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yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.' Forbidden profits and pleasures are most pleasing to vain men, who count madness mirth, &c. Many long to be meddling with the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not, but rend and consume the heart and soul that receives them. Many eat that on earth, that they digest in hell; sin's murdering morsels will deceive them that devour them. After the meal is ended, comes the reckoning: men must not think to dance and dine with the devil, and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: to feed upon the poison of asps, and yet that the viper's tongue should not slay them.

Rem. 3. Solemnly consider, that sin will usher in the greatest losses that can be upon our souls; it will usher in the loss of that divine favour that is better than life, and the loss of the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,' and the loss of 'that peace that passeth understanding,' and the loss of many outward desirable mercies, which otherwise the soul might have enjoyed.

It was a sound and savoury reply of an English captain, at the loss of Calais, when a proud Frenchman scornfully demanded, When will

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† When the golden bait is set forth to catch us, we must say as Demosthenes the orator did of the beautiful Lais, when he was asked an excessive sum of money to behold her, "I will not buy repentance so dear; I am not so ill a merchant as to sell eternals for temporals." PLUTARCH.

you fetch Calais again?" he replied, 'When your sins shall weigh down ours.'

Rem. 4. Seriously consider, that sin is of a very deceitful and bewitching nature; sin is from the greatest deceiver, it is a child of his own begetting, it is the ground of all the deceit in the world, and, in its own nature, it is exceeding deceitful. Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' It will kiss the soul, and pretend fair to it, and yet betray it for ever; it will, with Delilah, smile upon us, that it may betray us into the hands of the devil, as she did Sampson into the hands of the Philistines. Sin gives Satan power over us, and advantage to accuse us and lay claim to us, as those that wear his badge; it is of a very bewitching nature, where it is upon the throne it so deceives, that the soul cannot leave it, though it perish eternally by it.* Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makest it call evil good, and good evil; bitter sweet, and sweet bitter; light darkness, and darkness light:' and a soul thus bewitched with sin, will stand it out to the death, at the sword's point with God: let God strike and wound, and cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not, fears not, but will hold

• Which occasioned Chrysostome to say, when Eudoxia the empress threatened him, "Go tell her, I fear nothing but sin."

on in a course of wickedness, as you may see in Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas; tell such a soul, that sin is a viper that will certainly kill when it is not killed; that sin often kills secretly, insensibly, eternally, yet the deceived soul cannot, nor will not cease from sin.

When the physicians told Theotimus, that except he did abstain from drunkenness and uncleanness, &c. he would lose his eyes: his heart was so bewitched to his sins that he answered, Then farewell sweet light; he had rather lose his eyes than leave his sin: so a man bewitched with sin, had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul, than part with his sin.

CHAPTER II.

The second Device of Satan to draw the soul to sin, is;

BY painting sin in virtuous colours. Satan knows, that if he should present sin in its own nature and dress, the soul would rather flee from it, than yield to it, and therefore he presents it to us, painted and gilded over with the name and shew of virtue, that we may more easily be overcome by it, and take more pleasure in committing it. Pride, he presents to the soul under the name of neatness and cleanliness ;

covetousness, (which the Apostle condemns for idolatry) to be but good husbandry; drunkenness, good fellowship; rioting, under the notion of liberality; and wantonness is a trick of youth, &c.—The remedies against this device of Satan are these:

Remedy 1. First, consider that sin is no less filthy, vile, and abominable, for being coloured and painted with virtuous colours. A poisonous pill is no less poisonous because it is gilded over with gold; nor is a wolf less ravenous because he hath put on a sheep's skin; nor is the devil less a devil, because he appears sometimes like an angel of light. So neither is sin less filthy and abominable, because it is painted over with fair colours.

Rem. 2. The more sin is painted forth under the colour of virtue, the more dangerous it is to the souls of men; this we see evident in these days, by those very many souls that are turned out of the holy way, into ways of highest vanity and folly, by Satan's neat colouring over sin, and painting forth vice with the colour of vir

tue.

This is so notorious, that I need but name it; the most dangerous vermin are too often found under the fairest and sweetest flowers. So are the fairest and sweetest names, upon the greatest and most horrible vices and errors that are in the world.

Rem. 3. Look on sin with that eye, which within a few hours we shall see it. Ah souls! when you shall lie upon a dying bed, and stand before a judgment seat, sin shall be unmasked, and its robes will be taken off, and then it shall appear more terrible than hell itself; then that which formerly appeared most sweet, will appear most bitter, and that which appeared most beautiful, will appear most ugly, and that which appeared most delightful, will then appear most dreadful to the soul. Ah! the shame, the pain, the horror, that the sight of sin, when its dress is taken off, will raise in poor souls. Conscience. will work at last, though for the present one may feel no fit of accusation. Laban shewed himself at parting, and sin will be bitterness in the latter end, when it shall appear to the soul in its own filthy nature. Oh! therefore look upon sin now, as you must look upon it to all eternity, and as God and conscience will present it to you another day.

Rem. 4. Seriously consider, that even those very sins that Satan paints, and puts new names and colours upon, cost the best, the noblest, even the life-blood of the Lord Jesus. That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father, to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the flesh,' the Creator made a creature; that he that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he that filled heaven and earth with his glory,"

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