In
time of temptation, it is our wisdom and duty to keep close to the
word that prohibits and forbids the sin; and not to reason with
Satan, of how far our outward and worldly privileges go, especially
of those privileges that border upon the temptation, as Eve here
did: "We may eat of all but one." By this she goeth to the outside
of her liberty, and sees herself upon the brink of the danger.
Christ might have told the tempter, when he assaulted him, that he
could have made stones bread, and that he could have descended from
the pinnacle of the temple, as afterwards he did; but that would
have admitted of other questions; wherefore he chooseth to lay aside
such needless and unwarrantable reasonings, and resisteth him with a
direct word of God, most pertinent to quash the tempter and also to
preserve himself in the way. To go to the outside of privileges,
especially when tempted of the devil, is often if not always very
dangerous and hazardous.
As long as the devil is alive there is danger; and though a strong
Christian may lie too hard for, and may overcome him in one thing,
he may be too hard for, yea, and may overcome the Christian two for
one afterwards. Thus he served David, and thus he served Peter, and
thus he in our day has served many more.
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