The first device that Satan hath to draw souls from holy duties, and to keep them off from religious services, is,
Device (1). By presenting the world in such a dress, and in such a garb to the soul, as to ensnare the soul, and to win upon the affections of the soul. He represents the world to them in its beauty and bravery,! which proves a bewitching sight to a world of men? (It is true, this took not Christ, because Satan could find no matter in him for his temptation to work upon.) So that he can no sooner cast out his golden bait, but we are ready to play with it, and to nibble at it; he can no sooner throw out his golden ball, but men are apt to run after it, though they lose God and their souls in the pursuit. Ah! how many professors in these days have for a time followed hard after God, Christ, and ordinances, till the devil hath set before them the world in all its beauty and bravery, which hath so bewitched their souls that they have grown to have low thoughts of holy things, and then to be cold in their affections to holy things, and then to slight them, and at last, with the young man in the Gospel, to turn their backs upon them. Ah! the time, the thoughts, the spirits, the hearts, the souls, the duties, the services, that the inordinate love of this wicked world doth eat up and destroy, and hath ate up and destroyed. Where one thousand are destroyed by the world’s frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world’s smiles. The world, siren-like, it sings us and sinks us; it kisses us, and betrays us, like Judas; it kisses us and smites us under the fifth rib, like Joab. The honours, splendour, and all the glory of this ~ world, are but sweet poisons, that will much endanger us, if they do not eternally destroy us Ah! the multitude of souls that have surfeited of these sweet baits and died for ever. Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these, Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell upon the impotency and weakness of all these things here below. They are not able to secure you from the least evil, they are not able to procure you the least desirable good. The crown of gold cannot cure the headache, nor the velvet slipper ease the gout, nor the jewel about the
G+ PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 Cor. II. 11. neck cannot take away the pain of the teeth. The frogs of Egypt entered into the rich men’s houses of Egypt, as well as the poor. Our daily experience doth evidence this, that all the honours, riches, &e., that men enjoy, cannot free them from the cholic, the fever, or lesser diseases. Nay, that which may seem most strange is, that a great deal of wealth cannot keep men from falling into extreme poverty: Judges i. 6, you shall find seventy kings, with their fingers and toes cut off, glad, like whelps, to lick up crumbs under another king’s table; and shortly after, the same king that brought them to this penury, is reduced to the same poverty and misery. Why then should that be a bar to keep thee out of heaven, that cannot give thee the least ease on earth?
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell upon the vanity of them as well as upon the impotency of all worldly good. This is the sum of Solomon’s sermon, Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.” This our first parents found, and therefore named their second son Abel, or vanity. Solomon, that had tried these things, and could best tell the vanity of them, he preacheth this sermon over again and again, ‘ Vanity of vanities, and all 1s vanity.” It is sad to think how many thousands there be that can say with the preacher, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” nay, swear it, and yet follow after these things as if there were no other glory, nor felicity, but what is to be found in these things they call vanity? Such men will sell Christ, heaven, and their souls for a trifle, that call these things vanity, but do not cordially believe them to be vanity, but set their hearts upon them as if they were their crown, the top of all their royalty and glory. Oh let your souls dwell upon the vanity of all things here below, till your hearts be so throughly convinced and persuaded of the vanity of them, as to trample upon them, and make them a footstool for Christ to get up, and ride in a holy triumph in your hearts?
Chrysostom said once, That if he were the fittest in the world to preach a sermon to the whole world, gathered together in one congregation, and had some high mountain for his pulpit, from whence he might have a prospect of all the world in his view, and were furnished with a voice of brass, a voice as loud as the trumpets of the archangel, that all the world might hear him, he would choose to preach upon no other text than that in the Psalms,’ O mortal men, how long will ye love vanity, and follow after leasing Ps. iv. 2. 1 The prior in Melancthon rolled his hand up and down in a basinful of angels, thinking thereby to have charmed his gout, but it would not do. Nugas the Scythian, despising the rich presents and ornaments that were sent unto him by the emperor of Constantinople, asked whether those things could drive away calamities, diseases, or rT, king of Vandals led in triumph by Belisarius, cried out, Vanity of
Tell me, you that say all things under the sun are vanity, if you do really believe what you say, why do you spend more thoughts and time on the world, than you do on Christ, heaven, and your immortal souls? Why do you then neglect your duty towards God, to get the world 2 Why do you then so eagerly pursue after the world, and are so cold in your pursuing after God, Christ, and holiness? Why then are your hearts so exceedingly raised, when the world comes in, and smiles upon you; and so much dejected, and cast down, when the world frowns upon you, and with Jonah’s gourd withers before you?
Remedy (3). The third remedy against the device of Satan 1s, To dwell mach upon the uncertainty, the mutability, and inconstancy of all things under the sun. Man himself is but the dream of a dream, but the generation of a fancy, but an empty vanity, but the curious picture of nothing, a poor, feeble, dying flash. All temporals are as transitory as a hasty headlong current, a shadow, a ship, a bird, an arrow, a post that passeth by. Why shouldst thou set thine eyes upon that which is not 2’ saith Solomon, Prov. xxiii. 5. And saith the apostle, The fashion of this world passeth away,” 1 Cor. vii. 31. Heaven only hath a foundation, earth hath none, but is hanged upon nothing, as Job speaks, xxvi. 7. The apostle willed Timothy to charge rich men that they be not high-minded, nor put their trust in uncertain riches; 1 Tim. vi. 17.2 They are like bad servants, whose shoes are made of running leather, and will never tarry long with one master? Asa bird hoppeth from tree to tree, so do the honours and riches of this world from man to man, Let Job and Nebuchadnezzar testify this truth, who fell from great wealth to great want. No man can promise himself to be wealthy till night; one storm at sea, one coal of fire, one false friend, one unadvised word, one false witness, may make thee a beggar and a prisoner all at once. All the riches and glory of this world 1s but as smoke and chaff that vanisheth; As a dream and vision in the night, that tarrieth not,” Job xx. 8. As if a hungry man drecameth, and thinketh that he eateth, and when he awaketh his soul is empty; and like a thirsty man which thinketh he drinketh, and behold when he 1s awaked, his soul is faint,” as the prophet Isaiah saith, chap. xxix. 8. Where is the glory of Solomon? the sumptuous buildings of Nebuchadnezzar? the nine hundred chariots of Sisera? the power of Alexander? the authority of Augustus, that commanded the whole world to be taxed? Those that have been the most glorious, in what men generally account glorious and excellent, have had inglorious ends; as Samson for strength, Absalom for favour, Ahithophel for policy, Haman for favour, Asahel for swiftness, Alexander for great conquest, and yet after twelve years poisoned. The same you may see in the four mighty kingdoms, the Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, and
Roman: how soon were they gone and forgotten!!! Now rich, now poor, now full, now empty, now in favour, anon out of favour, now honourable, now despised, now health, now sickness, now strength, now weakness. Oh, let not these uncertain things keep thee from those holy services and heavenly employments, that may make thee happy for ever, and render thy soul eternally blessed and at ease, when all these transitory things shall bid thy soul an everlasting farewell.2 bh Remedy (+). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan 1s, seriously to consider, That the great things of this world are very hurtful and dangerous to the outward and inward man, through the corruptions that be in the hearts of men. Oh, the rest, the peace, the comfort, the content that the things of this world do strip many men of! Oh, the fears, the cares, the envy, the malice, the dangers, the mischiefs, that they subject men to! They oftentimes make men carnally confident.t The rich man’s riches arc a strong tower in his imagination. ‘I said in my prosperity I should never be moved,” Ps. xxx. 6. They often swell the heart with pride. and make men forget God, and neglect God, and despise the rock of their salvation. When Jeshurun waxed fat, and was grown thick, and covered with fatness, then he forgot God, and forsook God that made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation,” as Moses spake, Deut. xxxii. 15. Ab, the time, the thoughts, the spirits, that the things of the world consume and spend! Oh, how do they hinder the actings of faith upon God! how do they interrupt our sweet communion with God! how do they abate our love to the people of God! and cool our love to the things of God! and work us to act like those that are most unlike to God! Ob, the deadness, the barrenness that doth attend men under great outward mercies! Ol, the riches of the world chokes the word; that men live under the most soul-searching, and soul-enriching means with lean souls. Though they have full purses, though their chests are full of silver, yet their hearts are empty of grace. In Genesis xlil. 2, it 1s said, that Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold According to the Hebrew (Chabbedyh) it is Abraham was very weary; to shew that riches are a heavy burden, and a hindrance many times to heaven, and happiness.
1. The most renowned Frederick lost all, and sued to be made but sexton of the church that himself had built. I have read of a poor fisherman, who. while his nets were a-drying, slept upon the rock, and dreamed that he was made a king, on a sudden starts up, and leaping for joy, fell down from the rock, and in the place of his imaginary felicities loses his little portion of pleasures. 2 The pomp of this world John compareth to the moon, which crescit et decrescit, increaseth and decreaseth, Apoec. xii. 1. 3 Henry the Sceond hearing Mentz his chief city to be taken, used this blasphemous speech: I shall never, saith he, love God any more, that suffered a city so dear to me to be taken from me. 4 When one presented Antipater, king of Macedonia, with a book treating on happiness, his answer was (od syoralw), I have no leisure. 5 That four good mothers beget four bad daughters: great familiarity begets contempt, truth hatred, virtue envy, riches ignorance; a French proverb. 6 Ponacrites bestowed five talents for a gift upon one Anacreon, who for two nights after was so troubled with care how to keep them, and how to bestow them, as he carried them back again to Ponacrites, saying, they were not worth the pains which he Lud already taken for them. [Query Polycrates?—G.]
King Henry the Fourth asked the Duke of Alva if he had observed the great eclipse of the sun, which had lately happened; No, said the duke, I have so much to do on earth, that I have no leisure to look up to heaven. Ah, that this were not true of most professors in these days. It is very sad to think, how their hearts and time is so much taken up with earthly things, that they have scarce any leisure to look up to heaven, or to look after Christ, and the things that belong to their everlasting peace.
Riches, though well got, yet are but like to manna; those that gathered less had no want, and those that gathered more, it was but a trouble and annoyance to them. The world is troublesome, and yet it is loved; what would 1t be if it were peaceable? You embrace it, though it be filthy; what would you do if it were beautiful? You cannot keep your hands from the thorns; how earnest would you be then in gathering the flowers?! The world may be fitly likened to the serpent Scytale, whereof it is reported, that when she cannot overtake the flying passengers, she doth with her beautiful colours so astonish and amaze them, that they have no power to pass away, till she hath stung them.? Ah, how many thousands are there now on earth, that have found this true by experience, that have spun a fair thread to strangle themselves, both temporally and eternally, by being bewitched by the beauty and bravery of this world.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider, That all the felicity of this world is mixed. Our light is mixed with darkness, our joy with sorrow, our pleasures with pain, our honour with dishonour, our riches with wants. If our lights be spiritual, clear, and quick, we may see in the felicity of this world our ~ wine mixed with water, our honey with gall, our sugar with wormwood, and our roses with pricklest Sorrow attends worldly joy, danger attends worldly safety, loss attends worldly labours, tears attend worldly purposes. As to these things, men’s hopes are vain, their sorrow certain and joy feigned. The apostle calls this world ‘a sea of glass,” a sea for the trouble of it, and glass for the brittleness and bitterness of it. The honours, profits, pleasures, and delights of the world are true gardens of Adonis, where we can gather nothing but trivial flowers, surrounded with many briers.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, To get better acquaintance and better assurance of more blessed and glorious things. That which raised up their spirits, Heb. x. and xi., to trample upon all the beauty, bravery, and glory of the world, was the acquaintance with, and assurance of better and more durable
things.” They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they bad in heaven a better and a more durable substance.” They looked for a house that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God.” “And they looked for another country, even an heavenly.” They saw him that was invisible, and had an eye to the recompence of reward.” Aud this made them count all the glory and bravery of this world to be too poor and contemptible for them to set their hearts upon. The main reason why men doat upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, 1s, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and eommnunion with God means, what 1t 1s to have ‘a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it,” Rev. ii. 17; did they but taste more of heaven, and live more 1m heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.
[t was an excellent saying of Lewis of Bavyer, emperor of Germany, Such goods are worth getting and owning, as will not sink or wash away if a shipwreck happen, but will wade and swim out with us.” It is recorded of Lazarus, that after his resurrection from the dead, he was never seen to laugh, his thoughts and affections were so fixed in heaven, though his body was on earth, and therefore he could not but slight temporal things, his heart being so bent and set upon eternals. There are goods for the throne of grace, as God, Christ, the Spirit, adoption, justification, remission of sin, peace with God, and peace with conscience; and there are goods ot the footstool, as honours, riches, the favour of creatures, and other comforts and accommodations of this life. Now he that hath acquaintance with, and assurance ot the goods of the throne, will easily trample upon the goods of the footstool. Ah that you would make it your business, your work, to mind more, and make sure more to your own souls, the great things of eternity, that will yield you joy in life and peace in death, and a crown of righteousness in the day of Christ’s appearing, and that will litt up your souls above all the beauty and bravery of this bewitching world, that will raise your feet above other men’s heads. When a man comes to be assured of a crown, a sceptre, the royal robes, &elie then begins to have low, mean, and contemptible thoughts of those things that before he highly prized. So will assurance of more great and glorious things breed in the soul a holy scorn and contempt of all these poor, mean things, which the soul before did value above God, Christ, and heaven, &ec.
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That true happiness and satisfaction is not to be had in the enjoyment of worldly good. True happiness is too big and too glorious a thing to be found in anything below that God that
is a Christian’s summum bonum, chiefest good.! The blessed angels, those glistering courtiers, have all felicities and blessedness, and yet have they neither gold, nor silver, nor jewels, nor none of the beauty and bravery of this world. Certainly if happiness was to be found in these things, the Lord Jesus, who 1s the right and royal heir of all things, would have exchanged his cradle for a crown; his birth chamber, a stable, for a royal palace; his poverty for plenty; his despised followers for shining courtiers; and his mean provisions for the choicest delicates, &c. Certainly happiness lies not in those things that a man may enjoy, and yet be miserable for ever. Now a man may be great and graceless with Pharaoh, honourable and damnable with Saul, rich and miserable with Dives, &c.: therefore happiness lies not in these things. Certainly happiness lies not in those things that cannot comfort a man upon a dying bed. Is it honours, riches, or friends, &e., that can comfort thee when thou comest to die? Or is it not rather faith in the blood of Christ, the witness of the Spirit of Christ, the sense and feeling of the love and favour of Christ, and the hopes of eternally reigning with Christ? Can happiness lie in those things that cannot give us health, or strength, or ease, or a good night’s rest, or an hour’s sleep, or a good stomach? Why, all the honowrs, riches, and delights of this world cannot give these poor things to us, therefore certainly happiness lies not in the enjoyment of them, &e.? And surely happiness is not to be found in those things that cannot satisfy the souls of men. Now none of these things can satisfy the soul of man. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase; this is also vanity,” said the wise man, Eccles. v. 10. The barren womb, the horse leech’s daughter, the grave and hell, will as soon be satisfied, as the soul ot man will by the enjoyment of any worldly good. Some one thing or other will be for ever wanting to that soul that hath none but outward good to live upon. You may as soon fill a bag with wisdom, a chest with virtue, or a circle with a triangle, as the heart of man with anything here below. A man may have enough of the world to sink him, but he can never have enough to satisfy him, &e.
Remedy (8). The eighth remedy against this device of Satan ix, solemnly to consider, Of the dignity of the soul. Oh, the soul of mau is more worth than a thousand worlds! It is the greatest abasing of it that can be to let it doat upon a little shining earth, upon a little painted beauty and fading glory, when it is capable of union with Christ, of communion with God, and of enjoying the eternal vision of God.
Seneca could say, ‘I am too great, and born to greater things, than that I should be a slave to my body. Oh! do you say my soul 1s
too great, and born to greater things, than that I should confine it to a heap of white and yellow earth! I have been the longer upon the remedies that may help us against this dangerous device of Satan, because he doth usually more hurt to the souls of men by this device than he doth by all other devices. For a close, I wish, as once Chrysostom did, that that sentence, Eccles. ii. 11, Then 1 looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do, and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun,’ were engraven on the door-posts into which you enter, on the tables where you sit, on the dishes out of which you eat, on the cups out of which you drink, on the bed-steads where you lie, on the walls of the house where you dwell, on the garments which you wear, on the heads of the horses on which you ride, and on the foreheads of all them whom you meet, that your souls may not, by the beauty and bravery of the world, be kept off from those holy and heavenly services that may render you blessed while you live, and happy when you die; that you may breathe out your last into his bosom who lives for ever, and who will make them happy for ever that prefer Christ’s spirituals and eternals above all temporal transitory things.