which is in man by nature, who is a son of Belial, without yoke ; and if he must wear any, that will please best which hath the softest lining, and pincheth the flesh least ; and therefore, when the sincere teachers of the word will not abate the strictness of the command, but press sincere obedience to it, then come Satan's instruments, and say, These are hard task-masters, Avho will not allow one play-day in a year to the Christian, but tie him to continual duty; we will shew you an easier way to heaven. Come, saith the Papist, confess bvit once a year to the priest, pay him well for his pains, and be an obedient son of the church, and we will dispense with all the rest. Come, saith the Antinomian, the gospel-charter allows more liberty than these legal preachers tell you of; they bid you repent and believe, when Christ hath done all these to yoiu* hand ; what have you left to do but to nourish the flesh ? Something sure is in it, that impostors find such quick return for their ware, while truth hangs upon the hand ; and is it not this? — that they are content to afford heaven cheaper to their disciples, than Christ will to his. He that sells cheapest shall have the most customers, though at last best will be best cheap : truth, with self-denial, a better pennyworth than error with all its flesh-pleasing.
Fourthly, Satan makes choice of such as have a great name for holiness ; none to a live bird to draw other birds into the net ; but is it possible that such should do this work for the devil ? Yes, such is the policy of Satan, and the frailty of the best, that the most holy men have been his instruments to seduce others. Abraham, he tempts his wife to lie ; ' Say thou art my sister.' The old prophet leads the man of God out of his way, 1 Kings xiii. The holiness of the man, and the reverence of his age, it is like, gave authority to his counsel. O how this should make you watchful, whose long travail and great progress in the ways of God ha^e gained you a name of eminency in the church, what you say, do, or hold, because you are file-leading men, and others look more on you than their way !
Fifthly, Satan chooseth such, as by relation or affection have deep interest in the persons he would gain. Some will kiss the child for his nurse's sake, and like the present for the hand that brings it. It is not likely David woidd have received that from Nabal which he took from Abigail, and thanked her. Satan sent the apple by Eve's hand to Adam. Delilah doth more with Samson than all the Philistines' bands. Job's wife brings him the poison : ' Curse God and die.' Some think Satan spared her life, when he slew his children and servants, (though she was also within his commission,) as the most likely instrument, by reason of her relation and his aftection, to lead him into temptation. Satan employs Peter the disciple to tempt Christ ; at another time his friends and kinsfolk. Some martyrs have confessed the hardest work they met with was to overcome the prayers and tears of their friends and relations ; Paul himself could not get off this snare without heart-breaking ; ' What mean you to weep, and to break my heart ?' Acts xxi. 13.
CHAPTER IV.
WHEREIN THIS POINT OF SATAn's SUBTILTY, AS A TEMPTER TO SIN, IS BRIEFLY APPLIED.
Use 1. — First, affect not sinful policy and subtilty; it makes you but like the devil. There is the wisdom of the serpent, which is commended : and that is, his perfection as a creature, in which both the literal and the mystical excel ; the one in an ingenious observing nature, above the beasts of the field; and the other in knowledge, as an angel above men ; bvit as the subtilty of the one and knowledge of the other is degenerate, and makes them more able to do mischief, the one to the bodies, the other to the souls of men, this kind of wisdom and subtilty is to be abhorred by us: 'The serpent's eye,' as one saith, ' does well only in the dove's head.'
First, Afiect not subtilty in contriving any sin. Some are ' wise to do evil,' Jer. iv. 22 ; masters of this craft, who can, as they lie on their beds, cast their wicked designs into an artificial method, shewing a kind of devilish wit therein, as the Egyptians, who dealt wisely, as they thought, with the Israelites, and Jezebel, who had printed her bloody design in so fair a letter, that some might read her saint, while she was playing the devil. This is the black art indeed.
AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 55