9th Rock of support. Tiie saints' temp- tation shall not be above their strength. The lutenist will not stretch the strings of his lute too hard lest they break, 1 Cor. x. 13., " God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye arc able" God will proportion our strength to the stroke, 2 Cor. xii. 9., " My grace is suffi- cient for thee." The torch-light of faith shall be kept burning, notwithstanding all the winds of temptation blowing.
loth Rock of support. These tempta- tions shall produce much good.
1. They shall quicken a spirit of prayer in tbe saints, they shall pray more and bet- ter ; temptation is orationes stabellam, the exciter of prayer; perhaps, before, the saints came to God as cold suitors in prayer, they prayed as if they prayed not. Temptation is a medicine for security ; when Paul had a messenger of Satan to buifet him he was more earnest in prayer, 2 Cor. xii. 8., " For this thing I besought the Lord thrice ;" the thorn in his flesh was a spur in his sides to quicken him in prayer. The deer being shot with the dart, runs faster to the water : when a soul is shot with the fiery darts of temptation, he runs the faster to the throne of grace, — now he is earnest with God, ei- ther to take off the tempter, or to stand by him when he is tempted.
2. God makes the temptation to sin a means to j)revent sin. The more a Chris- tian is tempted, the more he fights against the ten ptation ; the more a chaste woman is assaulted, the more she abhors the mo- sion ; the stronger Joseph's temptation was, the stronger was his opposition ; the more the enemy attempts to storm a castle, the more he is repelled and beat back.
3. A godly man's tem])tations cause the mcrease of grace. Unus Christianus iemp- tatus mille, — ' one tem])ted Christian (saith Luther) is worth a thousand.' lie grows more in grace ; as the bellows increaseth the flame, so the bellows of a temptation doth increase the flame of grace.
4. By these temptations God makes way for comfort; as Christ after he was tempt- ed, the " angels came and ministered unto him," Mat. iv. 11. As, when Abraham had been warring, Melchizedek brought him bread and wine to revive his spirits, Gen. xiv. 18. So, after the saints have been warring with Satan, now God sends his Spirit to comfort them; which made Lu- ther say, that temptations were amplexus Christie ' Christ's embraces,' because he doth then most sweetly manifest himself to the soul. Thus you see what rocks of sup- port there are for tempted souls. That 1 may further comfort such as are tempted, let me speak to two cases of the tempted.
ist Case. / have horrid temptations to blasphemy.
Ans, Did not the devil tempt Christ after this manner. Mat. iv. 9., " All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me ?" What greater blas])hemy can be imagined, than that the God of hea- ven and earth should worship the devil ? Yet Christ was tempted to this. If when blasphemous thoughts are injected, you tremble at them, and are in a cold sweat, they are not yours, Satan shall answer for them ; let him that plots the ti'eason, sufler.
2d Case. But my case is yet worse ; I have been tempted to such sins, and liave yielded ; the tempter hath overcome me.
Ans. I grant, that, through the withdraw- ing of God's grace, and the force of a temp- tation, a child of God may be overcome. David was overcome bv a temptation in the case of Bathsheba, and numbering the peo- ple. There is a party of grace in the heart, true to Christ; but sometimes it may be o- ver-voted by corruption, and then a Chris- tian yields; it is sad thus to yield to the tempter. But yet let not a child of God be wholly discouraged, and say there is no hope: let me pour in some balm of Gilead into this wounded soul.
1. Though a Christian may fall by a temptation, yet the seed of God is in him, 1 John iii. 9., " His seed remaineth in him." Gratia concutitur non executitur, Aug. A man may be bruised by a fall yet there is life in him : a Christian, being foiled by Satan, may be like him, who going to Jeri- cho, fell among thieves, " Avounded and
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half dead," Luke x. 30. But still there is a vital principle of grace, his seed remains in him.
2. Though a child of God may be over- come in prcelio, in a skirmish, — yet not in hello.) in the main battle ; an army may be worsted in a skirmish, but may overcome at last. Though Satan may foil a child of God in a skirmish by a temptation, yet the believer shall overcome at last ; a saint may be foiled, not conquered, — he may lose ground, not lose the victory.