1 One of the Rabbins, when be read what bitter torments the Messias should suffer when lie came into the world, cried out, Yeniat Messias et ego non videam, i.e. Let the Messias come, but let not me see him! Dionysius being in Egypt at the time of Christ's suffering, and seeing an eclipse of the sun, and knowing it to be contrary to nature, cried out, Aul Deus naturae palitur, ant mundi machina. dissolvilur, Either the Cod of nature suffers, or the frame of the world will be dissolved.
■ It is an excellent saying of Bernard, Quanlo pro nobis vilior, tanto nobis charior. The more vile Christ made himself for us, the more dear he ought to be to us.
3 Nolo vivere sine vulnere cum te video vulneratum. 0 my Cod ! as long as I see thy wounds, 1 will never live without wounds, said L'onaventura.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 19
Device (3). By extenuating and lessening of sin. Ah ! saith Satan, it is but a little pride, a little worldliness, a little uncleanness, a little drunkenness, &c. As Lot said of Zoar, ' It is but a little one, and my soul shall live,' Gen. xix. 20. Alas I1 saith Satan, it is but a very little sin that you stick so at. You may commit it without any danger to your soul. It is but a little one ; you may commit it, and yet your soul shall live.
Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these : Remedy (1). First, Solemnly consider, That those sins which we are apt to account small, have brought upon men the greatest wrath of God, as the eating of an apple, gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath day, and touching of the ark. Oh ! the dreadful wrath that these sins brought down upon the heads and hearts of men!2 The least sin is contrary to the law of God, the nature of God, the being of God, and the glory of God ; and therefore it is often punished severely by God ; and do not we see daily the vengeance of the Almighty falling upon the bodies, names, states, families, and souls of men, for those sins that are but little ones in their eyes ? Surely if we are not utterly left of God, and blinded by Satan, we cannot but see it. Oh ! therefore, when Satan says it is but a little one, do thou say, Oh ! but those sins that thou callest little, are such as will cause God to rain hell out of heaven upon sinners as he did upon the Sodomites. The second remedy against this device of Satan is, Remedy (2). Seriously to consider, That the giving way to a less sin makes way for the committing of a greater. He that, to avoid a greater sin, will yield to a lesser, ten thousand to one but God in jus- tice will leave that soul to fall into a greater. If we commit one sin to avoid another, it is just we should avoid neither, we having not law nor power in our own hands to keep off sin as we please ; and we, by yielding to the lesser, do tempt the tempter to tempt us to the greater. Sin is of an encroaching nature ; it creeps on the soul bj7 degrees, step by step, till it hath the soul to the very height of sin.3 David gives way to his wandering eye, and this led him to those foul sins that caused God to break his bones, and to turn his day into night, and to leave his soul in great darkness. Jacob and Peter, and other saints, have found this true by woful experience, that the yielding to a lesser sin hath been the ushering in of a greater. The little thief will open the door, and make way for the greater, and the little wedge knocked in will make way for the greater. Satan will first draw thee to sit with the drunkard, and then to sip with the drunkard, and then at last to be drunk with the drunkard. He will first draw thee to be unclean in thy thoughts, and then to be unclean in thy looks, and then to
1 Brooks uses ' alas' much as Sibbes does. Cf. glossary to each, sub voce. — G.
2 Draco, the rigid lawgiver, being asked why, when sins were not equal, he appointed death to all, answered, he knew that all sins were not equal, but he knew the least deserved death. So, though the sins of men be not all equal, yet the least of them deserves eternal death.
3 Ps. cxxxvii. 9, 'Happy shall be be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.' Hugo's gloss is pious, &c, Sit nihil in te Babylonicum, Let there be nothing in thee of Babylon ; not only the grown men, but the little ones must be dashed against the stones ; not only great sins, but little sins must be killed, or they will kill the soul for ever.
•20 precious remedies [2 Cor. II. 11.
be andean iu thy words, and at last to be unclean in thy practices. He will first draw thee to look upon the golden wedge, and then to like the golden wedge, and then to handle the golden wedge, and then at last by wicked ways to gain the golden wedge, though thou runnest the hazard of losing God and thy soul for ever ; as you may see in Gehazi, Achan, and Judas, and many in these our days. Sin is never at a stand: Ps. i. 1, first ungodly, then sinners, then scorners. Here they go on from sin to sin, till they come to the top of sin, viz. to sit in the seat of scorners, or as it is in the Septuagint — r&v aoi/aZ>v — to affect the honour of the chair of pestilence.
Austin, writing upon John, tells a story of a certain man, that was of an opinion that the devil did make the fly, and not God. Saitli one to him, If the devil made flies, then the devil made wrorms, and God did not make them, for they are living creatures as well as flies. True, said he, the devil did make worms. But, said the other, if the devil did make worms, then he made birds, beasts, and man. He granted all. Thus, saitli Austin, by denying God in the fly, became to deny God in man, and to deny the whole creation.1
By all this we see, that the yielding to lesser sins, draws the soul to the committing of greater.2 Ah ! how many in these days have fallen, first to have low thoughts of Scripture and ordinances, and then to slight Scripture and ordinances, and then to make a nose of wax of Scripture and ordinances, and then to cast off Scripture and ordi- nances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves, and their Christ-dishonouring and soul-damning opinions, above Scripture and ordinances. Sin gains upon man's soul by insensible degrees : Eccles. x. 13, ' The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talking is mischievous madness/ Corruption in the heart, when it breaks forth, is like a breach in the sea, which begins in a nar- row passage, till it eat through, and cast down all before it. The debates of the soul are quick, and soon ended, and that may be done in a moment that may undo a man for ever. When "a man hath begun to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make a stop of sin. Usually the soul goes on from evil to evil, from folly to folly, till it be ripe for eternal misery. Men usually grow from being naught to be very naught, and from very naught to be stark naught, and then God sets them at nought for ever.