Christs temptation and transfiguration practically explained and improved in several sermons /

2. As he dealeth with us by Promise. Every thing we hope to get by sin is a kind of promise or offer of the devil to us: As suppose by unconscionable dealing in our Calling. Here consider two things, 1. The falsity of the Devils Promises. 2. The truth and stability of Gods Promises.

1. The falsity of Satan's Promises. Either he giveth not what he promised, as he promised our first Parents to be as Gods, Gen. 3. 5. Ye shall be as Gods. And what ensued, Psal. 49. 12. Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish, degraded to the Beasts, as the brutish and bestial nature prevailed in him when he fell from God. Or else, if we have them, we were better be without them; we have them with a Curse, with the loss of better things, Jer. 17. 13. Oh Lord! all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in ⟨p. 152⟩the earth. They are condemned to this felicity, we have them with stings of Conscience, Matth. 27. 4, 5. I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood, and he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple, and went and hanged himself; which are most quick and sensible when we come to dye, Jer. 17. 11. He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. Now rise up in Indignation against the Temptation, shall I fell my birthright? Lose my fatness to rule over the trees? As the olive Tree in Jotham's Parable, Judges 9. 9.