_The third direction, of repelling a temptation without delay.—The
necessity of so doing.—What a speedy denial doth contain._
The magnanimity of Christ, and the peremptoriness of his denial, we
have noted. We must further observe the immediateness of his answer;
he suffered not any of these motions to stay long with him; here was
not a _Cras tibi respondebo_, Come again to-morrow and I will answer.
He would not take time with the devil, but had his answer ready. No
sooner was he tempted, but the temptation was repelled; for these
expressions—‘But he answered and said;’ ‘Jesus said unto him;’ ‘Then
saith Jesus unto him,’—shew the quickness and speediness of these
returns, that he answered presently, forthwith. Hence we have a third
direction in our resisting of Satan, which is this:—
_Direct._ 3. _Temptations are best answered when they are presently
denied and forthwith repelled._ The direction is of great importance;
it is not for us to pass by a temptation with silence, or to defer an
answer. For these reasons:—
(1.) First, The nature of temptations, _as dangerous or infectious,
doth sufficiently enforce a necessity of their speedy removal_. Things
of danger require a sudden stop. If poison be taken into the body,
we speedily labour to cast it up, or to overcome it by antidotes. We
labour to stay the spreading of a gangrene presently. Who thinks it fit
to delay when fire hath taken hold upon a house? The very opportunity
of help is in the speediness of the endeavour. It is too late to bring
water when the house is consumed, too late to apply a remedy when the
disease hath conquered. They that consider what a temptation is, will
see no reason to move slowly in opposing.[482]
(2.) Secondly, _Silence encourageth Satan_. It is not with him as it is
with men; it is the policy of some to overlook their petitioners, and
by silence to scare them from any further address; but Satan hath more
impudence than to be put out of countenance by delay, and more active
malice than to be discouraged by silence; nay, it doth on the contrary
embolden him. Modest requests are disheartened by silence, but such
motions which, by their nature, imply a disgrace, and carry no reason
for their acceptance but what they expect to find in the consent of
those to whom they are made, if they be not presently refused, they
give encouragement to hope for entertainment. An immodest request to
a chaste matron, if not forthwith expressly abominated, encourageth
to further attempts. Sin being so great an affront to a holy heart,
the motion of it cannot be entertained with silence, but Satan is
emboldened to expect consent in time, and follows his advantage
accordingly. He usually flies at a valiant peremptory resistance; but
if the pulse of the soul beat slowly upon the motion, he grounds his
hope upon that, and is animated to a further procedure.
(3.) Thirdly, _Our wills are apt to be inclined by delay_. Though grace
have made straight our crooked natures, yet we still carry such a sway
to our former dispositions, that a small thing, having the advantage of
our natural bias and inclination, makes us, like a deceitful bow, turn
to our old stand. For the understanding and will of the regenerate are
but imperfectly good, the faculties that should obey are unruly. In
such a case how dangerous may delays prove! Who will suffer a seditious
incendiary in an army, formerly inclined to mutiny? Who will permit
leaven to remain in that mass, which he desires may not be leavened,
and not quickly remove it? Who will neglect a spark upon dry tinder,
that would not have it consumed, and not instantly put it out? If it
was so great a mischief to Eve in innocency, as hath been said, to
delay her peremptory denial, of how much greater hazard is it to us!
Delays are dangerous to a very proverb, and silence may end in consent.
(4.) Fourthly, _Silence is also some degree of consent_. It is strange
to find a man delaying an answer to temptation, and yet no way guilty
of consenting. In things that are to be opposed with care and hatred,
no man can withhold his hand without blame. He that is not against
Satan, who is to be perpetually resisted, is so far for him as he is
not against him. He that delays justice which is due, denies it. The
judge in the parable was called unjust, not because he had devoured the
widow’s house, but because he deferred to do her right.[483] He that
hinders not evil when and as soon as he can, doth command and approve
it. These are received axioms amongst men, and have the same truth in
them if applied to resistance of temptations. And this may further
appear by considering, [1.] The weakness of the will in the regenerate.
When our wills are really set upon good and against evil, yet we cannot
say they are perfectly for the one and against the other, but that
there is still some degree of averseness to good, and of inclination
to evil in our wills, or else we should not meet with complainings of
imperfections under sincere resistances; as in the apostle, ‘The evil
that I would not, that do I,’ [Rom. vii. 19.] [2.] The acts of the
will in consenting may be so sudden, short, and quick, that they may
be almost insensible, and as forward and ready as the motion. [3.] The
will may be interpretatively voluntary and consenting, when yet it
forms not in itself any positive approbation. It may be guilty, in that
it doth not more strongly and speedily dissent: for the suspension or
negation of the will’s act, where it ought to act, cannot avoid the
charge of coming short of duty.
(5.) Fifthly, Not to answer presently, _is to lose the best opportunity
of answering_. It is less dangerous, more easy, more comfortable to
be speedy in denial. The sooner fire is put out, or the disease is
stayed, the less hurt is done; and it is far less labour to quench a
spark than a flame; to pluck up a young plant than an old standard;
to kill the cockatrice in the egg. A temptation opposed speedily, is
with greater ease overcome, than after it hath settled though but a
little: for it presently makes a party within us; our affections are
soon engaged, our understanding soon bribed, and then we have not only
Satan but ourselves to oppose; and this self so divided, that when we
come to fight, our wills are against our wills, our affections against
our affections, our wishes and prayers clash and contradict each other.
As Austin confesseth of himself: ‘I prayed,’ said he, ‘and then feared
lest thou shouldst hear me too soon; I desired to satisfy, rather than
to extinguish lust.’[484] At the first assault the soul is oft in a
better posture, more unanimous and consistent with itself; then is
the golden opportunity of resistance. For, as one saith,[485] it is
better to do it while reason is on our side, than when both reason and
affection conspire against us. And, lastly, it would be more honour
and satisfaction to us, rather not to have admitted such a guest,
than after such admittance into our thoughts to be forced to cast him
out.[486] In the review of our actions we shall have more comfort to
have been resolute against any sin than to hold our peace.
The necessity of a quick and speedy rejection of a sinful motion
is then beyond dispute, and there needs no more to be said for the
explanation of this direction, but an account of what is implied in a
speedy denial. It contains these four things:—
[1.] First, _That it must issue from a fixed determination against
sin_. Some refuse a temptation with the same mind that carried Lot’s
wife out of Sodom, and are forced beyond their own inclination, but
these go not far till they ‘look back;’ and no wonder: for if he
that is sincerely peremptory against sin at the first motion, may by
the solicitation of the flesh be inclined afterward, there is little
expectation that he whom the first motion finds indifferent and but
coldly denying, should hold out long. But that refusal that must give
any encouragement to hopes of success, must be an answer of holy
indignation against the offer of temptation, and that confirmed into a
serious resolve of heart not to yield.
[2.] Secondly, _This positive denial must be also wisely jealous of
Satan, in motions that are unlikely, or that may seem light, little,
and not directly intended_. Though it may be but a transient glance,
or a thing that is out of our road, yet must nothing be contemned
or undervalued. Jealousy will take notice of small actions or
circumstances, and no less suspicious must we be of every proffer made
to us, lest Satan by any means get an advantage against us.
[3.] Thirdly, _The refusal must be so quick, that it may be ready to
take the temptation by the throat_. At the first motion or rising of
it in our mind, we must endeavour to stifle it in the birth, that it
may be as the ‘untimely fruit of a woman that never sees the sun,’ [Job
iii. 16;] we must not give it time to grow up to a rod of wickedness,
but must nip it in the earliest buddings of it. It is the nature of
grace, if we do but faithfully pursue the inclinations of it, to be
quick in its opposition. So doth the apostle’s phrase teach us, Gal. v.
17, ‘The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh:’ the spirit is as ready to repel, as the flesh to suggest. No
sooner doth the one stir, but the other is ready with an opposition,
and the reason of it is from the active contrariety that is betwixt
them; for so the word, ἀντίκειται, there used, would express it; they
are sworn enemies, animated by principles of constant opposition, as
water and fire are, which cannot meet in peace together, but a present
noise and combat is raised from this conjunction.
[4.] Fourthly, When this is done, _we must endeavour to maintain and
stick to our first disallowance_. A child of God, I know, in sinful
yieldings of infirmity, may say as the apostle, ‘What I do, I allow
not,’—that is, [1.] What he then consents to, he did not allow at the
first, till importunity prevailed. [2.] Though his affections incline
to sin, yet his constant settled judgment is against it; and though he
do it, he cannot say he approves it. Neither of these are the things
I aim at; but this, that as the first motions of sins are disallowed,
we should endeavour to keep at that, to stand our ground, to withhold
the least after-delight or approbation. Not but that we must be forced
sadly to acknowledge the real truth of what the apostle speaks in the
place last cited, that these different principles, which of them soever
carry the victory, do so impede one another, that when grace carries
it, yet it cannot do the utmost it would or aims at; so that in the
stoutest oppositions, there may be some secret degrees of allowance
unavoidably; notwithstanding we must so manage our denial, that, if it
were possible, we should not afford the smallest inclination toward it;
the least, the better and nobler conquest.