INSTRUCTION FROM CHRIST'S TEMPTATIONS. 315 no occasion for surprise or alarm at the strength, the repetition, or the horrid nature of his suggestions or temptations. Read the history of your Lord's temptation, and it may furnish you many useful lessons. Satan tempted Jesus-hence you learn that the most pious may expect his assaults. He persevered in tempting Jesus, and when foiled at one temptation employed another. Hence it is evident, that Satan will not easily depart from those whose faith and piety he is anxious to destroy. He tempted Jesus with the most horrid of temptations, even that of falling down and worshipping himself a devil. Need the Christian then be surprised, if the enemy, who presented a temptation so horrid to his Lord, should harass him with suggestions equally dreadful? His last and principal offer to the Saviour, was the world—" All this will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." This is the most successful of the false, but alluring, offers, that he still employs to keep or draw the soul from God. When tempting Jesus, he backed his impious suggestions by passages from even the word of God, and by wresting the Scriptures. Thus the kingdom of Satan is still upheld, and multitudes undone for ever. Yet consider, that Jesus, though tempted even to worship the devil, continued holy, harmless, and undefiled. It is not therefore temptation, but yielding to temptation, that stains the soul with sin. Often are the friends of Jesus distressed and perplexed, from not regarding this distinction. They think they cannot be his followers, who have such horrid thoughts or temptations as they have. At such times they should look to their Lord, and think, Am I, or can I be, tempted worse than he? Why then despond? That you may overcome in your warfare, watchfulness is a most momentous Christian duty. The Lord Jesus Christ inculcates a watchful spirit. "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.-I say unto all, Watch."f Blessed is he that watcheth."s "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."h 66 Take unto you the whole armour of God, and you will, through Jesus's strength, triumph over the wicked one. Jesus persevered and triumphed, and angels came and ministered unto him. Follow him, and he will minister to your wants; (ƒ) Mark xiii. 33, 35-37. (g) Rev. xvi. 15. (h) 1 Cor. x. 12. 316 ENCOURAGEMENT UNDER TRIALS. and when the last temptation is over, angels will come and minister to your triumphant spirit; and bear it away as a happy conqueror to worlds of light. Pray much. By prayer you will conquer. Avoid idleness. The slothful are peculiarly open to the assaults of the wicked one. With prayer, unite reading the Scriptures and devout meditation. Above all, endeavour to live under the influence of faith in God and Christ in heaven. To communicate your trials and temptations to Christian friends, may also assist you in overcoming the wicked one. An excellent puritan writer mentions a man, who was tempted to blasphemy for the long term of twenty years, and kept in almost continual terror. He thought there was no man so vile, and who had such thoughts as he; and that if the world knew what they were, he should be abhorred as a monster. He was often tempted to suicide, principally on the ground, that it was a pity such a blasphemer as he supposed himself, should longer live. But hearing the subject of these dreadful suggestions preached upon, and afterwards conversing privately respecting them, he was happily delivered from his sorrows. Be faithful, and persevere. § 16. When in your pilgrimage to heaven you have to maintain a painful conflict with the world, or the flesh, or the wicked one, think not that some strange thing has happened to you. As mariners must expect tempests, and soldiers look for battles, so should the Christian be prepared to meet the most trying scenes in his more important warfare. Further to encourage your soul when tried or tempted, consider that many whose piety has shone with bright and glorious lustre, have encountered similar trials. Job exclaimed, "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." "I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me." A case is recorded of an eminent disciple of the Saviour, who said in his last hours, "The sea is not more full of water, nor the sun of light, than the Lord of mercy ;---I am sure he hath provided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy that I feel in my heart is incredible." Yet, bright as was his prospect then, not long before, in an hour of dreadful dark ENCOURAGEMENT IN SADNESS. 317 ness, he had said, "I feel a hell in my own conscience. Oh, my heart is miserable! oh, miserable and woful! The burthen of my sin lieth so heavy upon me, I doubt it will break my heart!" When asked if he would pray, he replied, "I cannot." They requested him to permit them to pray for him; but he replied, "Take not the name of God in vain, by praying for a reprobate." Thus dark was the night; but when its shades dispersed, as bright was the day. Of another, who was a martyr, it is recorded, that through five successive years, such intolerable grief of mind oppressed him, that life had no comfort left. He only partook of food to keep himself a little longer out of hell; thinking that he must sink there as soon as life should close. Yet at length he found deliverance from his burthen, and lived a life of eminent piety, dead to the world, and ripening for heaven. Brainerd, so distinguished for his sufferings, labours, and success as a missionary to the American Indians, often felt deep depression. In some of these seasons of spiritual darkness he wrote: "My spiritual conflicts were unspeakably dreadful, heavier than the mountains and overflowing floods! I seemed enclosed in hell itself; I was deprived of all sense of God, even of his being; and that was my misery. My soul was in such anguish I could not eat. I appeared to myself a creature fit for nothing, neither heaven nor earth. I thought I was the meanest, vilest, most helpless, ignorant creature living. And * yet I knew what God had done for my soul; though sometimes I was assaulted with doubts, whether it was possible for such a wretch as I to be in a state of grace." Many others equally pious, have encountered equal spiritual distress. Even the holy Jesus, in a dark and dreadful hour, exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" Think not, then, that because comfort has vanished, salvation is lost; or that the victory is doubtful, because the conflict is severe. Cleave to your Saviour, and the sun, that clouds have hidden, will shine forth again. Again the presence of God will cheer you, and the prospect of glory animate your soul. § 17. Amidst all the discouragement and distress of your spiritual warfare, never forget that you have a faithful" High Priest, who is passed into the heavens;" but who knows "how to succour them that are tempted," as "he was in all 318 ENCOURAGEMENT FROM JESUS'S PROMISES. points tempted like as" they are, " yet without sin." Jesus felt the sting of affliction, the assaults of Satan, and the sorrows of spiritual desertion. In your darkest hour, you may approach him and say, Blessed Lord, behold me in a case that once was thine-harassed by those hellish foes that once harassed thee; but thou hast conquered, and wilt thou not give thy poor follower grace and strength to conquer too? 66 Why distrust the gracious Saviour? Are not his promises as rich as heavenly love can make them? as firm as eternal truth can fix them? as free as an undone world can want? Art thou his servant? he says, "Where I am, there shall also my servant be."k Art thou one of his flock? he declares, My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any one (neither man nor devil) pluck them out of my hand." Or art thou laden with sin, and full of fears? he says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."m "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It is said, that when bishop Butler lay on his death-bed, he said to his chaplain, " Though I have endeavoured to avoid sin, and please God, to the utmost of my power, yet, from the consciousness of perpetual infirmities, I am still afraid to die." My lord," said the chaplain," you have forgotten that Jesus Christ is a Saviour."- "True," was the answer; "but how shall I know that he is a Saviour for me?"" It is written, Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." ני True," said the bishop; "and I am surprised, that, though I have read that scripture a thousand_times over, I never felt its virtue till this moment; and now I die happy." In your Christian pilgrimage, in your spiritual warfare, forget not that you have a SAVIOUR; and let that Saviour be all your comfort and support. Look to your Lord's sorroWS for relief from your own. If he were present with you, would not his kind declarations repress your doubts, and subdue your unbelief? but if he were, he could not speak comfort in language stronger than that in which his sufferings and death should speak peace to every believing heart. $ 18. Think of your heavenly Father's love. Jesus speaking of him, said to his disciples, even after they had fallen through unbelieving fears, "I ascend unto my Father and (1) John x. 27, 28. (i) Heb. ii. 18; iv. 14, 15. (k) John xii. 26. (m) John vi. 37. ENCOURAGEMENT FROM GOD'S LOVE. 319 your Father, to my God and your God." Precious declaration! With such a Father as the blessed God, why should his penitent, though unworthy, child despond and fear? Richer mercy you cannot need, than that which God displays. Promises more free you cannot desire. Though one sin allowed to reign would undo an immortal soul, yet had a soul which comes to God by Christ, sins as numerous as the drops of morning dew, the blood of Jesus would wash them all away. Cannot you trust in God to help you? He bade the sun shine; has he not power to shine into your sad heart? Does he want the inclination? It cannot be, that he who gave Christ for you, can be unwilling with Christ to give whatever your wants require.-Jesus has died. Such has been his infinite pity, that through his appointment Jesus has died. O, comprehend but this aright, and nothing more will be needed to banish thy fears, to raise thy hopes, to subdue thy unbelief, to fire and to fill thee with trust and delight in thy great, and good, and gracious God. Think of him as a Father. Does not a father pity his feeble child? If the child lie sick and afflicted, unable to utter any thing but sobs and groans, will he pity that child the less? God is a Father to those that seek him; a kinder Father than any earthly parent: he knows his children's sorrows; he sees their feebleness, and knows their frame is dust. He pities them, and hast thou been led to seek him, then be assured he pities thee. § 19. To animate you in pressing forward to the Christian crown, often think of those, who through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises. Turn to the first ages of Christianity. Christians then esteemed it an honour to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. They forced their passage to heaven, through all that is most dreadful; and sought admission there, at the expense of all that is most dear. Riches, health, ease, pleasure, and life, all were trifles in their esteem. Then tormentors were weary of inflicting pain, before martyrs were weary of bearing it. Their path was no smooth and flowery way sorrows beset its entrance, and attended its course; and flames and tortures were at its end: and yet they trod it. These indeed seem like a different race of beings, like creatures of a different world. Ah, my friend! there lay the distinction between them and many that profess the same |