Perhaps there are few persons, ever
allured by the Devil unto an Explicit Covenant with himself. If any
among ourselves be so, my councel is, that you hunt the Devil from you,
with such words as the Psalmist had, _Be gone, Depart from me, ye evil
Doers, for I will keep the Commandments of my God._ But alas, the most
of men, are by the Devil put upon doing the things that are Analogous to
the worst usages of Witches. The Devil says to the sinner, _Despise thy
Baptism, and all the Bond of it, and all the Good of it._ The Devil says
to the sinner, _Come, cast off the Authority of God, and refuse the
Salvation of Christ for ever._ Yea, the Devil who is called, _The God of
this World_, would have us to take Him for Our God, and rather Hear Him,
Trust Him, Serve Him, than the God that formed us.

IV. The _Temptations_ of the Devil do Tug and Pull for nothing more,
than that the Rulers of the World may yield Homage unto him. Our Lord
has had this by his Father Engag'd unto him, _That he shall one day be
Governour of the Nations._ The Devil doe's extreamly dread the approach
of that Illustrious time, when _The Kingdom of God shall come and his
Will be done, as in Heaven, and on Earth._ For this cause it was that he
was desirous, Our Lord should rather have accepted of him, that Kingdom,
which _Antichrist_ afterwards accepted of him, for the Establishment of
_Devil-worship_, in the World. I may tell you, The Devil is mighty
unwilling, that there should be one _Godly Magistrate_ upon the face of
the Earth. Such is the influence of _Government_, that the Devil will
every where stickle mightily, to have that siding with him. What
_Rulers_ would the Devil have, to command all mankind, if he might have
his will? Even, such as are called in _Psal. 94.20._ _The throne of
iniquity, which frames mischief by a Law_; such as will promote Vice, by
both Connivance, and Example; and such as will oppress all that shall be
_Holy, and Just, and Good_. All men have cause therefore to be jealous,
what Use the Devil may make of them, with reference to the Affairs of
Government; but Rulers may most of all think, that the Lord Jesus from
Heaven calls upon them, _Satan has desired that he might Sift you, and
have you; O Look to it, what side you take._

Thus have you in the Temptations of our Lord, seen the principal of
those Devices, which the Devil has to Entrap our Souls. But what shall
we now do, that we may be fortified against those Devices? O