A57963:586
Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself
Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soul-suffering, his loveliness in his death, and the efficacy thereof in which some cases of soul-trouble in week believers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford.Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soule-suffering, his lovelynesse in his death, and the efficacie thereof in which some cases of soule-trouble in weeke beleevers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford.
London: printed by J.D. for Andrew Crooke, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
It is (no question) hard enough to give an exact delineation of the length and breadth of the borders of the Princedom of Satan; nor is it necessary, for our edification, to know all the secrets and mysteries of the Devils Power, how he assumeth a body, what he can do in the sphere of nature, how he acts upon men: Sure, he hath some in his snare, as poor birds, who are taken captives by him, at his will, 2 Tim. 2.26. and that he sitteth at the helm, as it were, of some, and acts and stirreth them so, the wind and tide of their lusts complying with him, that they cannot choose but sail, and walk according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, Ephes. 2.2. And that he can borrow tide and fair wind at his nod, and woe the soul by the shop and office-house, the body, the flesh, the senses; and reciprocally, act, indirectly, by foreign Embassies and missive Letters, on the will and understanding, and the lusts, that are domestic friends within, to draw in the senses, and the fancies and imagination, to join with him; as is clear in his first dealing with Eve. It is not his way to deal with the senses only, or with reason only, or to keep such a method, as peremptorily to begin at one before another; but in Satan's first temptation of Eve, he acteth collaterally and reciprocally; he acteth on the ear, by speaking; ⟨p. 213⟩and on the mind, by speaking reason; Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree? Doth he so strictly tie you?1 Is that reason and justice, to put a Law on an Apple? Then you may not eat of every tree, which God hath made for eating. And Satan worketh on the sense by reason, Gen. 3.5. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil. And this wrought upon the sense; for its added, Vers. 6. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food. And again, by the sense of seeing, Satan wrought on the will, to bring out the consent; Vers. 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.