* Sin brings in sorrow and sickness, &c. The Rabbins say, that when Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, hi.s head ached. Sirens arc said to sing curiously while they live, but to roar horribly when they die. So do the wicked.
3 Allusion is to Damocles. — G.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 55
and not a beam in his own eye,' Mat. vii. 3, 4 ; than to use spec- tacles to behold other men's sins rather than looking-glasses to behold his own ; rather to be always holding his finger upon other men's sores, and to be amplifying and aggravating other men's sins than miti- gating of his own, &C.1
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To spend more time in comparing of your internal and, external actions with the Rule, with the Word,, by which you must be judged at last, than in comparing of yourselves with those that are worse than yourselves.2 That man that, comparing his self with others that are worse than himself, may seem, to himself and others, to be an angel ; yet, comparing himself With the word, may see himself to be like the devil, yea, a very devil. ' Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil X John vi. 70. Such men are like him, as if they were spit out of his mouth.
Satan is called ' the god of this world,' 2 Cor. iv. 4, because, as God at first did but speak the word, and it' was done, so, if the devil doth but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they will do his will, though they undo their souls for ever. Ah, what monsters would these men appear to be, did they but compare themselves with a righteous rule, and not with the most unrighteous men ; they would appear to be as black as hell itself.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That though thy sins be not as great as others, yet without sound repentance on thy side and pardoning mercy on God's, thou wilt be as certainly damned as others, though not equally tormented with others.3 What though hell shall not be so hot to thee as others, yet thou must as certainly to hell as others, unless the glorious grace of God shines forth upon thee in the face of Christ. God will suit men's punishments to their sins ; the greatest sins shall be attended with the greatest punishments, and lesser sins with lesser punishments. Alas, what a poor comfort will this be to thee when thou comest to die, to consider that thou shaft not be equally tormented with others, yet must be for ever shut out from the glorious presence of God, Christ, angels, and saints, and from those good things of eternal life, that are so many that they exceed number, so great that they exceed measure, so precious that they exceed estimation ! Sure it is, that the tears of heaven4 are not sufficient to bewail the loss of heaven ; the worm of grief gnaws as painful as the fire burns. If those souls, Acts xx. 37, wept because they should see Paul's face no more, how deplorable is the eternal deprivation of the beatifical vision !5
1 History speaks of a kind of witches that, stirring ahroad, would put on their eyes, but returning home they boxed them up again. So do hypocrites.
2 The nearer we draw to God and his word, the more rottenness we shall find in our bones. The more any man looks into the body of the sun, the less he seeth when he looks down again. It is said of the basilisk, that if he look into a glass he presently dieth ; so will sin, and a sinner (in a spiritual sense), when the soul looks into the word, which is God's glass, &c.
3 As in heaven one is more glorious than another, so in hell one shall be more miserable than another. — August[ine~\. * Qu, ' hell ' ? — G.
5 The gate of indulgence, the gate of hope, the gate of mercy, the gate of glory, the gate of consolation, and the gate of salvation, will be for ever shut against them, Mat. xxv. 10.
56 PEECIOTTS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
But this is not all : thou shalt not be only shut out of heaven, but shut up in hell for ever ; not only shut out from the presence of God and angels, &c., but shut up with devils and damned spirits for ever; not only shut out from those sweet, surpassing, unexpressible, and everlasting pleasures that be at God's right hand, but shut up for ever under those torments that are ceaseless, remediless, and endless.1 Ah, souls, were it not ten thousand times better for you to break off your sins by repentance, than to go on in your sins till you feel the truth of what now you hear ?
The God of Israel is very merciful. Ah, that you would repent and return, that your souls might live for ever ! Remember this, grievous is the torment of the damned, for the bitterness of the punishments, but most grievous for the eternity of the punishments. For to be tormented without end, this is that which goes beyond the bounds of all desperation. Ah, how do the thoughts of this make the damned to roar and cry out for unquietness of heart, and tear their hair, and gnash their teeth, and rage for madness, that they must dwell in ' everlasting burnings' for ever ! 2
The eleventh device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is, Device (11). By polluting and defiling the souls and judgments of men with such dangerous errors, that do in their proper tendency tend to carry the souls of men to all looseness and ivickedness, as woful experience doth abundantly evidence. Ah, how many are there filled with these and such like Christ-dishonouring and soul- undoing opinions, viz., that ordinances are poor, low, carnal things, and not only to be lived above, but without also ; that the Scriptures are full of fallacies and uncertainties, and no further to be heeded than they agree with that spirit that is in them ; that it is a poor, low thing, if not idolatry too, to worship God in a Mediator ; that the re- surrection is already past ; that there was never any such man or per- son as Jesus Christ, but that all is an allegory, and it signifies nothing but light and love, and such good frames born in men ; that there is no God nor devil, heaven nor hell, but what is within us ; that there is no sin in the saints, they are under do law but that of the Spirit, which is all freedom ; that sin and grace are equally good, and agree th to his will, — with a hundred other horrid opinions, which hath caused wickedness to break in as a flood among us, &c.
Now the remedies against this device of Satan are those that follow : Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That an erroneous, vain mind is as odious to God as a vicious life? He that had the leprosy in his head was to be pronounced utterly unclean, Levit. xiii. 44. Gross errors make the heart foolish, and render the life loose, and the soul light in the eye of God. Error spreads and frets like a gangrene, and renders the soul a leper in the sight of God.4