Dæmonologia Sacra; or, A Treatise of Satan's Temptations In Three Parts — Themes and Context

ow he flies when resisted—Of inward temptations, with outward afflictions—Several advantages Satan hath by tempting in affliction, 328-336

CHAPTER VI.—That Christ’s temptations were real, and not in vision—That temptation is Satan’s employment, with the evidences and instances thereof—Of Satan’s tempting visibly, with the reasons thereof, 337-341

CHAPTER VII.—The general view of these temptations—Of Satan’s gradual proceeding in temptations—Of reserving a great temptation last—What a great temptation is; in what cases to be expected—Of Satan’s using a common road, in comparing these temptations with the ordinary temptations of men—Of the advantage Satan takes of natural appetite, sense, and affections, 341-346

CHAPTER VIII.—The rise of Christ’s first temptation—Of Satan’s suiting his temptations to the conditions of men—Of tempting men upon the plea of necessity—The reasons and cheats of that plea—His pretences of friendship in tempting, with the danger thereof, 346-350

CHAPTER IX.—A particular consideration of the matter of the first temptation, what Satan aimed at in bidding him turn stones into bread—Of Satan’s moving us to things good or lawful—The end of such a motion—How to know whether such motions are from Satan or the Spirit—What to do in case they be from Satan—Of his various aims in one temptation—What they are, and of his policy therein—Of his artificial contrivement of motions to make one thing infer another, 350-355

CHAPTER X.—Of Satan’s chief end in this temptation—His skill in making the means to sin plausible—The reasons of that policy, with his art therein—Men’s ignorance his advantage—Of the differences of things propounded to our use, 355-359

CHAPTER XI.—Of the temptation to distrust upon the failure of ordinary means—Of the power of that temptation, and the reasons of its prevalency—Of unwarrantable attempts for relief, with the causes thereof—Of waiting on God, and keeping his way—In what cases a particular mercy is to be expected, 360-367

CHAPTER XII.—Of Satan’s proceeding to infer distrust of sonship from distrust of providences—Instances of the probability of such a design—The reasons of this undertaking—Of Satan’s endeavour to weaken the assurance and hopes of God’s children—His general method to that purpose, 367-376

CHAPTER XIII.—The preparation to the second temptation—Of his nimbleness to catch advantages from our answers to temptation—That Satan carried Christ in the air—Of his power to molest the bodies of God’s children—How little the supposed holiness of places privilegeth us from Satan—Of Satan’s policy in seeming to countenance imaginary defences—Of his pretended flight in such cases, with the reasons of that policy—Of his improving a temptation to serve several ends, 376-382

CHAPTER XIV.—That presumption was the chief design of this temptation—Of tempting to extremes—What presumption is—The several ways of presuming—The frequency of this temptation, in the generality of professors, in hypocrites, in despairing persons, and in the children of God—The reasons of Satan’s industry in this design—His deceitful contrivance in bringing about this sin—Preservatives against it, 382-390

CHAPTER XV.—Self-murder, another of his designs in this temptation—How he tempts to self-murder directly, and upon what advantage he urgeth it—How he tempts to it indirectly, and the ways thereof—Of necessary preservatives against this temptation, 390-396

CHAPTER XVI.—Of pride, Satan’s chief engine to bring on presumption—What pride is, and how it prepares men for sinning presumptuously—Considerations against pride—The remedies for its cure—Pride kindled by a confidence of privileges and popular applause, 397-401

CHAPTER XVII.—Of Satan’s subtlety in urging that of Psalm xci. 11, 12, to Christ—Of his imitating the Spirit of God in various ways of teaching—Of his pretending Scripture to further temptation—The reasons of such pretendings, and the ends to which he doth abuse it—Of Satan’s unfaithfulness in managing of Scripture—Cautions against that deceit—The ways by which it may be discovered, 402-415

CHAPTER XVIII.—The manner of Satan’s shewing the kingdoms of the world—Of Satan’s preparations before the motion of sin—Of his confronting the Almighty by presumptuous imitation, and in what cases he doth so—Of his beautifying the objects of a temptation, and how he doth it—His way of engaging the affections by the senses—Of his seeming shyness, 415-423