4 Turpiora sunt vitia quaj virtutum specie celantur. — Jer[ome.'] .... Thus the Illuminates (as they called themselves) a pestilent sect in Arragon, professing and affecting in themselves a kind of angelic purity, fell suddenly to the justifying of bestiality, as many have done in these days.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 17
The third remedy against this device of Satan is,
Remedy (3). To look on sin with that eye [with] which ivithin a few hours 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 for- merly appeared most sweet will appear most bitter, and that which appeared most beautiful will appear most ugly, and that which ap- peared most delightful will then appear most dreadful to the soul.1 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 shewed 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 doth with beasts ; he hides his deformed head till his sweet scent hath drawn them into his danger. Till we have sinned, Satan is a parasite ; when we have sinned, he is a tyrant.2 O souls ! the day is at hand when the devil will pull off the paint and garnish that he hath 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,3 to strangle and hang your bodies on earth, and your souls in hell, if the Lord hath 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 !
The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is,
Remedy (4.) Seriously to consider, That even those very sins that Satan paints, and puts new names and colours 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 that was clothed witli glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh ; he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger ; that the power of God should fly 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 that made the heavens
1 Tacitus speaks of Tiberius, that when his sins did appear in their own colours, they did so terrify and torment him that he protested to the Senate that he suffered daily. [Ann. vi. 51.— G.]
8 Satan, that now allures thee to sin, will ere long make thee to see that peccatum. est deicidium, sin is a murdering of God ; and this will make thee murder two at once, thy soul and thy body, unless the Lord in mercy holds thy hands.
a 2 Sam. xvii. 23, and Mat. xxvii. 5.— G.
4 Una guttula plus valet quam ccelum et terra. — Luther; i.e. one little drop (speak- ing of the blood of Christ) is more worth than heaven and earth.
18 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
■working at Joseph's homely trade ; that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted ; that he, whose is the world, and the fulness 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 that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Mat. xxvii. 46 ; that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie im- prisoned in the sepulchre 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 dark- ness of death ; those ears, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude ; that face, that was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that mouth and tongue, that spake as ueverman spake, accused for blasphemy ; those hands, that freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross ; those feet, ' like unto fine brass,' nailed to the cross for man's sins ; each sense annoyed: his feeling or touching, with a spear and nails ; his smell, with stinking flavour, being crucified about 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 colours upon ! Oh ! how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed I1
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 that were in the place, and set them on fire, and run to the houses of them that had slain Cassar, and burnt them. So that when we consider that sin hath slain our Lord Jesus, ah, how should it provoke our hearts to be revenged on sin, that hath murdered the Lord of glory, and hath done that mischief that all the devils in hell could never have done ?2
It was good counsel one gave, 'Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ.'3 Let these be meat 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.
The third device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is,