[ 1645] Pride, a main Engine of the Devill.
AS when a City or a Castle is besieged,* 1.1 amongst other stratagems and de∣vices, Men use to undermine the Foundation, and blow it up with Gunpow∣der, that being (as they think) the surest way to gain it: So the Devill laying battery to the Fort of Mans Soul, undermines it, and puts the Gunpowder of Pride into it, knowing that as he himself was blown up, so will that pretious Fortresse be easily scaled, if that powder once take fire in it: And as those that fish with nets in standing Rivers, where they pitch down their net, do blunder and trouble the water,* 1.2 that the Fish may not see the net, and then with poles beat and dash the streams above, to drive the Fish into the net; So Satan setting the net of disobedience, muds and troubles the heart of Man by Pride, and so beats him down the stream of his own affections, till he have caught him in his deadly Net of destruction.