WILES AND TEMPTATIONS
"There has no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."1 Corinthians 10:13.
THE
Devil's dupes. Many have yielded to go a mile with
Satan, that never intended to go two. 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: first, he presents an object that occasions some thoughts, these
set the affections on fire, and these fume up into the brain and cloud the
understanding, which, being thus disabled, now Satan dares a little more
declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it would otherwise
have defied. 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.
The devil teaches
sinners to cover foul practices with fair names — superstition must be styled
devotion; covetousness, thrift; pride in apparel, handsomeness; looseness,
liberty; and madness, mirth.
The
Devil's wiles. Satan makes choice of such as have a
great name for holiness: none like a live bird to draw other birds into the
net. Abraham tempts his wife to lie: "Say thou art my sister." The
old prophet leads the man of God out of his way (1 Kings 13).
Under the skirt of
Christian liberty Satan conveys in libertinism; by crying up the Spirit he
decries and vilifies the Scripture; by magnifying faith, he labours to
undermine repentance and blow up good works.
If Satan get into thy
spirit and defile it, O, how hard wilt thou find it to stay there? Thou hast
already sipped of his broth, and now are more likely to sit down and make thy
full meal of that, which by tasting has vitiated thy palate already.
When you hear one
commend another for a wise or good man, and at last come in with a
"but" that dasheth all, you will easily think he is no friend to the
man, but some sly enemy, that by seeming to commend, desires to disgrace the
more. Thus, when you find God represented to you as merciful and gracious, but
not to such a great sinner as you; to have power and strength, but not able to
save thee; you may say, Avaunt, Satan, thy speech bewrayeth thee.
When the flesh or
Satan beg time of thee, it is to steal time from thee. They
put thee off prayer at one time, to shut thee out at last from prayer at any
time.
What day in all the
year is inconvenient to Satan? What place or company art thou in, that he
cannot make a snare for thy soul?
Satan knows what
orders thou keepest in thy house and closet; and though he has not a key to thy
heart, yet he can stand in the next room to it, and lightly hear what is
whispered there. If once he doth but smell which way thy heart inclines, he
knows how to take the hint; if but one door is unbolted, here is advantage
enough.
The
occasion of temptation. The
least passage of thy life may prove an occasion of sin to thee: at what a
little wicket many times a great sin enters! David's eye did but casually light
on Bathsheba, and the good man's foot was presently in the devil's trap: hast
thou not then need to pray that God would set a guard about thy senses wherever
thou goest, and to cry with him, "Keep back mine eyes from beholding
vanity"?
It should be our
care, if we would not yield to the sin, not to walk by, or sit at the door of
the occasion: parley not with that in thy thoughts, which thou meanest not to
let into thy heart. If we mean not to be burnt, let us not walk upon the coals
of temptation. Thou temptest God to suffer thy locks to be cut, when thou art
so bold as to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation.
Set a strong guard
about thy outward senses: these are Satan's landing-places, especially the eye
and the ear. Take heed what thou importest at these; vain discourse seldom
passeth without leaving some tincture upon the heart. And for thy eye, let it
not wander; wanton objects cause wanton thoughts. Job knew his eye and his
thoughts were like to go together, and therefore to secure one he covenants
with the other (Job 31:1).
The haft of Satan's
hatchet, with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christian's comfort, is
commonly made of the Christian's wood. First, he tempts to sin, and then for
it. Satan is but a creature, and cannot work without tools; he can indeed make
much of little, but not anything of nothing, as we see in his assaulting of
Christ, where he troubled himself to little purpose, because he came and found
nothing in Him (John 14:30). Though the devil throws the stone,
it is the mud in us that disturbs our comfort.
Be sure thou art
watchful more than ordinary over thyself, in those things where thou findest
thyself weakest and hast been oftenest foiled. The weakest part of a city needs
the strongest guard.
The devil would tempt
Christ when he "shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world," and
promised them all to Him, if He would "fall down and worship Him."
Everyone that by unrighteousness doth seek the world's pelf goes to the devil
for it, and doth worship him in effect. How much better it is to have poverty
from God than riches from the devil! A temptation comes strong, when the way to
relief seems to lie through the sin that Satan is wooing to: when one is poor,
and Satan comes, "What, wilt starve rather than step over the hedge, and
steal for thy supply?" This is enough to put flesh and blood to the stand.
Deliverance
from temptation. What says thy soul,
when God hedgeth up thy way, and keeps thee from that sin which Satan has been
soliciting for? If on Christ's side, thou wilt rejoice when thou art delivered
out of a temptation, though it be by falling into an affliction.
Christian, it is ill
done of thee to make a breach in thy holy course, by tampering with any sin;
but thou wilt commit a greater if thou turnest thy back on God also when thou
shouldst humble thyself for thy former sin. Thou hast fallen into sin in the
day, wilt thou not, therefore, pray at night? Take heed thou run not farther
into temptation. Now is the time for the devil to set upon thee, when the
weapon of prayer is out of thy hand. The best thou canst look for is a storm
from God to bring thee back again, and the sooner it comes the more merciful He
is to thee.
"Watch and
pray," says our Saviour, "that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). They, not keeping this pass, gave
the enemy, Satan, a fair occasion to come in upon them; and as they were led
into temptation by neglect of prayer, so they were rescued and led out of it
again by Christ's prayer, which He mercifully laid in beforehand for them:
"I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
Let this encourage
thee, O Christian, in thy conflict with Satan; the skirmish may be sharp, but
it cannot be long. The cloud, while it drops, is rolling over thy head, and
then comes fair weather, and eternal sunshine of glory.
Thou canst not be long
off thy watch, but the devil will hear on it. The devil knew the apostle's
sleeping time, and then he desires leave to winnow them (Luke 22). The thief riseth when honest men go
to bed. The devil begins to tempt when saints cease to watch. . . . The saint's
sleeping time is Satan's tempting time; every fly dares venture to creep on a
sleeping lion. No temptation so weak but is strong enough to foil a Christian
that is napping in security. Samson asleep, and Delilah cut his locks. Saul
asleep, and the spear is taken away from his very side, and he never the wiser.
Noah asleep, and his graceless son has a fit time to discover his father's
nakedness. Eutychus asleep, nods, and falls from the third loft, and is taken
up for dead. The Christian asleep may soon lose his spiritual strength, be
robbed of his spear, and his nakedness discovered by graceless men, to the
shame of his profession. Yea, he may fall from a high loft of profession, so
low, into scandalous practices, that others may question whether there be any
life of grace in him.
The Christian's
safety lies in resisting. All the armour provided is to defend the Christian
fighting, none to secure him flying; stand, and the day is ours; fly, or yield,
and all is lost.
