ple about your ears, if you do not countenance their
superstitions;_ and then they comply'd immediately. Yea, sometimes if
the Devil do but Feign a Necessity, he does thereby _Gain_ the Hearts of
Men; he did but feign a Need, when he told _Saul_, _the Cattel must be
spared, and the sacrifice must be precipitated_, & he does but feign a
Need, when he tells many a man, _if you do no servile work on the
+Sabbath-day+, and if you don't Rob God of his evening, you'll never
subsist in the world._ All the denials of God, in the world, use to be
from this Fallacy impos'd upon us. It never can be necessary for us to
violate any Negative Commandment in the Law of our God; where God says,
_thou shalt not_, we cannot upon any pretence reply, I _must_. But the
Devil will put a most formidable and astonishing face of necessity upon
many of those _Abominable things, which are hateful to the soul of God_.
He'll say nothing to us about, the one thing needful; but the petite and
the sorry _Need-nots_ of this world, he'll set off with most bloody
Colours of _Necessity_. He will not say, _'tis necessary for you to
maintain the Favour of your God, and secure the +welfare of your Soul+;_
but he'll say, _'tis necessary for you to keep in with your Neighbours;
and that you and yours may have a good Living among them._

III. The Devil does insinuate his most Horrible _Temptations_, with
pretence, of much _Friendship_ and _Kindness_ for us. He seemed very
unwilling that our Lord should want any thing that might be comfortable
for him; but, he was a _Devil_ still! The _Devil_ flatters our Mother
_Eve_, as if he was desirous to make her more Happy than her Maker did;
but there was the _Devil_ in that flattery. _Sub Amici fallere
Nomen_,----to Salute men with profers to do all manner of Service for
them; and at the same time to Stab them as _Joab_ did _Abner_ of old;
this is just like the _Devil_, and the _Devil_ truly has many Children
that Imitate him in it. Some very Affectionate Things were spoken once
unto our Lord; _Lord, be it far from thee, that thou shouldest suffer
any Trouble!_ But our Lords Answer was, in _Mat. 16.23._ _Get thee behind
me Satan._ The Devil will say to a man, _I would have thee to Consult
thy own Interest, and I would have Trouble to be far from thee._ He
speaks these _Fair Things_, by the Mouths of our professed Friends unto
us, as he did by the Tongue of a Speckled Snake unto our Deluded
Parents at the first. But all th