1 Cf. [Daniel] Pareus in loc. 1 Tim. iv. 1. [Works, 3 vols, folio, 1647.— G.] * So to reduce Dr [Rowland] Taylor, martyr, they promised him not only his par- don, but, a bishopric. Acts & Mon. fol. i. 86. [Foxe. ed. 1631. Vol. iii. p. 176.— G.] .... lnest peccatum cum delectaris : regnat si consentis. [Augustine in Ps. 1. — G.]
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 13
confusion. He promiseth them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them — giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he deals by thousands now-a-days. Satan with ease puts fallacies upon us by his golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us in a fool's paradise. He promises the soul honour, pleasure, profit, &c, but pays the soul with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss that can be. By a golden bait he laboured to catch Christ, Mat. iv. 8, 9. He shews him the beauty and the bravery of a bewitching world, which doubt- less would have taken many a carnal heart ; but here the devil's fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore took not. 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 for ever by this vile strumpet the world, who, by laying forth her two fair breasts of profit and pleasure, hath wounded their souls, and cast them down into utter perdition. She hath, by the glistering of her pomp and preferment, slain millions ; as the serpent Scytale,1 which, when she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers, doth, with her beautiful colours, astonish and amaze them, so that they have no power to pass away till she have stung them to death. Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.2 Now, the remedies against this device of the devil are these : Remedy (1). First, Keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you ; for this you have Rom. xii. 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 signifi- cant ; it signifies to hate it as hell itself, to hate it with horror.3
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, Prov. v. 8, 1 Thes. v. 22. The best course to pre- vent falling into the pit, is to keep at the greatest distance ; he that will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit, may find by woful 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 with a witness. David comes near the snare, and is taken in it, to
1 Scytale : Solinus, c. xxvii. and xl G.
This world at last shall be burnt for a witch, saith one. . . . Multi amando res noxias sunt miseri, habendo miseriores. — Aug\ustine\ in Ps xvi. Many are miserable by loving hurtful things, but they are more miserable by having them. . . . Men had need pray with Bernard, Da Domine ut sic possideamus temporalia, ut non perdamus seterna. Grant us, Lord, that we may so partake of temporal felicity, that we may not lose eternal.
3 a^otrruyovi/ri;. The simple verb imports extreme detestation, which is aggravated by the composition. — Chrys\ostom~\.
14 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
the breaking of his bones, the wounding of his conscience, and the loss of his God.1
Sin is a plague, yea, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world ; and yet, ah ! how few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it ! 1 Cor. v. 6, ' Know ye not that a little leaven leavencth the whole lump ?' As soon as one sin had seized upon Adam's heart, all sin entered into his soul and overspread it. How hath Adam's one sin spread over all mankind ! Horn. v. 12, ' Wherefore 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 doth 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.2
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,3 declares the perfect malignity of sin ; and oh ! that what hath been spoken upon this head may prevail with you, to stand at a distance from sin !
The second remedy is,
Remedy (2). To 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 : Job xx. 12-14, 'Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth, yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.' Forbidden profits and pleasures are most pleasing to vain men, who count madness mirth, &c. Many long to be meddling with the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not, but rent and consume the belly, the soul, that receives them. Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell. Sin's murdering morsels will deceive those that devour them. Adam's apple was a bitter sweet ; Esau's mess 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.4
When the asp stings a man, it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh, till the poison, by little and little, gets to the heart, and
1 It was a divine saying of a heathen, ' That if there were no God to punish him, no devil to torment him, no hell to burn him, no man to see him, yet would he not sin for the ugliness and filthiuess of sin, and the grief of his own conscience.' — Seneca. [De Beneficiis. 1. iv. 23, and often in his ' Letters.' Cf. sub Conscientia. — G.]
2 Sin is like those diseases that are called by physicians, cormptio totius substantia.
3 Told in Wanley's Wonders, with authorities, b. iv. c xii. — G.