have Power, they hold them faft when they have gained them, by the terrour of an Inquifition; they promise them liberty, and what by the looseness of their cafuiftical Divinity, and by the eafinefs of their Penances and Abfolutions, and the cheats of their Indulgences, they have devised ways to reconcile almoft the worft life that any man can lead, with fair hopes of getting to Hea ven at laft. They tell them indeed, they must make fome ftop in Purgatory: but they have fo many ways to release men from thofe Sufferings, as do very much abate the terror of them to any man that hath but credulity enough to believe them: for befides the vaft Treasure of Merits in the common Bank of the Church, which the Pope hath in his difpofal, and which no body ought to doubt but that they are faithfully imployed by him for the ease and deliverance of Souls in Purgatory; I fay, befides thefe, there are fo many particular ways of effecting this bufinefs, that a man of ordinary difcretion, with an indifferent Purfe, may fo order Ff

the

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XV.

Volume them God, little children, and have overcome them : because greater is he that XII. is in you, than he that is in the world; that is, The Spiritwhich is in good men, is more powerful than the Devil, that evil Spirit which inspires and acts the children of difobedience.

For the farther Explication of this, I fhall do these three things

I. Shew that there are these two Principles in the world, the Spirit of God, and the Devil, very active and powerful in good and bad men.

II. That the Spirit of God, which is in good men, is that is in the world.

greater than he

III. In what ways the Spirit of God doth move and affift good

men.

I. That there are these two Principles in the world, the Spirit of God, and the Devil, very active and powerful, the one in good, the other in bad men. This is This is very credible

in

XV.

in the general, from the univerfal Tradition and Confent of Mankind, Sermon in the belief of good and evil Spirits attending men, and prompting 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 affifts good men in doing 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 almost every where afcribe all good motions and actions to the operation and influence of God's grace and holy Spirit upon the Minds of men; and the fins of men to the temptation and fuggeftion of the Devil; and this is fo well known to any one converfant in the holy Scriptures, that I need not cite particular Texts for the proof of it.

'Tis true indeed, ons of God's holy

that the MotiSpirit, and the Ff3 Suggestions

Suggeftions of the Devil, are very Volume fecret to us, and imperceptible by XII. us,fo that no man can fay certainly, that this good inclination or action is an immediate Motion of God's holy Spirit in me, or that evil Thought and Defign is an immediate Suggefti- i on of the Devil; it is fufficient for us, that we are affured from Divine Revelation in general, that the Spirit of God very frequently does, and is always ready to affift good men in the doing or fuffering of God's Will; as the evil Spirit, where God permits him, is always bufy to tempt and feduce men to evil. And this ought! not to be ftrange to us, because our. Saviour hath: exprefly told us, that. the Spirit of God works in men after an imperceptible manner, John 3.8. The wind bloweth where it lifteth, and thou hearest the found thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Tho? we do not know the manner of the Spirit's working, nor perceive the operations of it upon our minds, yet we find the Effects of it in the renovation and fanctificati

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on of our hearts. Thus by undeniable Arguments men are affured of a Divine Providence governing the XV. world, tho' men do not always fee, nor can make out to others the particular interpofitions of it, fo as to fay that this or that was an immediate Effect of Divine Providence. To know certainly that a thing is, it is not neceffary that we fhould be able to give a particular account of all its operations, and the manner of them; these may be hidden from us, and yet we may be fufficiently af fured by other Arguments that there is fuch a thing. Men are fure they have Souls, tho' they can give no account how the actions of Understanding, and Remembrance, and Senfation are produced by them: fo it is in the prefent cafe, we are fufficiently affured from the Word of God, that good and bad Spirits have a great influence upon the Minds of Men, tho' we be not confcious to their operations, and the manner of them.

II. The Spirit of God which is in good