1. There are three Enemies of our Salvation, the Devil, the World, and the Flesh, they are reckoned up together, Eph. 2. 2, 3. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The Devil is the deceiver and grand ⟨p. 141⟩Architect of all wickedness; the Flesh is the Principle that he worketh upon, or that rebelling faculty within us, that would be pleased before God; the World is the bait, by which the devil would deceive us, and steal away our hearts from God, for it suiteth with our fleshly appetites and desires. More distinctly, that Satan is an enemy appeareth from his name, that signifieth an Adversary, and in many places of Scripture he is so called, as Matth. 13. 25. While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, compared with the 39th. verse, The enemy that sowed them is the Devil; he is the great Enemy to God and Man, 1 Pet. 5. 8. Your adversary the Devil like a roaring Lyon walketh about, &c. The Flesh is an Enemy, yea our greatest Enemy, for it warreth against the soul, 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. If you indulge the Flesh, you are willing to lose your Souls. Yea it warreth against the Spirit, or better part, as contrary to it, Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: Other things could do us no harm without our own flesh: We are tempted to Sin by Satan, encouraged to sin by the Example and Custom of the World, but inclined to Sin by our own Flesh. The ⟨p. 142⟩World is an Enemy of our Salvation, as well as the Devil and the Flesh, all the other Enemies get strength by it; by the bait of worldly things the devil pleaseth the flesh; we are in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by it. Whosoever is a Lover of the World is presumed to be a professed Enemy of God, Jam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 1 Joh. 2. 15. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.
1. There are three Enemies of our Salvation, the Devil, the World, and the Flesh, they are reckoned up together, Eph. 2. 2, 3. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The Devil is the deceiver and grand ⟨p. 141⟩Architect of all wickedness; the Flesh is the Principle that he worketh upon, or that rebelling faculty within us, that would be pleased before God; the World is the bait, by which the devil would deceive us, and steal away our hearts from God, for it suiteth with our fleshly appetites and desires. More distinctly, that Satan is an enemy appeareth from his name, that signifieth an Adversary, and in many places of Scripture he is so called, as Matth. 13. 25. While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, compared with the 39th. verse, The enemy that sowed them is the Devil; he is the great Enemy to God and Man, 1 Pet. 5. 8. Your adversary the Devil like a roaring Lyon walketh about, &c. The Flesh is an Enemy, yea our greatest Enemy, for it warreth against the soul, 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. If you indulge the Flesh, you are willing to lose your Souls. Yea it warreth against the Spirit, or better part, as contrary to it, Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: Other things could do us no harm without our own flesh: We are tempted to Sin by Satan, encouraged to sin by the Example and Custom of the World, but enclined to Sin by our own Flesh. The ⟨p. 142⟩World is an Enemy of our Salvation, as well as the Devil and the Flesh, all the other Enemies get strength by it; by the bait of worldly things the devil pleaseth the flesh; we are in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by it. Whosoever is a Lover of the World is presumed to be a professed Enemy of God, Iam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
