3 Henry the Second hearing Mentz his chief city to be taken, used this blasphemous speech : I shall never, saith he, love God any more, that suffered a city so dear to me to be taken from me.
4 When one presented Antipater, king of Macedonia, with a book treating on happi- ness, his answer was («« <r^oXa^s/), I have no leisure.
•' That four good mothers beget four bad daughters : great familiarity begets con- tempt, truth hatrod, virtue envy, riches ignorance ; a French proverb.
6 Ponacrites bestowed five talents for a gift upon one Anacreon, who for two nights after was so troubled with care how to keep them, and how to bestow them, as he carried them back again to Ponacrites, saying, they were not worth the pains which he hud already taken for them. [_QUC17 Folycrutes '? — G.]
2 COE. II. 11.] AGAINST SATAN'S DEVICES. 67
King Henry the Fourth asked the Duke of Alva if he had observed the great eclipse of the sun, which had lately happened ; No, said the duke, I have so much to do on earth, that I have no leisure to look up to heaven. Ah, that this were not true of most professors in these days. It is very sad to think, how their hearts and time is so much taken up with earthly things, that they have scarce any leisure to look up to heaven, or to look after Christ, and the things that belong to their everlasting peace.
Riches, though well got, yet are but like to manna ; those that gathered less had no want, and those that gathered more, it was but a trouble and annoyance to them. The world is troublesome, and yet it is loved ; what would it be if it were peaceable ? You embrace it, though it be filthy ; what would you do if it were beautiful ? You cannot keep your hands from the thorns ; how earnest would you be then in gathering the flowers i1 The world, may be fitly likened to the serpent Scytale, whereof it is reported, that when she cannot over- take the flying passengers, she doth with her beautiful colours so astonish and amaze them, that they have no power to pass away, till she hath stung them.2 Ah. how many thousands are there now on earth, that have found this true by experience, that have spun a fair thread to strangle themselves, both temporally and eternally, by being bewitched by the beaut}'' and bravery of this world.3
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider, That all the felicity of this world is mixed. Our light is mixed with darkness, our joy with sorrow, our pleasures with pain, our honour with dishonour, our riches with wants. If our lights be spiritual, clear, and quick, we may see in the felicity of this world our wine mixed with water, our honey with gall, our sugar with worm- wood, and our roses with prickles.4 Sorrow attends worldly joy, danger attends worldly safety, loss attends worldly labours, tears attend worldly purposes. As to these things, men's hopes are vain, their sorrow certain and joy feigned. The apostle calls this world 'a sea of glass/ a sea for the trouble of it, and glass for the brittleness and bitterness of it.5 The honours, profits, pleasures, and delights of the world are true gardens of Adonis, where we can gather nothing but trivial flowers, surrounded with many briers.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, To get better acquaintance and better assurance of more blessed and glorious things.6 That which raised up their spirits, Heb. x. and xi., to trample upon all the beauty, bravery, and glory of the world, was the acquaintance with, 'and assurance of better and more durable
1 A recollection of Augustine. — G.
* Sicily is so full of sweet flowers that dogs cannot hunt there. And what do all the sweet contents of this world, but make us lose the scent of heaven !
3 Scytale: Solinus cxxvii., xl. — G.
4 Hark, scholar, said the harlot to Apuleius, it is but a bitter sweet you are so fond of. Surely all the things of this world are but bitter sweets.
5 Qu. not this world? Of. Rev. iv. 6, xv. 2, xxi. 18. — G.
6 Let heaven be a man's object, and earth will soon be his abject. Luther being at one time in some wants, it happened that a good sum of money was unexpectedly sent him by a nobleman of Germany, at which, being something amazed, he' said, I fear that God will give me my reward here, but I protest I will not be so satisfied.
liS PBECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
things.' ' They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they bad in heaven a better and a more durable sub- stance.' 'They looked for a house that had foundations, whoso builder and maker was God.' 'And they looked for another country, even an heavenly/ 'They saw him that was invisible, and had an eye to the recompence of reward.' And this made them count all the glory and bravery of this world to be too poor and contemptible for them to set their hearts upon. The main reason why men doat upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, is, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and communion with God means, what it is to have 'a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it,' Rev. ii. 17; did they but taste more of heaven, and live more in heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.