First, Temptation, or to tempt, in the Scriptures of God, is called to try, to prove, or to assault the valor, the power, the will, the pleasure, or the wisdom—­whether it be of God, or of creatures.  And it is taken sometimes in good part, as when it is said that God tempted Abraham; God tempted the people of Israel; that is, God did try and examine them, not for His own knowledge, to whom nothing is hid, but to certify others how obedient Abraham was to God’s commandment, and how weak and inferior Israelites were in their journey toward the promised land.  And this temptation is always good, because it proceeds immediately from God, to open and make manifest the secret motions of men’s hearts, the puissance and power of God’s word, and the great lenity and gentleness of God toward the iniquities (yea, horrible sins and rebellions) of those whom He hath received into His regimen and care.  For who could have believed that the bare word of God could so have moved the heart and affections of Abraham, that to obey God’s commandment he determined to kill, with his own hand, his best-beloved son Isaac?  Who could have trusted that, so many torments as Job suffered, he should not speak in all his great temptation one foolish word against God?  Or who could have thought that God so mercifully should have pardoned so many and so manifest transgressions committed by His people in the desert, and yet that His mercy never utterly left them, but still continued with them, till at length he performed His promise made to Abraham?  Who, I say, would have been persuaded of these things, unless by trials and temptations taken of His creatures by God, they had come by revelation made in His holy Scriptures to our knowledge?  And so this kind of temptation is profitable, good, and necessary, as a thing proceeding from God, who is the fountain of all goodness, to the manifestation of His own glory, and to the profit of the suffered, however the flesh may judge in the hour of temptation.  Otherwise temptation, or to tempt, is taken in evil part; that is, he that assaults or assails intends destruction and confusion to him that is assaulted.  As when Satan tempted the women in the garden, Job by divers tribulations, and David by adultery.  The scribes and Pharisees tempted Christ by divers means, questions, and subtleties.  And of this matter, saith St. James, “God tempteth no man”; that is, by temptation proceeding immediately from Him He intends no man’s destruction.  And here you shall note, that altho Satan appears sometimes to prevail against God’s elect, yet he is ever frustrated of his final purpose.  By temptation He led Eve and David from the obedience of God, but He could not retain them forever under His thraldom.  Power was granted to Him to spoil Job of his substance and children, and to strike his body with a plague and sickness most vile and fearful, but He could not compel his mouth to blaspheme God’s majesty; and, therefore, altho we are laid open sometimes, as it were, to tribulation