God,) I mention here, to observe how the Devil not only imposed upon their principles, but upon their senses too; as if the awful majesty of heaven, whose glory they had seen in mount Sinai, where they stood, and whose pillar of cloud and fire was their guide and protection, would be worshipped by dancing round a calf! and that not a living creature, or a real calf, but the mere image of a calf cast in gold, or, as some think, in brass gilded over.
But this was the Devil’s way with mankind, namely, to impose upon their senses, and bring them into the grossest follies and absurdities; and then, having first made them fools, it was much the easier making them offenders.
In this very manner he acted with them through all the course of their wilderness travels; for, as they were led by the hand like children, defended by omnipotence, fed by miracles, instructed immediately from heaven, and in all things had Moses for their guide; they had no room to miscarry, but by acting the greatest absurdities, and committing the greatest follies in nature; and, even these, the Devil brought them to be guilty of, in a surprising manner. 1. As God himself relieved them in every exigence, and supplied them in every want, one would think it was impossible they should be ever brought to question either his willingness or his ability, and yet they really objected against both, which was indeed very provoking; and I doubt not, that when the Devil had brought them to act in such a preposterous manner, he really hoped and be lieved God would be provoked effectually. The testimonies of his care of them, and ability to supply them, were miraculous and undeniable; he gave them water from the rock, bread from the air, sent the fowls to feed them with flesh, and supported them all the way by miracles; their health was preserved, none were sick among them, their clothes did not wear out, nor their shoes grow old upon their feet; could anything be more absurd than to doubt, whether he could provide for them, who had never let them want for so many years?
But the Devil managed them in spite of miracles; nor did he ever give them over till he had brought six hundred thousand of them to provoke God so highly that he would not suffer above two of them to go into the land of promise; so that, in short, Satan gained his point as to that generation, for all their carcases fell in the wilderness. Let us take but a short view to what an height he brought them, and in what a rude, absurd manner they acted; how he set them upon murmuring upon every occasion, now for water, then for bread; nay, they murmured at their bread when they had it; “Our soul loaths this light bread.”
He sowed the seeds of church-rebellion in the sons of Aaron, and made Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire till they were strangely consumed by fire for the doing it.
He set them a complaining at Taberah, and a lusting for flesh at the first three days’ journey from mount Sinai.
He planted envy in the hearts of Miriam and Aaron, against the authority of Moses, to pretend God had spoken by them as well as by him, till he humbled the father, and made a leper of the daughter.
He debauched ten of the spies, frighted them with sham appearances of things, when they went out to search the land; and made them fright the whole people out of their understanding as well as duty, for which six hundred thousand of their carcases fell in the wilderness.
He raised the rebellion of Korah, and the two hundred and fifty princes, till he brought them to be swallowed up alive.
He put Moses into a passion at Meribah, and ruffled the temper of the meekest man upon earth; by which he made both him and Aaron forfeit their share of the promise, and be shut out from the holy land.
He raised a mutiny among them when they travelled from mount Hor, till they brought fiery serpents among them to destroy them.
He tried to make Balaam the prophet curse them; but there the Devil was disappointed. However, he brought the Midianites to debauch them with women, as in the case of Zimri and Cozbi.
He tempted Achan with the wedge of gold, and the Babylonish garment, that he might take off the accursed thing, and be destroyed.
He tempted the whole people, not effectually to drive out the cursed inhabitants of the land of promise, that they might remain, and be goads in their sides, till, at last, they often oppressed them for their idolatry, and, which was worse, debauched them to idolatry.
He prompted the Benjamites to refuse satisfaction to the people, in the case of the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, to the destruction of the whole tribe, six hundred men excepted in the rock Rimmon.
At last he tempted them to reject the theocracy of their Maker, and call upon Samuel to make them a king; and most of those kings he made plagues and sorrows to them in their time, as you shall hear in their order.
Thus he plagued the whole body of the people continually, making them sin against God, and bring judgments upon themselves, to the consuming some millions of them, first and last, by the vengeance of their Maker.
As he did with the whole congregation, so he did with their rulers, and several of the judges, who were made instruments to deliver the people; yet were drawn into snares by this subtle serpent, to ruin themselves, or the people they had delivered.
He tempted Gideon to make an ephod contrary to the law of the tabernacle; and made the children of Israel go a whoring (that is, a worshipping,) after it.
He tempted Samson to debauch himself with an harlot, and betray his own happy secret to a harlot, at the expense of both his eyes, and at last, of his life.
He tempted Eli’s sons to sin at the very doors of the tabernacle, when they came to bring their offerings to the priest; and he tempted poor Eli to connive at them, or not sufficiently reprove them.
He tempted the people to carry the ark of God into the camp, that it might fall into the hands of the Philistines. And
He tempted Uzzah to reach out his hand to hold it up; as if he that had preserved it in the house of Dagon the idol of the Philistines, could not keep it from falling out of the cart.
When the people had gotten a king, he immediately set to work in divers ways to bring that king to load them with plagues and calamities not a few.
He tempted Saul to spare the king of Amelek, contrary to God’s express command.
He not only tempted Saul, but possessed him with an evil spirit, by which he was left to wayward dispositions, and was forced to have it fiddled out of him with a minstrel.
He tempted Saul with a spirit of discontent, and with a spirit of envy at poor David, to hunt him like a partridge upon the mountains.
He tempted Saul with a spirit of divination, and sent him to a witch to inquire of Samuel for him; as if God would help him when he was dead, that had forsaken him when he was alive.
After that, he tempted him to kill himself, on a pretence that he might not fall into the hands of the un circnmcised; as if self-murder was not half so bad, either for sin against God, or disgrace among men, as being taken prisoner by a Philistine! A piece of madness none but the Devil could have brought mankind to submit to, though some ages after that he made it a fashion among the Romans.
After Saul was dead, and David came to the throne, by how much he was a man chosen and particularly favored by Heaven, the Devil fell upon him with the more vigor, attacked him so many ways, and conquered him so very often, that as no man was so good a king, so hardly any good king was ever a worse man; in many cases one would have almost thought the Devil had made sport with David, to show how easily he could overthrow the best man God could choose of the whole congregation.
He made him distrust his benefactor
