lves, those _Excellencies_ which
really we never were owners of; and _Boast of a false Gift_. He would
have us moreover to Thirst after Applause among others that may see Our
_Excellencies_! and be impatient if we are not accounted _some-body_. He
would have us furthermore, to aspire after such a _Figure_, as God has
never yet seen fitting for us; and croud into some _High Chair_ that
becomes us not. Thus would the Devil Elevate us into the _Air_, above
our Neighbours; and why so? 'Tis that we may be punished with such
_Falls_, as may make us cry out with _David_, _O my Bones are broken
with my Falls!_ The Devil can't endure to see men lying in the _Dust_;
because there is no falling thence. He is a _Fallen Spirit_ himself, and
it pleases him to see the _Falls_ of men.

S. The Third of Our Lords Three Temptations, is related in such Terms as
these. _Matth. 4.8, 9._ _Again the Devil taketh him up, into an exceeding
High Mountain, and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them: and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if
thou wilt fall down and Worship me._ From whence take these Remarks.

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 Rea