to the E P .H E S I A N S. 55 is working in men again£! God, and again£l Chri£l ? The Devil is the Prince ofit. ~ I opened.it before, I !hall now give you fame Obfervations about it. ~ The fir£l is this : That befides the common ordinary walking of Men in their Ob[crv. x. particular Lu£ls, w•lking in Sin, acco_rding to thei_r Prince, their Devil, their King, ( for in every ~m that a Man ordmartly commttteth, he walkethaccor~mg to this Prince, and hts Mmd and Wtll he cloth) ; befides that, I fay, there ts .• fpecial Spirit, which yet is ~commonSpirit in. another fence, that. is, becaufe tt breatheth in a general way mMen; yet I calltt fpectal, becaufe 1t ts fuperadded, over and above the natural Inclination that Men ordinarily have to the Ways of Sin, there is a fpecial Spirit, raifed up by the Devils in the Children of Difo· bedience. . I !hall make this evident to you by parts. I take thefe Epheja1u for an Infrance, (for to.me the Apo£lle feems to point to that Spirit that wrought among them.) In AtJs I 9· when Pa11l was at Ephe[111, you !hall find there, what a Spirit was rai· fed, all the whole City upon a fudden were gathered together, and were all filled with confufion, and the Text faith, The greater part knew not wherefore they were come together: They would have baled Paul before the Judgment-Seat, and having caught Gai111 and Ariflarchtn, his Companions, they r11jhed with one accord into the Theater ; and all this while they knew not for what. And then, for the fpace of about two hours, they all with one voice cried up their Goddefs Diana, and cried out again£l Jefus Chrifr; alas! they knew not Jefus Chrifr: But why did they cry up their Goddefs thus? Why the Devil was in it. Do not you fee, faith the Apo£lle,how the Spirit works? If you read the Apologies ofTert11llian,and others that wrote in thePrimitiveTimes,you !hallfrill find them telling theHeathen~ thus: Why do you perfecute us? what is the matter? You underfrand not our way: You can let other Seers alone, why do you meddle with us? It is nothing but a Name you perfecute, you know no more. Yea, but, my Brethren, the Devil knewmore, and fo raifed upacommon Spirit among£l them, againfr the Chrifrians. The Devil cloth raife up in feveral Ages, (that !hould have been another part of the Obfer~ation ) a feveral kind of Spirit, yet £lill the fame Devil. Do you not fee, faith he, the Spirit that l'!OWworketh? Why the Spirit of Heathenifm wrought then ina bitter oppofition YOto Chri£l ; and the Spirit of Antichri£l · wrought then, The Spirit of Antichrifl it now in the World, faith John. And thefe both wrought in one, wrought againfr Chri£l. The Devil had then two Strings to his Bow: Among the Heathens he had a Spirit, that wrought tQ advance his Kingdom, and to keep him up as long as !:OU!d be, as the God of the World; and if that failed, then he had the Spirit of Antichri£l, that was then a working too: and many of the Cbri£lians themfelves, that were good, under£lood not this; for it was a Myfrery. And, my Brethren, fuch is his Cunning £lill, if the Scene alters, he alters his Spirit that he breatheth into Men ; he will breath in new Principles, fuch as the World !hall clofe withal ;· .and he will be frill fure, fo to frate the Q!.Iarrel, as that he may vent his Malice again£l many of the Saints, if he cannot again£l all. ·He made way, through I know not how :many Errors, that if the World !hould happen to turn Chri£lian, he might raife up fuch a Per· fecution againfr thofe that would oppofe th,ofe .Corruptions, more or lefs, as poffi– bly could be. Therefore in Rev. 12. whei\ h~ was thrown down from Heaven to Earth, ( as he was wqen Heathenifm was gone,) he found a way to perfecute thofe that kept the Commandment of Chrifr, and the Te£limony of Jefus; for there was then fo much Corruption brought in, and found in the Churches by . the working of this Spirit, that God frirred up fome or other frill, in their feve• ral Ages, to bear witnefs againfr it : and againfr thefe the Devil railed aSpirit, as being the Witneffes of Jefus, and fuch as kept fome of the Commandments of G.od, which others did not. The Apo£lle ]obn, in the place I quoted even now, fauh, The Spirit of Antichrif1 is 11ow in the World, 1 John 4· 3· 'Paul faith, it wa. a Myfrery; the Apoflle ]ohn, that he is to come into the World, nay, that even now he is in the World : I fee his Horns are budding, faith he ; and that Spmt, that breatheth now in Heathenifm, !hall work up to the very fame, when the World !hall turn Chrillian, in Antichrifr. Now this was a Myllery, yet the Devtl knew what he did, he drove it on, and carried on thiscommon Spirit, end · that
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