2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 129
member the patience of Job,' not a word of his impatience, James v. 11. He that drew Alexander whilst he had a scar upon his face, drew him with his finger upon the scar. God puts his fingers upon his people's scars, that no blemish may appear. Ah ! saints, that you would make it the top of your glory in this, to be like your heavenly Father. By so doing, much sin would be prevented, the designs of wicked men frustrated, Satan outwitted, many wounds healed, many sad hearts cheered, and God more abundantly honoured, &C.1
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That love and union makes most for your own safety and security. We shall be insuperabiles if we be insepara- bles, invincible if we be inseparable. The world may frown upon you, and plot against you, but they cannot hurt you. Unity is the best bond of safety in every church and commonwealth.2
And this did that Scythian king in Plutarch represent lively to his eighty sons, who, being ready to die, he commanded a bundle of arrows fast bound together to be given to his sons to break ; they all tried to break them, but, being bound fast together, they could not ; then he caused the band to be cut, and then they broke them with ease. He applied it thus : ' My sons, so long as you keep together, you will be invincible ; but if the band of union be broke betwixt you, you will easily be broken in pieces/3
Pliny writes of a stone in the island of Scyros, that if it be whole, though a large and heavy one, it swims above water, but being broken, it sinks.4 So long as saints keep whole, nothing shall sink them ; but if they break, they are in danger of sinking and drowning, &c.
Hemedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell upon those commands of God that do require you to love one another. Oh ! when your hearts begin to rise against each other, charge the commands of God upon your hearts, and say to your souls, O our souls ! hath not the eternal God commanded you to love them that love the Lord ? And is it not life to obey, and death to rebel ?5 Therefore look that you fulfil the commands of the Lord, for his com- mands are not like those that are easily reversed ; but they are like those of the Medes, that cannot be changed. Oh ! be much in pon- dering upon these commands of God. ' A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another,' John xiii. 34. It is called a new commandment, because it is renewed in the gospel, and set home by Christ's example, and because it is rare, choice, special, and remarkable above all others.0
1 Sin is Satan's work, grace is God's work ; and is it not most meet that the child should eye most and mind most his father's work '?
2 There was a temple of Concord amongst the heathens; and shall it not be found among Christians, that are temples of the Holy Ghost?
3 Pancirollus [Guy] saith, that the most precious pearl among the Romans was called unio, union.
4 Lib. xxxvi. c. 26, and elsewhere : no doubt a volcanic, porous product. — G.
5 To act, or run cross to God's express command, though under pretence of revelation from God, is as much as a man's life is worth, as you may see in that sad story, 1 Kings xiii. 24.
6 Some conceive it to be an Hebraism, in which language new, rare, and excellent, are- synonimals.
130 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
' This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.' 'These things I command you, that ye love one another.' 'Owe hip man any thing, but love one another: for he that lovcth another, hath fulfilled the law.' ' Let brotherly love continue.' ' Love one an- other, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.' ' See that ye love one another with a pure heart fer- vently.' ' Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.' 'For this is the age that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one an- other.' ' And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us com- mandment.' 'Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one an- other.'1 Oh ! dwell much upon these precious commands, that your love may be inflamed one to another.
In the primitive times, it was much taken notice of b}rthe heathens, that in the depth of misery, when fathers and mothers forsook their children, Christians, otherwise strangers, stuck one to another, whose love of religion proved firmer than that of nature. Ah ! that there were more of that spirit among the saints in these days. The world ■was once destroyed with water for the heat of lusts, and it is thought it will be again destroyed with fire for the coldness of love.2
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell more upon these choice and svjeet tilings wherein you agree, than upon those things wherein you differ. Ah ! did you but thus, how would sinful heats be abated, and your love raised, and your spi- rits sweetened one to another. You agree in most, you differ but in a few ; you agree in the greatest and weightiest, as concerning God, Christ, the Spirit, the Scripture, &c. You differ only in those points that have been long disputable amongst men of greatest piety and parts. You agree to own the Scripture, to hold to Christ the head, and to walk according to the law of the new creature.3 Shall Herod and Pilate agree ? Shall Turks and pagans agree ? Shall bears and lions, tigers and wolves, yea, shall a legion of devils, agree in one body ? And shall not saints agree, who differ only in such things as have least of the heart of God in them, and that shall never hinder your meeting in heaven ? &c.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That God delights to be styled Dons pacis, the God of peace; and Christ to be styled Princeps pacis, the Prince of peace, and King of Salem, that is, King of peace; and the Spi/rU is </ Spirit of peace. ' The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace/ Gal. v 22. Oh ! why then should not the saints be children of peace ? Certainly, men of froward, unqui.t, fiery spirits, cannot have that sweet evidence of their interest in the God of peace, and in the Prince of peace, and in the Spirit of
1 John xv. 12, 17 ; Rom. xiii. 8 ; Heb. xiii. 1 ; 1 John iv. 7 ; 1 Teter i. 22, and iii. 8 ; 1 John iii 11, 23; iv. 11.— G.
2 The ancients us,: to say commonly, that Alexander and Ephestion [i. e. Hephaestion] had but one soul in two distinct bodies, because their joy and Borrow, glory ami disgrace,
was mutual in tin m both. [Cf. .Note on above frequently recurring saving, 'in Sibbes, Vol. II.. page l!il : where the reference is misprinted to page 35 for page 37.— G.].