" He had a mind to
destroy seventy thousand, therefore he tempted David to sin.
I have sent you here enclosed a drop of that honey that I have taken
out of the carcass of a lion. I have eaten thereof myself, and am
much refreshed thereby. Temptations, when we meet them at first, are
as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the
next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.
TEMPTATIONS OF THE WORLD.
If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath appointed
thee to do in this world for his name, then labor always to possess
thy heart with a right understanding, both of the things that this
world yieldeth, and of the things that shall be hereafter. I am
confident that most if not all the miscarriages of the saints and
people of God have their rise from deceivable thoughts here. The
things of this world appear to us more, and those that are to come
less, than they are; and hence it is that many are so hot and eager
for things that be in the world, and so cold and heartless for those
that be in heaven. Satan is here a mighty artist, and can show us
all earthly things in a multiplying-glass; but when we look up to
things above, we see them as through sackcloth of hair. But take
thou heed; be not ruled by thy sensual appetite that can only savor
fleshly things, neither be thou ruled by carnal reason which always
darkeneth the things of heaven; but go to the word, and as that
says, so judge thou.
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