Part 2 - Satan's Subtlety as A TEMPTER TO SIN Briefly Applied

  

Use Second.  Is Satan so subtle?  O then, think not to be too cunning for the devil, he will be too hard for thee at last.  Sin not with thoughts of an after-repentance; it is possible thou meanest this at present, but dost thou think, who sits down to play with this cheater, to draw out thy stock when thou pleasest?  Alas, poor wretch! he has a thousand devices to carry thee on, and engage thee deeper, till he hath not left thee any tenderness in thy conscience.  As some have been served at play, intending to venture only a shilling or two, yet have by the secret witchery in gaming, played the very clothes off their back before they had done,—O how many have thus sinned away all their principles, yea, profession itself, that they have not so much as this cloak left, but walk naked to their shame!  [They are] like chil­dren, who, got into a boat, think to play near the shore, but are unawares by a violent gust carried down to the wide sea.  O how know you that dally with Satan, but that at last you may (who begin mod­estly) be carried down to the broad sea of profane­ness?  Some men are so subtle to over-reach, and so cruel when they get men into their hands, that a man had better beg his bread than borrow of them.  Such a merchant is Satan, cunning to insinuate, and get the creature into his books, and when he hath him on the hip, [there is] no more mercy to be had at his hand than the lamb may expect from the ravenous wolf.      

   Use Third.  Study his wiles, and acquaint thyself with Satan's policy.  Paul takes it for granted, that every saint doth in some measure understand them; ‘We are not ignorant of his devices,’ II Cor. 2:11.  He is but an ill fencer that knows and observes noth­ing of his enemy's play.  Many particular stratagems I have laid down already which may help a little, and for thy direction in this study of, and inquiry into, Satan's wiles, take the threefold counsel.

             1. Take God into thy counsel.  Heaven overlooks hell.  God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee.  Consider Satan as he is God's creature; so God cannot but know him.  He that makes the watch, knows every pin in it.  He formed this crooked serpent, though not the crookedness of this serpent; and though Satan's way in tempting is as wonderful as the way of a serpent on a rock, yet God traceth him, yea, knows all his thoughts together.  Hell itself is naked before him; and this destroyer hath no covering.  Again, consider him as God's prisoner, who hath him fast in chains, and so the Lord, who is his keeper, must needs know whither his prisoner goes, who cannot stir without his leave.  Lastly, consider him as his messenger, for so he is.  An evil spirit from the Lord vexed Saul, and he that gives him his errand, is able to tell thee what it is.  Go then and plough with God's heifer; improve thy interest with Christ, who knows what his Father knows, and is ready to reveal all that concerns thee to thee, John 15:15.  It was he who de­scribed the devil coming against Peter and the rest of the apostles, and faithfully revealed it to them, before they thought of any such matter, Luke 22.  Through Christ's hands passes all that is transacted in heaven hell.  We live in days of great actions, deep counsels, and plots on all sides, and only a few that stand on the upper end of the world know these mysteries of state; all the rest know little more than pamphlet intelligence.  Thus it is in regard of those plots which Satan in his infernal conclave is laying against the souls of men; they are but a few that know anything to purpose of Satan's designs against them; and those are the saints, from whom God cannot hide his own counsels of love, but sends his Spirit to reveal unto them here, what he hath prepared for them in heaven, I Cor. 2:10, and therefore much less will he conceal any destructive plot of Satan from them.

             2. Be intimately acquainted with thy own heart, and thou wilt the better know his design against thee, who takes his method of tempting from the inclination and posture of thy heart.  As a general walks about the city, and views it well, and then raiseth his batteries where he hath the greatest advantage, so doth Satan compass and consider the Christian in every part before he tempts.

             3. Be careful to read the word of God with obs­ervation.  In it thou hast the history of the most remarkable battles that have been fought by the most eminent worthies in Christ's army of saints with this great warrior Satan.  Here thou mayest see how Satan hath foiled them, and how they have recovered their lost ground.  Here you have his cabinet‑counsels opened.  There is not a lust which you are in danger of, but you have it described; not a temptation which the Word doth not arm you against.  It is reported that a certain Jew should have poisoned Luther, but was happily prevented by his picture which was sent to Luther, with a warning from a faithful friend that he should take heed of such a man when he saw him, by which he knew the murderer, and escaped his hands.  The Word shows thee, O Christian, the face of those lusts which Satan employs to butcher thy precious soul. 

‘By them thy servant is warned,’ saith David, Ps. 19:11.