and his offering; or in the Apostle's words, he obtained witness, that himself was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, that they were right, and offered in a right manner. On the other hand, he censured Cain as having presented his Oblation in such a manner as was not pleasing to God; which evidently supposes a previous insti tution, and a rule which Cain was, or might have been, acquainted with. For, had there not been such a rule given, how could he have been blamed for not observing it? It is abfurd to say, he tranfgressed a rule of his own imagination and invention.

The institution not being mentioned in a history so concise, argues nothing. Other things are also omitted, as religious assemblies, Enoch's prophecy, Noah's preaching, the peopling of the world, or the increase of Adam's family. Things well known, or generally supposed, when

the