to carry the town than in snch a low condition ? and therefore he tries them all. Indeed, the advantages are so many, that we may wonder how the young conv-ert escapes with his life ; knowledge weak, and so soon led into an error, especially in divided times ; when many ways are held forth, one saying, Here is Christ : another. There is Christ; and the Christian ready to think every one means honestly that comes with good words ; as a little child, that liath lost his way to his father's house, is prone to foHow any that oifer him their conduct. Experience of what he knows little ; and if Adam, wliose knowledge was so perfect, yet was soon cheated, (being assaulted before he was well warm in his new possessions,) how much more advantage hath Satan of the new convert, in whom he finds every grace in so great an indisposition to make resistance, both from its own weakness, and the strength of the contrary corruption, (which commonly in sucli ismuchunmortified,) which makes it act with more difficulty and mixture, as in a fire newly kindled, where the smoke is more than the flame ; or like beer newly tunned, which runs thick ; so that thougli there appear more strength of affection in such, that it works over into a greater abundance of duty than in others, yet with more dregs of carnal passion, which Satan knows, and therefore chooseth to stir what he sees troubled already.
Secondly, When the saint is beset with some great affliction ; this is as some blind lane or solitary place, fit for this thief to call for his purse in. An expert captain first labours to make a breach in the wall, and then falls on in storming the city. Satan first got power from God to weaken Job in his estate, children, health, and other comforts he had, and now tempts him to impatience, and what not. He lets Christ fast forty days before he comes, and then he falls to his work ; as an army stays till a castle be pinched for pro- vision within, and then sends a parley, never more likely to be embraced than in such a strait. 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, Wliat, wilt starve rather than step over the hedge, and steal for thy supply ? This is enough to put flesh and blood to the stand.
Thirdly, When the Christian is about some notable enterprise for God's glory, then Satan will lie like a serpent in the way, ' an adder in the path, that biteth his horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.' Thus he stood at Joshua's right hand ' to resist him.' The right hand is the working hand, and his standing there implies his desire to hinder him in his enterprise. Indeed, the devil was never a friend to temple-work, and therefore that work is so long a doing. What a handsome excuse doth he help the Jews unto, — ' The time is not come;' God's time was come, but not the devil's, and therefore he helps them to this poor shift, perverting the sense of Providence, as if it were not time, because they were so poor : whereas they thrive no better, because they went no sooner about the work, as God tells them plainly. Paul and Barnabas had a holy design in their thoughts to go visit the brethren in every city, and strengthen their faith ; the devil knew what a blow this miglit give to his kingdom ; their visiting might hinder him in his circuit, and he stirs up an unhappy difference between these two holy men, who grow so hot that they part in this storm. Acts xv. 30. There were two remarkable periods of Christ's life, his entrance and exit; his entrance into his public ministry at his baptism, and his finishing it at his passion ; and at both we have the devil fiercely encounterino- him. The more public thy place. Christian, and the more eminent thy service for God, the more thou must look that the devil will have some more danger- ous design or other against thee ; and tlierefore, if every private soldier needs armour against Satan's bullets of temptation, then the commanders and officers who stand in the front of battle much more.
4. Fourthly, When he hath the presence of some object to enforce his temp- tation. Tlius he takes Eve when she is near the tree, and had it in her eye while he should make tlie motion, that assaulting two ports at once, it might be the harder for her to hinder the landing of his temptation ; and if Eve's eyes did so soon affect her heart with an inordinate desire, then mucli more now is it eas)^ for him by the presence of the object to excite and actuate that lust which lies dormant in the lieart. As Naomi sent her daughter to lie at Boaz's feet,
48 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND