But next, and I wish you to pay special attention to this point: We
have no right to believe,--we have every right NOT to believe, that
these evil spirits can make us sin in the smallest matter against
our own wills. The devil cannot put a single sin into us; he can
only flatter the sinfulness which is already in us. For, see; this
pride, lust, covetousness, falsehood, and so on, to which the Bible
tells us they tempt us, have roots already in our nature. Our
fallen nature of itself is inclined to pride, to worldliness, and so
on. These devils tempt us by putting in our way the occasion to
sin, by suggesting to us tempting thoughts and arguments which lead
to sin; so the serpent tempted Eve, not by making her ambitious and
self-willed, but by using arguments to her which stirred up the
ambition and self-will in her: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil," the devil said to her.

So Satan, the prince of the evil spirits, tempted our Lord. And as
the prince of the devils tempted Christ, so do HIS servants tempt
US, Christ's servants. Our tempers, our longings, our fancies, are
not evil spirits; they are, as old divines well describe them, like
greedy and foolish fish, who rise at the baits which evil spirits
hold out to us. If we resist those baits--if we put ourselves under
God's protection--if we claim strength from Him who conquered the
devil and all His temptations, then we shall be able to turn our
wills away from those tempting baits, and to resign our wills into
our Father's hand, and He will take care of them, and strengthen
them with His will; and we shall find out that if we resist the
devil, he will flee from us. But if we yield to temptations
whenever they come in our way, we shall find ourselves less and less
able to resist them, for we shall learn to hate the evil spirits
less and less; I mean we shall shrink less from the evil thoughts