The Jews have a proverb, ' That there is no punishment comes upon Israel in which there is not one ounce of the golden calf;' mean- ing that that was so great a sin, as that in every plague God remem- bered it ; that it had an influence into every trouble that befell them. Every man's heart may say to him in his sufferings, as the heart of Apollodorus in the kettle, ' I have been the cause of this.'2 God is most angry when he shews no anger. God keep me from this mercy ; this kind of mercy is worse than all other kind of misery.
One writing to a dead friend hath this expression : ' I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity ; I judge you to be miserable, because you have not been miserable/3 It is mercy that our affliction is not execution, but a correction.4 He that hath deserved hanging, may be glad if he scape with a whipping. God's corrections are our instructions, his lashes our lessons, his scourges our school- masters, his chastisements our advertisements ;5 and to note this, both the Hebrews and the Greeks express chastening and teaching by one and the same word (Musar, Paideia6), because the latter is the true end of the former, according to that in the proverb, ' Smart makes wit, and vexation gives understanding.' Whence Luther fitly calls affliction ' The Christian man's divinity.'7 So saith Job (chap, xxxiii. 14-19), ' God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed ; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his pur- pose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.' When Satan shall tell thee of other men's sins to draw thee to sin, do thou then think of the same men's sufferings to keep thee from sin. Lay thy hand upon thy heart, and say, O my soul ! if thou sinnest with David, thou must suffer with David, &c.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That there are but two main ends of God's recording of the falls of his saints.
And the one is, to keep those from fainting, sinking, and despair, under the burden of their sins, who fall through weakness and infirmity.
And the other is, that their falls may be as landmarks to warn others that stand, to take heed lest they fall. It never entered into the
1 Josephu8 reports that, not long after the Jews had crucified Christ on the cross, so many of them wore condemned to be crucified, that there were not places enough for crosses, nor crosses enough for the bodies that were to be hung thereon. [The Jewish War and Antiq. — G.] ■ The tyrant of Cassandreia. — Q.
3 Qui non est eruciatus non est Chrislianus, saith Luther, There is not a Christian that carries not his cross.
4 Ps. xciv. 12 ; Frov. iii. 12, 13, 16 ; Obad. 6, 13 ; Isa. ix. 1, el scq.
c That is, "ID-10, Prov. iii. 11 ; and *a,lu*, Ileb. xii. 6, 7, 8, 11— G.
7 Theologium Christinuorum Afrlictiones Benedictiones, Afflictions are bless- ings— Bernard-
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 27
heart of God to record his children's sins, that others might be encouraged to sin, but that others might look to their standings, and to hang the faster upon the skirts of Christ, and avoid all occasions and temptations that may occasion the soul to fall, as others have fallen, when they have been left by Christ. The Lord hath made their sins as landmarks, to warn his people to take heed how they come near those sands and rocks, those snares and baits, that have been fatal to the choicest treasures, to wit, the joy, peace, comfort, and glorious enjoyments of the bravest spirits and noblest souls that ever sailed through the ocean of this sinful troublesome world ; as you may see in David, Job, Peter, &c. There is nothing in the world that can so notoriously cross the grand end of God's recording of the sins of his saints, than for any from thence to take encouragement to sin ; and wherever yon find such a soul, you may write him Christless, graceless, a soul cast off by God, a soul that Satan hath by the hand, and the eternal God knows whither he will lead him.1
The fifth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is, Device (5). To present God to the soul as one made up all of mercy. Oh ! saith Satan, you need not make such a matter of sin, you need not be so fearful of sin, not so unwilling to sin ; for God is a God of mercy, a God full of mercy, a God that delights in mercy, a God that is ready to shew mercy, a God that is never weary of shewing mercy, a God more prone to pardon his people than to punish his people ; and therefore he will not take advantage against the soul ; and why then, saith Satan, should you make such a matter of sin ? Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these : Remedy (1). The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That it is the sorest judgment in the world to be left to sin upon any pretence whatsoever. O unhappy man ! when God leaveth thee to thyself, and doth not resist thee in thy sins.2 Woe, woe to him at whose sins God doth wink. When God lets the way to hell be a smooth and pleasant way, that is hell on this side hell, and a dreadful sign of God's indignation against a man ; a token of his rejection, and that God doth not intend good unto him. That is a sad word, ' Ephraim is joined to idols : let him alone,' Hosea iv. 17 ; he will be uncounsel- lable and incorrigible ; he hath made a match with mischief, he shall have his bellyful of it ; he falls with open eyes, let him fall at his own peril. And that is a terrible saying. ' So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels,' Ps. lxxxi. 12. A soul given up to sin, is a soul ripe for hell, a soul posting to destruction. Ah Lord ! this mercy I humbly beg, that whatever thou givest me up to, thou wilt not give me up to the ways of my own heart ; if thou wilt give me up to be afflicted, or tempted, or reproached, &c, I will patiently sit down, and say, It is the Lord ; let him do with me what seems good in his own eyes. Do anything
1 I have known a good man, saith Bernard, who, when he heard of any that .had committed some notorious sin, he was wont to say with himself, ' IUe hodie et ego eras,' he fell to-day, so may I to-morrow.
a Humanum est peccare, diabolicum perseverare, et angelieum resurgere. — Avg\i.istine\ ; i.e. It is a human thing to fall into sin, a devilish to persevere therein, and an angeli- cal or supernatural to rise from it.
28 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
with mc, lay what burden thou wilt upon me, so thou dost not give me up to the ways of my own heart.1