nying of it; and the
Devil marks what it is, that we are _Hungry_ for. One mans Condition
makes him _Hunger_ for Preferments, or Employments, another mans makes
him _Hunger_ for Cash or Land, or Trade; another mans makes him _Hunger_
for Merriments, or Diversions: And the Condition of every Afflicted Man,
makes him _Hunger_ with Impatience for Deliverance. Now the Devil will
be sure to suit his Perswasions with our _Conditions_. When he has our
_Condition_ to speak with him, & for him, then thinks he, _I am sure
this man will now hearken to my Proposals!_ Hence, if men are in
_Prosperity_, the Devil will tempt them to Forgetfulness of God; if they
are in _Adversity_, he will tempt them to Murmuring at God; in all the
expressions of those impieties. Wise _Agur_ was aware of this; in _Prov.
30.9._ says he, if a man be _Full_, he shall be tempted, _to deny God,
and say, who is the Lord?_ if a man be Poor, he shall be tempted, _to
steal, and take the Name of God in vain._ The Devil will talk suitably;
if you ponder your Conditions, you may expect you shall be tempted
agreeably thereunto.

II. The Devil does often manage his _temptations_, by urging of our
_Necessities_. Our Lord, was thus by the Devil bawl'd upon; _You want
Bread, and you'll starve, if in my way you get it not._ The Devil will
show some forbidden thing unto us, and plead concerning it, as of
_Bread_ we use to say, _it must be had._ _Necessity_ has a wonderful
compulsion in it. You may see what _Necessity_ will do, if you read in
_Deut. 28.56._ _the tender and the delicate Woman among you, her eye shall
be evil towards the Children that she shall bear, for she shall eat them
for want of all things._ The Devil will perswade us that there is a
_Necessity_ of our doing what he does propound unto us; and then tho'
the _Laws_ of God about us were so many _Walls_ of Stone, yet we shall
break through them all. That little inconvenience, of our coming to beg
our _Bread_, O what a fearful Representation does the Devil make of it!
and when once the Devil scares us to think of a sinful thing, _it must
be done_, we soon come to think, _it may be done_. When the Devil has
frighted us into an Apprehension, that it is a _Needful_ thing which we
are prompted unto, he presently Engages all the Faculties of our Souls,
to prove, that it may be a _Lawful_ one; the Devil told _Esau_, _You'll
dye if you don't sell your Birthright;_ the Devil told _Aaron_, _You'll
pull all the peo