(2.) The serpent is deceitful. The ser- pent useth many shifts, and glides so cun- ningly, that we cannot trace him. Tliis was one of those four things which wise Agur could not find out, " the way of a serpent upon a rock," Prov. xxx, 19. 'Tis a deceitful creature : we should not in this sense be like the serpent, for deceitful- ness. Naturally we too much resemble the serpent for fraud and collusion, Jer. wi'i. 9., " The heart is deceitful above all things.'* ]st, Deceit towards man : (1.) To dissem- ble friendship, — to cover malice with pre
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SELECT SERMONS.
tences of love, — to commend ami censure, to flatter and hate, — a Judas's kiss, and a Joab's sword, — mel in ore, fel in corde. (2.) To dissemble honesty ; to pretend just deal- ing, yet use false weights. 2dly, Deceit towards God : To draw nigh to God with the lips, while the heart is far from him, — to serve God, and seek ourselves, — to pre- tend to love God, and yet be in league with sin, — we should not in this sense be like the serpent, deceitful, and given to shifts. O be upright ! Be what you seem to be ! God loves plainness of heart, Ps. li. 6. The plainer the diamond is, the more it spar- kles ; the plainer the heart is, the more it sparkles in God's eye. What a commen- dation did Christ give Nathaniel ? John i. 47., " Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."
(3.) The serpent cast the coat, but ano- ther new coat comes in the room ; in this we should not be like the serpent, to cast the coat, to cast off one sin, and another sin as bad come in the room. The drunkard leaves his drunkenness, because it impairs his health, his credit, his purse, and falls to the sin of cozenage ; the prodigal leaves his prodigality, and turns usurer ; this is as if one disease should leave a man, and he should fall into another as bad, — his a- gue leaves him, and he falls into a consump- tion. O be not like the serpent, that casts one coat and another comes ! This is like him in the gospel, that had one devil go out of him, and seven worse spirits came in the room, Mat. xii. 45.
(4.) The serpent is a venomous creature, it is full of poison, Deut. xxxii. 24. In this be not like the serpent. It is said of wick- ed men, their poison is like the poison of a serpent, Ps. Iviii. 4. What is this poison ? It is the poison of malice. Malice is the de^al's picture. Lust makes men brutish, and malice makes them devilish. Malice carries in it its own punislvment ; a mali- cious man, to hurt another, will injure himself. Quintillian speaks of one who had a garden of flowers, and he poisoned his flowers tliat his neighbour's bees suck- ing from them might be ]M)isoned, and die : Oh be not venemous like the serpent ! Malice is ii.ental murdor ; you may kill a man, and never touch him, 1 John ill. 15.,
" Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur- derer," Malice spoils all your good duties ; the malicious man defiles his prayer, — poi- sons the sacramental cup, — he eats and drinks his own damnation. I have read of one who lived in malice, and being asked how he could say the Lord's prayer, he an- swered, " I leave out those words, ' As we forgive them that trespass agsiinst us.' " But St. Austin brings in God replying thus to him : " Because thou dost not say my prayer, therefore I will not hear' thine." The malicious man is not like to enjoy ei- ther earth or heaven ; not the earth, for the " meek shall inherit the earth," Mat. v. 5. ; nor is he like to enjoy heaven, for God " will beautify the meek with salvation," Ps. cxlix. 4., so that the malicious man is cut off both from earth and heaven.
(5.) The serpent is given to hissing: so it is said of the basilisk. In this be not like the serpent to hiss out reproaches and invectives against the saints and people of God ; they are the seed of the serpent that hiss at godliness. The Lord will one day reckon with men for all their hard speeches, Jude 15. Lucian was such an one who did hiss out and scoff against religion ; and as a just judgment of God, he was after- wards torn in pieces by dogs.
(6.) The serpent stops her ear : it is an obstinate deafness, Ps. Iviii. 4., " They are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear." In this be not like the serpent, obstinately to stop your ears to the voice of God's word. While God calls you to repent of sin, be not as the basilisk to stop your ear, Zech. vii. 11., "They refused to hearken, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear." The word denounceth threateninjrs against sin ; but many, instead of being like the publican, smiting on tlieir breast, they are as deaf adders, stopping their cars. If you shut your ear against God's word, take heed God doth not shut heaven against you; if God cries to you to repent, and you will not hear, when you cry for mercy, God will not hear, Zech. vii. 13., "As he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saitli the Lord of hosts."