and out of pure Confcience fubmitted to his Will. And thus I have finished what the Straitneffes of the Time would fuffer me to difcourfe from this Head.

Now to the King Immortal, &c.

SER

SERMON XI

A Difcourfe, fbewing the Nature, Deceitfulness, and Danger of Satan's Devices, and Temptations; what they are, and how to be difcovered and refifted.

2 COR. ii. Verf. 11.

Left Satan fhould get an Advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his Devices.

T

HESE Words were directed to the Governours of the Church at Corinth by St. Paul, and they are his Advice unto them, concerning the Cafe of the Inceftous Perfon, P 4

then

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then under the Sentence of Excommunication. That they should not infift too rigorously upon their Authority, in refufing to abfolve, and receive him to the Communion of the Church again upon his Repentance; left by their too great Severity therein, Satan fhould tempt him to final Apoftacy.

And the Caution which the Apoftle here gives the Corinthians, upon that particular Occafion, is of univerfal Ufe and Concernment to all Chriftians, as to the general Behaviour and Course of their Lives.

For Satan is not only a very crafty and deceitful, but he is alfo a very malicious and revengeful Spirit. He hath various Methods of Deceit: The Inftruments of Cruelty are in his Hands, and he manages them with all poffible Art and Spight. He addreffes himTelf to the different Difpofitions of Men's Minds, and the Humours of their Bodies. He obferves to what Errors, or Vices Men are moft inclined by Nature, Education or Cuftom. He confults the Circumftances of Action, of Time and Place; of Opportunity and Leifure; of Fitnefs and Decency. He attends the feveral Stages and Periods of human Life; of Infancy and Youth; of Manhood and Old Age. He views the particular Profeffions and Employments; the Stations and Capacities Men bear in the World. In all these he watches where, and when, and how he may moft advantagioufly fix a Temptation; and thereby work their Ruin.

It

It behoves us therefore, if we have any regard to our prefent, or future Safety, to counter-plot him in his Defigns; to understand his Devices; and, as far as is poffible, to deprive him of thofe Advantages he has against us, by a fuitable Caution and Watchfulness: In order whereunto, I fhall (from these Words) endeavour to comprize the Chief of them under this twofold Diftribution. Either

I. Thofe Advantages which are given him from the Circumftances of our State and Condition in this World. Or,

II. Thofe which he takes and improves from the Treachery and Malignity of his own Nature.

I. I begin with thofe Advantages which are given him from the Circumftances of our State and Condition in this World; and thefe are of Three Sorts. Either,

1. Such as are drawn from the Frailty and
Corruption of our Nature. Or, 2. From
the Kind and Manner of our Education:
Or, 3.
From the Ways of Living, we af-
terwards chufe and purfue.

1. The First is drawn from the Frailty and Corruption of our Nature.

The

PL. 8.5.6.

t

2

The Human Nature at its firft Creation, and as it came out of the Hands of God, was an excellent and noble Being. The Lord God (fays Mofes) formed Man of the Duft of Gen. 2.7.the Ground, and breathed into his Noftrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a living [according to the Chaldee Paraphrafe, he became a reafonable] Soul, And the Prophet M David, He made him little lower than the Angels, and Crown'd him with Glory and Ho-d and made him to have Dominion over R the Works of his Hands. All the Faculties of his Mind then fhone in their true Luftre and Perfection. His Understanding was bright and piercing; his Memory retentive and faithful; his Will regular and orderly; his Bodily Appetites and Paffions governable, and obedient to the Laws of Reason; and under the Direction and Influence of these he was to have spent a few pleasant Years upon Earth, and then to have been tranflated to Heaven.

nour;

But Man being thus at firft formed a noble Spirit, endowed with the Principles of Knowledge and Virtue, and capable of Immortality; he foon forfeited all thefe Privileges, loft at once his Innocence, and his Happiness, in difobeying the Law of his Creator; the whole Crafis of his Nature was changed, and all the Faculties of his Mind fuffered a mighty Eclipfe and Dimunition in the Fall of Adam. Thence came Obfcurity and Error in his Understanding Inadvertency and Forgetfulness in his Memory; Irregularity and Perverfenefs in his

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