5 2 2- 1he Advantages of Truths Vol. 11. CUE/00 and Matiacres 5 and where they have Power, they hold thcrta Lift when they have gained them, by the Terror of an Inquifition ; they promife them Li- berty, and what by the loofenefs of their Cafuiftieal Divinity, and by the eafinefs of (heir Penances and Abfolutions, and theCheats of their indulgences, they have . devifed ways to reconcile almoft the worft Life that any Man can lead, with fair hopes of getting to Heaven at lait. They tell them indeed, they muff make fame flop in Purgatory : but they have fo many ways to releafe Men from thofe Suffe. rings, as do very much abate theTerror of them, to any Man that bath but Cre- dulity enough to believe them : for befidcs the vaft Treafureof Merits in the com- mon Bank of the Church, which the Popebath in his difpofal, and which no body ought to doubt but that'they are faithfully imployed by him for the Eafe and Deliverance of Souls in Purgatory ; i fay, befides thefe, there are fo many parti- cular ways of cffc&ting this Bufinefs, that a Man of ordinary Difcrerion, with an indifferent Purfe, may fo order the Matter, that he fhall only pats through Purga- tory, but need not make any flay in that place of Torments. But rho' thefe be their common Motives and Inducements to drawMen to their Communion, yet they do not 'wholly omit the Arguments taken from the Eternal Happinefs and Mifery of Men in another World for to give them their due, there are no People in the World more prodigal of Eternal Salvation and Damnation ; they promife the one upon the eafieft Terms, and threaten the other upon the leali Difpleafure : if a Man be in their Communion, he can hardly fail of Salva-, lien 5 and if he be out of it, and differ from them in the leaft point of Faith, tho' but of their own making, he is lure to be Damnd, tho' he had the Graces and Virtues, the San&iry and Charity óf an Angel and this is the true Reafon why thefe Arguments, which are fo powerful in themfelves, frgnifie fo little from their Mouths; becaufe every Man that hath read the Bible, and underflands the Chriflian Religion, plainly fees that they have made Terms of Salvationand Dam- nation quite different from thofe which God bath conflituted 5 fo that thefe Mo- tives, which are fo thong and mighty in themfelves, quite lofe their edge and force, when they are managed by Seducers in fo undue a manner, and to Ends and Pur. poles fo crois to the main Defign of Chriflianity. This is the Second Advantage which the Spirit of Truth bath above the Spirit of Error and Seduction, that the Motives to perfwade Men to adhere to Truth and Holinefs, are really in themfelves more powerful than the Motives to Error and. SeduEtion. Thirdly, Thofe who fincerely embrace and obey the Truth of God, havea grea- ter Afliftance, and are afted by a more powerful Spirit and Principle, than that which is in the World ; and this feems more efpecially to be the meaning of the Reafon here given in the Text, why the Spirit of Truth is Viftorious over the Spirit of Error and Seduction 51e are of God, littleChildren, andhave overcome them : becaufe greater is he that is in Jon, than he that is in the World 5 that is, The Spirit which is in good Men, is more powerful than the Devil, that Evil Spirit which Infpires and Acts the Children of Difobedience. For the farther Explication of this, I fball do thefe Three Things. I. Shew that there are thefe Two Principles in the World, the Spirit of God, and the Devil, very aliveand powerful in good and bad Men. II. That the Spirit of God, which is in good Men, is greater than he that is in the World. HI. In what ways the Spirit of God doth move and affiil good Men. I. That there are thefe Two Principles in the World, the Spirit of God, and the Devil, very A&ive and Powerful, the one in good, the other in bad fvlcn. This is very credible in the general, from the univerfal Tradition and Content of Mankind, in the belief of Good and Evil Spirits attending Men, and prompt- ing them to Good and Evil : but we, who embrace the Revelation of the Gofpel, have a much firmer and furer ground for it, nothing being more plain and frequent in Scripture, than that the holy Spirit of God guides and affifis good Men in do. ing the will of God ; and that the Devil works in the Children of Difobedience, and is always ready to tempt Men to, and promote any evil Action or Defign. From hence it is that the Scripture does almoft every where afcribe all good Mo- t lions
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