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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. O the shame, the pain, the gall, the bitterness, the horror, the hell, that the sight of sin, when its dress is taken off, will raise in poor souls! Sin will surely prove evil and bitter to the soul, when its robes are taken off. A man may have the stone who feels no fit of it. Conscience will work at last, though for the present one may feel no fit of accusation. Laban shewed himself at parting: sin will be bitterness in the latter end, when it shall appear to the soul in its own filthy nature. The devil deals with men, as the panther does with beasts; he hides his deformed head, till his sweet scent has drawn them into his danger. Till we have sinned, Satan is a parasite; when we have sinned, he is a tyrant. O souls, the day is at hand, when the devil will pull off the paint and garnish that he has put upon sin, and present that monster sin in such a monstrous shape to your souls, as will cause your thoughts to be troubled, your countenanee to be changed, the joints of your loins to be loosed, and your knees to be dashed one against another, and your hearts to be so terrified, that you will be ready, with Ahitophel and Judas, to strangle and hang your bodies on earth, and your souls in hell, if the Lord has not more mercy on you, than he had on them. O therefore look upon sin now, as you must look upon it to all eternity, and as God, conscience, and Satan will present it to you another day.

Rem. 4. Seriously consider that even those very sins which Satan paints and puts new names and colours upon, cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the heart-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 who was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he who filled heaven and earth with his glory, should be cradled in a manger; that the power of God should fly from weak man, the God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of circumcision circumcised, the God who made the heavens working at

Joseph's homely trade; that he who binds the devils in chains should be tempted; that he whose is the world and the fulness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength, should be weary; the Judge of all flesh condemned; the God of life put to death; that he who is one with his Father, should cry out of misery, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?; that he who had the keys of hell and death at his girdle, should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having, in his life time, no where to lay his head, nor, after death, to lay his body; that that head, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns; and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death; those ears which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude; that face, which was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that mouth and tongue which spake as never man spake, to be accused of blasphemy; those hands, which freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross; those feet like unto fine brass, nailed to the cross for man's sins: each sense annoyed; his feeling or touching with a spear and nails; his smell with stinking savour, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls; his taste with vinegar and gall; his hearing with reproaches; and sight with his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his soul comfortless and forsaken: and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colours upon. O how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means, whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed!

After Julius Cæsar was murdered, Antony brought forth his coat all bloody and cut, and laid it before the people, saying, Look, here you have your emperor's coat thus bloody and torn;' whereupon the people were presently in an uproar, and cried out to slay those murderers; and they took their tables and stools that were in the place, and set them on fire, and ran to the houses of them who had slain Cæsar, and burnt them. So when we consider that sin has slain our Lord Jesus, O how should it provoke our hearts to be revenged on sin, that has murdered the

Lord of glory, and has done that mischief which all the devils in hell could never have done.

It was good counsel that one gave, • Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ.' Let these be meat and drink unto you, let them be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your desire; your reading and your meditation; your life, death, and re

surrection.

Dev. 3. The third device that Satan has to draw the soul to sin, is by extenuating and lessening sin. Ah,' saith Satan, it is but a little pride, a little worldliness, a little uncleanness, a little drunkenness. As Lot said of Zoar, It is but a little one, and my soul shall live; alas, says Satan, It is but a very little sin that you stick so at; you may commit it without any danger to your soul. It is but a little one; you may commit it, and yet your soul shall live.'

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Now the remedies against this device of Satan, are these:

Rem. 1. Solemnly to consider that those sins which we are apt to account small, have brought upon men the greatest wrath of God; as the eating of an apple, gathering a few sticks on the sabbath day, and touching the ark. O the dreadful wrath that these sins brought down upon the heads and hearts of men. The least sin is contrary to the law of God, the nature of God, the being of God, and the glory of God; and therefore it is often punished severely by God. And do not we see daily the vengeance of the Almighty falling upon the bodies, names, estates, families, and souls of men, for those sins that are but little ones in their eyes? Surely if we are not utterly left of God, and blinded by Satan, we cannot but see it. O therefore, when Satan says, it is but a little one,' do thou say, 'O but those sins that thou callest little, are such as will cause God to rain hell out of heaven upon sinners, as he did upon the Sodomites.'

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Rem. 2. Seriously consider that the giving way to a less sin, makes way for the committing of a greater. He that,

to avoid a greater sin, will yield to a lesser, ten thousand to one but God in justice will leave that soul to fall into a greater. If we commit one sin to avoid another, it is just we should avoid neither, we having not law nor power in our own hands, to keep off sin as we please; and we by yielding to the less, do tempt the tempter to tempt us to the great. Sin is of an encroaching nature; it creeps on the soul by degrees, step by step, till it has the soul to the very height of sin. David gives way to his wandering eye, and this led him to those foul sins that caused God to break his bones, and to turn his day into night, and to leave his soul in great darkness. Jacob, and Peter, and other saints have found this true by woful experience, that the yielding to a less sin, has been the ushering in of a greater; the little thief will open the door, and make way for the greater; and the little wedge knocked in, will make way for the greater. Satan will first draw thee to sit with the drunkard, and then to sip with the drunkard, and at last to be drunk with the drunkard. He will first draw thee to be unclean in thy thoughts, and then to be unclean in thy looks, and then to be unclean in thy words, and at last to be unclean in thy practices. He will first draw thee to look upon the golden wedge, and then to like the golden wedge, and then to handle the golden wedge, and then at last by wicked ways to gain the golden wedge, though thou runnest the hazard of losing God and thy soul for ever: as you may see in Gehazi, Achan, and Judas, and many in these our days. Sin is never at a stand, Psal. i. 1; first ungodly, then sinners, then scorners; here they go on from sin to sin, till they come to the top of sin, to sit in the seat of scorners, or as it is in the Septuagint, to affect the honour of the chair of pestilence.

Austin, writing upon John, tells a story of a certain man, who was of opinion that the devil did make the fly, and not God. Says one to him,' If the devil made flies, then the devil made worms, and God did not make them; for they are living creatures as well as flies:' true,' said he, the devil did make worms.' But,' said the other,

' if the devil did make worms, then he made birds, beasts, and man.' He granted all. He granted all. Thus,' says Austin, by

denying God in the fly, he came to deny God in man and to deny the whole creation.'

By all this we see, that the yielding to less sins, draws the soul to the committing of greater. Ah, how many in these days have fallen, first to have low thoughts of scripture and ordinances, and then to slight scripture and ordinances, and then to make a nose of wax of scripture and ordinances, and then to cast off scripture and ordinances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves and their Christ-dishonour and soul-damning opinions above scripture and ordinances. Sin gains upon man's soul by insensible degrees. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talking is mischievous madness, Eccles. x. 13. Corruption in the heart, when it breaks forth, is like a breach in the sea, which begins in a narrow passage, till it eats through and casts down all before it. The debates of the soul are quick and soon ended, and that may be done in a moment, which may undo a man for ever. When a man has begun to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make a stop of sin. Usually the soul goes on from evil to evil, from folly to folly, till it is ripe for eternal misery. Men usually grow from being naught, to be very naught; and from very naught, to be stark naught; and then God sets them at naught for ever.

Rem. 3. Solemnly consider that it is sad to stand with God for a trifle. Dives would not give a crumb, therefore he should not receive a drop. It is the greatest folly in the world to adventure the going to hell for a small matter. I tasted but a little honey, said Jonathan, und I must die. It is a most unkind and unfaithful thing to break with God for a little; little sins carry with them but little temptation to sin, and then a man shews most viciousness and unkindness, when he sins on a little temptation. It is devilish to sin without a temptation; it is little less than devilish to sin on a little occasion. The less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin. Saul's sin in not staying for Samuel, was not so much in the matter, but it was much in the malice of it; for though Samuel had not come at all, yet Saul should not have