THis Reflection of Lindamor’s was soon follow’d by another of the same Gentleman’s, who seeing many Fishes rise one after another, and bite at Eugenius’s Bait, which he let them sometimes run away with, that he might be the surer to be able to draw them up, as he afterwards did several of them; See, (says Lindamor, as one of the Fishes had just swallowed the Hook) how yonder silly Fish, having at length seized the beloved Bait, he has been Courting, posts away with it as his obtained wish, little dreaming of being himself taken: Thus (continues the same Speaker) when greedy Mortals have an opportunity to obtain forbidden things, they joyfully run away with them as the Goods they aimed at, and when they fondly think they have caught, they are so, and whilst they imagine themselves to carry away a Booty, they become a Prey; for that he is in his Judgment that never errs, who, whatever he gets into the Bargain, loses himself.
The Scripture, (subjoyns Eusebius) mentions, among other properties of Vice, that which it calls the Deceitfulness of Sin. And the wise Man tells us, that Wine is a Mocker; and it may be one of the reasons of these Expressions, that when we think our selves possessed of a sinfull Pleasure, we are indeed possessed by it, as Doemeniacks are possessed by the Divel, who serves many other Sinners, though less perceivedly, as he serves Witches, whom he gets the Power to command, by seeming to obey them, and to comply with their criminal desires; And, if we compare this, with what I was just now observing to you, on the occasion of the counterfeit Fly, we may add, That even when Sin seems the Kindest and most Obsequious to us, and to answer if not exceed our Desires, our case may be but like the Canaanitish General’s, who though he had Milk brought him by Jael instead of the Water he only requested, was but thereby invited to Sleep the Sleep of Death, (Judges 4. 29) and to have his Fears more surpass’d than his Desires had been.
But, (pursues Eusebius) this may supply us with another Reflection; for though this Fish seems to have devoured the Hook and Bait it swallowed, yet in effect it is taken thereby; so the Divel, when he had played the Serpent and the Lion, when he had brought the Jews and Gentiles to conspire against their common Saviour, and had made Herod and Pilate friends to make them joynt Enemies to Christ, and when by these means he seemed to have obtained his end, by employing their hands to Kill the formidablest of all his Enemies, this pursued Prey destroyed the seeming Conquerour; and Death appearing to swallow the Lord of Life, was, if I may so speak, choaked by the Attempt, since he not only was quickly able to say in the Apostles Triumphant Language: O Death, (2 Cor. 15. 15) where is thy Sting? (Hebr. 2. 14, 15) O Grave, where is thy Victory? but did by Death conquer him that had the power of Death, that is, the Divel; nay, and made all his followers so much sharers in the advantages of his Conquest, as by the same way (which we are informed by the same Text) to deliver those whom the restless fear of Death perpetually kept from relishing the Joys of Life.
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