CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

¹2. The trouble of Gods people in this world ariseth from Satan; He is their professed Enemy, and so creates them all the misery he can, that because he cannot torment them in hell he will do what he can in this world; Thus Peter compareth him to a Roaring Lion, 2 Pet. 5.8. How can a man but be troubled to be in the danger of many Legions of these unclean Spirits, Eph. 6. We are said to wrestle with these Principalities and Powers in darkness; This our Saviour meant in part when he told Peter, Luk. 22.13. That Satan had desired to sift them as Wheat; In sifting there is a commotion and a great agitation; Thus the devil intended not the separating of the Chaff from the Wheat, but ⟨p. 285⟩to trouble and to confound them, that so they might the easier sin; Was not Paul exceedingly troubled when 2 Cor. 12. he complaineth of the buffering of Satan, against which he prayed often, so that there is scarce any godly man but the devil doth immediately cause trouble in his Soul by sad temptations, heavy suggestions, he comes and takes the good Seed away as soon as it is sown, his Temptations are like so many Egyptian Frogs, always croaking and troubling the Believer that he cannot pray, cannot believe in a promise, cannot walk in faith and peace as he ought to do, The devil makes it a troublesome world.

¹2. The trouble of Gods people in this world ariseth from Satan; He is their professed Enemy, and so creates them all the misery he can, that because he cannot torment them in hell he will do what he can in this world; Thus Peter compareth him to a Roaring Lion, 2 Pet. 5.8. How can a man but be troubled to be in the danger of many Legions of these unclean Spirits, Eph. 6. We are said to wrestle with these Principalities and Powers in darknesse; This our Saviour meant in part when he told Peter,