Tempt. XLIV. Sometimes variety of temptations distracteth men, that they do not look to all at once.
Direct. XLIV. Remember, that one part of the city unguarded, may lose the whole in a general assault.
Tempt. XLV. Sometimes he ceaseth, to make us secure, and lay by our arms, and then surpriseth us.
Direct. XLV. Take heed of security, and Satan's ambushments. Distinguish between cessation and conquest. You conquer not every time that you have rest and quietness from temptation. Till the sin be hated, and the contrary grace or duty in practice, you have not at all overcome: and when that is done, yet trust not the devil or the flesh; nor think the war will be shorter than your lives, for one assault will begin where the former ended. Make use of every cessation but to prepare for the next encounter.
Tempt. XLVI. He will tempt you to take striving for overcoming; and to think, because you pray and make some resistance, that sin is conquered; and because your desires are good, all is well.
Direct. XLVI. But all that fight do not overcome. "If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully," 1 Tim. ii. 5. "Many will seek to enter and shall not be able," Luke xiii. 24.
Tempt. XLVII. He followeth the sinner with frequency and importunity, till he weary him, and make him yield.
Direct. XLVII. 1. Remember that Christ is as importunate with thee to save thee, as the devil can be to damn thee; and which then should prevail? 2. Be you as constant in resistance; be as oft in prayer and other confirming means. Do as Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, who prayed thrice, (as Christ did in his agony,) when the prick in the flesh was not removed. 3. Tempt not the tempter, by giving him encouragement. A faint denial is an invitation to ask again. Give him quickly a flat denial, and put him out of hope, if you would shorten the temptation.
Tempt. XLVIII. Lastly, the devil would sink the sinner in despair, and persuade him now it is too late.
Direct. XLVIII. Observe his design, that it is but to take off that hope which is the weight to set the wheels of the soul a going. In all he is against God and you. In other sins he is against God's authority: in this he is against his love and mercy. Read the gospel, and you will find that Christ's death is sufficient; the promise is universal, full, and free; and that the day of grace is so far continued till the day of death, and no man shall be denied it that truly desireth it. And that the same God that forbiddeth thy presumption, forbiddeth also thy despair.