Meditations on the fall and rising of St. Peter

MED. XI.

I Never read of more dangerous falls in the Saints, than were Adams, Lots, Samsons, Davids, Solomons and Peters; and behold in all these, either the first Enticers, or the first Occasioners are Women. A weak Creature may be a strong Tempter; nothing too impotent or useless for the Devils service. We know it is the pride of Satan to imitate God; As God magnifies his ⟨p. 42⟩power in bringing strength out of weakness, so doth the Devil labour to gain the glory of a strong enemy, by the ruinating of a great Saint with the Temptation of a weak Sex. Nor is he herein more apish than cunning: for the end of the Devils conflicts is the despair of his enemy. He gets Judas to betray his Master, that he may after get him to hang himself. And he hath the same end in Peter's Denial, which he had in Judas his Treason. Now what is there that can more draw a man to Despair, ⟨p. 43⟩than an apprehension of greatness in his sin? and what fall greater, than to be foiled by a Question by a Maid? What could more aggravate Peter's sin, than that the voice of a Maid should be stronger to overcome him, than the Faith in a Jesus to sustain him? The Devil tempts us, that he may draw us unto sin; but he tempts us by weak Instruments, that he may draw us unto despair.

I Never read of more dangerous falls in the Saints, than were Adams, Lots, Sampsons, Davids, Solomons and Peters; and behold in all these, either the first Inticers, or the first Occasioners are Women. A weak Creature may be a strong Tempter; nothing too impotent or useless for the Devils service. We know it is the pride of Satan to imitate God; As God magnifies his ⟨p. 42⟩