Spirit's work is not only to be a sanctifier, but also a comforter, whose fruits are righteousness and peace ; so the evil spirit Satan is both a seducer unto sin, and an accuser for sin, a tempter and a troubler, and indeed in the same order. As the Holy Ghost is first a sanctifier, and then a comforter ; so Satan first a tempter, then a troubler. Joseph's mistress first tries to draw him to gratify her lust ; that string breaking, she had another, to trounce him and charge him ; and for a plea, she hath his coat to cover her malice ; nor is it hard for Satan to pick some hole in the saint's coat, when he walks most circumspectly. Tlie proper seat of sin is the will ; of comfort, the conscience : Satan hath not absolute knowledge of or power over these, (being locked up from any other but God,) and therefore what he doth, either in defiling, tempting, or disquieting, is by wiles more than by open force, and he is not inferior in troubling to himself in tempting. Satan hath, as the serpent, a way by himself; other beasts, their motion is direct, right on, but the serpent goes askew, as we say, winding and wreathing its body, that when you see a serpent creeping along, yon can hardly discern which way it tends ; thus Satan in his vexing temptations hath many intricate policies, turning this way and that way, the better to conceal his designs from the saint, which will appear in these following methods.
Section I. — First, He vexcth the Christian by laying his brats at the saint's door, and charging him with that which is his own creature ; and here he hath such a notable art, that many dear saints of God are wofuUy hampered and dejected, as if they were the vilest blasphemers and veriest atheists in the world ; whereas indeed the cup is of his own putting into the sack, but so slily conveyed into thesaint'sbosom, that the Christian, though amazed andfrightened at the sight of them, yet being jealous of his own heart, and unacquainted with Satan's tricks of this kind, cannot conceive how such motions shoidd come there, if not bred in, and vomited out by, his own naughty heart, and so bears the blame of the sin himself, because he cannot find the right father, mourning as one that is forlorn and cast oft' by God, or else, saith he, I should never have such vermin of hell creeping in my bosom ; and here Satan hath his end he pro- poseth ; for he is not so silly as to hope he should have welcome with such a horrid crew of blasphemous and atheistical thoughts in that soul, where he hath been denied when he came in an enticing way ; no, but his design is by way of revenge, because the soul will not prostitute itself to his lust otherways, there- fore to haunt it and scare it with those imps of blasphemy. As he served Luther, to whom he appeared, and when repulsed by him went away, and left a noisome stench behind him in the room. Thus when the Christian has worsted Satan in his more pleasing temptations, being maddened, he belcheth forth this stench of blasphemous motions to annoy and affi'ight him, that from them the Christian may draw some sad conclusion or other ; and indeed the Christian's sin lies commonly more in the conclusion which he draws from them, as that he is not a child of God, than in the motions themselves. All the counsel, therefore, I shall give thee in this case, is to do with these motions, as you use to serve those vagrants and rogues that come about the country ; whom, though you cannot keep from passing through tlie town, yet you look they settle not tliere, but whip them and send them to their own home. Thus, give these motions the law, in mourning for them, resisting of them, and they shall not be your charge ; yea, it is like you shall seldomer be troubled with such guests ; but if once you come to entertain them, and be Satan's nurse to them, then the law of God will cast them upon you.
Section II. — Secondly, Another wile of Satan as a troubler, is in aggi'avatino' the saint's sins, (against which he hath a notable declamatory faculty,) not that he hates the sin, but the saint; now in this, his chief subtilty is so to lay his charge, that it may seem to be the act of the Holy Spirit ; he knows an arrow out of God's quiver wounds deep ; and therefore when he accuseth, he comes in God's name ; as sup])ose a child were conscious to himself of displeas- ing his fLither, and one that owes him a spite, to trouble him, should counterfeit a letter from his father, and cunningly convey it into the son's hand, wlio re- ceives it as from his father, wherein he chargeth him witli many heavy crimes, disowns liim, and threatens he shall never come into his sight, or have a penny portion from him ; the poor son, conscious to himself of many undutiful
58 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND