We should laboiu' to make this use of it, to counter- work Satan ; to strengthen that most of all, that the devil labours to shake most of all. Shall the devil labour to shake om- faith and affiance in God above all other things, and shall we not labour to strengthen that ? Above aU things, let us look to our head, as the serpent winds about and keeps his head. Keep faith, and keep all. If faith be safe, all is safe ; let us strengthen that, and strengthen all ; weaken that, and we weaken all. What cares Satan for other sins that we fall into ? He aims at our assurance, that we may doubt of God's love, whom we have been so bold as to sin against. That is it ho aims at, to make weak faith in the particular acts of sin we commit. He luiows that sin naturally breeds doubts, as flesh breeds worms.
THE SWORD OF THE WICKED. Ill
Where sin is, if it be in never such a httle degree, he knows it will breed doubts and perplexities, and where they are, he hath that he would have. He labours to hinder that sweet communion that should be between the soul and God : Where is now thy God ? You see wicked men are the children of the devil right in this.
Again, thej' instance here in matter of religion against him. You see how ready wicked and devilish-minded men are, to tread over the hedge where it is lowest, as the proverb is, to add affliction to affliction, especially in that that may touch a man nearest. They could not touch him nearer than in this. Where is thy God ? They knew it well enough, where is now your religion ? This, they thought, would anger him to the heart. Here is a devilish disposition. You have a terrible psalm for it, Ps. cix., of those that add affliction to the afflicted ; they are cursed j^ersons. This is the disposition of wicked men, they have no mercy. Malice, we say, is unsatiable. One would think that our Saviour Chi'ist, when he was upon the cross, racked there in all his parts, a man exposed to so much misery and scorn as he was, that they should have had pity upon him ; but upon the cross they reproached him. Aha, he saved others, himself he cannot save ; let him come from the cross, and we will believe in him. What a bitter sarcasm was this, that came from hell itself ! Nay, when he was dead, one would have thought their malice should have been bmicd -^dth his body. Malice is ordinarily among men living, not the dead ; but when he was dead. This impostor said, dec, Matt. xx-\d. 61. They labom-ed to bury his good name, that nothing tending to his honour might remain of him. Indeed, it is the nature of malice to wish the not being of the thing it maUceth, no, not the name. Lei his name jjerish from the earth, Ps. xli. 5. It was extremity of malice to work upon this disadvantage, when they see him thus afflicted, to vex him with that ho was most affected with, Where is thy God ?
Therefore, let those that feel and feed that devilish disposition in themselves to insult over God's people, especially in matters of religion to vex them, and when there is a wound already, to make the affliction gi'cater, to add afflic- tion to affliction, let them judge of what disposition they are.
They say unto me. You see here another circumstance, they say mito me. They are so impudent that they are not afraid to reproach him to his face ; they say unto him, as if they would stand to their reproach. This is one circumstance of aggravation. Indeed malice is veiy impudent, when it is come to the extremity. I only observe it, that if we meet with such insolency of malice, not to be discouraged ; it hath been thus before, and thus it will be to the end of the world.
And, then, they are not wearied, their malice is unwearied ; they say to me,
Daily. Day by day their malice is fed ^vith a spring, with a maUcious heart. A malicious heart and a slanderous tongue alway go well together. The devil, that was the first grand slanderer, hath communion with a malicious heart, and he foments malice, and cherisheth that malicious, poison- ful disposition ; and a malicious disposition never wants malicious words. As one saith of anger and fury, it ministereth weapons (c), so we may say of malice and hatred, it ministereth words alway. A malicious heart will never want words : they say to me, daily. These are but circumstances, but yet they are somewhat considerable, for they tend to the aggi'avation of the disconsolate estate of this holy man, that he should meet with such wretched men, that had no pity at all on him, but say to him daily,
Where is now thy God ? You see then from hence that God is a God,
112 THE SWORD OF THE WICKED.
as the prophet saith, ofttimes hiding himself, Isa. xlv. 15, that God vails himself ofttimes to his children. Not only from the eyes of wicked men, that they think godly men deserted of God, but sometimes from the very sense and feeling of God's children themselves. They are in such deser- tions that they are fain to complain that God hath hid himself, and is as a stranger to them. This is the state of God's children in this world. Though God love them dearly, ' as the apple of his eye, and as the signet on his hand,' Zech. ii. 8, and Jer. xxii. 24, yet notwithstanding his car- riage to them is ofttimes so strange, that those that look upon their estate in this world think they are men, as it were, forlorn and destitute of God. And this estate must needs be, because of necessity there must be a con- formity between us and our Saviour. It was so with our Saviour, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' Matt, xxvii. 46. God was never nearer him in all his hfe than then, and yet he cries out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' And as he spake, so the rest thought of him, as if he had been a man forsaken ; and so here they say to this holy man. Where is thy God ?