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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 0:48:22 GMT -5
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
by Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680)
Table of Contents
The Epistle Dedicatory
A Word to the Reader
Introduction
I. The Proof of the Point
II. Satan's Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin
[12 devices and their remedies]
I.
By presenting the bait and hiding the hook: For remedies, consider that
1) we ought to keep at the greatest distance from sin and from playing with the bait
2) sin is but a bitter sweet
3) sin will usher in the greatest and the saddest losses
4) sin is very deceitful and bewitching
II. By painting sin with virtue's colors: For remedies, consider that
1) sin is never the less vile by being so painted
2) the more sin is so painted the more dangerous it is
3) we ought to look on sin with that eye with which within a few hours we shall see it
4) sin cost the life-blood of the Lord Jesus
III. By the extenuating and lessening of sin: For remedies, consider that
1) sin which men account small brings God's great wrath on men
2) the giving way to a less sin makes way for the committing of a greater
3) it is sad to stand with God for a trifle
4) often there is most danger in the smallest sins
5) the saints have chosen to suffer greatly rather than commit the least sin
6) the soul can never stand under the guilt and weight of sin when God sets it home upon the soul
7) there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction
IV. By showing to the soul the best men's sins and by hiding from the soul their virtues, their sorrows, and their
repentance: For remedies, onsider that
1) the Spirit of God records not only the sins of the saints, but also their repentance
2) these saints did not make a trade of sin
3) though God does not disinherit his sinning people, He punishes them severely
4) God has two main ends in recording the falls of His saints
V. By presenting God to the soul as One made up all of mercy: For remedies, consider that
1) It is the sorest of judgments to be left to sin upon any pretense whatever
2) God is as just as He is merciful
3) sins against mercy will bring the greatest and sorest judgments on men
4) though God's general mercy is over all His works, yet His special mercy is confined to those that are divinely qualified
5) the saints now glorified regarded God's mercy as a most powerful argument against, and not for, sin
VI. By persuading the soul that repentance is easy and that therefore the soul need not scruple about sinning: For
remedies, consider that
1) repentance is a difficult work above our own power
2) repentance changes and converts the whole man from sin to God
3) repentance is a continued act
4) if repentance were easy, the lack of it would not strike millions with terror and drive them to hell
5) to repent of sin is as great a mark of grace as not to sin
6) Satan now suggests that repentance is easy, but shortly he will drive his dupes to despair by presenting it as
the hardest work in the world
VII. By making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions
of sin: For remedies, consider that
1) certain scriptures expressly command us to avoid occasions of sin and the least appearance of evil
2) there is no conquest over sin unless the soul turns from the occasions of sin
3) saints now glorified have turned from the occasions of sin as from hell itself
4) to avoid the occasions of sin is an evidence of grace
VIII. By representing to the soul the outward mercies enjoyed by men walking in sin, and their freedom from
outward miseries: For remedies, consider that
1) we cannot judge of how the heart of God stands towards a man by the acts of His providence
2) nothing provokes God's wrath so much as men's abuse of His goodness and mercy
3) there is no greater curse or affliction in this life than not to be in misery or affliction
4) the wants of evil men are far greater than their outward blessings
5) outward things are not as they seem, nor as they are esteemed
6) God has ends and designs in giving evil men outward mercies and present rest from sorrows and sufferings that
cause saints to sigh
7) God often plagues and punishes those whom others think He most spares and loves
8) God will call evil men to a strict account for all the outward good that they have enjoyed
IX. By presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, sorrows and sufferings that daily attend those who walk in the
ways of holiness: For remedies, consider that
1) all afflictions suffered by Christians turn to their profit
2) all such afflictions only reach their worst, not their best, part
3) all such afflictions are short and momentary
4) all such afflictions proceed from God's dearest love
5) it is our duty and glory to measure afflictions not by the smart but by the end
6) God's design in saints' afflictions is to try, not to ruin, their souls
7) the afflictions, wrath and misery consequent upon wickedness are far worse than those linked with holiness
X. By causing saints to compare themselves and their ways with those reputed to be worse than themselves: For
remedies, consider that
1) to be quick-sighted abroad and blind at home proves a man a hypocrite
2) it is far better to compare our internal and external actions with the Word than to compare ourselves with
others worse than ourselves
3) though our sins may not appear as great as those of others, yet without repentance responding to mercy, we shall
be as certainly damned as others
XI. By polluting the souls and judgments of men with dangerous errors that lead to looseness and wickedness:
For remedies, consider that
1) an erroneous vain mind is as odious to God as a wicked life
2) it is needful to receive the truth affectionately and plenteously
3) error makes its owner suffer loss
4) it is needful to hate and reject all doctrines that are contrary to godliness, that lead to self-righteousness,
and that make good works co-partners with Christ
5) it is needful to hold fast the truth
6) it is needful to keep humble
7) errors have been productive of great evils
XII. By leading men to choose wicked company: For remedies, consider that
1) there are express commands of God to shun such company
2) wicked company is infectious and dangerous
3) it is needful to look upon the wicked in such terms as Scripture describes them
4) the company of wicked men was once a grief and burden also to saints now glorified
III. Satan's Devices to Keep Souls Form Holy Duties, TO Hinder Souls in Holy Services
[8 devices and their remedies]
I.
By presenting the world in such a garb as to ensnare the
soul: For remedies, consider that
1) all things here below are impotent and weak
2) they are also full of vanity
3) all things under the sun are uncertain and mutable
4) the great things of the world are hurtful to men owing to the corruption of their hearts
5) all the felicity of this world is mixed
6) it is needful to get better acquainted with, and assurance of, more blessed and glorious things
7) true happiness and satisfaction does not arise from worldly good
8) the value and dignity of the soul is to be a subject of contemplation
II By presenting to the soul the dangers, losses and sufferings that accompany the performance of certain
religious duties: For remedies, consider that
1) all such troubles cannot harm the true Christian
2) saints now glorified encountered such dangers, but persevered to the end
3) all such dangers are but for a moment, whereas the neglect of the service of God lays the Christian open to
spiritual and eternal dangers
4) God knows how to deliver from troubles by troubles, from dangers by dangers
5) In the service of God, despite troubles and afflictions, the gains outweigh the losses
III. By presenting to the soul the difficulty of performing religious duties: For remedies, consider that
1) it is better to regard the necessity of the duty than the difficulty of it
2) the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to the obedient soul and thus make the service easy
3) the Lord Jesus has Himself engaged in hard service and in suffering for your temporal and eternal good
4) religious duties are only difficult to the worse, not to the more noble part of a saint
5) a glorious recompense awaits saints who serve the Lord in the face of difficulties and discouragements
IV. By causing saints to draw false inferences from the blessed and glorious things that Christ has done: For
remedies, consider that
1) it is as needful to dwell as much upon scriptures that state Christian duty as upon those that speak of the
glorious things that Christ has done for us
2) the glorious things that Christ has done and is now doing for us should be our strongest motives and
encouragements for the performance of our duties
3) other precious souls who have rested on Christ's work have been very active and lively in religious duties
4) those who do not walk in God's ways cannot have such evidence of their righteousness before God as can those who
rejoice in the service of the Lord
5) duties are to be esteemed not by their acts but by their ends
V. By presenting to view the fewness and poverty of those who hold to religious practices: For remedies, consider
that
1) though saints are outwardly poor, they are inwardly rich
2) in all ages God has had some that have been rich, wise and honorable
3) spiritual riches infinitely transcend temporal riches, and satisfy the poorest saints
4) saints now appear to be 'a little flock', but they belong to a company that cannot be numbered
5) it is but as a day before these despised saints will shine brighter than the sun
6) the time will come even in this life when God will take away the reproach and contempt of His people, and make
those the 'head' who have been the 'tail'
VI. By showing saints that the majority of men make light of God's ways and walk in the ways of their own hearts:
For remedies, consider that
1) certain scriptures warn against following the sinful examples of men
2) those who sin with the multitude will suffer with the multitude
3) the soul of a man is of more worth than heaven and earth
VII. By casting in vain thoughts while the soul is seeking God or waiting on God: For remedies, consider that
1) the God with whom we have to do is great, holy, majestic and glorious
2) despite wandering thoughts it is needful to be resolute in religious service
3) vain and trifling thoughts that Satan casts into our souls are not sins if they are abhorred, resisted and
disclaimed
4) watching against, resisting and lamenting sinful thoughts evidences grace and the sincerity of our hearts
5) we must labor to be filled with the fullness of God and enriched with all spiritual blessings
6) we must labor to keep up holy and spiritual affections
7) we must labor to avoid multiplicity of worldly business
VIII. By tempting Christians to rest in their performances:
For remedies, consider that
1) our choicest services have their imperfection and weaknesses
2) our choicest services are unable to minister comfort and aid in days of trouble
3) good works, if rested upon, will as certainly destroy us as the greatest sins that we commit
4) God has met our need of a resting place in Christ Himself
IV. SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SAINTS IN A SAD, DOUBTING, QUESTIONING AND UNCOMFORTABLE CONDITION
[8 devices and their remedies]
I. By causing saints to remember their sins more than their Savior, yes, even to forget and neglect their Savior:
For remedies, consider that
1) though Jesus Christ has not freed believers from sin's presence, He has freed them from its damnatory power
2) though Jesus Christ has not freed believers from the vexing and molesting power of sin, He has freed them from
the reign and dominion of sin
3) it is needful to keep one eye on the promise of remission of sin, and the other eye on the inward operations of sin
4) believers' sins have been charged to the account of Christ as debts which He has fully satisfied
5) the Lord has good reasons for allowing His people to be troubled with sinful corruption
6) believers must repent of their being discouraged by their sins
II. By causing saints to make false definitions of their graces: For remedies, consider that
1) there may be true faith, even great faith, where there is no assurance
2) the Scriptures define faith other than Satan tempts the saints to define it
3) there may be true faith where there is much doubting
4) assurance is an effect of faith, not faith itself
III. By causing saints to make false inferences from the
cross actings of Providence: For remedies, consider that
1) many things, though contrary to our desires, are not contrary to our good
2) God's hand may be against a man when His love and His heart are set upon him
3) Cross providences are sent by God to work some noble good for saints
4) all the strange and deep providences that believers meet with further them in their way to heaven
IV. By suggesting to saints that their graces are not true, but counterfeit: For remedies, consider that
1) grace may mean either the good will and favor of God, or the gifts of grace
2) there are differences between renewing grace and restraining grace, between sanctifying and temporary grace (to
particulars given)
V.
By suggesting to saints that the conflict that is in them is
found also
in hypocrites and profane souls: For remedies,
consider that
1) the whole frame of a believer's soul is against sin
2) a saint conflicts against sin universally, the least sin as well as the
greatest
3) the conflict in a saint is maintained for several reasons
4) the saint's conflict is constant
5) the saint's conflict is within the same faculties
6) the saint's conflict is blessed, successful and prevailing
VI. By suggesting to the saint who has lost joy and comfort
that his state is not good: For remedies, consider that
1) the loss of comfort is a separable adjunct from grace
2) the precious things still enjoyed are far better than the joys and comforts lost
3) the glorified saints were once in the same condition
4) the causes of joy and comfort are not always the same
5) God will restore the comforts of His people
VII. By reminding the saint of his frequent relapses into sin formerly repented of and prayed against: For
remedies, consider that
1) many scriptures show that such relapses have troubled saints
2) God nowhere promises that such relapses will not happen
3) the most renowned of glorified saints have, on earth, experienced such relapses
4) relapses into enormities must be distinguished from relapses into infirmities
5) involuntary and voluntary relapses must be distinguished
6) no experience of the soul, however deep or high, can in itself secure the soul against relapses
VIII. By persuading saints that their state is not good nor
their graces sound: For remedies, consider that
1) the best of Christians have been most tempted by Satan
2) all the saints' temptations are sanctified to them by a hand of love
3) temptations cannot harm the saints as long as they are resisted by them
V. SATAN'S DEVICES TO DESTROY AND ENSNARE ALL SORTS AND RANKS OF MEN IN THE WORLD
[5 devices and their remedies]
I. DEVICES AGAINST THE GREAT AND HONORABLE OF THE EARTH
1. By causing them to seek greatness, position, riches and security:
For remedies, consider that
1) self-seeking sets men upon sins against the law, the Gospel, and Nature itself
2) self-seeking exceedingly abases a man
3) the Word pronounces curses and woes against self-seekers
4) self-seekers are self-losers and self-destroyers
5) saints have denied self and set public good above personal advantage
6) self hinders the sight of divine things: hence prophets and apostles, when seeing visions, were carried out of
themselves
II. By causing them to act against the people of the Most High: For remedies, consider that
1) all who have acted against the saints have been ruined by the God of saints
2) the Scriptures show that God gives victory to His people against their enemies
3) to fight against the people of God is to fight against God Himself
4) men of the world owe their preservation from instant ruin, under God, to the saints
II. DEVICE AGAINST THE LEARNED AND THE WISE
By moving them to pride themselves on their parts and abilities, and to despise men of greater grace but inferior
abilities: For remedies consider that
1) men have nothing but what they have received, gifts as well as saving grace coming alike from Christ
2) men's trusting to their parts and abilities has been their utter ruin
3) you do not transcend others more in parts and abilities than they do you in grace and holiness
4) men who pride themselves on their gifts and set themselves against the saints will find that God blasts and
withers their gifts
III. DEVICE AGAINST THE SAINTS
By dividing them and causing them to 'bite and devour one another.'
For remedies, consider that
1) it is better to dwell on the saints' graces rather than on their weaknesses and infirmities
2) love and union best promote safety and security
3) God commands and requires the saints to love one another
4) it is better to eye the things in which saints agree rather than those things wherein they differ
5) God is the God of peace, Christ the Prince of peace, and the Spirit the Spirit of peace
6) it is needful for the saints to make more care and conscience of maintaining their peace with God
7) it is needful to dwell much upon the relationship and union of the people of God
8) discord is productive of miseries
9) it is good and honorable to be the first in seeking peace and reconcilement
10) saints should agree well together, making the Word the only touchstone and judge of their words and actions
11) saints should be much in self-judging
12) saints should labor to be clothed with humility
IV. DEVICE AGAINST POOR AND IGNORANT SOULS
By causing them to affect ignorance and to neglect and despise the means of knowledge: For remedies, consider that
1) an ignorant heart is an evil heart
2) ignorance is the deformity of the soul
3) ignorance makes men objects of God's hatred and wrath
4) ignorance is a sin that leads to all sins APPENDIX
I. FIVE MORE OF SATAN'S DEVICES
1. By suggesting to men the greatness and vileness of their sins [Eight
Remedies]
2. By suggesting to sinners their unworthiness [Four Remedies]
3. By suggesting to sinners their want of certain preparations and qualifications [Three Remedies]
4. By suggesting to sinners that Christ Is unwilling to save them [Six Remedies]
5. By causing sinners to give more attention to the secret decrees and counsels of God than to their own duty [Two
Remedies]
II. SEVEN CHARACTERS OF FALSE TEACHERS
III. SIX PROPOSITIONS CONCERNING SATAN AND HIS
DEVICES
[Five reasons of the point added]
IV. CONCLUSION: TEN SPECIAL HELPS AND RULES AGAINST SATAN'S DEVICES
"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
Ephesians 6:11-13
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:20:30 GMT -5
SATAN'S DEVICES TO DRAW THE SOUL
TO SIN
[12 devices and their remedies]
"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us--for we are not
ignorant of his devices." 2 Corinthians 2:11
DEVICE 1. TO PRESENT THE BAIT AND HIDE THE HOOK
Satan's first device to draw the soul into sin is, to present the bait—
and hide the hook; to present the golden cup—and hide the poison;
to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in
upon the soul by yielding to sin—and to hide from the soul the wrath
and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this
device he deceived our first parents, "And the serpent said unto the
woman, You shall not surely die—for God does know, that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4-5). Your eyes shall he
opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the
pleasure, the profit. Oh—but he hides the hook—the shame, the
wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!
There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy
—and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and
confusion. He promises them the former—but intends the latter, and
so Satan cheats them—giving them an apple in exchange for a
paradise, as he deals by thousands now-a-days.
Satan with ease pawns falsehoods upon us, by his golden baits, and
then he leads us and leaves us in a fool's paradise. He promises the
soul honor, pleasure, profit—but pays the soul with the greatest
contempt, shame, and loss that can be. By a golden bait he labored to
catch Christ (Matt. 4:8, 9). He shows him the beauty and the finery
of a bewitching world, which doubtless would have taken many a
carnal heart; but here the devil's fire fell upon wet tinder, and
therefore did not ignite. These tempting objects did not at all win
upon his affections, nor dazzle his eyes, though many have eternally
died of the 'wound of the eye', and fallen forever by this vile strumpet
the world, who, by laying forth her two fair breasts of PROFIT and
PLEASURE, has wounded their souls, and cast them down into utter
perdition. She has, by the glistening of her pomp and preferment,
slain millions; as the serpent Scytale, which, when she cannot
overtake the fleeing passengers, does, with her beautiful colors,
dazzle and amaze them, so that they have no power to pass away
until she has stung them to death! Adversity has slain her
thousand—but prosperity her ten thousand.
Remedy (1). First, Keep at the greatest distance from sin, and
from playing with the golden bait which Satan holds forth
to catch you; for this you have (Romans 12:9), "Abhor that which is
evil, cleave to that which is good." When we meet with anything
extremely evil and contrary to us, nature abhors it, and retires as far
as it can from it. The Greek word that is there rendered "abhor," is
very significant; it signifies to hate it as hell itself, to hate it with
horror.
Anselm used to say, "That if he should see the shame of sin on the
one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity
choose one; he would rather be thrust into hell without sin; than to
go into heaven with sin," so great was his hatred and detestation of
sin. It is our wisest and our safest course to stand at the farthest
distance from sin; not to go near the house of the harlot—but to fly
from all appearance of evil (Proverbs 5:8, 1 Thess. 5:22). The best
course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest
distance from it; he who will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon
the brink of the pit, may find by woeful experience that it is a
righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit. Joseph
keeps at a distance from sin, and from playing with Satan's golden
baits, and stands. David draws near, and plays with the bait, and
falls, and swallows bait and hook! David comes near the snare, and is
taken in it, to the breaking of his bones, the wounding of his
conscience, and the loss of fellowship with his God.
Sin is a plague, yes, the worst and most infectious plague in the
world; and yet, ah! how few are there who tremble at it--who keep at
a distance from it! (1 Cor. 5:6)—"Don't you know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump?" As soon as one sin had seized upon Adam's
heart, all sin entered into his soul and infested it. How has Adam's
one sin spread over all mankind! (Romans 5:12)—"Therefore as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Ah, how does the
father's sin infect the child, the husband's infect the wife, the
master's the servant! The sin that is in one man's heart is able to
infect a whole world, it is of such a spreading and infectious nature.
The story of the Italian, who first made his enemy deny God, and
then stabbed him, and so at once murdered both body and soul,
declares the unmixed malignity of sin; and oh! that what has been
spoken upon this head may prevail with you, to stand at a distance
from sin!
Remedy (2). Consider that sin is but a bitter sweet. That
seeming sweet that is in sin will quickly vanish; and lasting shame,
sorrow, horror, and terror will come in the room thereof—"He
enjoyed the taste of his wickedness, letting it melt under his tongue.
He savored it, holding it long in his mouth. But suddenly, the food he
has eaten turns sour within him, a poisonous venom in his stomach."
(Job 20:12-14). Forbidden profits and pleasures are most pleasing to
vain men, who count madness mirth. Many long to be meddling with
the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not—but rend and
consume the belly—and the soul that receives them. Many eat that on
earth what they digest in hell. Sin's murdering morsels will deceive
those who devour them. Adam's apple was a bitter sweet; Esau's
bowl of stew was a bitter sweet; the Israelites' quails a bitter sweet;
Jonathan's honey a bitter sweet; and Adonijah's dainties a bitter
sweet. After the meal is ended, then comes the reckoning. Men must
not think to dance and dine with the devil, and then to sup with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; to feed upon
the poison of asps, and yet that the viper's tongue should not slay
them.
When the asp stings a man, it does first tickle him so as it makes him
laugh, until the poison, little by little, gets to the heart, and then it
pains him more than ever it delighted him. So does sin; it may please
a little at first—but it will pain the soul at last; yes, if there were the
least real delight in sin, there could be no consummate hell, where
men shall most completely be tormented with their sin.
Remedy (3). Solemnly to consider that sin will usher in the
greatest and the saddest losses that can be upon our souls.
It will usher in the loss of that divine favor which is better than life,
and the loss of that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory, and
the loss of that peace which passes understanding, and the loss of
those divine influences by which the soul has been refreshed,
quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladdened, and the loss of
many outward desirable mercies, which otherwise the soul might
have enjoyed.
Remedy (4). Seriously to consider that sin is of a very deceitful
and bewitching nature. Sin is from the greatest deceiver, it is a
child of his own begetting, it is the ground of all the deceit in the
world, and it is in its own nature exceeding deceitful. "But exhort one
another daily, while it is called 'today', lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin." Heb. 3:13. It will kiss the soul, and
look enticing to the soul, and yet betray the soul forever. It will with
Delilah smile upon us, that it may betray us into the hands of the
devil, as she did Samson into the hands of the Philistines. Sin gives
Satan a power over us, and an advantage to accuse us and to lay
claim to us, as those who wear his badge; it is of a very bewitching
nature; it bewitches the soul, where it is upon the throne, that the
soul cannot leave it, though it perish eternally by it.
Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makes the soul call evil good, and
good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness
light; and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the
death, at the sword's point with God; let God strike and wound, and
cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not, fears not—but
will still hold on in a course of wickedness, as you may see in
Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas. Tell the bewitched soul that sin is a
viper that will certainly kill when it is not killed, that sin often kills
secretly, insensibly, eternally, yet the bewitched soul cannot, and will
not, cease from sin.
When the physicians told Theotimus that except he did abstain from
drunkenness and uncleanness he would lose his eyes; his heart was
so bewitched to his sins, that he answered, "Then farewell, sweet
light"; he had rather lose his eyes than leave his sin. So a man
bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own
soul—than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, forever take heed of
playing with or nibbling at Satan's golden baits!
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:21:24 GMT -5
DEVICE 2. BY PAINTING SIN WITH
VIRTUE'S COLORS.
Satan knows that if he would present sin in its own nature and dress,
the soul would rather fly from it than yield to it; and therefore he
presents it unto us, not in its own proper colors—but painted and
gilded over with the name and show of virtue, that we may the more
easily be overcome by it, and take the more pleasure in committing
of it. PRIDE, he presents to the soul under the name and notion of
neatness and cleanliness; and COVETOUSNESS (which the apostle
condemns for idolatry) to be but good business; and
DRUNKENNESS to be good fellowship, and RIOTOUSNESS under
the name and notion of liberality, and WANTONNESS as a trick of
youth.
Remedy (1). Consider that sin is never a whit the less filthy,
vile, and abominable—by its being colored and painted
with virtue's colors. A poisonous pill is never a whit the less
poisonous because it is gilded over with gold; nor a wolf is never a
whit the less a wolf because he has put on a sheep's skin; nor the
devil is never a whit the less a devil because he appears sometimes
like an angel of light. So neither is sin any whit the less filthy and
abominable by its being painted over with virtue's colors.
Remedy (2). That the more sin is painted forth under the
color of virtue, the more dangerous it is to the souls of
men. This we see evident in these days, by those very many souls
that are turned out of the way that is holy—and in which their souls
have had sweet and glorious communion with God—into ways of
highest vanity and folly, by Satan's neat coloring over of sin, and
painting forth vice under the name and color of virtue. This is so
notoriously known that I need but name it. The most dangerous
vermin is too often to be found under the fairest and sweetest
flowers, the fairest glove is often drawn upon the foulest hand, and
the richest robes are often put upon the filthiest bodies. So are the
fairest and sweetest names upon the greatest and the most horrible
vices and errors that be in the world. Ah! that we had not too many
sad proofs of this among us!
Remedy (3). To look on sin with that eye with which within a
short time, we shall see it. Ah, souls! when you shall lie upon a
dying bed, and stand before a judgment-seat, sin shall be unmasked,
and its dress and robes shall then be taken off, and then it shall
appear more vile, filthy, and terrible than hell itself; then, that which
formerly appeared most sweet will appear most bitter, and that
which appeared most beautiful will appear most ugly, and that which
appeared most delightful will then appear most dreadful to the soul.
Ah, the shame, the pain, the gall, the bitterness, the horror, the hell
that the sight of sin, when its dress is taken off, will raise in poor
souls! Sin will surely prove evil and bitter to the soul when its robes
are taken off. A man may have the stone who feels no fit of it.
Conscience will work at last, though for the present one may feel no
fit of accusation. Laban showed himself at parting. Sin will be
bitterness in the latter end, when it shall appear to the soul in its own
filthy nature.
The devil deals with men as the panther does with beasts; he hides
his deformed head until his sweet scent has drawn them into his
danger. Until we have sinned, Satan is a parasite; when we have
sinned, he is a tyrant. O souls! the day is at hand when the devil will
pull off the paint and garnish that he has put upon sin, and present
that monster, sin, in such a monstrous shape to your souls, that will
cause your thoughts to be troubled, your countenance to be changed,
the joints of your loins to be loosed, and your knees to be dashed one
against another, and your hearts to be so terrified, that you will be
ready, with Ahithophel and Judas, to strangle and hang your bodies
on earth, and your souls in hell, if the Lord has not more mercy on
you than he had on them. Oh! therefore, look upon sin now as you
must look upon it to all eternity, and as God, conscience, and Satan
will present it to you another day!
Remedy (4). Seriously to consider, That even those very sins
that Satan paints, and puts new names and colors upon,
cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the
heart-blood of the Lord Jesus. That Christ should come from
the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that
God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature;
that he who was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of
flesh; he who filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled
in a manger; that the almighty God should flee from weak man—the
God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to
the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God who made
the heavens working at Joseph's homely trade; that he who binds the
devils in chains should be tempted; that he, whose is the world, and
the fullness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of
strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God
of life put to death; that he who is one with his Father should cry out
of misery, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt.
27:46); that he who had the keys of hell and death at his belt should
lie imprisoned in the sepulcher of another, having in his lifetime
nowhere to lay his head, nor after death to lay his body; that that
HEAD, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be
crowned with thorns, and those EYES, purer than the sun, put out by
the darkness of death; those EARS, which hear nothing but
hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the
multitude; that FACE, which was fairer than the sons of men, to be
spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that MOUTH and TONGUE,
which spoke as never man spoke, accused for blasphemy; those
HANDS, which freely swayed the scepter of heaven, nailed to the
cross; those FEET, "like unto fine brass," nailed to the cross for
man's sins; each sense pained with a spear and nails; his SMELL,
with stinking odor, being crucified on Golgotha, the place of skulls;
his TASTE, with vinegar and gall; his HEARING, with reproaches,
and SIGHT of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his SOUL,
comfortless and forsaken; and all this for those very sins that Satan
paints and puts fine colors upon! Oh! how should the consideration
of this stir up the soul against sin, and work the soul to fly from it,
and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and
destroyed!
After Julius Caesar was murdered, Antonius brought forth his coat,
all bloody and cut, and laid it before the people, saying, "Look, here
you have the emperor's coat thus bloody and torn"—whereupon the
people were presently in an uproar, and cried out to slay those
murderers; and they took their tables and stools which were in the
place, and set them on fire, and ran to the houses of those who had
slain Caesar, and burnt them. So that when we consider that sin
has slain our Lord Jesus, ah, how should it provoke our
hearts to be revenged on sin—which has murdered the
Lord of glory, and has done that mischief that all the devils
in hell could never have done?
It was good counsel one gave, "Never let go out of your minds the
thoughts of a crucified Christ." Let these be food and drink unto you;
let them be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your
desire, your reading and your meditation, your life, death, and
resurrection.
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:24:58 GMT -5
DEVICE 3. BY EXTENUATING AND LESSENING OF SIN
Ah! says Satan, it is but a little pride, a little worldliness, a little
uncleanness, a little drunkenness, etc. As Lot said of Zoar, "It is but a
little one, and my soul shall live" (Gen. 19:20). Alas! says Satan, it is
but a very little sin that you stick so at. You may commit it without
any danger to your soul. It is but a little one; you may commit it, and
yet your soul shall live.
Remedy (1). First, Solemnly consider, that those sins which we
are apt to account small, have brought upon men the
greatest wrath of God, as the eating of an apple, gathering a few
sticks on the Sabbath day, and touching of the ark. Oh! the dreadful
wrath that these sins brought down upon the heads and hearts of
men! The least sin is contrary to the law of God, the nature of God,
the being of God, and the glory of God; and therefore it is often
punished severely by God; and do not we see daily the vengeance of
the Almighty falling upon the bodies, names, states, families, and
souls of men—for those sins that are but little ones in their eyes?
Surely if we are not utterly forsaken by God, and blinded by Satan—
we cannot but see it! Oh! therefore, when Satan says it is but a little
one—you must say, Oh! but those sins which you call little, are such
as will cause God to rain hell out of heaven upon sinners as he did
upon the Sodomites!
Remedy (2). Seriously to consider, That the giving way to a less
sin makes way for the committing of a greater sin. He who,
to avoid a greater sin, will yield to a lesser, ten thousand to one but
God in justice will leave that soul to fall into a greater. If we commit
one sin to avoid another, it is just we should avoid neither, we having
not law nor power in our own hands to keep off sin as we please; and
we, by yielding to the lesser, do tempt the tempter to tempt us to the
greater. Sin is of an encroaching nature; it creeps on the soul by
degrees, step by step, until it has the soul to the very height of sin.
David gives way to his wandering eye, and this led him to those foul
sins that caused God to break his bones, and to turn his day into
night, and to leave his soul in great darkness. Jacob and Peter, and
other saints, have found this true by woeful experience, that the
yielding to a lesser sin has been the ushering in of a greater. The little
thief will open the door, and make way for the greater; and the little
wedge knocked in, will make way for the greater.
Satan will first draw you to sit with the drunkard, and then to sip
with the drunkard, and then at last to be drunk with the drunkard.
He will first draw you to be unclean in your thoughts, and then to be
unclean in your looks, and then to be unclean in your words, and at
last to be unclean in your practices. He will first draw you to look
upon the golden wedge, and then to desire the golden wedge, and
then to handle the golden wedge, and then at last by wicked ways to
take the golden wedge, though you run the hazard of losing God and
your soul forever; as you may see in Gehazi, Achan, and Judas, and
many in these our days. Sin is never at a stand-still (Psalm 1:1), first
ungodly, then sinners, then scorners. Here they go on from sin to sin,
until they come to the top of sin, that is, to sit in the seat of scorners.
By all this we see, that the yielding to lesser sins, draws the soul to
the committing of greater. Ah! how many in these days have fallen,
first to have low thoughts of Scripture and ordinances, and then to
slight Scripture and ordinances, and then to make a nose of wax of
Scripture and ordinances, and then to cast off Scripture and
ordinances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves, and
their Christ-dishonoring and soul-damning opinions, above
Scripture and ordinances.
Sin gains upon man's soul by insensible degrees. "The beginning of
the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talking is
mischievous madness." (Eccles. 10:13) Corruption in the heart, when
it breaks forth, is like a breach in the sea, which begins in a narrow
passage, until it eats through, and cast down all before it. The
debates of the soul are quick, and soon ended; and that may be done
in a moment that may undo a man forever. When a man has begun
to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make a stop of
sin. Usually the soul goes on from evil to evil, from folly to folly, until
it is ripe for eternal misery!
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this third device that Satan
has to draw the soul to sin, is solemnly to consider, That it is sad to
sin against God for a trifle. Dives would not give a crumb,
therefore he should not receive a drop (Luke 16:21). It is the
greatest folly in the world—to adventure the going to hell
for a small matter. "I tasted but a little honey," said Jonathan,
"and I must die" (1 Sam. 14:29). It is a most unkind and unfaithful
thing to break with God, for a little. Little sins carry with them but
little temptations to sin, and then a man shows most viciousness and
unkindness, when he sins on a little temptation. It is devilish to sin
without a temptation; it is little less than devilish to sin on a little
occasion. The less the temptation is to sin—the greater is
that sin. Saul's sin in not waiting for Samuel, was not so much in
the matter—but it was much in the malice of it; for though Samuel
had not come at all, yet Saul should not have offered sacrifice; but
this cost him dear—his soul and kingdom.
It is the greatest unkindness that can be showed to a friend, to
venture the complaining, bleeding, and grieving of his soul—upon a
light and a slight occasion. So it is the greatest unkindness that can
be showed to God, Christ, and the Spirit, for a soul to put God upon
complaining, Christ upon bleeding, and the Spirit upon grieving—by
yielding to little sins. Therefore, when Satan says it is but a little one,
you must answer—that oftentimes there is the greatest unkindness
showed to God's glorious majesty, in the acting of the least folly, and
therefore you will not displease your best and greatest friend—by
yielding to his greatest enemy.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is
seriously to consider, That there is great danger, yes, many
times most danger—in the smallest sins. "A little leaven
leavens the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6). If the serpent sneaks in his
head, he will draw in his whole body after him. Greater sins do
sooner startle the soul, and awaken and rouse up the soul to
repentance, than lesser sins do. Little sins often slide into the soul,
and breed, and work secretly and indiscernibly in the soul, until they
come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the
throat of the soul. There is oftentimes greatest danger to our bodies
in the least diseases that hang upon us, because we are apt to make
light of them, and to neglect the timely use of means for removing of
them, until they are grown so strong that they prove mortal to us. So
there is most danger often in the least sins.
We are apt to take no notice of them, and to neglect those heavenly
helps whereby they should be weakened and destroyed, until they are
grown to that strength, that we are ready to cry out, the medicine is
too weak for the disease! I would pray, and I would hear—but I am
afraid that sin is grown up by degrees to such a head, that I shall
never be able to prevail over it; but as I have begun to fall, so I shall
utterly fall before it, and at last perish in it, unless the power and free
grace of Christ acts gloriously, beyond my present apprehension and
expectation. The viper is killed by the little young ones that are
nourished and cherished in her belly—so are many men eternally
killed and betrayed by the little sins, as they call them, that are
nourished in their own bosoms.
I know not, says one, whether the nurture of the least sin be not
worse than the commission of the greatest—for this may be of frailty,
that argues obstinacy. A little hole in the ship sinks it. A small breach
in a dyke carries away all before it. A little stab at the heart kills a
man. A little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man!
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan, is
solemnly to consider, That other saints have chosen to suffer
the worst of torments, rather than commit the least sin, that
is, such as the world accounts little sins. So as you may see in Daniel
and his companions, that would rather choose to burn, and be cast to
the lions—than they would bow to the idol which Nebuchadnezzar
had set up. When this 'slight offense', in the world's account, and a
hot fiery furnace stood in competition, that they must either fall into
sin, or be cast into the fiery furnace—such was their tenderness of the
honor and glory of God, and their hatred and indignation against sin,
that they would rather burn than sin! They knew that it was far
better to burn for their not sinning, than that God and conscience
should raise a hell, a fire in their bosoms for sin.
I have read of that noble servant of God, Marcus Arethusius, minister
of a church in the time of Constantine, who had been the cause of
overthrowing an idol's temple; afterwards, when Julian came to be
emperor, he would force the people of that place to build it up again.
They were ready to do it—but Marcus refused; whereupon those who
were his own people, to whom he preached, took him, and stripped
him of all his clothes, and abused his naked body, and gave it up to
the children, to lance it with their pen-knives, and then caused him
to be put in a basket, and drenched his naked body with honey, and
set him in the sun, to be stung with wasps. And all this cruelty they
showed, because he would not do anything towards the building up
of this idol temple! No, they came to this, that if he would do but the
least towards it, if he would give but a half-penny to it, they would
save him. But he refused all, though the giving of a half-penny might
have saved his life; and in doing this, he did but live up to that
principle that most Christians talk of, and all profess—but few come
up to, that is—that we must choose rather to suffer the worst of
torments that men and devils can invent and inflict, than to commit
the least sin whereby God should be dishonored, our consciences
wounded, religion reproached, and our own souls endangered.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That the soul is never able to stand
under the guilt and weight of the least sin, when God shall
set it home upon the soul. The least sin will press and sink the
stoutest sinner as low as hell, when God shall open the eyes of a
sinner, and make him see the horrid filthiness and abominable
vileness that is in sin! What so little, base, and vile creatures—as lice
or gnats—and yet by these little poor creatures, God so plagued
stout-hearted Pharaoh, and all Egypt, that, fainting under it, they
were forced to cry out, "This is the finger of God!" (Exod. 8:16; 10.
19). When little creatures, yes, the least creatures, shall be armed
with a power from God, they shall press and sink down the greatest,
proudest, and stoutest tyrants who breathe!
So when God shall cast a sword into the hand of a little sin, and arm
it against the soul, the soul will faint and fall under it. Some, who
have but contemplated adultery, without any actual acting it; and
others, having found a trifle, and made no conscience to restore it,
knowing, by the light of natural conscience, that they did not do as
they would be done by; and others, that have had some unworthy
thought of God, have been so frightened, amazed, and terrified for
those sins, which are small in men's account, that they have wished
they had never been born; that they could take no delight in any
earthly comfort, that they have been put to their wits' end, ready to
make away themselves, wishing themselves annihilated.
William Perkins mentions a good man—but very poor, who, being
ready to starve, stole a lamb, and being about to eat it with his poor
children, and as his manner was afore eating, to ask God's blessing,
dare not do it—but fell into a great perplexity of conscience, and
acknowledged his fault to the owner, promising payment if ever he
should be able.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device is, solemnly to
consider, That there is more evil in the least sin than in the
greatest affliction; and this appears as clear as the sun, by the
severe dealing of God the Father with his beloved Son, who let all the
vials of his fiercest wrath upon him, and that for the least sin as well
as for the greatest.
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23); of ALL sin, whether great
or small, Oh! how should this make us tremble—as much at the least
spark of lust as at hell itself; considering that God the Father would
not spare his bosom Son, no, not for the least sin—but would make
him drink the dregs of his wrath!
And so much for the remedies that may fence and preserve our souls
from being drawn to sin by this third device of Satan.
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:30:30 GMT -5
DEVICE 4. By presenting to the soul the best men's sins, and by hiding from the soul their virtues...
by showing the soul their sins, and by hiding from the soul their
sorrows and repentance: as by setting before the soul the adultery of
David, the pride of Hezekiah, the impatience of Job, the drunkenness
of Noah, the blasphemy of Peter, etc., and by hiding from the soul the
tears, the sighs, the groans, the meltings, the humblings, and
repentings of these precious souls.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That the Spirit of the Lord has been as
careful to note the saints' rising by repentance out of sin, as
he has to note their falling into sins. David falls fearfully—but
by repentance he rises sweetly. 'Blot out my transgressions, wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin; for I
acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow; deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, God of my
salvation.' It is true, Hezekiah's heart was lifted up under the
abundance of mercy that God had cast in upon him; and it is as true
that Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, so that the
wrath of the Lord came not upon him, nor upon Jerusalem, in the
days of Hezekiah. It is true, Job curses the day of his birth, and it is
as true that he rises by repentance: 'Behold, I am vile,' says he; 'what
shall I answer you? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I
spoken—but I will not answer; yes twice—but I will proceed no
further. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear—but now my
eye sees you; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes'
(Job 40:4, 5; 42:5, 6). Tertullian says that he was born for no other
purpose but to repent.
Peter falls dreadfully—but rises by repentance sweetly; a look of love
from Christ melts him into tears. He knew that repentance was the
key to the kingdom of grace. As once his faith was so great that he
leaped, as it were, into a sea of waters to come to Christ; so now his
repentance was so great that he leaped, as it were, into a sea of
tears, because he had denied Christ. Some say that, after his sad fall,
he was ever and always weeping, and that his face was even furrowed
with continual tears. He had no sooner took in poison but he vomited
it up again, before it got to the vitals; he had no sooner handled this
serpent but he turned it into a rod to scourge his soul with remorse
for sinning against such clear light, and strong love, and sweet
discoveries of the heart of Christ to him. Luther confesses that,
before his conversion, he met not with a more displeasing word in all
his study of divinity than repent—but afterward he took delight in
the word. Clement notes that Peter so repented, that all his life after,
every night when he heard the cock crow, he would fall upon his
knees, and, weeping bitterly, would beg pardon of his sin. Ah, souls,
you can easily sin as the saints—but can you repent with the saints?
Many can sin with David and Peter, that cannot repent with David
and Peter—and so must perish forever!
Theodosius the emperor, pressing that he might receive the Lord's
supper, excuses his own foul act by David's doing the like; to which
Ambrose replies, You have followed David transgressing, follow
David repenting, and then think you of the table of the Lord.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That these saints did not make a trade of
sin. They fell once or twice, and rose by repentance, that they might
keep the closer to Christ forever. They fell accidentally, occasionally,
and with much reluctancy; and you sin presumptuously, obstinately,
readily, delightfully, and customarily. The saints cannot sin with a
whole will—but, as it were, with a half-will, an unwillingness; not
with a full consent—but with a dissenting consent. You have, by your
making a trade of sin, contracted upon your soul a kind of cursed
necessity of sinning, that you can as well cease to be, or cease to live,
as you can cease to sin. Sin is, by custom, become as another nature
to you, which you can not, which you will not lay aside, though you
know that if you do not lay sin aside, God will lay your soul aside
forever; though you know that if sin and your soul do not part, Christ
and your soul can never meet. If you will make a trade of sin, and cry
out—Did not David sin thus, and Noah sin thus, and Peter sin thus?
No! their hearts turned aside to folly one day—but your heart turns
aside to folly every day (2 Peter 2:14, Prov. 4:6); and when they were
fallen, they rise by repentance, and by the actings of faith upon a
crucified Christ. But you fall, and have no strength nor will to rise—
but wallow in sin, and will eternally die in your sins, unless the Lord
be the more merciful to your soul. Do you think, O soul, this is good
reasoning? — Such a one tasted poison but once, and yet narrowly
escaped; but I daily drink poison, yet I shall escape. Yet such is the
mad reasoning of vain souls. David and Peter sinned once foully and
fearfully; they tasted poison but once, and were sick to death; but I
taste it daily, and yet shall not taste of eternal death. Remember, O
souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self deceivers,
yes, self-murderers! Though sindwells in the regenerate,
yet it does not reign over the regenerate; they rise by repentance.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That though God does not, nor never
will, disinherit his people for their sins, yet he has severely
punished his people for their sins. David sins, and God breaks
his bones for his sin: 'Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which you have broken may rejoice' (Psalm 51:8). 'And
because you have done this, the sword shall never depart from your
house, to the day of your death' (2 Sam. 12:10). Though God will not
utterly take from them his loving-kindness, nor allow his faithfulness
to fail, nor break his covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of
his mouth, yet will he 'visit their transgression with the rod, and their
iniquity with stripes' (Psalm 89:30, 35). The Scripture abounds with
instances of this kind. This is so known a truth among all that know
anything of truth, that to cite more scriptures to prove it would be to
light a candle to see the sun at noon. Josephus reports that, not long
after the Jews had crucified Christ on the cross, so many of them
were condemned to be crucified that there were not places enough
for crosses nor crosses enough for the bodies that were to be hung
thereon.
The Jews have a proverb, 'That there is no punishment comes upon
Israel in which there is not one ounce of the golden calf'; meaning
that that was so great a sin, as that in every plague God remembered
it; that it had an influence into every trouble that befell them. Every
man's heart may say to him in his sufferings, as the heart of
Apollodorus in the kettle, 'I have been the cause of this.' God is
most angry when he shows no anger. God keep me from this
mercy; this kind of mercy is worse than all other kind of misery.
One writing to a dead friend has this expression: 'I account it a part
of unhappiness not to know adversity; I judge you to be miserable,
because you have not been miserable.' Luther says, 'There is not a
Christian that carries not his cross.' It is mercy that our affliction is
not execution—but a correction. He who has deserved hanging, may
be glad if he escape with a whipping. God's corrections are our
instructions, his lashes our lessons, his scourges our schoolmasters,
his chastisements our admonitions. And to note this, both the
Hebrews and the Greeks express chastening and teaching by one
and the same word (Musar, Paideia),*** because the latter is the
true end of the former, according to that in the proverb, 'Smart
makes wit, and vexation gives understanding.' Whence Luther fitly
calls affliction The Christian man's divinity.' So says Job (Chap.
33:14-19), 'But God speaks again and again, though people do not
recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night when deep
sleep falls on people as they lie in bed. He whispers in their ear and
terrifies them with his warning. He causes them to change their
minds; he keeps them from pride. He keeps them from the grave,
from crossing over the river of death. Or God disciplines people with
sickness and pain, with ceaseless aching in their bones.' When Satan
shall tell you of other men's sins to draw you to sin—then think of the
same men's sufferings to keep you from sin. Lay your hand upon
your heart, and say, O my soul! if you sin with David, you must suffer
with David!
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That there are but two main ends of
God's recording of the falls of his saints.
And the one is, to keep those from fainting, sinking, and despair,
under the burden of their sins, who fall through weakness and
infirmity.
And the other is, that their falls may be as landmarks to warn others
to take heed lest they fall. It never entered into the heart of God to
record his children's sins, that others might be encouraged to sin—
but that others might look to themselves, and hang the faster upon
the skirts of Christ, and avoid all occasions and temptations that may
occasion the soul to fall, as others have fallen, when they have been
left by Christ. The Lord has made their sins as landmarks, to warn
his people to take heed how they come near those sands and rocks,
those snares and baits, that have been fatal to the choicest treasures,
namely—the joy, peace, comfort, and glorious enjoyments of the
bravest spirits and noblest souls that ever sailed through the ocean of
this sinful troublesome world; as you may see in David, Job, and
Peter. There is nothing in the world that can so notoriously cross the
grand end of God's recording of the sins of his saints, than for any
from thence to take encouragement to sin; and wherever you find
such a soul, you may write him Christless, graceless, a soul cast off by
God, a soul that Satan has by the hand, and the eternal God knows
where he will lead him. I have known a good man, says Bernard,
who, when he heard of any that had committed some notorious sin,
he was accustomed to say with himself—he fell today, so may I tomorrow
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:36:46 GMT -5
DEVICE 5. To present God to the soul as
one made up all of mercy.
Oh! says Satan, you need not make such a matter of sin, you need not
be so fearful of sin, not so unwilling to sin; for God is a God of mercy,
a God full of mercy, a God that delights in mercy, a God that is ready
to show mercy, a God that is never weary of showing mercy, a God
more prone to pardon his people than to punish his people; and
therefore he will not take advantage against the soul; and why then,
says Satan, should you make such a matter of sin?
Remedy (1). The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That it is
the greatest judgment in the world to be left to sin, upon
any pretense whatever. O unhappy man! when God leaves you to
yourself, and does not resist you in your sins. Woe, woe to him at
whose sins God does wink. When God lets the way to hell be a
smooth and pleasant way, that is hell on this side hell, and a dreadful
sign of God's indignation against a man; a token of his rejection, and
that God does not intend good unto him. That is a sad word,
'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone' (Hosea 4:17); he will be
unteachable and incorrigible; he has made a match with mischief, he
shall have his bellyful of it; he falls with open eyes; let him fall at his
own peril. And that is a terrible saying, 'So I gave them up unto their
own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels' (Psalm
81:12). A soul given up to sin is a soul ripe for hell, a soul hastening
to destruction!
Ah Lord! this mercy! humbly beg, that whatever you give me up to,
you will not give me up to the ways of my own heart; if you will give
me up to be afflicted, or tempted, or reproached, I will patiently sit
down, and say, It is the Lord; let him do with me what seems good in
his own eyes. Do anything with me, lay what burden you will upon
me, so you do not give me up to the ways of my own heart.
Augustine says, 'It is a human thing to fall into sin, devilish to
persevere therein, and divine to rise from it.Deliver me, O Lord, from
that evil man—myself!
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That God is as JUST, as he is merciful. As
the Scriptures speak Him out to be a very merciful God, so they
speak Him out to be a very just God. Witness His casting the angels
out of heaven and His binding them in chains of darkness until the
judgment of the great day.* Witness His turning Adam out of
Paradise. Witness His drowning of the old world. Witness His
raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom. Witness all the troubles,
losses, sicknesses, and diseases, which are in the world. Witness
Tophet, which "has long been prepared; it has been made ready for
the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an
abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of
burning sulfur, sets it ablaze." (Isaiah 30:33) Witness His treasuring
up of wrath against the day of wrath. But above all, witness the
pouring forth of all His wrath upon His bosom Son, when Jesus bore
the sins of His people, and cried out, "My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?"
*God hanged them up in gibbets, as it were, that others might hear
and fear, and do no more so wickedly.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That sins against God's mercy will bring
the greatest and sorest judgments upon men's heads and
hearts. Mercy is God's Alpha, justice is His Omega. David,
speaking of these attributes, places mercy in the forefront, and
justice in the rearward, saying, "I will sing of Your love and justice."
(Psalm 101:1). When God's mercy is despised, then His justice takes
the throne!* God is like a prince, who sends not his army against
rebels before he has sent his pardon, and proclaimed it by a herald of
arms: he first hangs out the white flag of mercy; if this wins men in,
they are happy forever; but if they remain rebellious, then God will
put forth his red flag of justice and judgment. If His mercy is
despised, His justice shall be felt!
The higher we are in dignity, the more grievous is our fall and misery.
God is slow to anger—but he recompenses his slowness with
grievousness of punishment. If we abuse His mercy to serve our lust,
then, in Salvian's phrase, God will rain hell out of heaven, rather
than not visit for such sins.
See this in the Israelites. He loved them and chose them when they
were in their blood, and most unlovely. He multiplied them, not by
means—but by miracle; from seventy souls they grew in few years to
six hundred thousand; the more they were oppressed, the more they
prospered. Like camomile, the more you tread it, the more you
spread it; or like a palm-tree, the more it is pressed, the further it
spreads; or like fire, the more it is raked, the more it burns. Their
mercies came in upon them like Job's messengers, one upon the neck
of the other: He put off their sackcloth, and girded them with
gladness, and 'compassed them about with songs of deliverance'; he
'carried them on the wings of eagles'; he kept them 'as the apple of
his eye.' (Psalm 32:7; Exod. 19:4; Deut. 32:10) But they, abusing his
mercy, became the greatest objects of his wrath. As I know not the
man who can reckon up his mercies; so I know not the man who can
sum up the miseries which are coming upon him for their sins!
For as our Savior prophesied concerning Jerusalem, 'that a stone
should not be left upon a stone,' so it was fulfilled forty years after his
ascension, by Vespasian the emperor and his son Titus, who, having
besieged Jerusalem, the Jews were oppressed with a grievous
famine, in which their food was old shoes, leather, old hay, and the
dung of beasts. There died, partly by the sword and partly by the
famine, eleven hundred thousand of the poorer sort; two thousand in
one night were slaughtered; six thousand were burned in a porch of
the temple; the whole city was sacked and burned, and laid level to
the ground; and ninety-seven thousand taken captives, and forced to
base and miserable service, as Eusebius and Josephus says.
(Vespasian broke into their city at Kedron, where they took Christ,
on he same feast day that Christ was taken; he whipped them where
they whipped Christ; he sold twenty Jews for a penny, as they sold
Christ for thirty pence.) And to this day, in all parts of the world, are
they not the offscouring of the world? None more abhorred, than
they. Men shall be deeper in hell, because heaven was offered unto
them; but they abused God's mercy. Men's offences are increased by
their obligations.
And so Capernaum, that was lifted up to heaven, was threatened to
be thrown down to hell. No souls fall so low into hell, if they fall, as
those souls that by a hand of mercy are lifted up nearest to heaven.
You who are so apt to abuse God's mercy, consider this, that in the
gospel days, the plagues that God inflicts upon the despisers and
abusers of mercy are usually spiritual plagues; as blindness of mind,
hardness of heart, benumbedness of conscience, which are ten
thousand times worse than the worst of outward plagues which can
befall you. And therefore, though you may escape temporal
judgments, yet you shall not escape spiritual judgments: 'How shall
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?' (Heb. 2:3) says the
apostle. Oh! therefore, whenever Satan shall present God to the soul
as one made up all of mercy, that he may draw you to do wickedly,
say unto him, that sins against God's mercy, will bring upon
the soul the greatest misery; and therefore whatever becomes of
you, you will not sin against mercy.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is
seriously to consider, That though God's general mercy is over
all his works, yet his special mercy is confined to those who
are divinely qualified. Augustus, in his solemn feasts, gave trifles
to some—but gold to others whom his heart was most set upon. So
God, by a hand of general mercy, gives these poor trifles—outward
blessings, to those who he least loves; but his gold, special mercy, is
only towards those who his heart is most set upon. So in Exodus
34:6, 7: 'And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient, and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.'
Exodus 20:6, 'And showing mercy unto thousands of those who love
me, and keep my commandments.' Psalm 25:10, 'All the paths of the
Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his
testimonies.' Psalm 32:10, 'Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but
he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.' Psalm
33:18, 'Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him, upon
those who hope in his mercy.' Psalm 103:11, 'For as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear
him.' Ver. 17, 'But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
everlasting upon those who fear him.'
When Satan attempts to draw you to sin by presenting God as a God
all made up of mercy, oh then reply, that though God's general mercy
extend to all the works of his hand, yet his special mercy is confined
to those who are divinely qualified, to those who love him and keep
his commandments, to those who trust in him, that by hope hang
upon him, and who fear him; and that you must be such a one here,
or else you can never be happy hereafter; you must partake of his
special mercy, or else eternally perish in everlasting misery,
notwithstanding God's general mercy.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That those who were once glorious on
earth, and are now triumphing in heaven, did look upon
the mercy of God as the most powerful argument to
preserve them from sin, and to fence their souls against
sin; and not as an encouragement to sin. Psalm 26:3-5: 'For I
am constantly aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived
according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or go along
with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I
refuse to join in with the wicked.'
So Joseph strengthens himself against sin from the remembrance of
mercy: 'How then can I,' says he, 'do this great wickedness, and sin
against God?' (Gen. 39:9). He had his eye fixed upon mercy, and
therefore sin could not enter, though the irons entered into his soul;
his soul being taken with mercy, was not moved with his mistress's
impudence. Satan knocked often at the door—but the sight of mercy
would not allow him to answer or open. Joseph, like a pearl in a
puddle, keeps his virtue still. (The stone called Pontaurus, is of that
virtue, that it preserves him who carries it, from taking any hurt by
poison. The mercy of God in Christ to our souls is the most precious
stone or pearl in the world, to prevent us from being poisoned with sin.)
Likewise with Paul: 'Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? God forbid. How shall we who are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?' (Rom. 6:1, 2). There is nothing in the world that
renders a man more unlike to a saint, and more like to Satan—than
to argue from God's mercy to sinful liberty; from divine goodness to
licentiousness. This is the devil's logic, and in whomever you find it,
you may write, 'This soul is lost!' A man may as truly say, 'the sea
burns', or 'the fire cools'—as that God's free grace and mercy should
make a truly gracious soul to live wickedly.
So the same apostle: 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service' (Rom. 12:1).
So John: 'These things I write unto you, that you sin not (1 John 2:1,
2). What was it that he wrote? He wrote: 'That we might have
fellowship with the Father and his Son; and that the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin; and that if we confess our sin, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins; and that if we do sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' These choice
favors and mercies the apostle holds forth as the choicest means to
preserve the soul from sin, and to keep at the greatest distance from
sin; and if this will not do it—you may write the man void of Christ
and grace, and undone forever!
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:40:07 GMT -5
DEVICE 6. By persuading the soul thatthe work of repentance is an easy work;
and that therefore the soul need not makesuch a matter of sin.
Why! Suppose you do sin, says Satan, it is no such difficult thing to
return, and confess, and be sorrowful, and beg pardon, and cry,
'Lord, have mercy upon me!' and if you do but this, God will forgive
your debt, and pardon your sins, and save your souls.
By this device Satan draws many a soul to sin, and makes many
millions of souls servants of sin, or rather slaves to sin.
Remedy (1). The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That
repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is
above our power. There is no power below that power which
raised Christ from the dead, and which made the world—which can
break the heart of a sinner, or turn the heart of a sinner! You are as
well able to melt adamant, as to melt your own heart; to turn a flint
into flesh, as to turn your own heart to the Lord; to raise the dead
and to make a world, as to repent. Repentance is a flower wich
does not grow in nature's garden! 'Can the Ethiopian change
his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are
accustomed to doing evil.' (Jer. 13:23). Repentance is a gift that
comes down from above. Men are not born with repentance in their
hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths: (Acts 5:31):
'Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior
—to give repentance.' Those who oppose him he must gently
instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading
them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their
senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them
captive to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:25-26) It is not in the power of
any mortal to repent at pleasure. Some ignorant deluded souls vainly
conceit that these five words, 'Lord! have mercy upon me,' are
efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by
buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their
repentance. Many rest in their repentance, which caused on to say,
'Repentance damns more than sin!' It was a vain brag of king Cyrus,
that caused it to be written upon his tombstone, 'I can do all things!'
So could Paul, too—but it was 'through Christ, who strengthened him.'
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider of the nature of true repentance.
Repentance is some other thing, than what vain men conceive. The
Hebrew word for repentance signifies to return, implying a going
back from what a man had done. It denotes a turning or converting
from one thing to another, from sin to God. The Greeks have two
words by which they express the nature of repentance, one signifies
to be careful, anxious, solicitous, after a thing is done; the other word
denotes after-wisdom, the mind's recovering of wisdom, or growing
wiser after our folly. True repentance is a thorough change both of
the mind and life. Repentance for sin is nothing worth without
repentance from sin. "If you repent with a contradiction," says
Tertullian, "God will pardon you with a contradiction; if you repent
and yet continue in your sin, God will pardon you, and yet send you
to hell—there is a pardon with a contradiction. Negative goodness
serves no man's turn, to save him from the axe."
Repentance is sometimes taken, in a more strict and narrow sense,
for godly sorrow; sometimes repentance is taken, in a large sense, for
amendment of life. Repentance has in it three things, namely, the
act, subject, and terms.
(1) The formal ACT of repentance is a changing and converting. It
is often set forth in Scripture by turning. 'Turn me, and I shall be
turned,' says Ephraim; 'after I was turned, I repented,' says he (Jer.
31:18, 19). It is a turning from darkness to light.
(2) The SUBJECT changed and converted is the whole man; it is
both the sinner's heart and life: first his heart, then his life; first his
person, then his practice and lifestyle. 'Wash, be clean,' there is the
change of their persons; 'Put away the evil of your doings from before
my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well' (Is. 1:16, 17); there is the
change of their practices. 'Cast away,' says Ezekiel, 'all your
transgressions whereby you have transgressed;' there is the change
of the life; 'and make you a new heart and a new spirit' (18:31); there
is the change of the heart.
(3) The TERMS of this change and conversion, from which and to
which both heart and life must be changed; from sin to God. The
heart must changed from the state and power of sin, the life from the
acts of sin—but both unto God; the heart to be under his power in a
state of grace, the life to be under his rule in all new obedience; and
the apostle speaks, 'To open their eyes and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God' (Acts
26:18). So the prophet Isaiah says, 'Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord' (55:7).
Thus much of the nature of evangelical repentance. Now, souls, tell
me whether it be such an easy thing to repent, as Satan does suggest.
Besides what has been spoken, I desire that you will take notice, that
repentance does include turning from the most darling sin. Ephraim
shall say, 'What have I to do any more with idols?' (Hosea 14:8). Yes,
it is a turning from all sin to God (Ezek. 18:30): 'Therefore I will
judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the
Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin.'
Herod turned from many—but turned not from his Herodias, which
was his ruin. Judas turned from all visible wickedness, yet he would
not cast out that golden devil 'covetousness', and therefore was cast
into the hottest place in hell. He who turns not from every sin,
turns not aright from any one sin. Every sin strikes at the honor
of God, the being of God, the glory of God, the heart of Christ, the joy
of the Spirit, and the peace of a man's conscience; and therefore a
soul truly penitent strikes at all, hates all, conflicts with all, and will
labor to draw strength from a crucified Christ to crucify all sins. A
true penitent knows neither father nor mother, neither right eye nor
right hand—but will pluck out the one and cut off the other. Saul
spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom (1
Sam. 15:9).
Besides, repentance is not only a turning from all sin—but also a
turning to all good; to a love of all good, to a prizing of all good,
and to a following after all good (Ezek. 18:21): 'But if the wicked will
turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my
statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he
shall not die.' Mere negative righteousness and holiness is neither
true righteousness nor true holiness. The evil servant did not use his
one talent in debauchery (Matt. 25:18). Those reprobates (Matt.
25:41-45), did not rob the saints—but merely did not help them. For
this they must eternally perish.
David fulfilled all the will of God, and had respect unto all his
commandments, and so had Zacharias and Elizabeth. It is not
enough that the tree does not bear bad fruit; but it must bring forth
good fruit, else it must be 'cut down and cast into the fire' (Luke
13:7). So it is not enough that you are not thus and thus wicked—but
you must be thus and thus gracious and godly, else divine justice will
put the axe of divine vengeance to the root of your souls, and cut you
off forever. 'The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree
that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into
the fire.' (Matt. 3:10). Besides, repentance does include a
sensibleness of sin's sinfulness—how opposite and contrary sin is to
the blessed God. God is light, sin is darkness; God is life, sin is death;
God is heaven, sin is hell; God is beauty, sin is deformity.
Also true repentance includes a sensibleness of sin's destructiveness;
how it cast angels out of heaven, and Adam out of paradise; how it
laid the first cornerstone in hell, and brought in all the curses,
crosses, and miseries, that are in the world; and how it makes men
liable to all temporal, spiritual and eternal wrath; how it has made
men Godless, Christless, hopeless and heavenless.
Further, true repentance includes sorrow for sin, contrition of heart.
It breaks the heart with sighs, and sobs, and groans—that by sin—a
loving God and Father is offended; a blessed Savior afresh crucified,
and the sweet Comforter, the Spirit, grieved and vexed.
Again, repentance does include, not only a loathing of sin—but also a
loathing of ourselves for sin. As a man does not only loathe poison—
but he loathes the very dish or vessel that has the smell of the poison;
so a true penitent does not only loathe his sin—but he loathes
himself, the vessel that smells of it; so Ezek. 20:43: 'And there shall
you remember your ways and all your doings, wherein you have been
defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your
evils that you have committed.' True repentance will work your
hearts, not only to loathe your sins—but to loathe yourselves.
True repentance is a sorrowing for sin, as it is an offence to God and
against God. Repentance both comes from God, and drives a man to
God, as it did the church in the Canticles, and the prodigal.
Again, true repentance does not only work a man to loathe himself
for his sins—but it makes him ashamed of his sin also: 'What fruit
had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed?' says the
apostle (Rom. 6:21). So Ezekiel: 'And you shall be confounded, and
never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I am
pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God'
(16:63). When a penitent soul sees his sins pardoned, the anger of
God pacified, the divine justice satisfied, then he sits down and
blushes, as one ashamed. 'So much the more God has been
displeased with the blackness of sin, the more will he be pleased with
the blushing of the sinner' (Bernard). Those who do not burn
now in zeal against sin must before long burn in hell for sin.
Yes, true repentance makes a man to deny his sinful self, and to walk
contrary to sinful self, to take a holy revenge upon sin, as you may
see in Paul, the jailor, Mary Magdalene, and Manasseh. This the
apostle shows in 2 Cor. 7:10, 11: 'Godly sorrow brings repentance that
leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings
death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what
earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,
what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see
justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be
innocent in this matter.'
Now souls, sum up all these things together, and tell me whether it
would be such an easy thing to repent as Satan would make the soul
to believe, and I am confident your heart will answer that it is as
hard a thing to repent as it is to make a world, or raise the dead!
I shall conclude this second remedy with a worthy saying of a
precious holy man: 'Repentance,' says he, 'strips us stark naked of all
the garments of the old Adam, and leaves not so much as a shirt
behind.' In this rotten building it leaves not a stone upon a stone. As
the flood drowned Noah's own friends and servants, so must the
flood of repenting tears drown our sweetest and most darling sins.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is
seriously to consider, That repentance is a continued act. The
word repent implies the continuation of it. Anselm confesses, that all
his life was either damnable for sin committed, or unprofitable for
good omitted; and at last concludes, "Oh, what then remains, but in
our whole life—but to lament the sins of our whole life." True
repentance inclines a man's heart to perform God's statutes always,
even unto the end. A true penitent must go on from faith to faith,
from strength to strength; he must never stand still nor turn back.
Repentance is a grace, and must have its daily operation as well as
other graces. True repentance is a continued spring, where
the waters of godly sorrow are always flowing: 'My sin is ever
before me' (Psalm 51:3). A true penitent is often casting his eyes back
to the days of his former vanity, and this makes him morning and
evening to 'water his couch with his tears.' 'Remember not against
me the sins of my youth,' says one blessed penitent; and 'I was once a
blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man,' says another penitent.
Repentance is a continued act of turning, a repentance never to be
repented of, a turning never to turn again to folly. A true penitent has
ever something within him to turn from; he can never get near
enough to God; no, not so near him as once he was; and therefore he
is still turning and turning that he may get nearer and nearer to him,
who is his chief good and his only happiness, optimum maximum,
the best and the greatest. They are every day a-crying out, 'O
wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from this body of
death!' (Rom. 7:24). They are still sensible of sin, and still conflicting
with sin, and still sorrowing for sin, and still loathing of themselves
for sin. Repentance is no transient act—but a continued act of the soul.
And tell me, O tempted soul, whether it be such an easy thing as
Satan would make you believe, to be every day a-turning more and
more from sin, and a-turning nearer and nearer to God, your
choicest blessedness. A true penitent can as easily content himself
with one act of faith, or one act of love, as he can content himself
with one act of repentance.
A Jewish Rabbi, pressing the practice of repentance upon his
disciples, and exhorting them to be sure to repent the day before they
died, one of them replied, that the day of any man's death was very
uncertain. 'Repent, therefore, every day,' said the Rabbi, 'and then
you shall be sure to repent the day before you die.' You are wise, and
know how to apply it to your own advantage.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is
solemnly to consider, That if the work of repentance were
such an easy work as Satan would make it to be, then
certainly so many would not lie roaring and crying out of
wrath and eternal ruin under the horrors and terrors of
conscience, for not repenting! Yes, doubtless, so many
millions would not go to hell for not repenting, if it were
such an easy thing to repent. Ah, do not poor souls under horror
of conscience cry out and say, Were all this world a lump of gold, and
in our hand to dispose of—we would give it for the least particle of
true repentance! And will you say it is an easy thing to repent?
When a poor sinner, whose conscience is awakened, shall judge the
exchange of all the world for the least particle of repentance to be the
happiest exchange that ever a sinner made; tell me, O soul, is it good
going to hell? Is it good dwelling with the devouring fire, with
everlasting burnings? Is it good to be forever separated from the
blessed and glorious presence of God, and saints, and to be forever
shut out from those good things of eternal life, which are so many,
that they exceed number; so great, that they exceed measure; so
precious, that they exceed all estimation? We know it is the greatest
misery that can befall the sons of men; and would they not prevent
this by repentance, if it were such an easy thing to repent as Satan
would have it?
Well, then, do not run the hazard of losing God, Christ, heaven, and
your soul forever, by hearkening to this device of Satan—that is, that
it is an easy thing to repent. If it be so easy, why, then, do wicked
men's hearts so rise against those who press the doctrine of
repentance upon them in the sweetest way, and by the strongest and
the choicest arguments that the Scriptures afford? And why do they
kill two at once: the faithful laborer's name and their own souls, by
their wicked words and actings, because they are put upon repenting,
which Satan tells them is so easy a thing? Surely, were repentance so
easy, wicked men would not be so much enraged when that doctrine
is, by evangelical considerations, pressed upon them.
"If you be backward in the thoughts of repentance, be forward in the
thoughts of hell, the flames whereof only the streams of the penitent
eye can extinguish" (Tertullian). "Oh, how shall you tear and rend
yourself! how shall you lament fruitless repenting! What will you
say? Woe is me, that I have not cast off the burden of sin; woe is me,
that I have not washed away my spots—but am now pierced with my
iniquities; now have I lost the surpassing joy of angels!" (Basil).
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is
seriously to consider, That to repent of sin is as great a work of
grace, as not to sin. (Yet it is better to be kept from sin than cured
of sin by repentance; as it is better for a man to be preserved from a
disease than to be cured of the disease.) By our sinful falls—the
powers of the soul are weakened; the strength of grace is decayed;
our evidences for heaven are blotted; fears and doubts in the soul are
raised (will God once more pardon this scarlet sin, and show mercy
to this wretched soul?); the corruptions in the heart are more
advantaged and confirmed; and the conscience of a man after falls is
the more enraged or the more benumbed. Now for a soul,
notwithstanding all this, to repent of his falls—this shows that it is as
great a work of grace to repent of sin as it is not to sin.
Repentance is the vomit of the soul; and of all purgatives, none so
difficult and hard as it is to vomit. The same means that tends to
preserve the soul from sin, the same means works the soul to rise by
repentance when it is fallen into sin. We know the mercy and loving kindness of God
is one special means to keep the soul from sin; as
David spoke, 'I am constantly aware of your unfailing love, and I
have lived according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or
go along with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil,
and I refuse to join in with the wicked.' (Psalm 26:3-5). So by the
same means the soul is raised by repentance out of sin, as you may
see in Mary Magdalene, who loved much, and wept much, because
much was forgiven her (Luke 7:37-39). So those in Hosea: 'Come, let
us return to the LORD! He has torn us in pieces; now he will heal us.
He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds. In just a short
time, he will restore us so we can live in his presence.' (Hos. 6:1, 2);
as the Hebrew has it, 'in his favor'. Confidence in God's mercy and
love, that he would heal them, and bind up their wounds, and revive
their dejected spirits, and cause them to live in his favor, was that
which worked their hearts to repent and return unto him.
I might further show you this truth in many other particulars—but
this may suffice: only remember this in the general, that there is as
much of the power of God, and love of God, and faith in God, and
fear of God, and care to please God, zeal for the glory of God (2 Cor.
7:11) requisite to work a man to repent of sin, as there is to keep a
man from sin; by which you may easily judge, that to repent of sin is
as great a work as not to sin. And now tell me, O soul, is it an easy
thing not to sin? We know then certainly it is not an easy thing to
repent of sin.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That he who now tempts you to sin upon
this account, that repentance is easy, will, before long, to
work you to despair, and forever to break the neck of your
soul, present repentance as the most difficult and hardest
work in the world; and to this purpose he will set your sins in
order before you, and make them to say, 'We are yours, and we must
follow you.' Bede tells of a certain great man that was admonished in
his sickness to repent, who answered that he would not repent yet;
for if he should recover, his companions would laugh at him; but
growing more and more sick, his friends pressed him again to repent
—but then he told them it was too late, for now, said he; I am judged
and condemned.
Now, Satan will help to work the soul to look up, and see God angry;
and to look inward, and to see conscience accusing and condemning;
and to look downwards, and see hell's mouth open to receive the
impenitent soul: and all this to render the work of repentance
impossible to the soul. What, says Satan, do you think that that is
easy which the whole power of grace cannot conquer while we are in
this world? Is it easy, says Satan, to turn from some outward act of
sin to which you have been addicted? Do you not remember that you
have often complained against such and such particular sins, and
resolved to leave them? And yet, to this hour, you have not, you
cannot! What will it then be to turn from every sin? Yes, to mortify
and cut off those sins, those darling lusts, which are as joints and
limbs, which are as right hands and right eyes? Have you not loved
your sins above your Savior? Have you not preferred earth before
heaven? Have you not all along neglected the means of grace? and
despised the offers of grace? and vexed the Spirit of grace? There
would be no end, if I would set before you the infinite evils that you
have committed, and the innumerable good services that you have
omitted, and the frequent checks of your own conscience that you
have condemned; and therefore you may well conclude that you can
never repent, that you shall never repent.
Now, says Satan, do but a little consider your numberless sins, and
the greatness of your sins, the foulness of your sins, the heinousness
of your sins, the circumstances of your sins—and you shall easily see
that those sins that you thought to be but motes, are indeed
mountains; and is it not now in vain to repent of them? Surely, says
Satan, if you should seek repentance and grace with tears, as Esau,
you shall not find it! Your sand has run through the hour-glass, your
sun has set, the door of mercy is shut, the golden scepter is
withdrawn; and now you that have despised mercy, shall be forever
destroyed by justice. For such a wretch as you are to attempt
repentance is to attempt a thing impossible. It is impossible that you,
that in all your life could never conquer one sin, should master such
a numberless number of sins; which are so near, so dear, so
necessary, and so profitable to you, that have so long bedded and
boarded with you, that have been old acquaintance and companions
with you. Have you not often purposed, promised, vowed, and
resolved to enter upon the practice of repentance—but to this day
could never attain it? Surely it is in vain to strive against the stream,
where it is so impossible to overcome; you are lost and cast off
forever; to hell you must go, to hell you shall go! Ah, souls! he who
now tempts you to sin, by suggesting to you the easiness of
repentance, will at last work you to despair, and present repentance
as the hardest work in all the world, and a work as far above man as
heaven is above hell, as light is above darkness. Oh that you were
wise, to break off your sins by timely repentance. Repentance is a
work that must be timely done, or utterly undone forever.
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:48:13 GMT -5
DEVICE 7. By making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions of sin.
Says Satan, You may walk by the harlot's door though you won't go
into the harlot's bed; you may sit and sup with the drunkard, though
you won't be drunk with the drunkard; you may look upon Jezebel's
beauty, and you may play and toy with Delilah, though you do not
commit wickedness with the one or the other; you may with Achan
handle the golden wedge, though you do not steal the golden wedge.
Remedy (1). The first remedy is, solemnly to dwell upon those
scriptures which expressly command us to avoid the
occasions of sin, and the least appearance of evil (1 Thess.
5:22): 'Abstain from all appearance of evil.' Whatever is heterodox,
unsound and unsavory, shun it, as you would do a serpent in your
way, or poison in your food. Epiphanius says that in the old law,
when any dead body was carried by any house, they were enjoined to
shut their doors and windows. Theodosius tore the Arian's
arguments presented to him in writing, because he found them
repugnant to the Scriptures. Augustine retracted even ironies,
because they had the appearance of lying.
When God had commanded the Jews to abstain from swine's flesh,
they would not so much as name it—but in their common talk would
call a sow another thing. To abstain from all appearance of evil, is to
do nothing wherein sin appears, or which has a shadow of sin.
Bernard 'Abstained from whatever is of evil show, or of ill report,
that he may neither wound conscience nor credit.' We must shun and
be shy of the very show and shadow of sin, if either we have a regard
to. our credit abroad, or our comfort at home.
It was good counsel that Livia gave her husband Augustus: 'It
behooves you not only not to do wrong—but not to seem to do so.' So
Jude 23, 'And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.' It is a phrase taken
from legal uncleanness, which was contracted by touching the
houses, the vessels, the garments, of unclean people. Under the law,
men might not touch a menstruous cloth, nor would God accept of a
blemished peace-offering. So we must not only hate and avoid gross
sins—but everything that may carry a savor or suspicion of sin; we
must abhor the very signs and tokens of sin. So in Prov. 5:8, 'Remove
your way far from her, and come not near the door of her house.' He
who would not be burnt, must dread the fire; he who would not hear
the bell, must not meddle with the rope. One speaks of two young
men that flung away their belts, when, being in an idol's temple, the
laving water fell upon them, detesting, says the historian, the
garment spotted by the flesh. One said, As often as I have been
among vain men, I returned home less a man than I was before.
To venture upon the occasion of sin, and then to pray, 'Lead us not
into temptation,' is all one as to thrust your finger into the fire, and
then to pray that it might not be burnt. So, in Prov. 4:14, 15, you have
another command: 'Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not
in the way of evil men: avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass
away.' This triple gradation of Solomon shows with a great emphasis,
how necessary it is for men to flee from all appearance of sin, as the
seaman shuns rocks and shelves; and as men shun those who have
the plague-sores running upon them. As weeds endanger the corn, as
an infection endangers the blood, or as an infected house endanger
the neighborhood; so does the company of the wicked endanger the
godly. Friendship with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chains
of hell, and binds us to a participation in both their sin and their punishment.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That ordinarily there is no conquest
over sin, without the soul turning from the occasion of sin.
It is impossible for that man to get the conquest of sin—who plays
and sports with the occasions of sin. God will not remove the
temptation to sin, except you turn from the occasion of sin. It is a
just and righteous thing with God, that he should fall into the pit,
who will adventure to dance upon the brink of the pit, and that he
should be a slave to sin, that will not flee from the occasions of sin.
As long as there is fuel in our hearts for a temptation, we cannot be
secure. He who has gunpowder about him had need keep far enough
off from sparks. To rush upon the occasions of sin is both to tempt
ourselves, and to tempt Satan to tempt our souls! It is very rare that
any soul plays with the occasions of sin—but that soul is then ensnared by sin!
The fable says, that the butterfly asked the owl how she should deal
with the fire which had singed her wings, who counseled her not to
behold so much as its smoke.
It is seldom that God keeps that soul from the acts of sin, who will
not keep off from the occasions of sin. He who adventures upon the
occasions of sin, is as he who would quench the fire with gasoline.
Ah, souls, often remember how frequently you have been overcome
by sin, when you have boldly gone upon the occasions of sin! Look
back, souls, to the days of your vanity, wherein you have been as
easily conquered as tempted, vanquished as assaulted—when you
have played with the occasions of sin. As you would for the future be
kept from the acting of sin, and be made victorious over sin, oh! flee
from the occasions of sin!
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That other precious saints, who were
once glorious on earth, and are now triumphing in heaven,
have turned from the occasion of sin, as hell itself; as you
may see in Joseph (Gen. 39:10), 'And it came to pass, as she spoke to
Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or
to be with her.' Joseph was famous for all the four cardinal virtues, if
ever any were. In this one temptation you may see his fortitude,
justice, temperance, and prudence, in that he shuns the occasion: for
he would not so much as be with her. And what a man is indeed, that
he is in a temptation, which is but a tap to give vent to corruption.
The Nazarite might not only not drink wine—but not taste a grape, or
the husk of a grape. The leper was to shave his hair, and pare his
nails.
The devil knows that corrupt nature has a seed-plot for all sin, which
being drawn forth and watered by some sinful occasion, is soon set a work
to the producing of death and destruction. God will not remove
the temptation, until we remove the occasion to temptation. A bird
whiles aloft is safe—but she comes not near the snare, without
danger. The shunning the occasions of sin renders a man most like
the godliest of men. A soul eminently gracious dares not come near
the temptation. So Job 31:1, 'I made a covenant with my eyes not to
look with lust upon a young woman.' I set a watch at the entrance of
my senses, that my soul might not by them be infected or
endangered. The eye is the window of the soul, and if that should be
always open, the soul might smart for it. A man may not look intently
upon that, that he may not love entirely. The disciples were set a-gog,
by beholding the beauty of the temple. It is best and safest to have
the eye always fixed upon the highest and noblest objects: as the
mariner's eye is fixed upon the star, when their hand is on the stern.
So David, when he was himself, he shuns the occasion of sin (Psalm
26:4, 5): 'I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. I
hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked.'
Stories speak of some who could not sleep when they thought of the
trophies of other worthies that went before them. The highest and
choicest examples are to some, and should be to all, very quickening
and provoking; and oh that the examples of those worthy saints,
David, Joseph, and Job, might prevail with all your souls to shun and
avoid the occasions of sin! Everyone should strive to be like them in
grace, that they desire to be equal with in glory. He who shoots at the
sun, though he be far short, will shoot higher than he who aims at a
shrub. It is best, and it speaks out much of Christ within, to eye the
highest and the worthiest examples.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That the avoiding the occasions of sin, is
an evidence of grace, and that which lifts up a man above
most other men in the world. That a man is indeed, which he is
in temptation; and when sinful occasions present themselves before
the soul, this speaks out both the truth and the strength of grace;
when with Lot, a man can be chaste in Sodom, and with Timothy can
live temperate in Asia, among the luxurious Ephesians; and with Job
can walk uprightly in the land of Uz, where the people were profane
in their lives, and superstitious in their worship; and with Daniel can
be holy in Babylon; and with Abraham, righteous in Chaldea; and
with Nehemiah, zealous in Damascus, etc.
Many a wicked man is full of corruption—but shows it not for lack of
occasion; but that man is surely godly, who in his course will not be
bad, though tempted by occasions to sin. A Christless soul is so far
from refusing occasions to sin, when they come in his way, that he
looks and longs after them, and rather than he will go without them
he will buy them, not only with love or money—but also with the loss
of his soul! Nothing but grace can fence a man against the occasions
of sin, when he is strongly tempted thereunto. Therefore, as you
would cherish a precious evidence in your own bosoms of the truth
and strength of your graces, shun all sinful occasions.
Plutarch says of Demosthenes, that he was excellent at praising the
worthy acts of his ancestors—but not so at imitating them. Oh that
this were not applicable to many professors in our times!
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 9:51:56 GMT -5
DEVICE 8. By representing to the soul theoutward mercies that vain men enjoy, and the outward miseries that they are
freed from, while they have walked in the ways of sin.
Says Satan, Do you see, O soul, the many blessings that such and
such enjoy, who walk in those very ways that your soul startles to
think of, and the many crosses that they are delivered from, even
such as makes other men, who say they dare not walk in such ways,
to spend their days in sighing, weeping, groaning, and mourning?
and therefore, says Satan, if ever you would be freed from the dark
night of adversity, and enjoy the sunshine of prosperity—you must
walk in their ways.
By this stratagem the devil took those in Jer. 44:16-18, "We will not
listen to your messages from the Lord! We will do whatever we want.
We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and sacrifice to her just
as much as we like—just as we and our ancestors did before us, and
as our kings and princes have always done in the towns of Judah and
in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat,
and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit
burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping
her, we have been in great trouble and have suffered the effects of
war and famine." This is just the language of a world of ignorant,
profane, and superstitious souls, who would have returned to
bondage, yes, to that bondage that was worse than that the Israelites
groaned under.
Remedy (1). The first remedy is, solemnly to consider, That no
man knows how the heart of God stands towards a person,
by his outward blessings to that person. His hand of mercy
may be towards a man, when his heart may be against that man, as
you may see in Saul and others; and the hand of God may be set
against a man, when the heart of God is dearly set upon a man, as
you may see in Job and Ephraim. The hand of God was severely set
against them, and yet the heart and affections of God were strongly
working towards them.
No man knows either the love or hatred of God—by his outward
mercy or misery towards them; for all things come alike to all, to the
righteous and to the unrighteous, to the good and to the bad, to the
clean and to the unclean. The sun of prosperity shines as well upon
brambles of the wilderness—as upon fruit-trees of the orchard; the
snow and hail of adversity comes upon the best garden—as well as
upon the stinking ash-heap or the wild waste. Ahab's and Josiah's
ends concur in the very circumstances. Saul and Jonathan, though
different in their natures, deserts, and deportments; yet in their
deaths they were not divided. Health, wealth, honors, crosses,
sicknesses, losses, are cast upon good men and bad men
promiscuously. Moses dies in the wilderness—as well as those who
murmured. Nabal is rich—as well as Abraham. Ahithophel wise—as
well as Solomon. Doeg is honored by Saul—as well as Joseph was by
Pharaoh. Usually the worst of men have most of these outward
things. Usually the holiest of men have least of earth, though most of
heaven.
Cicero judged the Jews' religion to be nothing, because they were so
often overcome, and impoverished, and afflicted; and the religion of
Rome to be right, because the Romans prospered and became rulers
of the world; and yet, though the Romans had God's hand, yet the
Jews had his heart, for they were dearly beloved, though severely
afflicted.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That there is nothing in the world that
so provokes God to be wroth and angry, as men's taking
encouragement from God's goodness and mercy—to do
wickedly. This you may see by that deluge of wrath which fell upon
the old world, and by God's raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom
and Gomorrah. This is clear in Jeremiah 44:20-28. The words are
worthy of your best meditation. Oh that they were engraven in all
your hearts, and constant in all your thoughts! Though they are too
large for me to transcribe them, yet they are not too large for me to
remember them. To argue from God's mercy to sinful liberty—is the
devil's logic—and such logicians do ever walk as upon a mine of
gunpowder ready to be blown up! No such soul can ever avert or
avoid the wrath of God. This is wickedness at the height—for a man
to be very bad, because God is very good. There is not a worse spirit
than this in hell. Ah, Lord, does not wrath, yes, the greatest wrath, lie
at this man's door? Are not the strongest chains of darkness
prepared for such a soul? To sin against mercy is bestial; no, it is
worse. To render good for evil is divine, to render good for good is
human, to render evil for evil is brutish; but to render evil for good is
devilish; and from this evil deliver my soul, O God.
Such souls make God into a mere doll—one that will not do as he
says; but they shall find God to be as severe in punishing as he is to
others gracious in pardoning. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses,
and our guilt is increased by our obligations.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That there is no greater misery in this
life, than not to be in misery; no greater affliction, than not
to be afflicted. Woe, woe to that soul that God will not spend a rod
upon! This is the saddest stroke of all—when God refuses to strike at
all! (Hos. 4:17), 'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.' 'Why
should you be smitten any more? you will revolt more and more' (Is.
1:5). When the physician gives up the patient, you say, 'Ring out his
knell—the man is dead.' So when God gives over a soul to sin without
control, you may truly say, 'This soul is lost,' you may ring out his
knell, for he is twice dead, and plucked up by the roots.
Freedom from chastisement is the mother of carnal security, the
poison of religion, the moth of holiness, and the introducer of
wickedness. 'Nothing,' said one, 'seems more unhappy to me, than he
to whom no adversity has happened.' Outward mercies often times
prove a snare to our souls. 'I will lay a stumbling block' (Ezek. 3:20).
Vatablus's note there is, 'I will prosper him in all things, and not by
affliction restrain him from sin.' Prosperity has been a stumbling block,
at which millions have stumbled and fallen, and broke the
neck of their souls forever! "Religion brought forth riches, and the
daughter soon devoured the mother," said Augustine. So if we have
enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to
be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and
harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the
love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people,
craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many sorrows." 1 Timothy 6:8-10
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That the lack of wicked men, under all
their outward mercy and freedom from adversity, is far
greater than all their outward enjoyments. They have many
mercies, yet they lack more than they enjoy. The mercies which they
enjoy are nothing to the mercies they lack. It is true, they have
honors and riches, and pleasures and friends, and are mighty in
power; their family is established, and their offspring are before their
eyes. 'Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon
them.' 'They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children
dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of
the organ.' 'They spend their days in wealth, their eyes stand out with
fatness, they have more than heart can wish: and they have no bands
in their death—but their strength is firm; they are not in trouble as other men.'
Yet all this is nothing to what they lack. They lack a saving interest in
God, Christ, the Spirit, the promises, the covenant of grace, and
everlasting glory. They lack acceptance and reconciliation with God;
they lack righteousness, justification, sanctification, adoption, and
redemption. They lack the pardon of sin, and power against sin, and
freedom from the dominion of sin. They lack that favor with God,
which is better than life, and that joy which is unspeakable and full of
glory, and that peace which passes understanding, and that grace,
the least spark of which is more worth than heaven and earth. They
lack a house that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
They lack those riches that perish not, the glory that fades not, that
kingdom that shakes not.
Wicked men are the most needy men in the world, yes, they lack
those two things that should render their mercies sweet, that is, the
blessing of God, and contentment with their condition! Without
these things, their heaven is but hell on this side hell. (Psalm 49:11,
73:7; Job 21:12) When their hearts are lifted up and grown big upon
the thoughts of their abundance, if conscience does but put in a word
and say, It is true, here is this and that outward mercy—Oh—but
where is a saving interest in Christ? Where is the favor of God?
Where are the comforts of the Holy Spirit? Where are the evidences
for heaven? This word from conscience makes the man's
countenance to change, his thoughts to be troubled, his heart to be
amazed, and all his mercies on the right hand and left to be as dead
and withered. Ah, were but the eyes of wicked men open to see their
spiritual needs under their temporal abundance, they would cry out
and say, as Absalom did, 'What are all these to me so long as I cannot
see the king's face?' (2 Sam. 14:23, 32). What is honor, and riches,
and the favor of creatures—so long as I lack the favor of God, the
pardon of my sins, a saving interest in Christ, and the hope of glory!
O Lord, give me these, or I die! Give me these, or else I shall eternally die!
Neither Christ nor heaven can be hyperbolized. A crown of gold
cannot cure the headache; a velvet slipper cannot ease the gout;
honor or riches cannot quiet and still the conscience. The heart of
man is a three-sided triangle, which the whole round circle
of the world cannot fill, as mathematicians say—but all the
corners will complain of emptiness, and hunger for something else.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That outward things are not as they
seem and are esteemed. They have, indeed, a glorious outside—
but if you view their insides, you will easily find that they fill the head
full of cares, and the heart full of fears. What if the fire should
consume one part of my estate, and the sea should be a grave to
swallow up another part of my estate! What if my servants should be
unfaithful abroad, and my children should be deceitful at home! Ah,
the secret fretting, vexing, and gnawing that does daily, yes hourly,
attend those men's souls whose hands are full of worldly goods!
It was a good speech of an emperor: 'You,' said he, 'gaze on my
purple robe and golden crown—but did you know what cares are
under it, you would not take it up from the ground to have it.' It was
a true saying of Augustine on the 26th Psalm: 'Many are miserable by
loving hurtful things—but they are more miserable by having them.'
It is not what men enjoy—but the principle from whence it comes,
that makes men happy. Much of these outward things do usually
cause great distraction, great vexation, and great condemnation at
last, to the possessors of them. If God gives them in his wrath, and
does not sanctify them in his love, they will at last be witnesses
against a man, and millstones forever to sink a man in that day when
God shall call men to an account, not for the use—but for the abuse
of mercy.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider the end and the design of God in heaping
up mercy upon the heads of the wicked, and in giving them
rest and quiet from those sorrows and sufferings that
others sigh under. David shows the end and design of God in this.
"When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I
entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to
ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by
terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord,
you will make them vanish from this life." Psalm 73:16-20. So in
Psalm 92:7, "Although the wicked flourish like weeds, and evildoers
blossom with success, there is only eternal destruction ahead of
them." God's setting them up, is but in order to his casting them
down; his raising them high, is but in order to his bringing them low.
Exod. 9:16: 'And in very deed, for this cause have I raised you up, for
to show in you my power, and that my name may be declared
throughout all the earth.' I have constituted and set you up as a
target—that I may let fly at you, and follow you close with plague
upon plague, until I have beaten the very breath out of your body,
and got myself a name, by setting my feet upon the neck of all your
pride, power, pomp, and glory.
Ah, souls, what man in his wits would be lifted up that he might be
cast down; would be set higher than others, when it is but in order to
his being brought down lower than others? There is not a wicked
man in the world that is set up with Lucifer, as high as heaven—but
shall with Lucifer be brought down as low as hell. Can you think
seriously of this, O soul, and not say, O Lord, I humbly crave that you
will let me be little in this world, that I may be great in another
world; and low here, that I may be high forever hereafter. Let me be
low, and feed low, and live low, so I may live with you forever; let me
now be clothed with rags, so you will clothe me at last with your
robes; let me now be set upon a ash-heap, so I may at last be
advanced to sit with you upon your throne. Lord, make me rather
gracious than great, inwardly holy than outwardly happy, and rather
turn me into my first nothing, yes, make me worse than nothing,
rather than set me up for a time, that you may bring me low forever.
"Grant us, Lord, that we may so partake of temporal felicity, that we
may not lose eternal happiness." (Bernard).
Valens, the Roman emperor, fell from being an emperor to be a
footstool to Sapor, king of Persia. Dionysius, king of Sicily, fell from
his kingly glory to be a schoolmaster. The brave Queen Zenobia was
brought to Rome in golden chains. Belisarius, a famous general,
Henry the Fourth, Bajazet Pythias, great Pompey, and William the
Conqueror, these, from being very high were brought very low; they
all fell from great glory and majesty to great poverty and misery.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is
solemnly to consider, That God does often most plague and
punish those whom others think he does most spare and
love; that is, God does plague and punish them most with spiritual
judgments—which are the greatest, the sorest, and the heaviest—
whom he least punishes with temporal punishments. (Psalm 81:12,
78:26-31, 106:15) He gave them their requests—but sent leanness
into their soul. It is a heavy plague to have a fat body and a lean soul;
a house full of gold, and a heart full of sin. There are no men on earth
so internally plagued as those who meet with least external plagues.
Oh the blindness of mind, the hardness of heart, the searedness of
conscience, that those souls are given up to, who, in the eye of the
world, are reputed the most happy men, because they are not
outwardly afflicted and plagued as other men.
Ah, souls, it were better that all the temporal plagues that ever befell
the children of men since the fall of Adam should at once meet upon
your souls, than that you should be given up to the least spiritual
plague, to the least measure of spiritual blindness or spiritual
hardness of heart. Nothing will better that man, nor move that man,
who is given up to spiritual judgments. Let God smile or frown,
stroke or strike, cut or kill—he minds it not, he regards it not; let life
or death, heaven or hell, be set before him—it stirs him not; he is
mad upon his sin, and God is fully set to do justice upon his soul.
This man's preservation is but a reservation unto a greater
condemnation; this man can set no bounds to himself; he is become
a brat of fathomless perdition; he has guilt in his bosom and
vengeance at his back wherever he goes. Neither ministry nor misery,
neither miracle nor mercy, can mollify his heart! And if this soul be
not in hell, on this side hell—who is? It is better to have an ulcerated
body—than a seared conscience. It is better to have no heart—than a
hard heart. It is better to have no mind—than a blind mind.
Remedy (8). The eighth remedy against this device of Satan is, To
dwell more upon that strict account that vain men must
make for all that good that they do enjoy. "In that day men
shall give an account of good things committed unto them, of good
things neglected by them, of evil committed by them, and of evils
allowed by them. Then shall a good conscience be more worth than
all the world's good." (Bernard) Ah! did men dwell more upon that
account that they must before long—give for all the mercies that they
have enjoyed, and for all the favors that they have abused, and for all
the sins they have committed—it would make their hearts to tremble
and their lips to quiver, and rottenness to enter into their bones; it
would cause their souls to cry out, and say, 'Oh that our mercies had
been fewer and lesser, that our account might have been easier, and
our torment and misery, for our abuse of so great mercy, not greater
than we are able to bear. Oh cursed be the day wherein the crown of
honor was set upon our heads, and the treasures of this world were
cast into our laps; oh cursed be the day wherein the sun of prosperity
shined so strong upon us, and this flattering world smiled so much
upon us, as to occasion us to forget God, to slight Jesus Christ, to
neglect our souls, and to put far from us the day of our account!'
Philip the Third of Spain, whose life was free from gross evils,
professed, that he 'would rather lose his kingdom than offend God
willingly.' Yet being in the agony of death, and considering more
thoroughly of his account he was to give to God, fear struck into him,
and these words broke from him 'Oh! would to God I had never
reigned. Oh that those years that I have spent in my kingdom, I had
lived a solitary life in the wilderness! Oh that I had lived a solitary life
with God! How much more securely would I now have died! How
much more confidently would I have gone to the throne of God!
What does all my glory profit me—but that I have so much the more
torment in my death?'
God keeps an exact account of every penny that is laid out upon him
and his, and that is laid out against him and his; and this in the day
of account men shall know and feel, though now they wink and will
not understand. The sleeping of vengeance causes the overflowing of
sin, and the overflowing of sin causes the awakening of vengeance.
Abused mercy will certainly turn into fury. God's forbearance of sin,
is not the overlooking of sin. The day is at hand when he will pay
wicked men for the abuse of old and new mercies. If he seems to be
slow, yet he is sure. He has leaden heels—but iron hands. The farther
he stretches his bow, or draws his arrow, the deeper he will wound in
the day of vengeance. Men's actions are all in print in heaven, and
God will, in the day of account, read them aloud in the ears of all the
world, that they may all say Amen to that righteous sentence that he
shall pass upon all despisers and abusers of mercy.
Jerome still thought that voice was in his ears. 'Arise you dead, and
come to judgment.' As often as I think on that day, how does my
whole body quake, and my heart within me tremble.
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 10:00:45 GMT -5
DEVICE 9. By presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, reproaches, sorrows, and
sufferings, which daily attend those who walk in the ways of holiness.
Says Satan, Do not you see that there are none in the world that are
so vexed, afflicted, and tossed, as those who walk more circumspectly
and holily than their neighbors? They are a byword at home, and a
reproach abroad; their miseries come in upon them like Job's
messengers, one upon the neck of another, and there is no end of
their sorrows and troubles. Therefore, says Satan, you were better to
walk in ways that are less troublesome, and less afflicted, though
they be more sinful; for who but a madman would spend his days in
sorrow, vexation, and affliction, when it may be prevented by
walking in the ways that I set before him?
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That all the afflictions that attend the
people of God, are such as shall turn to their profit and
glorious advantage. They shall discover that filthiness and
vileness in sin, that yet the soul has never seen.
It was a speech of a German divine in his sickness, 'In this disease I
have learned how great God is, and what the evil of sin is; I never
knew in my experience, who God was, nor what sin meant—until
now.' Afflictions are a crystal glass, wherein the soul has the clearest
sight of the ugly face of sin. In this glass the soul comes to see sin to
be but a bitter-sweet; yes, in this glass the soul comes to see sin not
only to be an evil—but to be the greatest evil in the world, to be an
evil far worse than hell itself.
Again, They shall contribute to the mortifying and purging away of
their sins (Isa. 1:15, and 27:8, 9). Afflictions are God's furnace, by
which he cleanses his people from their dross. Affliction is a fire to
purge out our dross, and to make virtue shine. Afflictions are
medicines which heal soul diseases, better than all the remedies of
physicians. Aloes kill worms; colds and frosts do destroy vermin; so
do afflictions the corruptions that are in our hearts. The Jews, under
all the prophet's thunderings, retained their idols; but after their
Babylonish captivity, it is observed, there have been no idols found
among them.
Again, Afflictions are sweet preservatives to keep the saints from sin,
which is a greater evil than hell itself. As Job spoke, 'Surely it is fit to
be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any
more. That which I see not, teach me; if I have done iniquity, I will
do it no more. Once have I spoken foolishly, yes, twice, I will do so no
more' (Job 34:31, 32; 40:5). The burnt child dreads the fire. Ah! says
the soul under the rod, sin is but a bitter-sweet; and for the future I
intend, by the strength of Christ, that I will not buy repentance at so
dear a rate.
Salt brine preserves from putrefaction, and salt marshes keep the
sheep from the rot: so do afflictions the saints from sin. The ball in
the Emblem says, the harder you beat me down in affliction, the
higher I shall bound in affection towards heaven and heavenly
things.
The Rabbis, to scare their scholars from sin, were accustomed to tell
them, 'That sin made God's head ache.' And saints under the rod
have found by woeful experience, that sin makes not only their heads
—but their hearts ache also.
Augustine, by wandering out of his way, escaped one that lay in wait
to harm him. If afflictions did not put us out of our way, we would
many times meet with some sin or other, that would harm our
precious souls.
Again, They will work the saints to be more fruitful in holiness (Heb.
12:10, 11): 'But he afflicts us for our profit, that we might be partakers
of his holiness.' The flowers smell sweetest after a shower; vines bear
the better fruit, after pruning; the walnut tree is most fruitful when
most beaten. Saints spring and thrive most internally when they are
most externally afflicted. Afflictions are called by some 'the mother of
virtue.' Manasseh's chain was more profitable to him than his crown.
Luther could not understand some Scriptures until he was in
affliction. The Christ-cross is no letter, and yet that taught him more
than all the letters in the row. God's house of correction is his school
of instruction. All the stones that came about Stephen's ears did but
knock him closer to Christ, the corner-stone. The waves did but lift
Noah's ark nearer to heaven; and the higher the waters grew, the
more near the ark was lifted up to heaven.
Afflictions lift up the soul to more rich, clear, and full enjoyments of
God (Hosea 2:14): 'Behold, I will allure her into the wilderness, and
speak comfortably to her' (or rather, as the Hebrew has it), 'I will
earnestly or vehemently speak to her heart.' God makes afflictions to
be but inlets to the soul's more sweet and full enjoyment of his
blessed self. When was it that Stephen saw the heavens open, and
Christ standing at the right hand of God—but when the stones were
about his ears, and there was but a short step between him and
eternity? And when did God appear in his glory to Jacob—but in the
day of his troubles, when the stones were his pillows, and the ground
his bed, and the hedges his curtains, and the heavens his canopy?
Then he saw the angels of God ascending and descending in their
glistering robes.
The plant grows with cutting; being cut, it flourishes; it contends
with the axe, it lives by dying, and by cutting it grows. So do saints by
their afflictions which befall them; they gain more experience of the
power of God supporting them, of the wisdom of God directing them,
of the grace of God refreshing and cheering them, and of the
goodness of God quieting and quickening of them, to a greater love
to holiness, and to a greater delight in holiness, and to a more
vehement pursuing after holiness.
It is reported of Tiberius the emperor that, passing by a place where
he saw a cross lying in the ground upon a marble stone, and causing
the stone to be dug up, he found a great deal of treasure under the
cross. So many a precious saint has found much spiritual and
heavenly treasure under the crosses they have met withal.
I have read of a fountain, that at noonday is cold, and at midnight it
grows warm; so many a precious soul is cold God-wards, and
heaven-wards, and holiness-wards, in the day of prosperity; that
grow warm God-wards and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards, in
the midnight of adversity.
Again, Afflictions serve to keep the hearts of the saints humble and
tender (Lam. 3:19, 20): 'Remembering my affliction and my misery,
the wormwood and the gall. My soul has them still in remembrance,
and is humbled in me,' or bowed down in me, as the original has it.
So David, when he was under the rod, could say, 'I was mute, I
opened not my mouth; because you did it' (Psalm 39:4).
I have read of Gregory Nazianzen, who, when anything fell out
prosperously, would read over the Lamentation of Jeremiah, and
that kept his heart tender, humbled, and low. Prosperity does not
contribute more to the puffing up the soul, than adversity does to the
bowing down of the soul. This the saints by experience find; and
therefore they can kiss and embrace the cross, as others do the
world's crown. The more the purest spices are beaten and bruised—
the sweeter scent and fragrance they send abroad. So do saints when
they are afflicted.
Again, They serve to bring the saints nearer to God, and to make
them more importunate and earnest in prayer with God. 'Before I
was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept your word.' 'It is
good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your
statutes.' 'I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the
house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away: I will take away, and
none shall rescue him.' 'I will go and return to my place, until they
acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they
will seek me early.' And so they did. 'Come,' say they, 'and let us
return unto the Lord: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has
smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in
the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.' (Psalm
119:67, 71. Hosea 5:14, 15; 6:1, 2.)
So when God had hedged up their way with thorns, then they say, 'I
will go and return to my first husband; for then was it with me better
than now' (Hosea 2:6, 7). Ah the joy, the peace, the comfort, the
delight, and contentment that did attend us, when we kept close
communion with God, does bespeak our return to God. 'We will
return to our first husband; for then was it with us better than now.'
When Tiribazus, a noble Persian, was arrested, he drew out his
sword, and defended himself; but when they told him that they came
to carry him to the king, he willingly yielded. So, though a saint may
at first stand a little out, yet when he remembers that afflictions are
to carry him nearer to God, he yields, and kisses the rod. Afflictions
are like the prick at the nightingale's bosom—which awakens her,
and puts her upon her sweet and delightful singing.
Again, Afflictions serve to revive and recover decayed graces; they
inflame that love that is cold, and they quicken that faith that is
decaying, and they put life into those hopes that are withering, and
spirits into those joys and comforts that are languishing. Most men
are like a top, which will not go unless you whip it, and the more you
whip it the better it goes. You know how to apply it. Those who are in
adversity, says Luther, do better understand Scriptures; but those
who are in prosperity read them as a verse in Ovid. Bees are killed
with too much honey, but quickened with vinegar. The honey of
prosperity kills our graces—but the vinegar of adversity quickens our
graces. Musk, says one, when it has lost its fragrance, if it is put into
the sink among filth—that recovers it. So do afflictions recover and
revive decayed graces. The more saints are beaten with the hammer
of afflictions, the more they are made the trumpets of God's praises,
and the more are their graces revived and quickened. Adversity
abases the loveliness of the world which strives to entice us; it abates
the lustiness of the flesh within, which strives to incite us to folly and
vanity; and it assists the soul in his quarrel to the two former, which
tends much to the reviving and recovering of decayed graces.
Now, suppose afflictions and troubles attend the ways of holiness, yet
seeing that they all work for the great profit and singular advantage
of the saints, let no soul be so mad as to leave an afflicted way of
holiness, to walk in a smooth path of wickedness.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, that all the afflictions which befall the
saints, only reach their worse part; they reach not, they
hurt not, their noble part, their best part. 'And who shall harm
you, if you be followers of that which is good,' says the apostle (1
Peter 3:13). That is, none shall harm you. They may thus and thus
afflict you—but they shall never harm you. The Christian soldier shall
ever be master of the day. He may suffer death—but never conquest.
It was the speech of an heathen, when as by a tyrant he was
commanded to be put into a mortar, and to be beaten to pieces with
an iron pestle, he cries out to his persecutors: 'You do but beat the
vessel, the case, the husk; you do not beat me.' His body was to him
but as a case, a husk; he counted his soul himself, which they could
not reach. You are wise, and know how to apply it.
Socrates said of his enemies, 'They may kill me—but they cannot hurt
me.' So afflictions may kill us—but they cannot hurt us; they may
take away my life—but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That the afflictions which attend the
saints in the ways of holiness, are but short and
momentary. 'Sorrow may abide for a night—but joy comes in the
morning' (Psalm 30:5). This short storm will end in an everlasting
calm, this short night will end in a glorious day, that shall never have
end. It is but a very short time between grace and glory, between our
title to the crown and our wearing the crown, between our right to
the heavenly inheritance and our possession of the heavenly
inheritance. What is our life but a shadow, a bubble, a flower, a
runner, a span, a dream? Yes, so small a while does the hand of the
Lord rest upon us, that Luther cannot get diminutives enough to
extenuate it, for he calls it a very little cross that we bear. The
prophet in Isaiah 26:20, says the indignation does not pass—but
overpass. The sharpness, shortness, and suddenness of it is set forth
by the travail of a woman (John 16:21). And that is a sweet scripture:
'For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of
God, you might receive the promise.' 'For yet a little while, he who
shall come will come, and will not tarry' (Heb. 10:36, 37). 'A little,
little, little while.'
There are none of God's afflicted ones that have not their
intermissions and respites whiles under their short and momentary
afflictions. When God's hand is on your back, let your hand be on
your mouth, for though the affliction be sharp, it shall be but short.
When Athanasius's friends came to bewail him, because of his misery
and banishment, he said, 'It is but a little cloud, and will quickly be
gone.' It will be but as a day before God will give his afflicted ones
beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness for the spirit of heaviness; before
he will turn all your sighing into singing, all your lamentations into
consolations, your sackcloth into silks, ashes into ointments, and
your fasts into everlasting feasts!
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is
seriously to consider, That the afflictions which befall the
saints are such as proceed from God's dearest love. 'As many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten' (Rev. 3:19). Saints, says God, think
not that I hate you, because I thus chide you. He who escapes
discipline may suspect his adoption. God had one Son without
corruption—but no son without correction. A gracious soul
may look through the darkest cloud, and see God smiling on him. We
must look through the anger of his correction to the sweetness of his
countenance; even as by the rainbow we see the beautiful image of
the sun's light in the midst of a dark and watery cloud.
Augustine asks—If he were beloved, how came he to be sick? So are
wicked men apt to say, because they know not that corrections are
pledges of our adoption, and badges of our sonship. God had one
Son without sin—but none without sorrow.
When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did and
how he felt himself, he pointed to his sores and ulcers, whereof he
was full, and said, 'These are God's gems and jewels, with which he
decks his best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the
gold and silver in the world.' A soul at first conversion is but rough
cast; but God by afflictions does square and fit, and fashion it for that
glory above, which shows that discipline flows from precious love;
therefore the afflictions which attend the people of God should be no
bar to holiness, nor no motive to draw the soul to ways of wickedness.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That it is our duty and glory not to
measure afflictions by the smart—but by the end. When
Israel was dismissed out of Egypt, it was with gold and ear-rings
(Exod. 11:3); so the Jews were dismissed out of Babylon with gifts,
jewels, and all necessary utensils (Ezra 1:7-11). Look more at the
latter end of a Christian—than the beginning of his affliction.
Consider the patience of Job, and what end the Lord made with him.
Look not upon Lazarus lying at Dives's door—but lying in Abraham's
bosom. Look not to the beginning of Joseph, who was so far from his
dream that the sun and moon should reverence him, that for two
years he was cast where he could see neither sun, moon, nor stars;
but behold him at last made ruler over Egypt. Look not upon David
as there was but a step between him and death, nor as he was envied
by some, and slighted and despised by others; but behold him seated
in his royal throne, and dying in his bed of honor, and his son
Solomon and all his glistering nobles about him.
Afflictions, they are but as a dark entry into your Father's house; they
are but as a dirty lane to a royal palace. Now, tell me, souls, whether
it be not very great madness to shun the ways of holiness, and to
walk in the ways of wickedness, because of those afflictions which
attend the ways of holiness.
Afflictions, they are but our Father's goldsmiths, who are working to
add pearls to our crowns. Tiberius saw paradise when he walked
upon hot burning coals. Herodotus said of the Assyrians, Let them
drink nothing but wormwood all their life long; when they die, they
shall swim in honey. You are wise, and know how to apply it.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That the design of God in all the
afflictions which befall them, is only to try them; it is not to
wrong them, nor to ruin them, as ignorant souls are apt to
think. 'He knows the way that I take: and when he has tried me, I
shall come forth as gold,' says patient Job, 33:10. So in Deut. 8:2,
'And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led
you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove
you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his
commandments or not.' God afflicted them thus, that he might make
known to themselves and others what was in their hearts. When fire
is put to green wood, there comes out abundance of watery stuff that
before appeared not; when the pond is empty, the mud, filth, and
toads come to light. The snow covers many a ash-heap, so does
prosperity many a rotten heart. It is easy to wade in a warm bath,
and every bird can sing in a sunshine day. Hard weather tries what
health we have; afflictions try what sap we have, what grace we have.
Withered leaves soon fall off in windy weather, rotten boughs quickly
break with heavy weights. You are wise, and know how to apply it.
Afflictions are like pinching frosts, which will search us; where we
are most unsound, we shall soonest complain, and where most
corruptions lie, we shall most shrink. We try metal by knocking; if it
sound well, then we like it. So God tries his by knocking, and if under
knocks they yield a pleasant sound, God will turn their night into
day, and their bitter into sweet, and their cross into a crown; and
they shall hear that voice, 'Arise, and shine; for the glory of the Lord
is risen upon you, and favors of the Lord are flowing in on you' (Is.
60:1).
Dunghills raked send out a filthy stream; ointments crushed send out
a sweet perfume. This is applicable to sinners and saints under the rod.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That the afflictions, wrath, and misery
which attend the ways of wickedness, are far greater and
heavier than those which attend the ways of holiness. Oh,
the galling, girding, lashing, and gnawing of conscience, which
attend souls in a way of wickedness! 'The wicked,' says Isaiah, 'are
like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire
and dirt.' 'There is no peace to the wicked, says my God.'
There are snares in all their mercies, and curses and crosses attend
all their comforts, both at home and abroad. What is a fine suit of
clothes with the plague in it? and what is a golden cup when there is
poison at the bottom? or what is a silken stocking with a broken leg
in it? The curse of God, the wrath of God, the hatred of God, and the
fierce indignation of God—always attend sinners walking in a way of
wickedness. Turn to Deuteronomy 28, and read from ver. 15 to the
end of the chapter; and turn to Leviticus 26, and read from ver. 14 to
the end of the chapter, and then you shall see how the curse of God
haunts the wicked, as it were a fury, in all his ways. In the city it
attends him, in the country hovers over him; coming in, it
accompanies him; going forth, it follows him, and in travel it is his
comrade. It fills his heart with strife, and mingles the wrath of God
with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, disease
among his cattle, mildew in the field, rot among sheep, and ofttimes
makes his children, his greatest vexation and confusion. There is no
solid joy, nor lasting peace, nor pure comfort, which attends sinners
in their sinful ways. There is a sword of vengeance that every
moment hang over their heads by a small thread! And what
joy and contentment can attend such souls, if the eye of conscience
be but so far open as to see the sword? Ah! the horrors and terrors,
the tremblings and shakings, that attend their souls!
Sin brings in sorrow and sickness. The Rabbis say, that when Adam
tasted the forbidden fruit, his head ached. Sirens are said to sing
curiously while they live—but to roar horribly when they die. So do
the wicked.
(Sin oftentimes makes men insensible of the wrath of the Almighty.
Sin transforms many a man, as it were, into those bears in Pliny, that
could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles; or those fish in
Aristotle, that though they have spears thrust into their sides, yet
they awake not.)
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 10:40:37 GMT -5
DEVICE 10. By working them to be frequent in comparing themselves and their ways, with those who are reputed or
reported to be worse than themselves.
By this device the devil drew the proud pharisee to bless himself in a
cursed condition, 'God, I thank you that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-collector' (Luke
18:11). Why, says Satan—you are now and then a little lustful—but
such and such do daily defile and pollute themselves by actual
immorality and filthiness; you deceive and take advantage your
neighbors in things that are but as toys and trifles—but such and
such deceive and take advantage of others in things of greatest
concernment, even to their ruin and undoing; you do but sit, and
chat, and sip with the drunkard—but such and such sit and drink and
are drunk with the drunkard; you are only a little proud in heart and
habit, in looks and words.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider this, That there is not a greater nor a
clearer argument to prove a man a hypocrite, than to be
quick-sighted abroad—and blind at home, than to see 'a mote
in another man's eye, and not a beam in his own eye' (Matt. 7:3, 4);
than to use spectacles to behold other men's sins rather than
looking-glasses to behold his own; rather to be always holding his
finger upon other men's sores, and to be amplifying and aggravating
other men's sins—and mitigating of his own.
History speaks of a kind of witches that, stirring abroad, would put
on their eyes—but returning home they boxed them up again. So do hypocrites.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To
spend more time in comparing of your internal and
external actions with the Rule, with the Word, by which
you must be judged at last—than in comparing of
yourselves with those who are worse than yourselves. That
man who, comparing his self with others that are worse than himself,
may seem, to himself and others, to be an angel. Yet comparing
himself with the word of God, may see himself to be like the devil,
yes, a very devil. 'Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil?'
(John 6:70). Such men are like him, as if they were spit out of his mouth.
The nearer we draw to God and his Word the more rottenness we
shall find in our bones. The more any man looks into the body of the
sun, the less he sees when he looks down again. It is said of the
basilisk, that if he looks into a mirror he presently dies; so will sin,
and a sinner (in a spiritual sense), when the soul looks into the
Word, which is God's mirror.
Satan is called 'the god of this world' (2 Cor. 4:4), because, as God at
first did but speak the word, and it was done, so, if the devil does but
hold up his finger, give the least hint—they will obey his will, though
they undo their souls forever. Ah, what monsters would these men
appear to be, did they but compare themselves with a righteous rule,
and not with the most unrighteous men; they would appear to be as
black as hell itself.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
seriously to consider, That though your sins be not as great as
those of others, yet without sound repentance on your side,
and pardoning mercy on God's side—you will be as
certainly damned as others, though not equally tormented
with others. What though hell shall not be so hot to you as to
others, yet you must as certainly go to hell as others—unless the
glorious grace of God shines forth upon you in the face of Christ. God
will suit men's punishments to their sins; the greatest sins shall be
attended with the greatest punishments, and lesser sins with lesser
punishments. (As in heaven one is more glorious than another, so in
hell one shall be more miserable than another—Augustine.)
Alas, what a poor comfort will this be to you when you come to die,
to consider that you shall not be equally tormented with others, yet
must be forever shut out from the glorious presence of God, Christ,
angels, and saints, and from those good things of eternal life, that are
so many that they exceed number, so great that they exceed
measure, so precious that they exceed estimation! Sure it is, that
the tears of hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of heaven; the
worm of grief gnaws as painful as the fire burns. If those souls (Acts
20:37) wept because they should see Paul's face no more, how
deplorable is the eternal deprivation of the beautific vision! The gate
of blessedness, the gate of hope, the gate of mercy, the gate of glory,
the gate of consolation, and the gate of salvation—will be forever shut
against them (Matt. 25:10).
But this is not all: you shall not be only shut out of heaven—but shut
up in hell forever; not only shut out from the presence of God and
angels—but shut up with devils and damned spirits for ever; not only
shut out from those sweet, surpassing, unexpressible, and everlasting
pleasures that are at God's right hand—but shut up forever under
those torments that are ceaseless, remediless and endless. Ah, souls,
were it not ten thousand times better for you to break off your sins by
repentance, than to go on in your sins until you feel the truth of what
now you hear? It was a good saying of Chrysostom, speaking of hell:
'Let us not seek to figure out where it is—but how we shall escape it!'
God is very merciful. Ah, that you would repent and return, that your
souls might live forever! Remember this, grievous is the torment of
the damned for the bitterness of the punishments—but most
grievous for the eternity of the punishments! For to be tormented
without end—this is that which goes beyond the bounds of all
desperation. Ah, how do the thoughts of this make the damned to
roar and cry out for unquietness of heart, and tear their hair, and
gnash their teeth, and rage for madness, that they must dwell in
'everlasting burnings' forever!
Surely one good means to escape hell is to take a turn or two in hell
by our daily meditations.
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2024 10:57:26 GMT -5
DEVICE 11. By polluting and defiling the souls and judgments of men with suchdangerous errors, which in their proper tendency tend to carry the souls of men toall looseness and wickedness, as woeful experience does abundantly evidence.
Ah, how many are there filled with these and suchlike Christdishonoring and soul-undoing opinions, that is—that the Scriptures
are full of fallacies and uncertainties, and no further to be heeded,
than they agree with their own carnal thoughts; that it is a poor, low
thing, if not idolatry too, to worship God in a Mediator; that the
resurrection is already past; that there was never any such man or
person as Jesus Christ—but that all is an allegory; that there is no
God nor devil, heaven nor hell—but what is within us; that sin and
grace are equally good—with a hundred other horrid opinions, which
have caused wickedness to break in as a flood among us.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That an erroneous, vain MIND is as
odious to God as a wicked LIFE. He who had the leprosy in his
head was to be pronounced utterly unclean (Levit. 13:44). Gross
errors make the heart foolish, and render the life loose. Error
spreads and frets like a gangrene, and renders the soul a leper in the
sight of God. The breath of the erroneous is infectious, and, like the
dogs of Congo—they bite though they bark not.
It was God's heavy and dreadful plague upon the Gentiles, to be
given up to a mind void of judgment, or an injudicious mind, or a
mind rejected, disallowed, abhorred of God, or a mind that none
have cause to glory in—but rather to be ashamed of (Rom. 1:28). I
think that in these days God punishes many men's former
wickednesses, by giving them up to soul-ruining errors. Ah,
Lord, this mercy I humbly beg, that you would rather take me into
your own hand, and do anything with me, than give me up to those
sad errors to which thousands have married their souls and are in
the way of perishing forever. It were best that we never erred; next to
that, that we amended our error. To persist in error is diabolical.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To
receive the truth affectionately, and let it dwell in your
souls plenteously. When men stand out against the truth, when
truth would enter, and men bar the door of their souls against the
truth, God in justice gives up such souls to be deluded and deceived
by error, to their eternal undoing (2 Thess. 2:10-12): 'Because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God shall
send them strong delusions (or, as the Greek has it, "the efficacy of
error,") that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth—but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'
Ah, sirs, as you love your souls, do not tempt God, do not provoke
God, by your withstanding truth—to give you up to believe a lie, that
you may be damned. There are no men on earth so fenced against
error as those are that receive the truth in the love of it. Such souls
are not 'easily tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, wherein they
lie in wait to deceive' (The Greek, signifies such sleights as cheaters
and false gamesters use at dice.) It is not he who receives most of the
truth unto his head—but he who receives most of the truth
affectionately into his heart—who shall enjoy the happiness of having
his judgment sound and clear, when others shall be deluded and
deceived by them, who make it their business to infect the judgments
and to undo the souls of men. The greatest sinners are sure to be the
greatest sufferers.
Ah, souls, as you would not have your judgments polluted and
defiled with error, 'Let the word of the Lord,' which is more precious
than gold, yes than fine gold, 'dwell plenteously in you' (Col. 3:16).
Let it well in you as an ingrafted word incorporated into your souls,
so digested by you, as that you turn it into a part of yourselves. It is
not the hearing of truth, nor the knowing of truth, nor the
commending of truth, nor the talking of truth—but the
indwelling of truth in your souls—which will keep your judgments
chaste and sound, in the midst of all those glittering errors that
betray many souls into his hands, who can easily 'transform himself
into an angel of light' (2 Cor. 11:14), that he may draw others to lie in
chains of darkness with him forever. Oh, let not the Word be a
stranger—but make it your choicest familiar! Then will you be able to
stand in the day wherein many shall fall on your right hand, and on
your left, by the subtlety of those who shall say, 'Lo, here is Christ, or
lo, there is Christ.'
Ah, souls, if truth dwell plenteously in you, you are happy; if not, you
are unhappy under all your greatest felicity. Truth at last triumphs.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, That error makes the owner to suffer
loss. All the pains and labor that men take to defend and maintain
their errors, to spread abroad and infect the world with their errors,
shall bring no profit, nor no comfort to them in that day, wherein
'every man's work shall be made manifest, and the fire shall try it of
what sort it is,' as the apostle shows in that remarkable scripture (1
Cor. 3:11-15). Ah, that all those who rise early and go to bed late, that
spend their time, their strength, their spirits, their all—to advance
and spread abroad God-dishonoring and soul-undoing opinions,
would seriously consider of this, that they shall lose all the pains,
cost and charge that they have been, or shall be at, for the
propagating of error; and if they are ever saved, it shall be by fire, as
the apostle there shows. Ah, sirs, is it nothing to lay out your money
for that which is not bread? and your strength for that which will not,
which cannot, profit you in the day that you must make up your
account, and all your works must be tried by fire? Error as a glass, is
bright, but brittle, and cannot endure the hammer, or fire—as gold
can, which, though rubbed or melted, remains firm and lustrous.
Ah, that such souls would now at last 'buy the truth, and sell it not'
(Prov. 23:23). Remember you can never over-buy it, whatever you
give for it; you can never sufficiently sell it, if you should have all the
world in exchange for it.
It is said of Caesar, that 'he had greater care of his books than of his
royal robes,' for, swimming through the waters to escape his
enemies, he carried his books in his hand above the waters—but lost
his robes. Ah, what are Caesar's books to God's books? Well,
remember this, that one day, yes, one hour spent in the study of
truth, or spreading abroad of truth, will yield the soul more comfort
and profit than many thousand years spent in the study and
spreading abroad of corrupt and vain opinions, which have their rise
from hell, and not from heaven, from the god of this world and not
from the God who shall at last judge this world, and all the corrupt
opinions of men.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To
hate, reject and abominate all those doctrines and
opinions which are contrary to godliness, and which open a
door to profaneness, and all such doctrines and opinions which
require men to hold forth a strictness above what the Scripture
requires; and all such doctrines and opinions which advance and
lift up corrupted nature to the doing of supernatural things, which
none can do but by that supernatural power that raised Christ from
the grave; and such opinions which lift our own righteousness in
the room of Christ's righteousness, which place good works in the
throne of Christ, and makes them co-partners with Christ. And all
those opinions and doctrines which so set up and cry up Christ and
his righteousness, as to cry down all duties of holiness and
righteousness, and all those doctrines and opinions which make the
glorious and blessed privileges of believers in the days of the gospel
to be lesser, fewer and weaker, than they were in the time of the law.
Ah, did your souls arise with a holy hatred, and a strong indignation
against such doctrines and opinions, you would stand when others
fall, and you would shine as the sun in his glory, when many who
were once as shining stars may go forth as stinking snuffs. Gideon
had seventy sons, and but one illegitimate child, and yet that
illegitimate child destroyed all the rest (Judges 8:13, et seq.). One
turn may bring a man quite out of the way. One old piece of gold is
worth a thousand new counterfeits, and one old truth of God s more
than a thousand new errors. True hatred is against all errors! It is sad
to frown upon one error and smile upon another.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, To
hold fast the truth. As men take no hold on the arm of flesh—until
they let go the arm of God (Jer. 17:5); so men take no hold on error
until they have let go their hold of truth; therefore hold fast the truth
(2 Tim. 1:13, and Titus 1:9). Truth is your crown, hold fast your
crown, and let no man take your crown from you. Has not God made
truth sweet to your soul, yes, sweeter than honey, or the honeycomb?
and will not you go on to heaven, feeding upon truth, that heavenly
honeycomb, as Samson did of his honeycomb.
Ah, souls, have you not found truth sweetening your spirits, and
cheering your spirits, and warming your spirits, and raising your
spirits, and corroborating your spirits? Have not you found truth a
guide to lead you, a staff to uphold you, a cordial to strengthen you,
and a medicine to heal you? And will not you hold fast the truth? Has
not truth been your best friend in your worst days? Has not truth
stood by you when friends have forsaken you? Has not truth done
more for you than all the world could do against you, and will you
not hold fast the truth? Is not truth your right eye, without which you
cannot see for Christ? And your right hand, without which you
cannot do for Christ? And your right foot, without which you cannot
walk with Christ? And will you not hold truth fast? Oh! hold fast the
truth in your judgments and understandings, in your wills and
affections, in your profession and conversation.
Truth is more precious than gold or rubies, 'and all the things you
can desire are not to be compared to her' (Prov. 3:15). Truth is that
heavenly mirror wherein we may see the luster and glory of divine
wisdom, power, greatness, love and mercifulness. In this mirror you
may see the face of Christ, the favor of Christ, the riches of Christ,
and the heart of Christ—beating and working sweetly towards your
souls. Oh! let your souls cleave to truth, as Ruth did to Naomi (Ruth
1:15, 16), and say, 'I will not leave truth, nor return from following
after truth; but where truth goes I will go, and where truth lodges I
will lodge; and nothing but death shall part truth and my soul.'
What John said to the church of Philadelphia I may say to you, 'Hold
fast that which you have, that no man take your crown' (Rev. 3:11).
The crown is the top of royalties: such a thing is truth: 'Let no man
take your crown.' 'Hold fast the faithful word,' as Titus speaks. Hold
fast as with tooth and nail, against those who would snatch it from
us. It is better to let go of anything, rather than truth! It is better to
let go, of your honors and riches, your friends and pleasures, and the
world's favors; yes, your nearest and dearest relations, yes, your very
lives—than to let go of the truth. Oh, keep the truth, and truth will
make you safe and happy forever. Blessed are those who are kept by
truth. 'Though I cannot dispute for the truth, yet I can die for the
truth,' said a blessed martyr.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, To
keep humble. Humility will keep the soul free from many darts of
Satan's casting, and erroneous snares of his spreading. As low trees
and shrubs are free from many violent gusts and blasts of wind
which shake and tear the taller trees, so humble souls are free from
those gusts and blasts of error which shake and tear proud, lofty
souls. Satan and the world have least power to fasten errors upon
humble souls. The God of light and truth delights to dwell with the
humble; and the more light and truth dwells in the soul, the further
off darkness and error will stand from the soul. The God of grace
pours in grace into humble souls, as men pour drink into empty
vessels; and the more grace is poured into the soul, the less error
shall be able to overpower the soul, or to infect the soul.
I have read of one who, seeing in a vision so many snares of the devil
spread upon the earth, he sat down mourning, and said within
himself, Who shall pass through these? whereupon he heard a voice
answering, Humility shall pass through them.
That is a sweet word in Psalm 25:9, 'The humble, he will guide in
judgment, and the meek he will teach his way.' And certainly souls
guided by God, and taught by God, are not easily drawn aside into
ways of error. Oh, take heed of spiritual pride! Pride fills our fancies,
and weakens our graces, and makes room in our hearts for error.
There are no men on earth so soon entangled, and so easily
conquered by error—as proud souls. Oh, it is dangerous to love to be
wise above what is written, to be curious and unsober in your desire
of knowledge, and to trust to your own capacities and abilities to
undertake to pry into all secrets, and to be puffed up with a carnal
mind. Souls that are thus a-soaring up above the bounds and limits
of humility, usually fall into the very worst of errors, as experience
does daily evidence. The proud soul is like him who gazed upon the
moon—but fell into the pit. You know how to apply it.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is,
solemnly to consider, The great evils that errors have
produced. Error is a fruitful mother, and has brought forth such
monstrous children as has set towns, cities and nations on fire.
Errors in conscience produce many great evils, not only in men's own
souls—but also in human affairs. Error is that whorish woman that
has cast down many, wounded many, yes, slain many strong men,
many great men, and many learned men, and many professing men
in former times and in our time, as is too evident to all who are not
destitute of the truth, and blinded by Satan. Oh, the graces that
error has weakened, and the sweet joys and comforts that error has
clouded, if not buried! Oh, the hands that error has weakened, the
eyes that error has blinded, the judgments of men that error has
perverted, the minds that error has darkened, the hearts that error
has hardened, the affections that error has cooled, the
consciences that error has seared, and the lives of men that error
has polluted! Ah, souls! can you solemnly consider of this, and not
tremble more at error, than at hell itself?
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