2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 53
despised by others ; but behold him seated in his royal throne, and dying in his bed of honour, and his son Solomon and all his glister- ing nobles about him. Afflictions, they are but as a dark entry into your Father's house ; they are but as a dirty lane to a royal palace. Now tell me, souls, whether it be not very great madness to shun the ways of holiness, and to walk in the ways of wickedness, because of those afflictions that do attend the ways of holiness.1
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That the design of God in all the afflictions that do befall them, is only to try them ; it is not to wrong them, nor to ruin them, as ignorant souls are apt to think. ' He knoweth the way that I take : and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold,' saith patient Job, xxiii. 10. So in Deut. viii. 2, ' And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wildernesss, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no/ God afflicted them thus, that he might make known to themselves and others what was in their hearts. When fire is put to green wood, there comes out abundance of watery stuff that before appeared not ; when the pond is empty, the mud, filth, and toads come to light.2 The snow covers many a dunghill, so doth prosperity many a rotten heart. It is easy to wade in a warm bath, and every bird can sing in a sunshine day, &c. Hard weather tries what health we have ; afflictions try what sap we have, what grace we have. Withered leaves soon fall off in windy weather, rotten boughs quickly break with heavy weights, &c. You are wise, and know how to apply it.
Afflictions are like pinching frosts, that will search us ; where we are most unsound, we shall soonest complain, and where most corrup- tions lie, we shall most shrink. We try metal by knocking ; if it sound well, then we like it. So God tries his by knocking, and if under knocks they yield a pleasant sound, God will turn their night into day, and their bitter into sweet, and their cross into a crown ; and they shall hear that voice, ' Arise, and shine \ for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, and the favours of the Lord are flowing in on thee/ Isa. lx. l.a
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That the afflictions, wrath, and misery that do attend the ways of wickedness, are far greater and heavier than those are that do attend the ways of holiness.4' Oh, the galling, girding, lashing, and gnawing of conscience, that do attend souls
1 Afflictions, they are but our Father's goldsmiths, who are •working to add pearls to our crowns. Tiberius saw paradise when he walked upon hot burning coals. Hero- dotus said of the Assyrians, Let them drink nothing but wormwood all their life long ; when they die, they shall swim in honey. You are wise, and know how to apply it.
2 The king of Aracam, in Scaliger, tries her whom he means to marry by sweating. If they be sweet, he marries them ; if not, then he rejects them. You may easily make the application.
3 Dunghills raked send out a filthy steam, ointments a sweet perfume. This is applicable to sinners and saints under the rod.
4 Sin oftentimes makes men insensible of the wrath of the Almighty. Sin transforms many a man, as it were, into those bears in Pliny, that could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles ; or those fishes in Aristotle, that though they have spears thrust into their sides, yet they awake not. [Bears : Pliny, lib. viii. c. 54. — G.]
5-t PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
in a way of wickedness ! ' The wicked,' saith Isaiah, ' are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt/ ' There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.'1 There are snares in all their mercies, and curses and crosses do attend all their comforts, both at home and abroad. What is a fine suit of clothes with the plague in it I and what is a golden cup when there is poison at the bottom \ or what is a silken stocking with a broken leg in it ? The curse of God, the wrath of God, the hatred of God, and the tierce indignation of God, do always attend sinners walking in a way of wickedness. Turn to Deut. xxviii., and read from ver. 15 to the end of the chapter, and turn to Levit. xxvi., and read from ver. 14 to the end of that chapter, and then you shall see how the curse of God haunts the wicked, as it were a fury, in all his ways. In the city it attends him, in the country hovers over him ; coming in, it accom- panies him ; going forth, it follows him,, and in travel it is his comrade. It fills his store with strife, and mingles the wrath of God with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain among his cattle, mildew in the field, rot among sheep, and ofttimes makes the fruit of his loins his greatest vexation and confusion. There is no solid joy, nor lasting peace, nor pure comfort, that attends sinners in their sinful ways.2 There is a sword of vengeance that doth every moment hang over their heads by a small thread ;3 and what joy and content can attend such souls, if the eye of conscience be but so far open as to see the sword ? Ah ! the horrors and terrors, the trem- blings and shakings, that attend their souls !
The tenth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is, Device (10). By working them to be frequent in comparing them- selves and their ivays ivith those that are reputed or reported to b<" vjorse than, themselves. By this device the devil drew the proud pharisee to bless himself in a cursed coudition, ' God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, &c, Luke xviii. 11. Why, saith Satan, you swear but pretty oaths, as ' by your faith and troth,' &c, but such and such swear by wounds and blood ; you are now and then a little wanton, but such and such do daily defile and pollute themselves by actual uncleanness and filthiness ; you deceive and overreach your neighbours in things that are but as toys and trifles, but such and such deceive and over- reach others in things of greatest concernment, even to their ruin and undoings ; you do but sit, and chat, and sip with the drunkard, but such and such sit and drink and are drunk with the drunkard ; you are only a little proud in heart and habit, in looks and words, &c. Now the remedies against this device of the devil are these : Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider this, Thai there is not a greater nor a clear- r argument to prove a man a hypocrite, than to be quick-sighted abroad and blind at home, than to see ' a mote in another man's eye,
1 Isa. lvii. 20, and xlviii. 22.