[2.] To abate our carnal confidence. For till we have experience of the strength of sin, danger of temptations, and our own weakness, we are too confident of our own resolutions, which, because they are sincere and undissembled, we think they may be easily maintained ; therefore God, to show us ourselves, suftereth Satan to tempt us and his instru- ments to vex us, that by experience we may see how weak that faith is in the temptation which we thought to be strong out of the temptation. This is the meaning of that counsel our Lord giveth his discij^les : Mat. xxvi. 41, ' Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' To enter into temptation hath a peculiar sense and signification in that place, and the meaning is, to be overcome by temptations, to enter so as to abide under the power of them, to be encompassed so as we cannot get out. Therefore watch and pray that it be not so with you ; for however your mind and resolution be good, and your professions for the time
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402 SEliMON UPON LUKE XXII. 31, 32.
zealous, yet you may fall from your stoutest resolutions if you be not careful. Or thus, though the spirit or the renewed part be willing to resist and oppose temptations, yet the natural and unrenewed part is weak and ready to be overcome by them. They were confident, secure, and unconcerned when that danger was approaching which would make them either to forsake Christ or to deny and forswear him^ as Peter did ; therefore it were better for them to be watchful and importunate with God, that they might not be overcome with this temptation. In many cases we find that those that thought their faith strong find it very weak when the temptation cometh : John xvi. 31, 32, ' Do ye now believe ? Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.' There is a great deal of difference between trials in imagination and trials in actual experience. Trials in imagination do not affect us so much, because we only know them at a distance, or by guess and supposition ; but evils in sense and feeling are another thing than we could imagine. It is a lamentable thing to see what a cowardly spirit there is in most christians, how soon they are discouraged with every petty assault or slender temptation, and their resolutions shaken with the appearance of any difficulty, how confident soever they were before.
[3.] God sendeth temptations to abate our pride, and so to humble us as well as prove us, that we may not be proud of what we have, or conceit that we have more than we have. Paul giveth this reason : 2 Cor. xii. 7, ' Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above mea- sure.' There is a difference about the interpretation what this aKoko-^ rfj aapKL, thorn in the flesh, was ; either a racking disease or some other sharp affliction. Surely it was not stirrings of sin or some boiling lusts, for Paul was aged, and he would then speak of it in other words. Some think it was some racking disease, like the stake thrust into the fundament of a slave that ran from his master, and came out at his back. Whatever it was, it was a messenger of Satan. Now, whether God would permit Satan to have such power over Paul's body, I leave it to you to consider. Therefore some think it was some sore afflic- tion. In the general, I remember the pricking brier and grieving thorn is put for the despisers and persecutors of Israel : Ezek. xxviii. 24, ' And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despised them.' This may be called a thorn in the flesh. A sad and sharp affliction questionless it was, inflicted on Paul by the power of the devil. But whatever the event was, God's end was clear, that he might not be elevated with his transcendent revela- tions : he twice repeateth it, ' Lest I should be exalted above mea- sure.' When the instruments of Satan deal roughly with him, this ■was designed by God to keep him humble.
[4.] God sendeth these temptations in justice to correct us for other sins : 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 , ' The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.* The Lord permitted Satan to move David, as I explained it before ; but mark, it was because God was angry with Israel, when they had
SERMON UPON LUKE XXII. 31, 32. 4.03'
abused their plenty and prosperity to licentiousness and forgetfulness of God. Satan is permitted to tempt David, that God might take that occasion to punish them. And it is observed in the censures of the church; a scandalous sinner is 'delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,' 1 Cor. v. 5 ; that is, permitted for a while to the devil's power, that he might be recovered to God. And in the text, Satan liath desired, e^T^Trjo-aro, hath required him of God, demands to have him delivered up to him as to an executioner ; and if God thinks fit to answer this request, then he delivereth them up to Satan. Ijfow this should be regarded by us. It is a sad thing when the devil hath a just plea in law against us. The apostle warneth christians ' not to give place to the devil,' Eph. iv. 27. This may be done effective or meritorie. Effectuallj'-, when you comply with his insinuations, and give way to your inordinate passions and carnal affections ; then you set open the door to Satan, for he watcheth for any opportunity to recover his old possession and exercise his former tyranny again. Pharaoh was not so hasty to pursue after the Israelites as this malicious spirit is to recover the prey taken out of his hands. When you give way to any known sin, and continue and lie asleep in it, Satan is encouraged and God provoked. And so meritorie ; meritoriously you give place to Satan as you make God to withdraw his assistance or to give Satan leave to tempt you : 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, ' God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.' And so fearful havoc is made in the soul, not only of comfort, but grace as to many degrees of it. One sin prepareth for another, as a spark doth for a flame ; and the longer and oftener we sin, so much the worse it is for us. Repen- tance is the sharper, because of the wrong done to God ; and the harder, because it is not easy to settle and restore such a soul, that the influences of God's grace and favour may have their wonted course.