I have read of that noble servant of God, Marcus Arethusius, minis- ter of a church in the time of Constantine, who in Constantine's time had been the cause of overthrowing an idol's temple ; afterwards, when Julian came to be emperor, he would force the people of that place to build it up again. They were ready to do it, but he refused ; where- upon those that were his own people, to whom he preached, took him, and stripped him of all his clothes, and abused his naked body, and gave it up to the children, to lance it with their pen-knives, and then caused him to be put in a basket, and anointed his naked body with honey, and set him in the sun, to be stung with wasps. And all this cruelty they shewed, because he would not do anything towards the building up of this idol temple ; nay, they came to this, that if he would do but the least towards it, if he would give but a halfpenny to it, they would save him. But he refused all, though the giving of a half- penny might have saved his live ; and in doing this, he did but live up to that principle that most Christians talk of, and all profess, but few come up to, viz., that we must choose rather to suffer the worst of torments that men and devils can invent and inflict, than to commit the least sin, whereby God should be dishonoured, our consciences wounded, religion reproached, and our own souls endangered.
Bcorpion is little, yet able to sting a lion to death. A mouse is but little, yet killeth an elephant, if he gets up into his trunk. The leopard being great, is poisoned with a head of garlic. The smallest errors prove many times most dangerous. It is as much treason to coin pence as bigger pieces.
1 One little miscarriage doth, in the eyes of the world, overshadow all a Christian's graces, as one cloud doth sometimes overshadow the whole body of the sun.
* Melius mori fame quam Idolothytis vesci. — Augustine. It is better to die with hunger, than to eat that which is offered to idols.
3 The early form of this at the time scarcely accepted word ; but the context indi- cates a reminiscence of Boskierus (Codrus Evang.), who uses the term and preceding illustrations of little sins. — G.
* Many heathens would rather die than cozen or cheat one another, so faithful were they one to another. Will not these rise in judgment against many professors in theso days, who mako nothing of over- reaching one another?
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 23
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, seri- ously to consider, That the soul is never able to stand under the guilt and weight of the least sin, when God shall set it home upon the soul. The least sin will press and sink the stoutest sinner as low as hell, when God shall open the eyes of a sinner, and make him see the horrid filthiness and abominable vileness that is in sin. What so little, base, and vile creatures as lice or gnats, and yet by these little poor creatures, God so plagued stout-hearted Pharaoh, and all Egypt, that, fainting under it, they were forced to cry out, ' This is the finger of God,' Exod. viii. 16, x. 19. When little creatures, yea, the least creatures, shall be armed with a power from God, they shall press and sink down the greatest, proudest, and stoutest tyrants that breathe.1 So when God shall cast a sword into the hand of a little sin, and arm it against the soul, the soul will faint and fall under it. Some, who have but projected adultery, without any actual acting it ; and others, hav- ing found a trifle, and made no conscience to restore it, knowing, by the light of natural conscience, that they did not do as they would be done by ; and others, that have had some unworthy thought of God, have been so frightened, amazed, and terrified for those sins, which are small in men's account, that they have wished they had never been ; that they could take no delight in any earthly comfort, that they have been put to their wits' end, ready to make away themselves, wishing themselves annihilated.2
Mr Perkins mentions a good man, but very poor, who, being ready to starve, stole a lamb, and being about to eat it with his poor chil- dren, and as his manner was afore meat, to crave a blessing, durst not do it, but fell into a great perplexity of conscience, and acknow- ledged his fault to the owner, promising payment if ever he should be able.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device is, solemnly to consider, That there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction; and this appears as clear as the sun, by the severe dealing of God the Father with his beloved Son, who let all the vials of his fiercest wrath upon him, and that for the least sin as well as for the greatest.
' The wages of sin is death,' Rom. vi. 23 ; of sin indefinitely, whether great or small.3 Oh ! how should this make us tremble, as much at the least spark of lust as at hell itself; considering that God the Father would not spare his bosom Son, no, not for the least sin, but would make him drink the dregs of his wrath !
And so much for the remedies that may fence and preserve our souls from being drawn to sin by this third device of Satan.
1 The tyrant Maximinus, who had set forth his proclamation engraven in brass for the utter abolishing of Christ and his religion, was eaten of lice. [Maximinus II., Euseb. H. E. viii. 14, ix. 2, &c— G.]
2 Una guttula malce conscientice totum mare mundani gaudii absorbet ; i. e. one drop of an evil conscience swallows up the whole sea of worldly joy. How great a pain, not to be borne, comes from the prick of this small thorn, said one.
3 Death is the heir of the least sin ; the best wages that the least sin gives his soldiers is, death of all sorts. In a strict sense, there is no sin little, because no little God to sin against.
24 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 1 1.
The fourth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is, Device (4). By presenting to the soul the best men's sins, and by hiding from the soul their virtues; by shewing the sold their sins, mil/ by hiding from the soul their sorrcnus and repentance : as by setting hefore the soul the adultery of David, the pride of Hezekiah, the impatience of Job, the drunkenness of Noah, the blasphemy of Peter, &&, and by hiding from the soul the tears, the sighs, the groans, the meltings, the humblings, aud repentings of these precious souls.