I. The Devil will ordinarily make our _Conditions_, to be the Advantages of his _Temptations_. When our Lord was _Hungry_, then _Bread! Bread!_ shall be all the Cry of his Temptation; the Devil puts him upon a wrong step, for the getting of _Bread_. There is no Condition, but what has indeed some _Hunger_ accompanying of it; and the Devil marks what it is, that we are _Hungry_ for. One mans Condition makes him _Hunger_ for Preferments, or Employments, another mans makes him _Hunger_ for Cash or Land, or Trade; another mans makes him _Hunger_ for Merriments, or Diversions: And the Condition of every Afflicted Man, makes him _Hunger_ with Impatience for Deliverance. Now the Devil will be sure to suit his Perswasions with our _Conditions_. When he has our _Condition_ to speak with him, & for him, then thinks he, _I am sure this man will now hearken to my Proposals!_ Hence, if men are in _Prosperity_, the Devil will tempt them to Forgetfulness of God; if they are in _Adversity_, he will tempt them to Murmuring at God; in all the expressions of those impieties. Wise _Agur_ was aware of this; in _Prov._ 30, 9. says he, if a man be _Full_, he shall be tempted, _to deny God, and say who is the Lord?_ if a man be Poor, he shall be tempted, _to steal, and take the Name of God in vain_. The Devil will talk suitably; if you ponder your Conditions, you may expect you shall be tempted agreeably thereunto. II. The Devil does often manage his _temptations_, by urging of our _Necessities_. Our Lord, was thus by the Devil bawl'd upon; _You want Bread, and you'll starve, if in my way you get it not_. The Devil will show some forbidden thing unto us, and plead concerning it, as of _Bread_ we use to say, _it must be had_. _Necessity_ has a wonderful compulsion in it. You may see what _Necessity_ will do, if you read in Deut. 28. 56. _the tender and the delicate Woman among you, her eye shall be evil towards the Children that she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things_. The Devil will perswade us that there is a _Necessity_ of our doing what he does propound unto us; and then tho' the _Laws_ of God about us were so many _Walls_ of Stone, yet we shall break [54] through them all. That little inconvenience, of our coming to beg our _Bread_, O what a fearful Representation does the Devil make of it! and when once the Devil scares us to think of a sinful thing, _it must be done_, we soon come to think, _it may be done_. When the Devil has frighted us into an Apprehension, that it is a _Needful_ thing which we are prompted unto, he presently Engages all the Faculties of our Souls, to prove, that it may be a _Lawful_ one; the Devil told _Esau, You'll dye if you don't sell your Birthright;_ the Devil told _Aaron, You'll pull all the people about your ears, if you do not countenance their superstitions;_ and then they comply'd immediately. Yea, sometimes if the Devil do but Feign a Necessity, he