I. The Devil in his _Temptations_ will set the Delight of this world

before us; but he'll set a fair, and a false _Varnish_ upon those Delights. They were some unknown _Perspectives_, which the Devil had, both for the Refracting of the _Medium_, and for the Magnifying of the _Object_, whereby he gave our Lord at once a prospect of the whole Roman Empire; but what was it? It was the _World_, and the _Glory_ of it; he says not a word of the _World_, and the _Trouble_ of it. No sure; not a word of that; the Devil will not have his Hook so barely expos'd unto us. The Devil sets off the Delights of Sin, which he offers unto us, with a stretched and raised Rhetorick; but he will not own, _That in the midst of our Laughter, our Heart shall be sorrowful;_ and _That the end of our Mirth shall be Heaviness_. There is but one Glass in the Spectacles, with which the Devil would have us to read, those passages in _Eccles._ 11. 9. _Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth, and let thy Heart chear thee in the Dayes of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy Heart, and in the sight of thine Eyes._ Thus far the Devil would have us to Read; and he'll make many a fine Comment upon it; he'll tell us, That if we'll follow the Courses of the World, we shall swim in all the Delights of the World. But he is not willing you should Read out the next words; _But know thou, that for all these things God shall bring thee into judgment_. O he's loth we should be aware of the dreadful Issues, and Reckonings that our Worldly Delights will be attended with. He sets before us, the _Pleasures of Sin;_ but he will not say, _These are but for a Season_. He sets before us, _The Sweet Waters of Stealth?_ but he will not say, _There is Death in the Pot_. He is a _Mountebank_, that will bestow nothing but Romantic Praises upon all that he makes us the Offers of. [96] II. There are most Hellish _Blasphemies_ often buzz'd by the _Temptations_ of the Devil, into the minds of the best Men alive. What a most Execrable Thing was here laid before our Lord Himself: Even, To own the _Devil_ as _God!_ a thing that can't be uttered, without unutterable Horror of Soul. The best man on earth, may have such _Fiery Darts_ from Hell shot into his mind. One that was acted by the _Devil_, had the impudence to propound this unto such a good man as _Job, Curse God_. And the Devil pleases himself, by chasing the Hearts of good men, with his base Injections, _That there is no God_, or, _That God is not a Righteous God;_ and a thousand more such things, too Devilish to be mentioned. A good man is extreamly grieved at it, when he hears a _Blasphemy_ from the mouth of another man; said the Psalmist, in Psal. 44. 15, 16. _My Confusion is continually before me, for the voice of him that Blasphemeth._ But much more when a good man finds a _Blasphemy_ in his own Heart; O it throws him into most Fevourish Agonies of Soul. For this cause, a mischievous Devil will _Flie blow_ the Heart of such a man, with such Blasphemous Thoughts, as make him crie out, _Lord I am e'n weary of my life_. Yea, the Devil serves the man just as the Mistress of _Joseph_ dealt with him; he importunes the man to think wickedly from Day to Day; and if the man refuse, he cries out at last, _Behold what wicked thoughts this man has lodging in him_. Sayst thou so? _Satan!_ No, they are Brats of thy own; and at thy Door alone shall they be laid for ever.