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to his senses; and the Greek word that is here rendered taken captive, signifies to be taken alive; the word is, properly, a warlike word, and signifies to be taken alive as soldiers are taken alive in the wars, or as birds are ensnared and taken alive by the fowler. Satan hath snares for the wise and simple; for generous and for timorous souls; for the rich and the poor; for the aged and for youth, &c. Happy are those who are not taken and held in the snares that he hath laid.

One proof more, and then I will proceed to the opening of the subject, and that is in Rev. ii. 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you no other burthen, but to hold fast till I come.' Those poor souls called their opinions the depths of God, when, indeed, they were the depths of Satan. You call your opinions depths, and so they are, but they are such depths as Satan hath brought out of hell; they are the whisperings and hissings of that serpent, not the inspirations of God. S. much by way of Introduction.

Now I am to shew you his several devices; and herein I shall first shew you the device he hath to draw the soul to sin; I shall instance in these twelve, which may bespeak our most seri ous consideration.

CHAPTER I.

His first Device to draw the soul to sin, is,

TO present the bait, and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet and the pleasure, that may flow into the soul by yielding to sin, and hide from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin.* By this device he took our first parents, ' And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods; here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh! but he hides the hook, the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow.

There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promiseth them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them, giving them an apple instead of Paradise: as he deals by thousands in the present day. Satan with ease puts fallacies upon us, by his golden baits,

*So to reduce D. Taylor, martyr, they promised him not only his pardon, but a bishoprick.

and then leads us, and leaves us in a fool's paradise; he promises the soul honour, pleasure, profit, &c. but pays it with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss that can be; by a golden bait he laboured to catch Christ, Mat. iv. 8, 9. He shewed him the beauty and glory of the world, which doubtless would have taken many a carnal heart; but here the devil's fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore took not; these tempting objects did not at all win upon his affections, but many have fallen for ever by this vile strumpet the world, who, by laying forth her two fair breasts of profit and pleasure, hath wounded their souls and cast them down into utter perdition:* she hath, by the glittering of her pomp and preferment, slain millions; as the serpent Scytale, which, when she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers, doth, with her beautiful colours, astonish and amaze them, so that they have no power to pass away till she have stung them to death. Adversity hath slain her thousands, but prosperity her tens of thousands.Now the remedies against this device of the devil, are these:

Remedy 1. Keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that

* Many are miserable by loving hurtful things, but they are more miserable by having them. Pray with Bernard, "Grant us, Lord, that we may so partake of temporal fe licity, that we may not lose eternal."

Satan holds forth to catch you; see Rom. xii. 9. "Abhor that which is evil, &c.' when we meet with any thing extremely evil, and contrary to us, nature abhors it, and retires as far as it can from it. The Greek word that is here rendered abhor, is very significant; it signifies to hate it as hell itself, to hate it with horror.

Anselm used to say, That if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin, than go into heaven with it. It is our wisest and safest course to stand at the greatest distance from sin; not to go near the house of the harlot, Prov. v. 8. but to flee from all appearance of evil, 1 Thess. v. 22. The best course to prevent falling into the pit, is to keep at the greatest distance; he that will be so bold as to dance upon its brink, may find by woful experience, that it is a righteous thing with God, that he should fall into it. Joseph keeps at a distance from sin; David comes near the snare, and is taken in it, and gets broken bones, a wounded conscience, and the frowns of God.

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Sin is a plague, yea, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world; and yet, how few

It was a divine saying of a Heathen, "That if there were no God to punish him, no devil to torment him, no hell to burn him, no man to see him, yet would he not in for the ugliness and filthiness of sin, and the grief of his own conscience." SENECA.

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are there that so tremble at it, as to keep at a distance from it? 1 Cor. v. 6. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" As soon as one sin had seized upon Adam's heart, all sin entered into his soul and overspread it. How hath Adam's one sin spread over all mankind; Rom. v. 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' Ah! how doth the father's sin infect the child, the husband infect the wife, the master the servant?* The sin that is in one man's heart, is able to infect a whole world, it is of such a spreading and infectious nature.

The story of the Italian, who first made his enemy deny God, and then stabbed him, and so at once murdered both body and soul, declares the perfect malignity of sin; and Oh! that what hath been spoken upon this head, may prevail with you to stand at a distance from sin.

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Rem. 2. Consider that sin is but a bitter-sweet; that seeming sweet that is in sin will quickly vanish, and lasting shame and sorrow will come in the room thereof: Job. xx. 12, 13, 14. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth,

* Evil communications corrupt good manners;' and by evil example, especially in superiors, much mischief is done. Superiors cannot be too much upon their watch, in their dives and conduct. D.

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