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all the way which the Lord thy God led the these forty years in the wilderness, to humble. thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.' God afflicted them thus, that he might make them and others know what was in their hearts. Snow covers many a dunghill; so doth prosperity many a rotten heart. It is easy to wade in a warm bath, and every bird can sing on a sun-shiny day, &c. Hard weather tries what health we have; afflictions try what sap, what grace we have. Withered

leaves soon fall off in windy weather, and rotten boughs quickly break with heavy weights, &c. You know how to apply it.

Afflictions are like pinching frosts, that search us; where we are most unsound, we shall soonest complain; and where most corruptions lie, we shall most shrink.* We try metal by knocking, if it sound well, then we like it; so God tries his people by knocking, and if under knocks they give a pleasant sound, God will turn their night into day, and their cross into a crown; and they shall hear that voice, Arise shine, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, and the favours of the Lord are flowing in upon thee.'

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* Dunghills raked, send out a filthy steam, ointments a sweet perfume; this is applicable to sinners and saints un der the rod.

Rem. 7. Against this device of Satan, consider lastly, that the afflictions, wrath, and misery, that attend the ways of wickedness, are far greater and heavier than those that attend the ways of holiness. Oh! the lashing and gnawing. of conscience that attend men in a way of wickedness. The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.' There are snares in all their mercies, and curses and crosses attend all their comforts, both at home and abroad. What is a fine suit of clothes with the plague in them? Or a golden cup, when poison is at the bottom? Or a silk stocking with a broken leg? The curse, wrath, hatred, and fierce indignation of God, always attend sinners, walking in a way of wickedness. Turn to Deut. xxviii. and read from ver. 15. to the end; and turn to Lev. xxvi. and read from ver. 14 to the end; and then you shall see, how the curse of God follows the wicked (as it were a fury) in all his ways. It attends him in the city, and in the country it hovers over him; coming in it follows him, going out it is ever his comrade; it fills his store with strife, and mingles the wrath of God with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain to his cattle, mildew in the field, rot among his sheep, and oft-times makes the fruit of his loins his greatest vexation and confusion. There is neither sold joy nor lasting peace, attending sin

ners in their sinful ways.* The sword of vengeance every moment hangs over their heads, by a small thread; and what joy and content can attend such souls, if the eye of conscience be but so far open as to see the sword? Ah! the horrors, terrors, and tremblings, that must attend them!

CHAPTER X.

The tenth Device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin, is,

BY setting them frequently to compare themselves and their ways with those that are reputed or reported to be worse than themselves. By this device the devil drew the proud Pharisee to bless himself in a cursed condition; 'God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican,' &c. Why, saith Satan, you swear but petty oaths, as by your faith, and troth, &c. but such persons swear by wounds and blood; you are now and then a little wanton, but there are who daily defile and pollute themselves, by

* Sirens are said to sing curiously while they live, but to roar horribly when they die. So do the wicked.

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actual uncleanness and filthiness: you deceive and over-reach your neighbours in things that are but as toys and trifles, but there are who deceive and over-reach others in things of greatest concernment, even to their ruin; you do but sit, and chat, and sip with the drunkard, but such persons sit, and drink, and are drunk with the drunkard; you are only a little proud in heart and habit, in looks and words, &c.-Now the remedies against this device of the devil are these:

Remedy 1. Against this device of Satan, solemnly consider, that there is not a greater, nor a clearer argument to prove a man a hypocrite, than to be quick-sighted abroad, and blind at home;*To see the mote in another man's eye, and not the beam in his own;' to use spectacles to behold other men's sins, rather than lookingglasses to behold his own; to be amplifying and aggravating other men's sins, and mitigating his own, &c.

Rem. 2. Spend more time in comparing of your internal and external actions, with the rule and word by which you must be judged at last, than in comparing yourselves with those that are

* History speaks of a kind of witches, that stirring abroad would put on their eyes, but returning home they boxed them up again. So do hypocrites.

worse than yourselves.* The man that compares himself with those that are worse than himself, may seem, to himself and others, to be an angel; yet, by comparing himself with the word, may see himself like the devil, yea, a very devil. 'Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of is a devil?' Such men are as much like you him, as if they were his own offspring.

Satan is called 'The god of this world,' because, as God at first did but speak the word, and it was done: so, if the devil hold up but his finger, and give the least hint, they do his will, though they undo their own souls for ever. Ah! what monsters would these men appear to be, did they but compare themselves with a righteous rule, and not with the most unrighteous men; they would appear as black as hell itself.

Rem. 3. Seriously consider, that though thy sin be not so great as others, yet without sound repentance, and pardoning mercy from God, thou wilt be as certainly damned as others, though not equally tormented with them.f What

* The nearer we draw to God and his word, the more rottenness we shall find in our bones. The more any man looks into the body of the sun, the less he seeth when he looks down again. It is said of the basilisk, that if he look into a glass, he presently dieth. So will sin, and a sinner, in a spiritual sense, when the soul looks into the word, which is God's glass, &c.

† As in heaven one is more glorious than another; so in hell, one shall be more miserable than another.AUGUST.

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