beaten at home in his own country, who was a victor in his foreign expeditions ; so too many that do great feats at arms abroad, which makes them famous in this world, are miserably beaten and shamefully trampled upon by their own corruptions at home, which will make them much more infamous in the other world. But be not you, O ye saints, dismayed at the report of your enemies' strength and number ; the greater will be your victory, and the more your captives to draw your triumphal chai-iot ; neither let your hearts faint to see the conquering Csesars despoiled of their ensign of honour by this enemy, which themselves had won from others, and to die slaves to their lusts, that had lived conquerors over men. Remember, for your comfort, it is but the unbelieving world, such as are without spiritual arms, arid so abandoned of God, that are left thus to become a prey to sin and Satan : but you have a God on your side, who gives you the consecrated sword of his word for your defence, a weapon whose edge Satan has already felt, and therefore trembles whenever faith draws it forth. He that made this leviathan, (as is said of the other. Job xl. 19,) can make his sword approach to him, and the heart of all thy lusts also. But, my task in this place is not to excite you to, but direct you in the management of your fight, with this your enemy, and that by teaching you the use of this one weapon, the word of God, in order to repel motions to sin from within, or temptations to it from Satan without.
Section I. — Take some pains to collect out of the word the several linea- ments with which the Spirit of God doth paint out the deformity of sin, that so thou mayest make it the moi'e odious and hateful to thy thoughts, when by laying them together, thou shalt see in its true picture (drawn by so skilful and faithful a hand) the fair face of this goodly lady, whose beauty Satan doth so highly commend to thy wanton embraces. Poor man sins upon Satan's credit, and receives it into his bosom, as Jacob did his wife into his bed, before he sees its face, or knows well what it is ; and therefore as he in the morning found her to be not that beautiful Rachel as was promised, but blear-eyed Leah, so the sinner, too late, when his conscience awakes, sees himself miserably cheated and disappointed of what he looked for, and finds a purgatory, when he ex- pected to find a paradise.
Now, that thou mayest the better see the ugly shape of this hon-id monster, sin, observe from the word of God these four particulars :
First, The birth and pedigree of sin, who is its father, and from whom it is descended. The holy God disowns it. The sun can as soon beget darkness, as God, who is the father of lights, be the author of sin : ' From him comes every good and perfect gift,' James i. 13. But, O sin, whence art thou? Thou art not his creature ; he neither made thee, nor ever moved any to thy pro- duction. Certainly, if it were from him, he would love it : every one loves his own child, though never so black, — much more doth God love what is his. We find him looking back upon every day's work of the creation, and upon all at last, pleased with what he had done,- — all was very good, Gen. i. But for what he thinks of sin, see Dent. vii. 22 ; Prov. vi. 16 ; Rev. ii. 6, 15 ; where lie ex- presseth his detestation and hatred of it, from which hatred proceed all those direful plagues and judgments thundered from the fiery mouth of his most holy law against it ; nay, not only the work, but worker also of iniquity becomes the object of his hatred, Psa. v. 5. Well, at whose door, then, doth God lay this brat, to find a father? Surely at the devil's, John viii. 44 : 'Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of yoiu- father ye will do.' And again, in the same place, ' When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liai', and the father of it.' Sin is a brat which calls the devil both father and mother ; for of himself, even of his own free will (the womb wherein it was conceived) did he beget it ; and having begot it, put it out to nurse to man. And is not man, who was made to serve and enjoy the great God his Maker, highly set up, to suckle and carry this his infernal master's child about in his arms ? Ah, poor man, whence art thou fallen ! It is strange, that the very remembering whose offspring thyself wert, doth not strike tliee into a horror, to see thy pre- cious soul debased unto such servitude, as to fulfil the lusts of that cursed spirit.
Section II. — The names and titles with which the word stigmatizes sin. And God, to be sure, miscalls none : if a thing be sweet, he will not say it is bitter ; if good, he will not call it evil ; for he places a woe upon his head that
AND THE SWOUD OF THE SPIRIT. (3()5