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here, shall suffer most against their will hereafter. It is the greatest judg- ment in this world for a man to have his will in sinful courses. He that shall make an idol of his will, especially a man that is in great place of honour, that shall make all ways serve for the accompHshment of his will when he hath it, he is the most miserablest man in the world ; for he that hath his will most in courses unjustifiable, shall suffer most against his will when he cometh to a reckoning. Such men therefore are the mox'e miser- able, because such taking themselves to be absolute persons, and their ways the best ways, though they have many determents from their base courses, yet they will hear no counsel, and therefore the harder to be reclaimed. It doth not therefore take away from their punishment, but rather aggravate it.
I beseech you, let me press this a little, that these judgments are great judgments, although we do not feel them, when with a free consent we give ourselves unto ill. It is a heavy judgment when God leaves us to our own lusts, and takes away the guidance of his Spirit. We had better that God should give us up to the devil for a while to be tormented ; we had better be in hell, if a man might come out at a certain time, than to be given up all our life-time to do with our own consent and wiU, that which is liking to our own will and lust, because by yielding to our own will we yield to the devil that rules in a man's affections and will. For a man's affections, when they are carried to evil, they are the chariots of Satan. When the devil sees excessive sinful affections, as excessive sinful joy and delight in sinful pjeasui'es, he being about us, is always carried in these affections, and carries us also strongly in the ways that lead unto eternal perdition.
We judge, when a man suffers some outward punishment, as casting into prison or the loss of his sight, oh, he is in a fearful case ; but what is the case of a man blinded by Satan and his own lusts ? a man that is a slave to his own base aftections, and by consequent to the devil, which rules in his affections, and so consequently to damnation ? a man that lies under the wrath of God, that hath no heart to repent ? If a man had spiritual eyes to consider the case of that man, he would never pity so much the case of those men that suffer outwai-d losses, as he would pity those which he sees to live, and oftentimes to die, in evil courses of life.
This should therefore be an use of direction to us, that seeing we hear that God rules the hearts of men ; that he takes away his Spirit, and leaves men to occasions, we should pray to God to rule our hearts himself. Lord, take thou the rule of our hearts, to govern them thyself. It was a good prayer of the ancient church : ' 0 God, from whom all holy desires and ail good counsels do proceed,' &c. (f). Indeed, it is he from whom all good counsels do proceed. These ten horns, they were ten kings. No doubt but as they were men of gi-eat place, so of great parts ; but without God's Spirit, without his light, the gi'eatest and the wisest man is but mad. He is as a man out of his wits, puzzled in darkness, and knows not which way to go. When God gives men over to their own lusts, to their blind affections, they lead men to judgment, and they must needs fall into the pit.
Let us desu-e God to put into our hearts holy desires, holy purposes, for from him all holy desires come. Let us desire him not only to govern our estate, and to preserve our bodies from danger, but. Lord, keep thou our hearts. We cannot keep our hearts of ourselves. Do thou bend our understandings, bow our affections and our wills, that they may run in the right way.
And to stir us up to this the more, we must know, that that evil which
526 THE BEAST S DOMINION
we do not, we are beholding to God for, as much as for the good we do. Why do not men, having an ill disposition and corrupt nature, do ill ? Because God offers not occasions of ill. If God should offer occasions, they would commit the evil as well as others. It is God that puts into men's hearts to hate that evil. If God should take away his Spirit, men would not hate evil when occasions are offered, as these men did not when the occasion was offered : ' They gave up their kingdoms and thrones to the beast.' So that we are beholding to God for all the ill that we do not ; either it is his not offering occasions, or else his giving us strength in the occasions. This we forget. We are apt to say. This wicked man hath done this ; this »ood man is fallen into this ; this man hath done that. But where is our devotion at this time ? We should rather say. Lord, it was thee, for causes thou best knowest ; for if thou hadst left me, especially when occasions were presented and offered, and there was a correspondent corruption in my heart to close with the occasion, I had fallen into the like sin. It was thy keeping, and not my goodness.