“Satan with ease puts fallacies upon us by his golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us in a fool’s paradise.”

“To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and the misery that will certainly follow the committing of [...]

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“Now morning being come, he looked back, not out of desire to return, but to see, by the light of the day, what hazards he had gone through in the dark. “

“When Christian had travelled in this disconsolate condition some considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man, as going before him, saying, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” [Ps. 23:4] Then he was glad, and that for [...]

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“His forbearing at present to deliver them is on purpose to try their love, whether they will cleave to him to the end; and as for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious in their account…”

“CHRISTIAN. I have given him my faith, and sworn my allegiance to him; how, then, can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor? APOLLYON. Thou didst the same to me, and yet I am willing to pass by all, if now thou wilt yet turn again and go back. CHRISTIAN. [...]

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October 17 – “As a mother is tenderest to the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest. Likewise he puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely upon something stronger than themselves for support.”

“Christ will not break the bruised reed…FOR OURSELVES, 3. See the contrary disposition of Christ on the one hand and Satan and his instruments on the other. Satan sets upon us when we are weakest, as Simeon and Levi upon the Shechemites, `when they were sore’ (Gen. 34:25), but Christ will make up in us [...]

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October 16 – “Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal.”

“Christ will not break the bruised reed…FOR OURSELVES, 2. Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal. No sound, whole soul shall ever enter into heaven. Think when in temptation, Christ was tempted for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. [...]

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September 26 – “Except then we be fully persuaded, that God by his secret providence regulates all these confusions, Satan will a hundred times a day, yea every moment, shake that confidence which ought to repose in God.”

“This is a truth much needed: for Satan darkens, as with clouds, the favor of God, when any adversity happens to us, and when God himself thus proves our faith. But adversities are as it were clouds, excluding us from seeing God’s fervor, as the light of the sun appears not to us when the [...]

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September 25 – “Grant, Almighty God, that since thou settest around us so many terrors, we may know that we ought to be roused, and to resist the sloth and tardiness of our flesh, so that thou mayest fortify us by a different confidence…”

“Grant, Almighty God, that since thou settest around us so many terrors, we may know that we ought to be roused, and to resist the sloth and tardiness of our flesh, so that thou mayest fortify us by a different confidence: and may we so recumb on thine aid, that we may boldly triumph over [...]

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September 6 – “Ah, what a sea of blood, a sea of wrath, of sin, of sorrow and misery, did the Lord Jesus wade through for your internal and eternal good!”

“The third remedy against this devise of Satan (the difficulty of performing our duties) is, to dwell upon the hard and difficult things that the Lord Jesus hath passed through for your temporal, spiritual, and eternal good. Ah, what a sea of blood, a sea of wrath, of sin, of sorrow and misery, did the [...]

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August 18 – “…and yet without tribulations and temptations we can now no more grow than herbs or corn without rain.”

“Suffer we must; ere we were born, God decreed it; and it is easier to complain of his decree than to change it. It is true, terrors of conscience cast us down; and yet without terrors of conscience we cannot be raised us again; fears and doubtings shake us; and yet without fear and doubtings [...]

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August 15 – “The Devil is but God’s master-fencer, to teach us how to handle our weapons.”

“I find it most true, that the greatest temptation out of hell is to live without temptations. If my waters would stand, they would rot. Faith is the better for the free air and the sharp winter storm in its face. Grace withereth without adversity. The devil is but God’s master-fencer, to teach us how [...]

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God is sovereign over Satan

“Even the works of Satan are so controlled and limited that they serve God’s purposes. While Satan eagerly desires the destruction of the wicked and diligently works to bring it about, yet the destruction proceeds from God. It is, in the first place, God who decreed that the wicked shall suffer, and Satan is merely [...]

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