178 the fòurth Sign PART III. ly, that Satan transforms himfelf into an Angel of Light : And it is that which he has ever molt fuccefsfully made tire of to confound hopeful and happy Revivals of Religion, from the Beginning of the chriflian Church to this Day. When the Spirit of God is poured taut, to begin a glorious t ork, then the old Serpent, as fall as poffp- ble, and by all Means introduces this Ballard Religion, and mingles, it with the true ; which has from Time to Time foon brought all 'Things intoConfufion. The perniciousConfequence of it is not eafily imagined or conceived of, 'till we fee and are amazed with the aw- ful Efteas of it, and the difmal Defolation it has made. If the Re- vival of true Religion be very great in it's Beginning, yet if this Baf- tard comes in, there is Danger of it's doing as Gidean's Ballard fyhi- melech did, who never left 'till he had dam all his Threefcore and ten true horn Sons, excepting one, that wail forced to flee. Great and flri& therefore fhould be the Watch and Guard that Miniflers main- tain againfl fuch Things, efpecially at a Time of great Awakening For Men, efpecially the common People, are eafily bewitched with 'filch Things ; they having fuch a glaring and glittering Shew of high Religion ; and the Devil hiding his own Shape, and appearing as an Angel of Light, that Men may not be afraid of him, but may adore him. The Imagination or Phantafy feems to be that wherein are form'd all thofe Delufiorys of Satan, which thofe are carried away With, who are under the Influence of falle Religion, and counterfeit Graces and Afleaions. Here is the Devil's grand Lurking-Place, the very Nett of foul and delufive Spirits. 'Tis very much to be doubted whether the Devil can come at the Soul of Man, at all to affea it, or to ex- cite any Thought or Motion, or produce any Effea whatfoever in it, any other Way, than by the Phantafy ; which is thatPower of the -Soul, by which it receives, and is the Subject of the Species, or Ideas of outward and fenfible Things. As to the Laws and Means which the Creator has eftablifhed, for the Intercourfe and Communication of unbodied Spirits, we know nothing about them ; we don't know by what Medium they manifeft their Thoughts to each other, or ex- cite Thoughts in each other. But as to Spirits that are united to Bodies, thofe Bodies God has united 'em to, are their Medium of Communication : They have no other Medium of aaing on o- ther Creatures, or being a&ed on by them, than the Body. There- fore it is not to be fuppofed that Satan can excite any. Thought, or produce any Effea in the Soul of Man, any otherwife, than by fome ]!Notion of the animal Spirits, or by caufìng fome Motion or Altera- tion in fomething which appertains to the Body. There is this Rea- fort to think that the Devil can't - produce Thoughts, in the Soul im- mediately, or any other Way, than by the medium of the Body, That he can't immediately fee or know the Thoughts of the Soul
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