Defensive Armor Against Four of Satans Most Fiery Darts, Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
The Tempters in this Temptation, The Devil, our own Luſts, the World. How they ſeverally work in the enforcement of this Temptation. The Men of the World, eſpecially Teachers of Falſhood, have a very great Cauſation in theſe Temptations.
I Have heretofore told you, That every Motion to Sin (come it from whom it will, and in what degree it will) is a Temptation, tho according to our common way of ſpeaking, we onelyonly call ſuch motions Temptations when they are Violent and Impetuous. Now in regard we may be moved to Sin, from the Devil, or from the World, or from our own Luſts; there are three Principal Tempters againſt whom the good Fight is to be managed. The World, The Fleſh, and the Devil. As to this particular Temptation, it may be from all three, or any of them.
1. Such a Temptation may be, and often is from the Devil; he is the Deſtroyer, and he goeth about like a roaring Lyon, ſeeking whom he may devour: He Tempts to Atheiſtical and Blaſphemous Thoughts, to Self-Murther, to Deſpair; but theſe are his Back-Game, which he ſeldome or never playeth with the Soul until he ſeeth his Fore-Game loſt. So long as he can perſwade a Soul to go on in a courſe of Sin, and yet flatter it ſelf with Peace and Hope of its Salvation, or confidence as to it, he will never perſwade it to Deſpair or Self-Murther; the other Temptation doth his buſineſs with far leſs noiſe, and the effect of it will be every whit as certain, if not more: Who would fight his Enemy if he can kill him with a ſleeping Potion? Now if you ask me how the Devil worketh here? I Anſwer either more Immediately or more Mediately. More Immediately, by Impreſſing Notions in our Minds, which believed, will raiſe up ſuch confidences in us: Mediately, making uſe of others to ſuggeſt ſuch Notions to us and to perſwade us to imbrace them. If once the Devil can Imprint ſuch Notions upon our Souls as theſe, That God will ſave all his Creatures, or all theſe that are Baptized, or all that are abſolved and take the Sacrament when they die, &c. or an hundred ſuch like; and either by the force of his Impreſſions, or by the Swaſions and Suggeſtions of others, induce Men to believe them, he hath done his Work.
2. Such a Temptation may be from our own Luſt: Luſt in the general notion of it, is nothing elſe but inordinate deſire, whether it be the deſire of a thing which God hath forbidden us (ſuch was Eves deſire of the forbiden Fruit) or an unlawlawful irregular deſire of ſomething which under due Circumſtances or in a lawful manner we might have our Appetite carried out after. The Peace and Quiet of our Spirits is a good thing, and the true object of a good Chriſtians deſire; but when a Man or Woman deſires to obtain it any way and by any means, this is Luſt. Now by this Luſt Men are tempted and enticed to Preſumption, to hatch up a confidence, a groundleſs confidence in their Hearts, that they are in Favour with God, and when they die, ſhall go to Heaven; &c. tho they have no juſt ground for any ſuch hope or confidence: Every Man Naturally wiſheth well to himſelf, and hath no inclination to prophecy evil unto himſelf: No Man loves to live under a conſtant awe and fear of ſuch a thing as having his portion for ever in a Lake, burning with Fire and Brimſtone, and from his eager deſire to be free from ſuch a Torment conjoyned. 2. With a deſire not to deny himſelf in ſenſual ſatisfactions, proceedeth this Temptation to lay hold upon any thing that may give him any colourable pretence to hope for a better Portion; and thus this Temptation may be from our Lust, as St. James ſaith, Every Man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own Luſt and enticed. The poor Sinner hath a deſire to wallow in his Luſts and to enjoy himſelf in the gratifying of his Senſes, and withal he hath no deſire to be in the middeſt of his Cupps frighted as Belſhazzar, with a Mene, Mene; nor troubled with the ſowre reflections of a Guilty and Condemning Conſcience: Hence he is enticed to Perſume to lay hold upon ſome Hope, and to poſſeſs himſelf with ſome confidence, that what ever Miniſters ſay, he may walk in the Imaginations of his Heart, and add Drunkenneſs to Thirſt, and yet have Peace.
3. Such a Temptation, may be from the World, the Things of the World, or the Men of the World: The Things of the World, they are but Mute inoperative Tempters. They are gay and gliſtering to a ſenſual Eye: Fiſtula dulce canit: Like Eves forbidden Fruit. When the Woman ſaw that the Tree was good for Food, and that it was pleaſant to the Eye; ſhe took of the Fruit. The unſanctified heart looks upon theſe things, and ſaith, ſhall I leave all my ſatisfaction in Pleaſure, unlawful gain, &c. in hope of an unſeen reward? But indeed here Luſt is the Tempter; of which I ſpake before. The Men of the World have a greater Cauſation, both the falſe Prophet, and the falſe Friend or Brother perſwading Souls to truſt in Lies, to drink in Notions which are falſe, and otherwiſe repreſenting the Will of God to People as to Pardon of Sin, and Eternal Life and Salvation, then indeed it is. Such a generation there was of old, Ahab's Three hundred falſe Prophets, bad him go up to Ramoth Gilead and proſper Hananiah perſwaded the Kings and Princes of Iſrael, that God would break the Yoke of the King of Babylon; Jer. 28. 11. You read of others, Jer. 29. 31. Shemajah Propheſied and cauſed the People to truſt in a Lie. There were Prophets in Samaria, That cauſed Iſrael to Err, Jerem. 23. 13. that made People vain, ſpake Viſions out of their own Heart and not out of the Mouth of the Lord, That ſaid to thoſe that deſpiſed the Lord, The Lord hath ſaid you ſhall have Peace: and to every one that walked after the Imaginations of his own Heart, No Evil ſhall come unto you: That daubed with untempered Mortar, Ezek. 22. 28. That cryed Peace, Peace, when there was no Peace. There were ſuch in Chriſts and in the Apoſtles times, that taught another way of Salvation, then what they taught: This hath been the great Art of the Papiſts, to Interpret the Law and Will of God, with reference to Mans Salvation, into ſuch a ſenſe, as it might conſiſt with a ſatisfaction of Mens Luſts; ſo as Men might keep their Luſts, and yet go to Heaven by a few external good Works; parting with a little money, or the like. The falſe Teacher hath an eminent Cauſation in theſe Temptations, he cauſeth People to truſt in a lie: So that in Temptations of this Nature all our three Spiritual Enemies have great Parts.