OUR Blessed Saviour has blessed us, with a counsil, as Wholsome and as
Needful as any that can be given us, in Math. 26. 41. _Watch and Pray,
that yee Enter not into Temptation._ As there is a Tempting _Flesh_,
and a Tempting _World_, which would seduce us from Our Obedience to the
Laws of God, so there is a Busy _Devil_, who is by way of Eminency
called, _The Tempter;_ because by him, the Temptations of the _Flesh_
and the _World_ are managed.
It is not _One Devil_ alone, that has Cunning or Power enough to apply
the Multitudes of _Temptations_, whereby Mankind is daily diverted from
the Service of God; No, the _High Places_ of Our Air, are Swarming
full of those _Wicked Spirits_, whose Temptations trouble us; they are
so many, that it seems no less than a _Legion_, or more than twelve
thousands may be spared, for the Vexation of one miserable man. But
because those Apostate Angels, are all _United_ under one Infernal
Monarch, in the Designs of Mischief, 'tis in the Singular Number, that
they are spoken of. Now, the _Devil_ whose Malice and Envy, prompts
him to do what he can, that we may be as unhappy as himself, do's
ordinarily use more _Fraud_ than _Force_, in his assaulting of us; he
that assail'd our First Parents, in a _Serpent_, will still Act _Like a
Serpent_, rather than a _Lion_, in prosecuting of his wicked purposes
upon us, and for us to guard against the Wiles of the _Wicked One_, is
one of the greatest cares, with which our God ha's charged us.
We are all of us liable to various _Temptations_ every day, whereby if
we are carried aside from the strait _Paths of Righteousness_, we get
all sorts of wounds unto our selves. Of _Temptations_, I may say, as
the Wise Man said, of _Mortality; there is no discharge from that
war_. The _Devils_ fell hard upon both _Adams_, nor may [52] any
among the Children of both, imagine to be excused. The _Son_ of God
Himself, had this Dog of Hell, barking at Him; and much more may the
Children of _Men_, look to be thus Visited; indeed, there is hardly any
_Temptation_, but what is, _Common to Man_. When I was considering,
how to spend one Hour in Raising a most Effectual and Profitable
_Breastwork_, against the inroads of this Enemy, I perceived it would
be done, by a short answer to this