That is, he catches poor simple deluded souls as a Fow∣ler catches the bird with casting baits that are pleasing un∣to the bird,* 1.1 hiding from the bird the snare that presently comes upon it: so saith he, the Watchmen of Ephraim do thus, First they come to the people with very fair and spe∣cious things, and labor to drop in those principles, and do not discover what inferences they intend to make of them afterwards, they do not discover what designs they have, and what their scope is, for the present they come to them, and desire them to yeeld to such things that seem to be as fair as any thing in the world, and with much pretence that it is only for their good, and they intend nothing but good, now when they have brought them to yeeld to such things, they know that there are some infe∣rences to be brought from those things that will make them to yeeld to other things, which had they been pre∣sented to them at first, they would never have yeelded to, but the inferences lay at a distance as the snare doth, and they not seeing what would follow they are brought to yield to such things, that afterwards they cannot tell how in the world to avoid, but they must yeeld to further things: thus the Watchman is as a snare of a Fowler, that laies things that seem to be very plausible at first, but intend afterwards to bring the people to yeeld to other things that would be abhorred if at first they were presented to them.
Good people,* 1.2 as long as you live take heed of the snares of Watch-men in this kind. God would not have you