Paul had the honour of being exalted as high as heaven, and of seeing that glory that could not be expressed ; and yet he was no sooner stepped out of heaven, but he is buffeted by Satan, ' lest he should be exalted above measure,' 2 Cor. xii. 2, 7. If these, that were so really, so glo- riously, so eminently beloved of God, if these, that have lived in heaven, and set their feet upon the stars, have been tempted, let no saints judge themselves not to be beloved, because they are tempted. It is as natu- ral for saints to be tempted, that are dearly beloved, as it is for the sun to shine, or a bird to sing. The eagle complains not of her wings, nor the peacock of his train, nor the nightingale of her voice, because these are natural to them ; no more should saints of their temptations, because they are natural to them. ' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,' Eph. vi. 12.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider, That all the temjrfations that befall the saints shall be sanc- tified to them by a hand of love. Ah ! the choice experiences that the saints get of the power of God supporting them, of the wisdom of God directing them (so to handle their spiritual weapons, their graces, as not only to resist, but to overcome), of the mercy and goodness of the Lord pardoning and succouring of them. And therefore, saith Paul, ' I received the messenger of Satan for to buffet me, lest I should be exalted, lest I should be exalted above measure,' 2 Cor. xii. 7.3 Twice
1 He may so tempt as to make a saint weary of his life : Job x. 1, ' My soul is weary of my life.'
2 Pirates do not ubg to set upon poor empty vessels — [See ' Ep. Dedicatory.' — G.] ; and beggars need not fear the thief. Those that have most of God, and are most rich in prace, shall be most set upon by Satan, who is the greatest and wisest pirate in the v>< rid.
3 Vide Bezaro, Grotium, et Estium [on the passage. — G."].
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 115
in that verse ; he begins with it, and ends with it. If he had not been buffeted, who knows how his heart would have swelled ; he might have been carried higher in conceit, than before he was in his ecstasy. Temptation is God's school, wherein he gives his people the clearest and sweetest discoveries of his love ;' a school wherein God teaches his people to be more frequent and fervent in duty. When Paul was buf- feted, then he prayed thrice, i. e. frequently and fervently ; a school wherein God teaches his people to be more tender, meek, and compas- sionate to other poor, tempted souls than ever ; a school wherein God teaches his people to see a greater evil in sin than ever, and a greater emptiness in the creature than ever, and a greater need of Christ and free grace than ever ; a school wherein God will teach his people that all temptations are but his goldsmiths, by which he will try and refine, and make his people more bright and glorious. The issue of all temp- tations shall be to the good of the saints, as you may see by the temp- tations that Adam and Eve, and Christ and David, and Job and Peter and Paul met with. Those hands of power and love, that bring light out of darkness, good out of evil, sweet out of bitter, life out of death, heaven out of hell, will bring much sweet and good to his .people, out of all the temptations that come upon them.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, wisely to consider, That no temptations do hurt or harm the saints, so long as they are resisted by them, and prove the greatest afflictions that can befall them. It is not Satan's tempting, but your assenting ; not his enticing, but your yielding, that makes temptations hurtful to your soul. If the soul when it is tempted resists temptation, and saith with Christ, ' Get thee behind me, Satan,' Mat. xvi. 23 ; and with that young convert, ' I am not the man I was/ — ego non sum ego — or as Luther counsels all men to answer all temptations with these words — Chris- tianus sum — I am a Christian. If a man's temptation be his greatest affliction, then is the temptation no sin upon his soul, though it be a trouble upon his mind. When a soul can look the Lord in the face, and say, Ah, Lord ! I have many outward troubles upon me, I have lost such and such a near mercy, and such and such desirable mercies ; and yet thou that knowest the heart, thou knowest that all my crosses and losses do not make so many wounds in my soul, nor fetch so many sighs from my heart, tears from my eyes, as those temptations do that Satan follows my soul with ! When it is thus with the soul, then temptations are only the soul's trouble, they are not the soul's sin.
Satan is a malicious and envious enemy. As his names are, so is he ; his names are all names of enmity ; the accuser, the tempter, the de- stroyer, the devourer, the envious man ; and this malice and envy of his he shews sometimes by tempting men to such sins as are quite contrary to the temperature of their bodies, as he did Vespasian and Julian, men of sweet and excellent natures, to be most bloody murderers.2 And sometimes he shews his malice by tempting men to such things as will
1 Luther said, there were three things that made a preacher, meditation, prayer, and temptation.
2 Sometimes he shews his malice hy letting those things ahide by the soul, as may most vex and plague the soul, as Gregory observes in his leaving of Job's wife, which was not out of his forgetfulness, carelessness, or any love or pity to Job, but to vex and tor- ment him, and to work him to blaspheme God, despair, and die, &c.
116 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
bring them no honour nor profit, &c. ' Fall down and worship me,' Mat. iv. 9, to blasphemy, and atheism, &c., the thoughts and first motions whereof cause the heart and flesh to tremble. And sometimes he shews his malice by tempting them to those sins which they have not found their natures prone to, and which they abhor in others. Now, if the soul resists these, and complains of these, and groans and mourns under these, and looks up to the Lord Jesus to be delivered from these, then shall they not be put down to the soul's account, but to Satan's, who shall be so much the more tormented, by how much the more the saints have been by him maliciously tempted, &c.