Chapter III. The Duty and Importance of Avoiding Temptation
Having thus opened the words as in the foregoing chapter, so far as is necessary to discover the foundation of the truth to be insisted on, and improved, I shall lay it down in the ensuing observation.
It is the great duty of all believers to use all diligence in the ways of Christ's appointment, that they fall not into temptation.
I know God is able to deliver the godly out of temptation. I know he is faithful, not to suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will make a way for our escape; yet I dare say I shall convince, who will attend to what is delivered and written, that it is our great duty and concern to use all diligence, watchfulness and care, that we enter not into temptation; and I shall prove it by the ensuing considerations.
1. In that compendious instruction given us by our Savior, concerning what we ought to pray for, this of not entering into temptation is expressly one head. Our Savior knew of what concern it was to us, not to enter into temptation, when he gave us this as one special subject of our daily dealing with God (Matthew 6:13). And the order of the words shows us of what importance it is: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If we are led into temptation, evil will befall us, more or less. How God may be said to tempt us, or to lead us into temptation, I showed before. In this direction, it is not so much the not giving us up to it, as the powerful keeping us from it, that is intended.
The last words are as it were explanatory of the former: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil — so deal with us, that we may be powerfully delivered from that evil which attends our entering into temptation.
Our blessed Savior knows full well our state and condition; he knows the power of temptations, having had experience of it; he knows our vain confidence, and the reserves we have concerning our ability to deal with temptations, as he found it in Peter; but he knows our weakness and folly, and how soon we are cast to the ground (Hebrews 2:52); and therefore does he lay in this provision for instruction, at the entrance of his ministry, to make us heedful, if possible, in that which is of so great concern to us. If then we will repose any confidence in the wisdom, love, and care of Jesus Christ towards us, we must grant the truth pleaded for.
2. Christ promises this freedom and deliverance as a great reward of most acceptable obedience (Revelation 3:10). This is the great promise made to the church of Philadelphia, in which Christ found nothing that he would blame: thou shalt be kept from the hour of temptation; not thou shalt be preserved in it, but he goes higher — thou shalt be kept from it. There is, says our Savior, an hour of temptation coming: a season that will make havoc in the world; multitudes shall then fall from the faith, deny and blaspheme me! Oh how few will be able to stand and hold out? Some will be utterly destroyed and perish forever, some will get wounds to their souls that shall never be well healed whilst they live in this world, and have their bones broken, so as to go halting all their days. But says he, because you have kept the word of my patience, I will be tender towards you, and keep you from this hour of temptation. Certainly that which Christ thus promises to his beloved church, as a reward of her service, love, and obedience, is no light thing; whatever Christ promises to his spouse, is a fruit of unspeakable love; that is so in an especial manner, which is promised as a reward of special obedience.
3. Let us to this purpose consider the general issues of men's entering into temptation; and that of bad and good men, of ungrounded professors, and of the choicest saints.
For the first I shall offer but one or two texts of scripture (Luke 8:13): they on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and have no root, but for a while believe. Well, how long do they believe? They are affected with the preaching of the word, and believe thereon; make profession, bring forth some fruits — but until when do they abide? Says he, in the time of temptation they fall away: when once they enter into temptation they are gone forever. Temptation withers all their profession, and slays their souls. We see this accomplished every day; men who have attended on the preaching of the gospel, been affected and delighted with it, and have been looked on, it may be, as believers, and thus have continued for some years; no sooner does a temptation befall them, that has vigor and permanency in it, but they are turned out of the way, and are gone forever. They fall to hate the word they have delighted in, despise the professors of it, and are hardened by sin. So Matthew 7:26: he that hears these words of mine, and does them not, is like a man that built his house upon the sand. But what does this house of profession do? It shelters him, keeps him warm, and stands for a while; but says he (verse 27), when the rain descends, when temptation comes, it falls utterly, and its fall is great. Judas followed our Savior three years, and all went well with him; he no sooner enters into temptation, Satan has gotten him and winnowed him, but he is gone. Demas will preach the gospel, until the love of the world befell him, and he is utterly turned aside. It were endless to give instances of this; entrance into temptation is with this sort of men an entrance into apostasy, more or less, in part or in whole, it fails not.
2. For the saints of God themselves, let us see by some instances, what issue they have had of their entering into temptation. I shall name a few: Adam was the son of God (Luke 3), created in the image of God, full of that integrity, righteousness and holiness which might be and was an eminent resemblance of the holiness of God. He had a far greater inherent stock of ability than we, and had nothing in him to entice or seduce him, yet this Adam no sooner enters into temptation, but he is gone, lost, and ruined, he and all his posterity with him. What can we expect in the like condition, that have not only in our temptations, as he had, a cunning devil to deal with, but a cursed world, and a corrupt heart also?
Abraham was the father of the faithful, whose faith is held up as a pattern for all who believe — yet he entered twice into the same temptation, namely the fear about his wife, and was twice overpowered by it, to the dishonor of God and, no doubt, the disturbance of his own soul.
David is called a man after God's own heart by God himself — yet how dreadful is the story of his entering into temptation: no sooner is he entangled than he is plunged into adultery; then, seeking deliverance by his own schemes, like a poor creature in a snare he becomes more and more entangled, until he lies as one dead, under the power of sin and folly.
We could also mention Noah, Lot, Hezekiah, Peter, and the rest whose temptations and falls are recorded for our instruction. Certainly whoever has any feeling for these things cannot but say, as the inhabitants of Samaria said upon reading Jehu's letter: if two kings could not stand before him, how shall we? O Lord, if such mighty pillars have been cast to the ground, such cedars blown down, how shall I stand before temptations? Keep me from entering in! Who do you see coming out without a wound, or at least a blemish? For this reason the apostle would have us show tenderness toward those who have fallen into sin, saying in Galatians 6:1, 'Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted' — not 'lest you also sin,' but 'lest you also be tempted.' He who has seen so many stronger men fail and be cast down in the trial will think it his duty to remember the battle and, if possible, to come there no more. Is it not madness for a man who can scarcely get about, he is so weak — which is the case with most of us — to ignore what has brought down giants? You are yet whole and sound: take heed of temptation, lest it be with you as it was with Abraham, David, Lot, Peter, and Hezekiah — all of whom fell in the time of trial.
In nothing does the folly of human hearts show itself more openly in our day than in this cursed boldness — after so many warnings from God and so many sad examples daily before their eyes — of running into and putting themselves upon temptations. Any society, any company, any conditions of outward advantage, without once weighing what their strength is or what the concern of their poor souls demands, they are ready to rush into. Though they pass over the dead and the slain who but a moment before fell in those very ways and paths, they go on without regard or trembling. At this door have gone out hundreds — thousands — of professors within a few years.
Fourth, let us consider ourselves: what our weakness is, and what temptation is — its power and efficacy, and what it leads to.
As for ourselves, we are weakness itself. We have no strength, no power to withstand. Confidence in any strength within us is itself one great part of our weakness — as it was in Peter. He who says he can do anything can do nothing as he should. And what is worse, it is the worst kind of weakness: a weakness from treachery, arising from the party within us that every temptation already has on its side. If a castle be ever so strong and well fortified, yet if there is a treacherous party within, ready to betray it on every opportunity, it cannot be preserved from the enemy. There are traitors in our hearts, ready to take part with every temptation and give up all to it — yea, to solicit and invite temptations to do the work, as traitors incite an enemy. Do not flatter yourselves that you will hold out; there are secret lusts lurking in your hearts, which perhaps now lie quiet, but as soon as any temptation befalls you they will rise, rage, cry, disquiet, seduce, and never give over until they are either killed or satisfied. He who promises himself that the frame of his heart will be the same under a temptation as it was before will be woefully mistaken. 'Am I a dog, that I should do this thing?' says Hazael — yet you will be such a dog if ever you become king of Syria: temptation from your interest will undo you. He who now abhors the thought of such a thing, once entered into temptation, will find his heart inflamed toward it and all contrary reasonings overborne and silenced. Little did Peter think he would deny and forswear his Master as soon as he was asked whether he knew him; yet so it was when the hour of temptation came — all resolutions were forgotten, all love to Christ buried, and the present temptation, closing with his carnal fear, carried all before it.
To deal with this more fully, I shall consider the means of safety from the power of temptation — if we enter into it — that may be expected from ourselves: both in general as to their spring and rise, and in particular as to the ways of exerting the strength we have or seem to have.
In general, all we can look to is from our hearts — for what a man's heart is, that is what the man is; but what is the heart of a man in such a season?
Suppose a man is not a believer but only a professor of the gospel: what can the heart of such a person do? Proverbs 10:20 says the heart of the wicked is little worth — and surely that which is little worth in anything is not much worth in this. A wicked man may in outward things be of great use, but come to his heart: that is false and a thing of nothing. Now, withstanding temptation is heart-work, and when temptation comes like a flood, can such a rotten turf as a wicked man's heart stand before it? But of these it has been said before: entering into temptation and apostasy are, for such men, the same thing.
Suppose the peace cared for is true and good; yet when all is laid up in this one bottom, when the hour of temptation comes, so many reliefs will be tendered against this consideration as will make it useless. It cannot long hold out.
The fixing on this particular only is to make good one passage while the enemy assaults on every side. When our eye is only to one piece, temptation may enter and prevail twenty other ways.
Experience gives us to see that even this will fail — no saint of God but puts a valuation on his peace, yet how many fail in the day of temptation?
They have yet another consideration: the vileness of sinning against God. Yet we see every day this consideration failing also. There is no child of God overcome by temptation who does not first overcome this consideration. It is not a sure and infallible defense.
Temptation will darken the mind, so that a man shall not be able to make a right judgment of things as he did before he entered into it.
Temptation so possesses and fills the mind with its own matter that it takes away from that clear consideration of things which otherwise a man might have. And those things of which the mind was accustomed to have a vigorous sense, to keep it from sin, will by this means come to have no force or efficacy. Yea, it will commonly bring men to that state that when others are speaking to them of the things concerning their deliverance and peace, their minds shall be so possessed with the matter of their temptation as not to understand, scarce to hear one word that is spoken to them.
By the woeful entangling of the affections — when they are engaged in what they ought not — the mind is becloud and darkened. The present judgment you have of things will not be utterly altered, but darkened and rendered infirm to influence the will and master the affections. Detestation of sin, abhorring of it, terrors of the Lord, sense of love, presence of Christ crucified — all depart and leave the heart a prey to its enemy.
Suppose the peace a man looks to for safeguarding his soul is true and genuine — yet when all is rested on this one foundation and the hour of temptation comes, so many relief-arguments will be offered against this consideration as to render it useless. The evil seems small, it is questionable whether it actually strikes the conscience; perhaps I may keep my peace in spite of it; others who are God's people have fallen and yet kept or recovered their peace; if peace is lost for a season it may be regained; even if peace is lost, safety may remain. There are a thousand such pleas, all planted as batteries against this fort — so that it cannot long hold out.
To fix on this one particular is to guard one passage or entrance while the enemy assaults us on every side. A little armor would suffice to defend a man if he could choose where his enemy would strike; but we are commanded to take the whole armor of God if we mean to resist and stand. When our eye is only on one piece, temptation may enter and prevail by twenty other ways. For instance: a man may be tempted to worldliness, unjust gain, revenge, or vainglory; if he fortifies himself only with this one consideration — that he will not do this thing and wound his conscience — fixing his eye on that particular and counting himself safe while not overcome there, all the while neglect of private communion with God or sensuality creeps in, and he is no better off than if he had fallen under the power of the very temptation most visibly pressing upon him.
Experience shows that this will fail also. There is no saint of God who does not prize the peace he has — yet how many of them fail in the day of temptation?
They have yet another consideration: the vileness of sinning against God. How shall they do this thing and sin against God, the God of their mercies and salvation? How shall they wound Jesus Christ who died for them? Surely this cannot but preserve them.
In reply: we see every day that this consideration fails also. There is no child of God who is overcome by temptation who does not first overcome this consideration. It is not, then, a sure and infallible defense.
This consideration is twofold. Either it expresses the thoughts of the soul with particular reference to the temptation being contended with — in which case it will not preserve; or it expresses the universal, habitual frame of heart that is in us on all accounts, in which case it falls in with what I shall offer as the universal medicine and remedy in this case — of which more later.
Consider the power of temptation, partly from what was shown before by its effects and fruits in the saints of old, and partly from such other effects in general as are ascribed to it.
First: temptation will darken the mind, so that a man cannot make a right judgment of things as he once could. As the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers lest they see the glory of Christ in the gospel, and as harlotry, wine, and new wine take away the heart — so it is in the nature of every temptation, more or less, to take away the heart, or to darken the understanding of the person tempted.
And it does this in various ways.
First: by fixing the imagination and thoughts upon the object toward which the temptation tends, so that the mind is diverted from any consideration that would bring relief. A man tempted to believe he is forsaken of God, that he is an object of divine hatred, that he has no interest in Christ — Satan so fixes his mind to contemplating this state and its distress that he cannot take hold of any of the reliefs offered against it, but following the fullness of his own thoughts walks on in darkness and finds no light. A temptation will so fill the mind with its own matter that it takes away the clear consideration of other things, so that those things which once powerfully restrained the man from sin come to have no force or efficacy with him. Indeed it commonly brings men to such a state that even when others who know their condition speak to them the words of deliverance and peace, their minds are so possessed with the matter of the temptation that they scarcely hear one word that is said.
Second: by woefully entangling the affections, which — when engaged — have a well-known power to blind the mind and darken the understanding. Give me a man wrongly engaged in hope, love, or fear with respect to any particular object, and I will quickly show you where he is darkened and blinded. In such a condition — your present judgment of things not wholly altered but darkened and weakened in its power over the will and affections — those affections, set at liberty by temptation, will run on in madness: detestation of sin, abhorrence of it, the terrors of the Lord, the sense of love, the presence of Christ crucified — all depart and leave the heart a prey to its enemy.
Third: temptation will give oil and fuel to our lusts, incite and provoke them, and make them tumult and rage beyond measure — laying the reins on the neck of a lust and putting spurs to its sides, that it may rush forward like a horse into battle. A man does not know the pride, fury, and madness of a corruption until it meets with a suitable temptation — as it did with carnal fear in Peter, with pride in Hezekiah, with covetousness in Achan, with uncleanness in David, with worldliness in Demas, with ambition in Diotrephes. What will a poor soul do then? His mind is darkened, his affections entangled, his lusts inflamed and provoked, his relief defeated — what will be the issue of such a condition?
Third: consider that temptations are either public or private, and let us briefly view the power of each in turn.
There are public temptations — such as the one mentioned in Revelation 3:10, coming upon the world to try those who dwell upon the earth, a combination of persecution and seduction for the trial of a careless generation of professors. Concerning such a temptation, consider:
First: it carries a special efficacy in respect of God, who sends it to avenge the neglect and contempt of the gospel on one hand, and the treachery of false professors on the other. When Satan offered to go forth and seduce Ahab so that he might fall, God said to him, 'You shall persuade him and prevail; go forth and do so' — he is permitted as to his wickedness, and commissioned as to the event and punishment intended. When the Christian world was given up to folly and false worship for their neglect of truth and their barren, Christ-dishonoring profession, it is said that God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That which comes from God in such a judiciary manner has a power with it and shall prevail. That selfish, spiritually slothful, careless, and worldly frame of spirit which in these days has infected almost the whole body of professors — if it has received a commission from God to kill hypocrites, wound negligent saints, break their bones, and make them scandalous — shall it not have power to do so? No strength but the strength of God can stand in the way of the weakest things that are commissioned from God for any purpose.
Second: there is in public temptations the secret insinuation of evil examples from those accounted godly. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold — the abounding of iniquity in some will insensibly cast water on the zeal and love of others, so that by little and little it shall wax cold. Some begin to grow negligent, careless, worldly, wanton; they break the ice toward pleasing the flesh; at first others blame and judge them, but before long their love also waxes cold and they conform to the same mold. A little leaven leavens the whole lump — Paul repeats this twice, in 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9, warning us of the danger of the infection spreading through the whole body from the ill examples of some. Some loose empty professors, who had never more than a form of godliness, began this way; then others began a little to comply and to please the flesh; and this by little and little has reached even the topmost branches of our profession, until almost all flesh has corrupted its ways, and he who departs from these iniquities makes his name a prey, if not his person.
Public temptations are usually accompanied with strong reasonings and specious pretenses, too hard for men or at least insensibly prevailing upon them to undervalue the evil toward which the temptation leads. To that complicated temptation which in these days has even cast down the people of God from their excellence, cut off their strength, and made them become like other men — how full is the world of plausible pleas! There is the liberty and freedom of Christians delivered from a bondage frame — a door through which I have seen many go out into sensuality and apostasy, beginning with light conversation, proceeding to neglect of the Sabbath and private and public duties, ending in dissoluteness and profaneness. There is also the leaving of public things to providence and being contented with what is — things good in themselves, but argued into wretched carnal compliances and the utter ruin of all zeal for God, the interest of Christ, and his people in the world. These and the like considerations, joined with the ease and plenty and advancement of professors, have so worked things about that whereas we have by providence shifted places with the men of the world, we have by sin shifted spirits with them also — like a colony transplanted into a foreign country, in a short space degenerating from the ways of the people whence they came and falling into those of the country where they are brought. Prosperity has slain the foolish, and wounded the wise.
Suppose the temptation is private: I add two things.
First: its union and incorporation with lust, whereby it gets within the soul and lies at the bottom of all its actings. The things of the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life — are said to be 'in the world' because the world gets into them, mixes itself with them, and incorporates. As faith and the promises are said to be mixed, so are lust and temptation mixed: they twine together, each receiving mutual strength from the other, growing higher and higher. By this means temptation gets so deep into the heart that no contrary reasoning can reach it; nothing but what can kill the lust can conquer the temptation. Like leprosy that has mingled itself into the wall — the wall itself must be pulled down or the leprosy will not be cured; like a gangrene that mixes poison with the blood and cannot be separated from where it is — both must be cut off together. In David's temptation to uncleanness, ten thousand considerations might have been brought against it; but the temptation had united itself with his lust, and nothing but the killing of that could destroy it. This deceives many: they have some pressing temptation that has gotten advantages and is urgent upon them; they pray against it, oppose it with all powerful considerations — each of which seems sufficient to conquer it — yet no good is done and it grows on them more and more. Why? It has incorporated and united itself with their lust, and is safe from all their opposition. If they would truly make headway, they must set upon the whole of the lust itself — their ambition, pride, worldliness, sensuality, or whatever it is that the temptation has united with. The soul may torment itself for a season by any other procedure, but it must come to this: its lust must die, or the soul must die.
Second: in whatever part of the soul the lust is seated with which the temptation is united, it draws the whole soul after it by one means or another, and so prevents or anticipates all opposition. Suppose it is a lust of the mind — such as ambition or vainglory: the understanding will find a thousand ways to bridle the affections that they should not cleave so tenaciously to God, presenting all things in the hue and color of what the lust desires. It promises the whole soul a share in the spoil aimed at — as Judas's money, which he first desired from covetousness, was to be shared among all his lusts. Or if the lust is in the more sensual part and first possesses the affections, how will they bribe the understanding to acquiesce and supply it with arguments and hopes — as was shown before. In brief, there is no particular temptation but, when it is in its hour, it has such a contribution of assistance from things good, evil, and indifferent, and in some cases such specious pleas and pretenses, that its strength will easily be acknowledged.
Fifth: consider the end of any temptation — this is Satan's end, and sin's end: the dishonor of God and the ruin of our souls.
Sixth: consider what has been the issue of any former temptations you have had. Have they not defiled your conscience, disquieted your peace, weakened you in obedience, clouded the face of God? Though you were not prevailed upon to the outward sin or the furthest extent of the temptation, were you not foiled? Was not your soul sullied and grievously perplexed? Did you ever in your life come fairly off without sensible loss from any temptation you had to deal with? And would you willingly be entangled again? If you are at liberty, take heed — enter no more if it be possible, lest a worse thing happen to you.
These are some of the many considerations that manifest the importance of the truth proposed and the fullness of our concern in taking care that we enter not into temptation.
Against this duty there are objections that secretly insinuate themselves into the souls of men, giving them an efficacy to make them negligent and careless about that which is of such indispensable necessity to those who intend to walk with God in any peace or with any faithfulness. These objections are to be considered and renounced.
Objection 1: Why should we so fear and labor to avoid temptation? James 1:2 commands us to count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations — surely I need not anxiously avoid falling into that which, when I do fall into it, I am to count all joy.
Answer 1: You would not hold to this rule in all things — that a man need not seek to avoid what, when he cannot but fall into it, it is his duty to rejoice in. The same apostle bids the rich rejoice that they are made low — and without doubt, to one who knows the goodness, wisdom, and love of God, every condition needful for him will become a matter of rejoicing. Yet how few rich godly men can you persuade not to take heed and use all lawful means not to be made poor? In most cases it were their sin not to do so. It is our business to make good our stations and secure ourselves as we can; if God alters our condition, we are to rejoice in it; if the temptations mentioned in James befall us, we may have cause to rejoice — but not if by a neglect of duty we fall into them.
Second: temptations are taken in two ways.
First, passively and merely materially — for such things as are, or in some cases may be, temptations; or second, actively — for such things as do entice to sin. James speaks of temptations in the first sense only: having said 'count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations,' he adds 'blessed is the man who endures temptation — for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life.' But then he clarifies: if 'temptation' means something enticing and leading to sin, God tempts no one — every man is tempted of his own lust. To have such temptations — to be tempted to sin — is not the blessed thing James intends, but the enduring of afflictions God sends for the trial of faith. So though I must count it all joy when through God's will I fall into diverse afflictions for my trial — which yet have the matter of temptation in them — I am still to use all care and diligence that my lust has no occasions or advantages given unto it to tempt me to sin.
Objection 2: Was not our Savior Christ himself tempted? And is it not said that his being tempted is advantageous, in that he is thereby able to succor those who are tempted? He also makes his disciples' having abode with him in his temptations a ground of a great promise.
Answer: It is true our Savior was tempted; but his temptations are reckoned among the evils that befell him in the days of his flesh, coming upon him through the malice of the world and the prince thereof. He did not willfully cast himself into temptation — which he said was to tempt the Lord our God. Our condition is such that even with the greatest diligence and watchfulness we shall be sure to be tempted and made like Christ therein.
This does not hinder it being our duty to prevent our falling into temptations — and especially on this account: Christ had only the suffering part of temptation when he entered into it; we have also the sinning part. When the prince of this world came to Christ, he had no part in him; but when he comes to us, he finds a party within us. Though in one effect of temptations — trials and disquietness — we are made like Christ and are to rejoice in that, yet by another effect — our being defiled and entangled — we are made unlike him, and are therefore to seek by all means to avoid them. For who of us enters into temptation and is not defiled?
Objection 3: But what need for all this endeavor and carefulness? Is it not said that God is faithful, who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape? And he knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. What need then do we have to be solicitous that we enter not into them?
Answer: I much question what assistance he will have from God in his temptation, who willingly enters into it because he supposes God has promised to deliver him out of it. The Lord knows that through the craft of Satan, the subtlety and malice of the world, the deceitfulness of sin that so easily besets us, even when we have done our utmost we shall still enter into diverse temptations. In his love, care, tenderness, and faithfulness, he has provided such a sufficiency of grace that they shall not utterly prevail to make an everlasting separation between him and our souls. Yet I have three things to say in reply to this objection.
First: he who willfully or negligently enters into temptation has no reason in the world to promise himself any assistance from God, or any deliverance from the temptation he has entered.
The promise is made to those whom temptations befall in their way, whether they will or not — not to those who willfully fall into them, running out of their way to meet them. And therefore the devil, as is commonly observed, when tempting our Savior, left out that expression of the Scripture he was twisting: 'in all your ways.' The promise of deliverance is to those who are in their ways — and one principal part of those ways is to beware of temptation.
Second: though there is a sufficiency of grace provided for all the elect that they shall by no temptation fall utterly from God, yet it would make any gracious heart tremble to think what dishonor to God, what scandal to the gospel, what woeful darkness and disquiet they may bring upon their own souls — though they perish not. And those who are only frightened by the fear of hell, on whom all considerations short of that have no influence, have more reason to fear eternal ruin than perhaps they are aware of.
Third: to enter on temptation on this account is to venture on sin that grace may abound — a thought the apostle rejects with the greatest detestation. Is it not madness for a man to willingly let the ship in which he is to be wrecked on a rock, to the irrecoverable loss of all his cargo, because he supposes he will swim safely to shore on a plank? Is it less in him who will hazard the shipwreck of all his comfort, peace, joy, and so much of the glory of God and the honor of the gospel, merely on the supposition that his soul shall yet escape? These things a man would think did not deserve to be mentioned — and yet with such as these do poor souls sometimes delude themselves.
Having laid open the words of the text in the foregoing chapter, as far as is necessary to uncover the foundation of the truth to be explored and applied, I will now state that truth in the following observation.
It is the great duty of all believers to use all diligence in the ways Christ has appointed, so that they do not fall into temptation.
I know God is able to deliver the godly out of temptation. I know He is faithful, and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, but will make a way of escape. Yet I am confident that whoever attends carefully to what follows will be convinced that it is our great duty and concern to use all diligence, watchfulness, and care to avoid entering into temptation. I will prove this by the following considerations.
1. In the brief summary of prayer our Savior gave us, not entering into temptation is explicitly one of the items. Our Savior knew how much it mattered to us not to enter into temptation, which is why He included it as a specific, daily subject of prayer (Matthew 6:13). And the order of the words shows us its importance: "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." If we are led into temptation, evil will befall us — more or less. I showed earlier how God may be said to lead us into temptation. In this prayer, it is not so much asking God not to abandon us to temptation as asking Him to powerfully keep us from it.
The final words explain the first: "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" — deal with us in such a way that we are powerfully delivered from the evil that attends entering into temptation.
Our blessed Savior knows our condition well. He knows the power of temptations through personal experience. He knows our foolish self-confidence and the reserves we hold about our ability to handle temptation — as He found in Peter. But He also knows our weakness and folly, and how quickly we are knocked to the ground (Hebrews 2:18). So at the very start of His ministry, He laid in this provision of instruction to make us careful about something of such great concern to us. If we are going to place any confidence in the wisdom, love, and care of Jesus Christ toward us, we must accept the truth being argued for here.
2. Christ promises this freedom and deliverance as the great reward of obedience most pleasing to Him (Revelation 3:10). This is the great promise made to the church of Philadelphia, the church in which Christ found nothing He would blame: "You will be kept from the hour of temptation" — not "you will be preserved through it" but something greater: "you will be kept from it." Christ says in effect: there is an hour of temptation coming — a season that will cause havoc in the world. Multitudes will fall from the faith and deny and blaspheme me. How few will be able to stand and hold on? Some will be utterly destroyed and perish forever. Others will receive wounds to their souls that will never fully heal in this life, with bones broken so that they walk with a limp all their days. "But," He says, "because you have kept the word of my patience, I will be tender toward you and keep you from this hour of temptation." Certainly what Christ promises His beloved church as a reward for her service, love, and obedience is no small thing. Whatever Christ promises to His bride flows from unspeakable love — and all the more when it is promised as a reward for special obedience.
3. Consider the general outcomes of entering into temptation — for bad and good people alike, for shallow professors and for the choicest saints.
As for the first group, let two texts of Scripture suffice. Luke 8:13: "Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and have no root; they believe for a while." How long do they believe? They are moved by the preaching of the word and believe it, make profession, and bear some fruit — but how long do they remain? "In the time of temptation they fall away." The moment they enter into temptation, they are gone forever. Temptation withers all their profession and destroys their souls. We see this happening every day — people who have heard the gospel preached, been affected and delighted by it, been regarded as believers, and continued that way for years. No sooner does a vigorous and persistent temptation come upon them than they are turned aside and gone forever. They come to hate the word they once delighted in, despise those who profess it, and are hardened by sin. Matthew 7:26 says the same: he who hears Christ's words and does not do them is like a man who built his house on sand. What does this house of profession do? It shelters him, keeps him warm, and stands for a while. But then (verse 27), when the rain descends — when temptation comes — it falls completely, and great is its fall. Judas followed our Savior for three years and all seemed well. The moment he entered into temptation, Satan had sifted him and he was gone. Demas preached the gospel until love for this world seized him — and he turned aside completely. The examples could go on without end. For this kind of person, entering into temptation is entering into apostasy — more or less, in part or in whole, it never fails.
2. As for the saints of God themselves, let a few examples show us what comes of their entering into temptation. Adam was the son of God (Luke 3), created in the image of God, filled with that integrity, righteousness, and holiness that was a striking likeness of God's own holiness. He had far greater inherent ability than we have, and nothing in him to entice or seduce him — yet no sooner did Adam enter into temptation than he was gone: lost, ruined, and all his posterity with him. What can we expect in the same condition — we who in our temptations face not only a cunning devil, as he did, but also a corrupt world and a corrupt heart?
Abraham was the father of the faithful, whose faith is held up as a pattern for all who believe — yet he entered twice into the same temptation, the fear concerning his wife, and was twice overpowered by it, to the dishonor of God and, no doubt, the disturbance of his own soul.
David is called a man after God's own heart by God Himself — yet how dreadful is the story of his entering into temptation. No sooner is he entangled than he plunges into adultery. Then, seeking deliverance by his own schemes, like a poor creature caught in a snare, he becomes more and more entangled — until he lies as one dead, under the power of sin and folly.
We could also mention Noah, Lot, Hezekiah, Peter, and the rest whose temptations and falls are recorded for our instruction. Surely anyone who truly feels the weight of these things must say, as the inhabitants of Samaria said on reading Jehu's letter: "If two kings could not stand before him, how shall we?" O Lord, if such mighty pillars have been cast to the ground and such great cedars blown down, how shall I stand before temptations? Keep me from entering in! Who among them came out without a wound, or at least a scar? This is why the apostle, speaking to those who had seen a brother fall into sin, urges tenderness — saying in Galatians 6:1, "Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted" — not "lest you also sin," but "lest you also be tempted." The person who has seen so many stronger men fail and be brought low in the trial will take it as his duty to remember the battle and, if possible, to stay out of it. Is it not madness for someone who can barely get around — which is the condition of most of us — to ignore what has brought down giants? You are still whole and sound: beware of temptation, lest what happened to Abraham, David, Lot, Peter, and Hezekiah happen to you — all of whom fell in the hour of trial.
In nothing does the folly of human hearts show itself more plainly in our day than in this reckless boldness — after so many warnings from God and so many sad examples daily before their eyes — of running into and putting themselves directly in the path of temptations. Any company, any society, any conditions of outward advantage — without once weighing their own strength or considering what their souls demand — they rush headlong into. Though they step over the dead and the wounded who just moments before fell in those very same paths, they press on without concern or trembling. Through this door, hundreds — thousands — of professing believers have gone out within just a few years.
Fourth, consider yourselves: what our weakness is, and what temptation is — its power and force, and what it leads to.
As for ourselves, we are weakness itself. We have no strength, no power to resist. Confidence in any strength within us is itself one great part of our weakness — as it was in Peter. He who thinks he can do anything will do nothing as he ought. And what makes it worse is that this is the worst kind of weakness — a weakness born of betrayal, arising from the party within us that is already on the side of every temptation. A castle may be ever so strong and well fortified, yet if there is a treacherous party within ready to betray it at every opportunity, it cannot be held against the enemy. There are traitors in our hearts, ready to side with every temptation and hand everything over to it — yes, to invite temptations in, the way traitors incite an enemy. Do not flatter yourselves that you will hold out. There are secret lusts lurking in your hearts that may now lie quiet, but the moment any temptation comes they will rise, rage, cry out, disquiet, seduce, and never relent until they are either killed or satisfied. The person who promises himself that the condition of his heart under temptation will be the same as it was before it will be badly mistaken. "Am I a dog, that I should do this thing?" says Hazael — yet you will become that very thing if you ever become king of Syria: temptation arising from self-interest will undo you. The person who now finds the very thought of something repulsive, once entered into temptation, will find his heart inflamed toward it and all opposing reasoning overwhelmed and silenced. Little did Peter think he would deny and curse his Master the moment someone asked whether he knew Him. Yet so it was when the hour of temptation came — all resolutions forgotten, all love for Christ buried, and the present temptation, seizing on his carnal fear, swept everything before it.
To treat this more fully, I will examine the means of safety from the power of temptation — if we enter into it — that may be expected from ourselves: both in general as to their source, and in particular as to the ways we attempt to exercise the strength we have or think we have.
In general, everything we can draw on comes from our hearts — for what a man's heart is, that is what the man is. But what is the heart of a man in such a season?
Suppose a man is not a genuine believer, only a professor of the Gospel: what can the heart of such a person do? Proverbs 10:20 says the heart of the wicked is little worth — and surely what is little worth in anything is not much worth in this. A wicked man may be useful in outward matters, but come to his heart: it is false and empty. Now, resisting temptation is heart-work, and when temptation comes like a flood, can such a rotten thing as a wicked man's heart stand before it? But of these it has been said already: for such men, entering into temptation and apostasy are the same thing.
Suppose the peace a man trusts in is genuine and good. Yet when the hour of temptation comes and everything rides on this single consideration, so many arguments will be thrown against it as to make it useless. It cannot long hold out.
Fixing on this one thing alone is like guarding one passage while the enemy attacks from every direction. When our eye is on only one point, temptation may enter and prevail by twenty other ways.
Experience shows us that even this will fail — there is no saint of God who does not value his peace, yet how many of them fail in the day of temptation?
There is yet another consideration: the vileness of sinning against God. Yet we see every day that this consideration fails too. There is no child of God who is overcome by temptation who does not first overcome this consideration. It is not a sure and infallible defense.
Temptation will darken the mind, so that a man cannot make a right judgment of things the way he once could.
Temptation so fills and possesses the mind with its own concerns that it takes away a person's clear consideration of other things. The things the mind was once accustomed to holding vividly — things that once held the person back from sin — lose all their force and effectiveness. Indeed, temptation commonly brings people to a state where, even when others who know their condition are speaking to them words of deliverance and peace, their minds are so filled with the matter of the temptation that they can barely understand or even hear what is being said to them.
By woefully entangling the affections — when they are engaged with what they ought not to be — the mind becomes clouded and darkened. Your present judgment of things will not be entirely overturned, but it will be dimmed and weakened in its power to influence the will and govern the affections. Detestation of sin, abhorrence of it, the terrors of the Lord, the sense of love, the presence of Christ crucified — all depart and leave the heart a prey to its enemy.
Suppose the peace a man trusts in for safeguarding his soul is genuine and real — yet when everything rests on this one foundation and the hour of temptation comes, so many arguments for relief will be offered against this consideration as to render it useless. The sin seems small; it is questionable whether it actually strikes the conscience; perhaps peace can be kept in spite of it; other godly people have fallen and yet kept or recovered their peace; if peace is lost for a time it may be regained; even if peace is lost, safety may remain. There are a thousand such arguments, all aimed like cannons at this one defense — and so it cannot long hold out.
To fix on this one consideration is to guard one passage while the enemy attacks from every side. A little armor would be enough to defend a man if he could choose where his enemy would strike — but we are told to take up the whole armor of God if we intend to resist and stand. When our eye is only on one point, temptation may enter and prevail by twenty other ways. For example: a man may be tempted toward greed, unjust gain, revenge, or vanity; if he defends himself with only this one consideration — that he will not do this thing and wound his conscience — fixing his attention there and thinking himself safe while he is not overcome at that point, all the while neglect of private prayer or sensuality creeps in unnoticed. He ends up no better off than if he had yielded to the temptation most plainly pressing on him.
Experience shows that this will fail too. There is no saint of God who does not prize his peace — yet how many of them fail in the day of temptation?
There is yet another consideration: the vileness of sinning against God. How can they do this thing and sin against God — the God of their mercies and salvation? How can they wound Jesus Christ who died for them? Surely this must preserve them.
In reply: we see every day that this consideration fails too. There is no child of God who is overcome by temptation who does not first overcome this consideration. It is not, then, a sure and infallible defense.
This consideration takes two forms. Either it expresses particular thoughts of the soul in direct reference to the temptation being faced — in which case it will not preserve — or it expresses the universal, habitual disposition of heart that is in us on every account, in which case it aligns with what I will offer as the universal remedy in this situation, which I will address later.
Consider the power of temptation — partly from the evidence already shown through its effects on the saints of old, and partly from other effects generally attributed to it.
First: temptation will darken the mind, so that a man cannot make right judgments about things the way he once could. Just as the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the glory of Christ in the Gospel, and just as sexual immorality, wine, and intoxicants take away the heart — so it is in the nature of every temptation, to a greater or lesser degree, to take away the heart or to darken the understanding of the person being tempted.
It does this in several ways.
First: by fixing the imagination and thoughts on the object the temptation is aimed at, so that the mind is pulled away from any thought that might bring relief. A man tempted to believe he has been abandoned by God, that he is an object of divine hatred, that he has no share in Christ — Satan so fixes his mind on contemplating this condition and its misery that he cannot grasp any of the relief offered against it. Following the fullness of his own troubled thoughts, he walks on in darkness and finds no light. A temptation will so fill the mind with its own concerns that it strips away the clear consideration of other things — so that the things which once powerfully restrained a man from sin come to have no force or effectiveness with him. Indeed, it commonly brings people to such a state that even when others who know their condition speak words of deliverance and peace to them, their minds are so occupied with the matter of the temptation that they can barely hear a word that is said.
Second: by woefully entangling the affections which, once engaged, have a well-known power to blind the mind and darken the understanding. Take a man whose hope, love, or fear is wrongly fixed on some particular object, and you will quickly see how he is darkened and blinded. In such a condition — with your present judgment not entirely overturned but dimmed and weakened in its power over the will and the affections — those affections, set loose by temptation, will run on in madness. Detestation of sin, abhorrence of it, the terrors of the Lord, the sense of love, the presence of Christ crucified — all depart and leave the heart a prey to its enemy.
Third: temptation will fuel and fan our lusts, stir and provoke them, and make them tumult and rage beyond measure — laying the reins on the neck of a lust and putting spurs to its sides, so that it rushes forward like a horse into battle. A man does not know the pride, fury, and madness of a corruption until it meets with a fitting temptation — as it did with carnal fear in Peter, with pride in Hezekiah, with greed in Achan, with lust in David, with love of the world in Demas, with ambition in Diotrephes. What will a poor soul do then? His mind is darkened, his affections entangled, his lusts inflamed and provoked, his defenses defeated — what will come of such a condition?
Third: consider that temptations are either public or private, and let us briefly examine the power of each.
There are public temptations — such as the one described in Revelation 3:10, coming upon the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth — a combination of persecution and seduction aimed at testing a careless generation of professing believers. Regarding such a temptation, consider this:
First: it carries a special power in respect of God, who sends it to avenge the neglect and contempt of the Gospel on one side and the treachery of false professors on the other. When Satan offered to go and seduce Ahab so that he might fall, God said to him, "You shall persuade him and prevail — go and do so." Satan was permitted on account of his wickedness, and commissioned in terms of the outcome and punishment intended. When the Christian world was given over to foolishness and false worship because of their contempt for truth and their empty, Christ-dishonoring profession, it is said that God sent them a strong delusion so that they would believe a lie. What comes from God in such a judicial way carries power with it and will prevail. That selfish, spiritually lazy, careless, and worldly spirit which in these days has infected nearly the whole body of professing believers — if it has received a commission from God to kill hypocrites, wound negligent saints, break their bones, and make them a public scandal — shall it not have power to do so? Nothing but the strength of God can stand in the way of even the weakest things that have been commissioned by God for any purpose.
Second: public temptations carry the hidden power of bad examples from people considered godly. Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold — the abounding of iniquity in some will quietly pour cold water on the zeal and love of others, so that little by little it grows cold. Some begin to grow negligent, careless, worldly, loose — they break the ice toward indulging the flesh. At first others criticize and judge them, but before long their own love also cools and they fall into the same mold. A little leaven leavens the whole lump — Paul repeats this twice, in 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9, warning us of the danger of infection spreading through the whole body from the bad examples of a few. Some shallow, empty professors who never had more than a form of godliness started down this road. Then others began to go along, giving a little ground to the flesh. By little and little this has spread even to the topmost branches of our profession, until almost everyone has corrupted their ways — and the person who still departs from these sins makes his very name a target, if not his person.
Public temptations are usually accompanied by strong arguments and plausible justifications that are too powerful for most people to handle — or at least gradually work on them to undervalue the evil toward which the temptation leads. Consider that complex temptation which in these days has brought God's people down from their excellence, cut away their strength, and made them become like everyone else — how full is the world of convincing excuses! There is the freedom and liberty of Christians delivered from bondage — a door through which I have seen many walk out into sensuality and apostasy, beginning with light and easy behavior, moving to neglect of the Sabbath and private and public duties, ending in complete looseness and ungodliness. There is also the approach of leaving public affairs to providence and being content with what is — things good in themselves, but twisted into wretched worldly compromises and the complete ruin of all zeal for God, the cause of Christ, and His people in the world. These and similar arguments, combined with the ease, plenty, and advancement of professing believers, have worked things around so that while by providence we have changed places with the men of the world, we have by sin changed spirits with them too — like a colony transplanted to a foreign country, which within a short time has abandoned the ways of the people they came from and adopted the ways of the country they have been brought to. Prosperity has slain the foolish and wounded the wise.
Suppose the temptation is private: I add two observations.
First: its union and blending with lust, by which it gets inside the soul and lies at the root of all the soul's actions. The things of the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life — are said to be "in the world" because the world gets into them, blends itself with them, and incorporates. Just as faith and the promises are said to be mixed together, so lust and temptation are mixed: they twine together, each drawing strength from the other, growing higher and higher. By this process, temptation works so deep into the heart that no opposing argument can reach it. Nothing but what can kill the lust can conquer the temptation. Like a fungus that has worked itself into a wall — the wall itself must be torn down or the fungus will not be cured. Like gangrene that mixes its poison into the blood and cannot be separated from where it is — both must be cut away together. In David's temptation toward sexual sin, ten thousand arguments could have been brought against it. But the temptation had joined itself with his lust, and nothing but the death of that lust could destroy it. This deceives many: they have some persistent temptation that has gained advantages and presses hard on them. They pray against it, oppose it with every powerful argument — each of which seems sufficient to overcome it — yet nothing works and it grows stronger. Why? Because it has blended itself with their lust, and is safe from all their opposition. If they truly want to make progress, they must go after the lust itself — their ambition, pride, love of the world, sensuality, or whatever the temptation has joined forces with. The soul may torment itself for a season by any other approach, but it must come to this: the lust must die, or the soul must die.
Second: in whatever part of the soul the lust resides with which the temptation has united, it draws the whole soul after it by one means or another and so prevents or gets ahead of all resistance. If it is a lust of the mind — such as ambition or vanity — the understanding will find a thousand ways to restrain the affections from clinging too closely to God, presenting everything in the color and hue of what the lust desires. It promises the whole soul a share in the spoil it is after — just as Judas's money, first desired out of greed, was to be shared among all his lusts. Or if the lust is in the more physical part and first takes over the affections, how those affections will bribe the understanding to agree with them and supply arguments and hope in their favor — as was shown before. In short, every particular temptation, when it is in its hour, draws such support from things good, evil, and neutral, and in some cases brings such plausible arguments and justifications, that its strength will readily be acknowledged.
Fifth: consider the goal of any temptation — this is Satan's goal and sin's goal: the dishonor of God and the ruin of our souls.
Sixth: consider what has been the outcome of any past temptations you have had. Did they not defile your conscience, disturb your peace, weaken you in obedience, cloud the face of God from you? Even if you were not brought to the outward act or the furthest extent of the temptation, were you not damaged? Was not your soul grieved and deeply troubled? Has there been a single temptation in your life from which you came away without some real loss? And would you willingly be caught again? If you are currently free, take heed — do not enter in again if at all possible, lest something worse happen to you.
These are some of the many considerations that demonstrate the importance of the truth stated here, and the full weight of our interest in making sure we do not enter into temptation.
Against this duty there are objections that quietly work their way into people's minds, making them negligent and careless about something of such indispensable importance to anyone who intends to walk with God in any measure of peace or faithfulness. These objections need to be considered and rejected.
Objection 1: Why should we be so afraid and so eager to avoid temptation? James 1:2 commands us to count it all joy when we fall into various temptations — surely I need not anxiously avoid what, when I do fall into it, I am commanded to count as joy.
Answer 1: You would not apply this rule consistently in all areas — that a man need not try to avoid what, when he cannot escape it, is his duty to rejoice in. The same apostle tells the rich to rejoice when they are brought low — and without doubt, to someone who truly knows the goodness, wisdom, and love of God, every condition that is necessary for him can become a reason to rejoice. Yet how few rich godly men can you persuade not to take care and use every lawful means to avoid becoming poor? In most cases, it would be a sin for them not to do so. Our business is to hold our ground and secure ourselves as best we can. If God changes our circumstances, we are to rejoice in it. If the temptations mentioned by James come upon us, we may find reason to rejoice — but not if we brought them on ourselves through neglect of duty.
Second: temptations are taken in two ways.
First, passively and in a general sense — for such things as are, or in certain cases may be, temptations. Second, actively — for such things as actively entice toward sin. James is using the word only in the first sense: having said "count it all joy when you fall into various temptations," he adds "blessed is the man who endures temptation — for when he is tried he will receive the crown of life." But then he clarifies: if "temptation" means something that entices and leads toward sin, God tempts no one — every man is tempted by his own lust. To have such temptations — to be enticed toward sin — is not the blessed thing James intends, but rather the enduring of afflictions God sends for the testing of faith. So while I must count it all joy when by God's will I fall into various afflictions for my testing — even though those afflictions carry the material of temptation in them — I must still take all care and diligence that my lust has no occasions or advantages given to it to pull me toward sin.
Objection 2: Was not our Savior Christ Himself tempted? Is it not said that His being tempted works to our advantage, in that He is able thereby to help those who are tempted? He also counts His disciples' having stayed with Him in His temptations as a basis for a great promise.
Answer: It is true our Savior was tempted. But His temptations are counted among the evils that came upon Him in the days of His flesh through the malice of the world and its prince. He did not willfully throw Himself into temptation — which He said was to tempt the Lord our God. Our condition is such that even with our greatest diligence and watchfulness we will still be tempted and made like Christ in that way.
This does not prevent it from being our duty to keep ourselves from falling into temptations — and especially for this reason: Christ endured only the suffering side of temptation when He entered into it; we face the sinning side as well. When the prince of this world came to Christ, he found nothing in Him. When he comes to us, he finds a willing ally within. Though in one effect of temptations — the trials and distress they bring — we are made like Christ and are to rejoice in that, yet by another effect — being defiled and entangled — we are made unlike Him. Therefore we are to use every means available to avoid them. For who among us enters into temptation and is not defiled?
Objection 3: But why all this effort and carefulness? Is it not said that God is faithful, who will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape? And He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. What need do we have, then, to be so concerned that we do not enter into them?
Answer: I seriously doubt what help from God a person will receive in a temptation he walked into willingly, on the grounds that God has promised to deliver him out of it. The Lord knows that through the craftiness of Satan, the subtlety and malice of the world, and the deceitfulness of sin that so easily trips us up, even when we have done our very best we will still fall into various temptations. In His love, care, tenderness, and faithfulness, He has provided such a sufficiency of grace that temptations will not ultimately prevail to make an eternal separation between Him and our souls. Yet I have three things to say in reply to this objection.
First: the person who willfully or carelessly enters into temptation has no reason whatsoever to expect any help from God, or any deliverance from the temptation he has entered.
The promise is made to those on whom temptations come in the course of their duty — not to those who willfully seek them out and go looking for trouble. This is why the devil, as is commonly noted, when tempting our Savior left out the phrase from the Scripture he was quoting: "in all your ways." The promise of deliverance belongs to those who are in their God-appointed ways — and one of the chief requirements of those ways is to beware of temptation.
Second: although there is sufficient grace provided for all the elect so that no temptation will cause them to fall away from God completely, it would make any tender heart tremble to consider what dishonor to God, what reproach to the Gospel, and what dreadful darkness and misery they may bring upon their own souls — even though they do not ultimately perish. And those who are only restrained by fear of hell — on whom nothing less than that has any effect — have more reason to fear eternal ruin than they may be aware.
Third: to enter temptation on this basis is to sin so that grace may abound — a thought the apostle rejects with the strongest possible revulsion. Is it not madness for a man to willingly let his ship be wrecked on a rock — with the total loss of all his cargo — simply because he expects to swim safely to shore on a plank? Is it any less mad for a man who will risk the wreck of all his comfort, peace, joy, much of the glory of God, and the honor of the Gospel — all on the mere supposition that his soul will yet escape? You would think such things barely worth mentioning — and yet with reasoning like this, poor souls sometimes deceive themselves.
