yet resisted unto blood (saith the Apostle) striving against sin; Heb. xii. 4, implying, it may come to that; and if it should, it alters not the case, nor gives a dispensation to shift for ourselves, by chusing to sin rather than to suffer. The Roman captain said it was necessary to sail, not to live; and shall a Christian be afraid of his duty, when it is attended with outward hazard? The soldier carries his prince's honour into the field with him, and so doth the Christian his God's, whenever he is called to contest with any temptation: now it will be seen, at what rate he values his honour. David's subjects valued him worth ten thousands of their lives, and therefore would die every man of them, rather than hazard him; oh how unworthy is it then to expose the name of God to reproach, rather than ourselves to a little scorn, temporal loss, or trouble? It was Pompey's boast, that at a word or nod of his, he could make his soldiers creep up the steepest rock on their hands and knees, though they were knocked down as fast as they went up. Truly God is not prodigal of the blood of his servants, yet sometimes he tries their loyalty in hard services, and sharp temptations, that he may from their faithfulness to him, and holy stoutness in their sufferings for him, triumph over Satan, who was so impudent as to tell God, that one of his choicest servants did but serve himself in serving of him: "Doth Job fear God for nought?" As if when any sharp encounter came, he would turn head, and rather curse God than submit to him; and therefore we find the Lord glorying over Satan, "still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him," Job ii. 2. as if the Lord had said, What dost think now, Satan? Hath not Job proved thee a loud liar? I have some servants thou seest, that will serve me without a bribe, that will hold fast their integrity when they can hold fast nothing else. Thou hast got away his estate, servants, and chil dren, and yet he stands his ground, and thou hast not got thy will of him, nor his integrity from him.

2. God furnisheth us with armour for this end, that we should stand it out valiantly, and not yield to Satan tempting. To deliver up a castle into an enemy's hand, when it is well provided with ammunition to defend it, is

shameful and unworthy of such a trust. This makes the Christian's sin more dishonourable than another's, because he is better appointed to make resistance. Take a graceless soul, when solicited to a sin that promiseth carnal pleasure, or profit, it is no great wonder that he yields at first summons, and delivers up himself prisoner to Satan: the poor wretch, alas! hath no armour on to repel the motion: he tastes no sweetness in Christ; what marvel is it, if his hungry soul, for want of better food, falls on board upon the devil's cheer? that he, who hath no hope for another world, be made to shark and prowl to get some of this? The goat, we say, must browse where she is tied, and the sinner feed on earth and earthly things, to which he is staked down by his carnal heart; but the Christian hath a hope in his bosom of another glory than this peddling world can pretend to; yea, a faith that is able to entertain him at present with some of heaven's joys, it being the nature of that grace to give existence to the good things of the promise; this helmet on, and shield lifted up, would keep off a whole shower of such arrows from hurting the Christian. God hath reason to take it the worse at his hands to yield, that might have stood, would he but have made use of those graces which God hath given him for his defence, or called in help from Heaven to his succour. "Hast thou eaten (saith God to Adam) of the tree whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat?" Gen. iii. The emphasis lies in "thou." It was not sure for hunger: thou hadst a whole Paradise before thee; hast thou eaten that wert provided so well to have withstood him? Hast thou, may God say to the Christian, eaten of the devil's dainties who hast a key to go to my cupboard? Does thy heavenly father keep so starved a house, that the devil's scraps will go down with thee?

3. The Christian's safety lies in resisting. All the armour here provided is to defend the Christian fighting, none to secure him flying. Stand, and the day is ours; fly, or yield, and all is lost. Great captains, to make their soldiers more resolute, do sometimes cut off all hope of a safe retreat to them that run away: thus the Norman conqueror, as soon as his men were set on

English shore, sent away his ships in their sight, that they might resolve to fight or die. God takes away all thought of safety to the coward. Not a piece to be found for the back in all God's armoury. Stand, and the bullets all light on your armour; fly, and they enter into your hearts. It is a terrible place, Heb. x. 38, "The just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." He that stands to it believingly comes off with his life; but he that recoils, and runs from his colours, as the word uposteiletai imports, God will have no pleasure in him, except it be in the just execution of his wrath on him. And doth not he make a sad change, that from fighting against Satan, engageth God as an enemy against him? There is comfort in striving against sin and Satan, though to blood; but none to lie sweating under the fiery indignation of a revenging God. What Satan lays on, God can take off; but who can ease, if God lays on? What man would not rather die in the field fighting for his prince, than on a scaffold by the axe, for cowardice or treachery?

4. The enemy we have to do with is such as is only to be dealt with by resisting. God is an enemy that is overcome by yielding, the devil only by force of arms.

First, he is a cowardly enemy; though he sets a bold face on it in tempting, he carries a fearful heart in his breast. The work is naught he goes about, and as a thief is afraid of every light he sees, or noise he hears, in the house he would rob, so Satan is discouraged where he finds the soul waking, and in any posture to oppose him. He fears thee, Christian, more than thou needest him: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know," (said the devil) Acts xix, 15. That is, I know them to my shame, they have both put me to flight; and if ye were such as they, I should fear you also. Believe it, soul, he trembles at thy faith; put it forth in prayer to call for help to Heaven against him, and exert it vigorously by rejecting the motions he makes, and thou shalt see him run. Did soldiers in a castle know that their enemies besieging them were in a distracted condition, and would certainly upon their sallying out, break up, and fly away, what mettle and courage would not this fill them with? The Spirit of God

(who knows well enough how affairs stand in the Devil's camp) sends this intelligence unto every soul that is be leaguered by his temptations: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Jam. iv. 8. He cannot hurt us without our leave. The devil is not so, good a drawer, but when he finds it comes not, the soul yields not, his heart then fails him, at least for the present; as in Christ's combat, it is said, "he departed from him for a season.' When the devil continues long the same suit, it is to be feared, that person though he hath not fully promised him, yet he hath not given him a peremptory denial. He is a suitor, that listens for something to drop from the creature that may encourage him to prosecute his motion; no way to be rid of him but to shut the door upon him, and deny all discourse with him: which prompts to the second character.

2. He is an encroaching enemy, and therefore to be resisted. "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath (saith the Apostle), neither give place to the devil," Eph. iv. 26. as soldiers by cowardly leaving some outwork they are set to defend, give place to their enemy, who enters the same, and from thence doth more easily shoot into the city then he could before; thus yielding in one temptation, we let the devil into our trench, and give him a fair advantage to do us the more mischief. The angry man, while he is raging and raving, thinks, may be, no more but to ease his passion by disgorging it in some bitter keen words; but, alas! while his fury and wrath is sallying out at the portal of his lips, the devil, finding the door open, enters and hurries him further than he dreamt of. We have not to do with an Hannibal, who though a great swordsman, yet wanted the art of following and improving the advantages his victories gave him; but with a cunning devil that will easily lose no ground he gets; our best way therefore is to give him no hand-hold, not so much as to come near the door where sin dwells, lest we be hooked in. If we mean not to be burnt, let us not walk upon the coals of temptation; if not to be tanned, let us not stand where the sun lies. They sure forget what an insinuating wriggling nature this serpent hath, that dare yield to him in something, and make us

believe they will not in another; who will set in the company of drunkards, frequent the places where the sin is committed, and yet pretend they mean not to be such; that will prostitute their eyes to unchaste objects, and yet be chaste; that will lend their ears to any corrupt doctrine of the times, and yet be sound in the faith. This is a strong delusion that such are under. If a man hath not power enough to resist Satan in the less, what reason hath he to think he shall in the greater? Thou hast not grace, it seems, to keep thee from throwing thyself into the whirl of temptation; and dost thou think, when in it thou shalt bear up against the stream of it? One would think it is easier when in the ship, to keep from falling overboard, than when in the sea, to get safely into the ship again.

3. He is an accusing enemy, and truly folly is in that man's name who knows what a tell-tale the devil is, and yet will by yielding to his temptation put an errand into his mouth, with which he may accuse him to God. Some foolishly report that witches cannot hurt till they receive an alins; but I am sure, so long as thou shewest no kindness to the devil, he cannot hurt thee, because he cannot accuse thee; take up therefore holy Job's resolution, "My righteousness I hold fast, my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live." Job. xxvii. It is never sad indeed with the soul till the barking is within doors; conscience (not the devil) is the blood-hound that pulls down the creature. Oh, let not that reproach thee, and thou art well enough.