VI. There is nothing more Frequent in the _Temptations_ of the Devil, then for our _Adoption_ to be doubted, because of our _Affliction_. When our Lord was in his Penury, then says the Devil, _If thou be the Son of God;_ he now makes an _If_, of it; _What? the Son of God, and yet not be able to Command a Bit of Bread!_ Thus, when we are in very Afflictive Circumstances, this will be the Devils Inference, _Thou art not a Child of God_. The Bible says in Heb. 12. 7. _If you are Chastened, it is a shrow'd sign that you can't be Children._ Since he can't Rob us of our _Grace_, he would Rob us of our _Joy;_ and therefore having Accused us unto God, he then Accuses God unto us. When _Israel_ was weak and faint in the Wilderness, then did _Amalek_ set upon them; just so does the Devil set upon the people of God, when their Losses, their Crosses, their Exercises have Enfeebled their Souls within them; and what says the Devil? E'en the same that was mutter'd in the Ear of the Afflicted _Job, Is not this the Uprightness of thy Ways? Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being Innocent? If thou wert a Child of God, He would never follow thee, with such Testimonies of his Indignation_. This is the _Logic_ of the Devil; and he thus interrupts that patience and that Chearfulness wherewith we should _suffer the will of God_. VII. To dispute the Divine Original and Authority of _Gods Word_, is not the least of those _Temptations_ with which the Devil troubles us. God from Heaven, had newly said unto our Lord, _this is my Beloved Son;_ but now the Devil would have him to make a dispute of it, _If thou be the son of God_. The Devil durst not be so Impudent, and Brasen fac'd, as to bid men use _Pharaohs_ Language, _Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?_ But he will whisper into our Ears, what he did unto our Mother _Eve_ of old, _It is not the Lord that hath spoken what you call his Word_. The Devil would have men say unto the _Scripture_, what they said unto the _Prophet_, in Jer. 43. 2. _Thou speakest falsely; the Lord our God hath not sent thee to speak what thou sayest unto us;_ & he would fain have secret & cursed Misgivings in our hearts, _that things are not altogether so as the Scripture has represented them_. The Devil would with all his heart make one huge Bonefire of all the Bibles in the world; & he has got Millions of persecutors to _assist him in the suppression of that miraculous book. It was the devil once in the tongue of a Papist_, that cry'd out, _A plague on this bible; this 'tis that_ [89] _does all our mischief_. But because he can't _Suppress_ this Book, he sets himself, to _Disgrace_ it all that he can. Altho' the Scripture carries its _own Evidence_ with it, and be all over, so pure, so great, so true, and so powerful, that it is impossible it should proceed from any but God alone; yet the Devil would gladly bring some Discredit upon it, as if it were but some _Humane Contrivance;_ Of nothing, is the Devil more desirous,