The saint’s enemy described BY THEIR UNITY 2/2

3.  (2.) Darts or arrows, they make little or no noise as they go.  They cut their passage through the air, without telling us by any crack or report, as the can­non doth, that they are coming.  Thus insensibly doth temptation make its approach;—the thief is in before we think of any need to shut the doors.  The wind is a creature secret in its motion, of which our Saviour saith, ‘We know not whence it cometh and whither it goeth,’ John 3:8, yet, ‘we hear the sound thereof,’ as our Saviour saith in the same place.  But temptations many times come and give us no warning by any sound they make.  The devil lays his plot so close, that the soul sees not his drift, observes not the hook till he finds it in his belly.  As the woman of Tekoah told her tale so handsomely, that the king passeth judgement against himself in the person of another before he smelt out the business.
   3. Darts have a wounding killing nature, espe­cially when well headed and shot out of a strong bow by one that is able to draw it.  Such are Satan’s temp­tations—headed with desperate malice, and drawn by a strength no less than angelical; and this against so poor a weak creature as man, that it were impossible, had not God provided good armour for our soul, to outstand Satan’s power and get safe to heaven. Christ would have us sensible of their force and danger, by that petition in his  prayer which the best of saints on this side heaven have need to use—‘Lead us not into temptation.’  Christ was then but newly out of the list, where he had tasted Satan’s tempting skill and strength; which, though beneath his wisdom and pow­er to defeat, yet well he knew it was able to worst the strongest of saints.  There was never any besides Christ that Satan did not foil more or less.  It was Christ’s prerogative to be tempted, but not lead into temptation.  Job, one of the chief worthies in God’s army of saints, who, from God’s mouth, is a none­such, yet was galled by these arrows shot from Satan’s bow, and put to great disorder.  God was fain to pluck him out of the devil’s grip, or else he would have been quite worried by that lion.
              Second.  Satan’s warlike provision is not only darts, but ‘fiery darts.’  Some restrain these fiery darts to some particular kind of temptation, as despair, blasphemy, and those which fill the heart with terror and horror.  But this, I conceive, is too strait; but faith is a shield for all kind of temptations—and indeed there is none but may prove a ‘fiery’ tempta­tion; so that I should rather incline to think all sorts of temptations to be comprehended here, yet so as to respect some in an especial manner more than others. These shall be afterwards instanced in.
              Question.  Why are Satan’s darts called fiery ones?
              Answer 1.  They may be said to be ‘fiery,’ in re­gard of that fiery wrath with which Satan shoots them. They are the fire this dragon spits, full of indignation against God and his saints.  Saul, it is said, ‘breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,’ Acts 9:1.  As one that is inwardly inflamed, his breath is hot—a fiery stream of persecuting wrath came as out of a burning furnace from him.  Tempta­tions are the breathings of the devil’s wrath.
              Answer 2.  They may be said to be ‘fiery,’ in re­gard of the end they lead to, if not quenched; and that is hell-fire.  There is a spark of hell in every tempta­tion; and all sparks fly to their element.  So all temp­tations tend to hell and damnation, according to Sa­tan’s intent and purpose.
              Answer 3.  And chiefly they may be said to be ‘fiery,’ in regard of that malignant quality they have on the spirits of men—and that is to enkindle a fire in the heart and consciences of poor creatures.  The apostle alludes to the custom of cruel enemies, who used to dip the heads of their arrows in some poison, whereby they became more deadly, and did not only wound the part where they lighted, but inflamed the whole body, which made the cure more difficult.  Job speaks of ‘the poison of them which drank up his spirits,’ Job 6:4.  They have an envenoming and inflaming quality.

The saint’s enemy described BY THEIR UNITY 1/2

SECOND.  The saint’s enemy is set out by their unity—‘fiery darts of the wicked’—J@Ø B@<ZD@Ø ‘of the wicked one.’  It is as if all were shot out of the same bow, and by the same hand; as if the Christian’s fight were a single duel with one single enemy.  All the legions of devils, and multitudes of wicked men and women, make but one great enemy.  They are all one mystical body of wickedness; as Christ and his saints [are] one mystical holy body.  One Spirit acts Christ and his saints; so one spirit acts devils, and ungodly men his limbs.  The soul is in the little toe; and the spirit of the devil in the least of sinners.  But I have spoken something of this subject elsewhere.  The saint’s enemy described by their warlike provision

           THIRD.  The saint’s enemy is here described by their warlike furniture and provision with which they take the field against the saints—‘darts,’ and those of the worst kind, ‘fiery darts.’

           First. Darts.  The devil’s temptations are the darts he useth against the souls of men and women. They may fitly be so called in a threefold respect.

1. Darts or arrows are swift.  Thence is our usual expression, ‘As swift as an arrow out of a bow.’  Light­ning is called God’s arrow, because it flies swiftly.  ‘He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them,’ Ps. 18:14, that is, lightning like arrows.  Satan’s temptations flee like a flash of lightning—not long of coming.  He needs no more time than the cast of an eye for the despatch of a temptation.  David’s eye did but una­wares fall upon Bathsheba, and the devil’s arrow was in his heart before he could shut his casement.  Or the hearing of a word or two [will suffice].  Thus, when David's servants had told what Nabal the churl said, David's choler was presently up—an arrow of revenge wounded him to the heart.  What quicker than a thought?  Yet how oft is that a temptation to us? one silly thought riseth in a duty, and our hearts, before intent upon the work, are on a sudden carried away, like a spaniel after a bird that springs up before him as he goes after his master.  Yea, if one tempta­tion speeds not, how soon can he send another after it!—as quick as the nimblest archer.  No sooner than one arrow is delivered, but he hath another on the string.
2. Darts or arrows fly secretly.  And so do temptations.

           (1.) The arrow oft comes afar off.  A man may be wounded with a dart and not see who shot it.  The wicked are said, to shoot their arrows ‘in secret at the perfect,’ and then, ‘they say, Who shall see them?’ Ps 64:4, 5.  Thus Satan lets fly a temptation.  Sometimes he useth a wife’s tongue to do his errand; another while he gets behind the back of a husband, friend, servant, &c., and is not seen all the while he is doing his work.  Who would have thought to have found a devil in Peter tempting his master, or suspected that Abraham should be his instrument to betray his be­loved wife into the hands of a sin?  Yet it was so. Nay, sometimes he is so secret that he borrows God’s bow to shoot his arrows from, and the poor Christian is abused, thinking it is God chides and is angry, when it is the devil that tempts him to think so, and only counterfeits God’s voice.  Job cries out of ‘the arrows of the Almighty,’ how ‘the poison of them drank up his spirit,’ and of ‘the terrors of God that did set themselves in array against him,’ Job 6:4, when it was Satan all the while that was practicing his malice and playing his pranks upon him.  God was friends with this good man, only Satan begged leave—and God gave it for a time—thus to affright him.  And poor Job cries out, as if God had cast him off and were become his enemy.