ke an horrible Tempest. However that the Devil has raised many
_Metaphorical Storms_ upon the Church, is a thing, than which there is
nothing more notorious. It was said unto Believers in _Rev. 2.10._ _The
Devil shall cast some of you into Prison._ The Devil was he that at
first set _Cain upon Abel_ to butcher him, as the Apostle seems to
suggest, for his Faith in God, as a _Rewarder_. And in how many
_Persecutions_, as well as _Heresies_ has the Devil been ever since
Engaging all the Children of _Cain_! That Serpent the Devil has acted
his cursed Seed in unwearied endeavours to have them, _Of whom the World
is not worthy_, treated as those who are _not worthy to live in the
World_. By the impulse of the Devil, 'tis that first the old _Heathens_,
and then the mad _Arians_ were _pricking Briars_ to the true Servants of
God; and that the _Papists_ that came after them, have out done them all
for Slaughters, upon those that have been _accounted as the Sheep for
the Slaughters_. The late _French_ Persecution is perhaps the horriblest
that ever was in the World: And as the Devil of _Mascon_ seems before to
have meant it in his out-cries upon _the Miseries preparing for the poor
Hugonots_! Thus it has been all acted by a singular Fury of the old
Dragon inspiring of his Emissaries.

But in reality, _Spiritual Woes_ are the _principal Woes_ among all
those that the Devil would have us undone withal. _Sins_ are the worst
of _Woes_, and the Devil seeks nothing so much as to plunge us into
Sins. When men do commit a Crime for which they are to be Indicted, they
are usually _mov'd by the Instigation of the Devil_. The Devil will put
_ill men upon being worse_. Was it not he that said in _1 King. 22.22._
_I will go forth, and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of all the
Prophets?_ Even so the Devil becomes an _Unclean Spirit_, _a Drinking
Spirit_, _a Swearing Spirit_, _a Worldly Spirit_, _a Passionate Spirit_,
_a Revengeful Spirit_, and the like in the Hearts of those that are
already too much of such a Spirit; and thus they become improv'd in
Sinfulness. Yea, the Devil will put _good men upon doing ill_. Thus we
read in _1 Chron. 21.1._ _Satan provoked David to number Israel._ And so
the _Devil provokes_ men that are Eminent in Holiness unto such things
as may become eminently Pernicious; he _provokes_ them especially unto
_Pride_, and unto many unsuitable Emulations. There are likewise most
lamentable Impressions which the _Devil_ mak