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Satan Tempts to Sin Gradually

Satan tempts to sin gradually. As the husbandman digs about the root of a tree, and by degrees loosens it, and at last it falls. Satan steals by degrees into the heart: he is at first more modest: he did not say to Eve at first, Eat the apple; no, but he goes more subtilely to work; he puts forth a question, Hath God said? Sure Eve, thou art mistaken; the bountiful God never intended to debar thee one of the best trees of the garden. Hath God said? Sure, either God did not say it; or if he did, he never really intended it. Thus by degrees he wrought her to distrust, and then she took of the fruit and eat. Oh, take heed of Satan’s first motions to sin, that seem more modest—principiis obsta. He is first a fox, and then a lion.