Part 2- Satan's Subtlety In Managing His Temptations, Where Several Stratagems Used By Him To Deceive The Christian Are Laid Down

3. Stratagem.  In his gradual approaches to the soul.  When he comes to tempt, he is modest, and asks but a little; he know that he may get that at many times, which he should be denied if he asked all at once.  A few are let into a city, when an army coming in a body would be shut out; and therefore that he may beget no suspicion, he presents may be a few general propositions, which do not discover the depth of his plot.  These like scouts go before, while his whole body lies hid as it were in some swamp at hand.  Thus he wriggled into Eve's bosom, whom he doth not, at first dash, bid take and eat.  No, he is more mannerly than do so.  This would have been so hideous, that as the fish with some sudden noise, by a stone cast into the river, is scared from the bait, so she would have been affrighted from holding parley with such a one.  No, he propounds a question which shall make way for this.  Hath God said? art [thou] not mistaken?  Could this be his meaning, whose bounty lets thee eat of the rest, to deny thee the best of all?  Thus he digs about and loosens the root of her faith, and then the tree falls the easier the next gust of temptation.  This is a dangerous policy indeed.  Many have yielded to go a mile with Satan, that never intended to go two; but when once on the way, they have been allured farther and farther, till at last they know not how to leave his company.   

 Thus Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs, that let them not see the bottom whither they are going.  He first presents an object that occasions some thoughts; these set on fire the affections, and they fume up into the brain, and cloud the understanding, which being thus dis­abled, Satan now dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it even now have defied.  Many who at this day lie in open pro­faneness, never thought they should have rolled so far from their profession; but Satan beguiled them, poor souls, with their modest beginnings.  O Christian, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions.  He that is a beggar and a modest one with­out doors, will command the house if let in.  Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn, the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance.

 Stratagem.  The fourth way, wherein Satan shows his subtlety in managing his temptations, is in his reserves.  A wise captain hath ever some fresh troops at hand, to fall in at a pinch when others are worsted.  Satan is seldom at a loss in this respect; when one temptation is beat back, he soon hath another to fill up the gap, and make good the line.

             Thus he tempts Christ to diffidence and distrust, by bidding him turn stones into bread, as if it were now time to carve for himself, being so long neglected of his Father, as to fast forty days, and no supplies heard of.  No sooner had Christ quenched this dart with these words, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,’ Matt. 4:4, but he hath another on the string, which he let fly to him, tempting him to presumption.  ‘Then the devil taketh him up and setteth him on a pinnacle,’ and bids, ‘Cast thyself down headlong; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee,’ &c., ver. 5, 6.  As if he had said, If thou hast such confidence on God and his Word, as thou pretendest, show it by casting thyself down, for thou hast a word between thee and the ground, if thou darest trust God.  And truly, though Christ had his answer ready, and was prepared to receive his charge on the right hand and on the left, being so completely armed that no temptation could come amiss, yet note we, [that] Satan's temptations on Christ were like the serpents motion on a rock, of which Solomon speaks, Prov. 30:19.  They make no impression, no dint at all; but on us they are as a serpent on sand, or dust, that leaves a print, when not in the heart yet in the fancy—colours that which is next door to it, and so the object there is ready to slip in, if great care be not observed.  Especially in this case when he doth thus change his hand, as when we have resisted one way, falls afresh in another, yea, plants his succeeding temptation upon our very resistance in the former.

             Now it requires some readiness in our postures, and skill at all our weapons, to make our defence; like a disputant, when he is put out of his road, and hath a new question started, or argument unusual brought, now he is tried to purpose.  And truly this is Satan's way when he tempts the Christian to neglect of [the] duties of God's worship (from his worldly occasions, the multitude of them, or necessity of fol­lowing them); and this takes not, then he is on the other side, and is drawing the Christian to the neglect of his worldly calling, out of a seeming zeal to promote his other in the worship of God.  Or first, he comes and labours to deaden the heart in duty, but the Christian too watchful for him there, then he is puffing of him up with an opinion of his enlargement in it, and ever he keep his sliest and most sublimated temptations for the last.

5. Stratagem.  In his politic retreats.  You shall have an enemy fly as [if] overcome, when it is on a design of overcoming.  This was Joshua's wile, by which he caught the men of Ai in a trap, Josh. 8.  We read not only of Satan's being cast out, but of the un­clean spirit going out voluntarily, yet with a purpose to come again, and bring worse company with him, Matt. 12:43.  Satan is not always beat back by the dint and power of conquering grace, but sometimes he draws off, and raiseth his own siege, the more handsomely to get the Christian out of his fastnesses and trenches, that so he may snap him on the plains, whom he cannot come at in his works and fortifi­cations.  Temptations send the saint to his castle, as the sight of the dog doth the coney to her burrow. Now the soul walks the rounds, stands upon its guard, dares not neglect duty, because the enemy is under its very walls, shutting in his temptations continually; but when Satan seems to give the soul over, and the Christian finds he is not haunted, with such motions as formerly, truly now he is prone to remit in his diligence, fail in his duty, and grow either unfrequent or formal therein; as the Romans, whose valour decayed for want of the Carthaginian troops to alarm them.  Let Satan tempt or not tempt, assault or retreat, keep thou in order, stand in a fighting posture, let his flight strengthen thy faith, but not weak­en thy care.  The Parthians do their enemy most hurt in their flight, shooting their darts as they run, and so may Satan do thee, if thy seeming victory makes thee secure.