Chapter 15

Five deceits of the heart in persuading to sin.

Here follows the first deceit, which is in judging: the second follows in persuading. And that is either to the doing of that which is evil, or to the omitting of that which is good.

In the first kind there are diverse deceits.

The first is to color gross sins with mild terms, and so to present it to us, not in its own proper colors, but painted and gilded over with some shows of virtue, that it might the more easily wind and insinuate itself into our affections. This is like their deceit that dye course cloth in fine colors. Thus haughtiness comes masked in the habit of magnanimity, curiosity would be taken for the desire of knowledge, ignorance shrouds itself under the name of innocency, and riotousness shadows itself under the title of liberality, says Augustine. So likewise pestilent heresy hides itself under the name of profound knowledge and deep learning (Revelation 2:24). Pride goes under the name of cleanliness and neatness; Machiavellianism and worldliness (Proverbs 23:4) of wisdom and policy; impudence of presence of spirit and lawful audacity; rashness of fortitude; timorousness of cautiousness; base niggardliness of just parsimony; drunkenness of good fellowship; covetousness of good husbandry. And hence is that deceitfulness of riches in the parable of the sower. How are riches deceitful? The deceit is in the covetous rich man's heart, that covers his insatiable coveting and desire of gathering riches with the gentle and honest name of thrift and frugality. Thus wrong and injustice deceives often, under the color and in the appearance of mercy and compassion. As when we relieve the needy with other folks' goods, or (to use Augustine's example) when we favor a poor man having an ill cause, against a rich man having a good. In like manner giddiness carries a blush of zeal; and choler and fury of valor and manhood. From which that speech touching the fiery spirited man: He has mettle in him. And it is metal indeed, but dug out of the mine-pits of hell, base and reprobate metal which never received the image and impression of God's spirit. And yet, as they that have ill eyes will mistake one man for another — especially when they somewhat resemble one another, though otherwise the difference between them is palpable — and so salute a stranger for a friend: so our poor blind hearts, deceived with that shadow of resemblance which vice sometimes carries of virtue, do oftentimes embrace and receive gross vices in the place of glorious virtues. For as the Prince of darkness, the Devil, does sometimes transform himself into an angel of light and become a white devil (for in 1 Timothy 4:1, 3, abstinence from meats and marriage, savoring — one would think — of great mortification, are yet doctrines of devils): so also can the works of darkness transfigure themselves into the works of light. Not only those works of light, to which they seem to come somewhat nearer, but even those — oh strange juggling! — from which they are farthest distant. For yellow, or some such middle color, to be taken for white, is no such great deceit of the eyes; but that black should be taken for white — this is a strange deceit indeed. And yet this is the deceit of our hearts, to shape out diverse vices to us, like those virtues to which they are most extremely contrary. For example, not only base dejection of mind goes under the account of true humility, but even pride itself, as in those that seek praise by disabling and dispraising themselves; as in Diogenes treading upon Plato's chair and saying, Plato, I trample upon your pride — who therefore worthily had that answer returned to him: You trample on pride with greater pride. Thus was it in those heretics in Paul's time, so humble that they would not presume to come to God immediately — they would not dare to worship him, but the angels (Colossians 2:18). And yet of these men, in whom humility made so great a noise, the Apostle is not afraid to say that they are puffed up in their fleshly mind — behold, a proud humility. And such is that of the Papists in whipping themselves; for in these things they swerve from the wisdom of the word and follow their own inventions. And what greater pride than for a man to think himself wiser than God, to leave the direction of his word, and to exalt his own fancy above it? Thus David describes the proud man: You have destroyed the cursed proud. But who are these? The next words tell us: those that do err from your commandments (Psalm 119:20). And afterward in the same psalm, verse 85: The proud have dug pits for me. But who are those proud ones? Those who do not conform themselves to your law. Let there be never such shows of humility — if in them we prefer our own wills to God's, it is but pride varnished with some colors of humility. Peter no doubt thought himself humble when he would not let Christ wash his feet (John 13:8). But this was only the deceitfulness of his own heart. For indeed he was proud in so doing, because in refusing to obey Christ's commandment, he made himself wiser than Christ. Alike deceitful was the Baptist's humility in refusing to wash Christ (Matthew 3) as that of Peter's in refusing to be washed by him. Had we not need now to have our eyes in our heads, lest otherwise our cunning hearts obtrude vice upon us in the place of virtue? What more effectual argument can they use to allure our affections to the love and liking of sin than to set this false gloss upon it? When the strumpet would entice the young man to commit folly with her, she does not give her sin the right name of filthiness which it deserved — for that would have driven him away — but she hangs out the ivy-bush of a sweet and lovely title, with which she inveigled the youth: Come, let us take our fill of love, and delight ourselves in dalliance (Proverbs 7:14). Beastly whoredom is but love and dalliance. So the sluggard qualifies and mollifies his shameful sloth with the sweet name of peace, and so lulls himself asleep in his sin: Better is a handful with quietness (so he terms his sloth) than two handfuls with labor and vexation (Ecclesiastes 4:3). Thus our hearts, bawds for the filthy strumpet sin, teach her this trick of deceitfulness, to correct her natural deformity with these artificial paintings, that so we might be caught the sooner. But as the heat of the sun, or of the fire, will easily discover the painting of the harlot by melting it away: so will the heat of God's word, if we bring this painted and trapped strumpet to it, plainly show that her beauty came out of the box of a deceitful heart. And then when these daubings are washed off from this Jezebel, that we may see her in her own hue, we did not so much love her before, but — as Amnon did Tamar — we shall twice as much loathe her afterward.

2. The deceit which our hearts use to ensnare us is to make a show of being very reasonable, and shamefaced, in craving but a little at our hands; bearing us in hand that if this little be granted, they will rest contented with that and will demand no more. Wherein truth there is a double deception.

1. That there are some sins which are but little ones. This was part of the Pharisees' leaven, calling some commandments of God but little commandments, not much to be regarded. So now many account faith and truth to be but petty oaths. Fornication is judged but a trick of youth; though yet Saint Paul (to use the words of that most reverend man of God) in place of that cloak of natural infirmity and heat of youth, with which we use to cover this sin, puts upon it a bloody cloak bathed in the blood of twenty-three thousand all struck down in one day for this so light a trick. And Saint Paul elsewhere, having exhorted against fornication and some other sins which our deceitful hearts use to minimize, adds this watchword: be not deceived. These things are more than tricks, more than matters of sport or jest: for, for these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. What now? Are those little sins, which bring upon us the great wrath of so infinite a majesty? And is it now but a trick to go to hell? Whether the weight even of these little sins, as it were small sands, will sink the ship of our souls as well as our greater and grosser sins, as it were the heavier burdens of the ship. Small leaks in ships, and small breaches in walls, being neglected, lose both ships and cities. And such tradesmen as in their accounts regard not small sums will quickly prove bankrupts. Disobedience, though in never so small matters, as in eating of an apple, gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath, looking into and touching of the Ark, is yet in God's account no small matter. For how severely has he punished all these, than which yet what can we imagine slighter? But it is not the smallness of the things that lessens either our obedience or disobedience. There is the same reason of roundness in a small ball as in a greater one: and so of obedience or disobedience in smaller or greater matters. A little thing is little, but faithfulness — and so also unfaithfulness — in a little, is a great matter. For it is God's commandment that binds to obedience in lesser things as well as in greater: and that is despised as well in the breach of the lesser as of the greater. Let us not then think that any sin is little; since the very least are committed against so great a God, and bring upon us so great a danger. More by far, in some respects, than do those which we count the greater. For in the greater we sooner come to the sight of them, and so to repentance for them: whereas in the lesser, we not discerning them, through this deceitfulness of heart, to be sins at all, go on in them without repentance; and so, through impenitence in the lesser, lie open to that danger which by repentance we happily escaped in the greater.

2. Besides this, there is also another deceit, that if we will yield to this little, we shall no further be importuned for any more. For however the beginnings of sin are very modest and maiden-like, and the sluggard craves but a little sleep, but a little slumber, as Augustine in his first conversion: yet sin is of an encroaching nature, like the rivers, small at the first rising, it spreads, and enlarges itself in going, as a gangrene it creeps on by degrees, from one part to another, till in the end it have consumed the whole. So that grant it but her little, and this little will quickly come to a great deal. Give it but an inch, and it will take an ell. Let the serpent but wind in his head, and he will draw his whole body after. When the Levite's father-in-law had drawn him to stay till noon, he drew him on further to stay all night, yes and till towards the evening of the next day (Judges 19). If he had named the whole time at first, and prayed him to have stayed two days longer, he had never obtained it. But at first, craving only half a day, he comes at length to get two days. If our hearts should demand all that they will bring us to in the end, they would never be heard: but through their deceitful modesty of asking but a little, by degrees they quickly entice us on to more. How true this is, will easily appear, if either we look to the matter of faith, or of manners. For the matter of faith, or doctrine; witness the Popish superstition, in most of her horrible heresies, which were not so gross at the first, as now they are, but after that the seeds and foundations of them were secretly laid in the ground in the primitive Church, the degenerating ages that succeeded, added, one this piece, another that, till at the length, in process of time, they came to that monstrous deformity which now we see. The primacy of the Roman Bishop at first, was only in regard of order and honor, not of the power and jurisdiction, which afterward he obtained. Monastic life at first was only for safety in time of persecution: and the monasteries of the ancient were not much differing from our colleges. The use of images in Churches was first only historical. Afterward, thus much being granted, the idolatrous heart of man never gave over, till the religious use obtained. Such is the danger of yielding but to the very least occasions, and beginnings of error and idolatry. Milesius his image came out of his private parlor into the common hall, then into the street, next into the churchyard, then to the porch of the Church, after that, to be on the wall, last of all it got upon the altar itself. After Ahaz had made his wicked altar, and offered upon it, he brought it into the temple, first setting it by the bronze altar, but then he brought it further into the house, and advanced it to a higher place, and set it on the north side of God's altar. Lo how idolatry secretly, and by stealth creeps in, and gets room of the truth, first for one arm, then for another; then for the other parts, till at length the truth itself be wholly jostled out. If error got but once into the belfry, it will never leave till it be in the chancel: if it may be suffered to be in the porch it will not be long but you shall see it possessed of the Church itself, and jetting it in the pulpit. What shall we say then to those reconcilers of us and the Romanists, that would have us yield in some things to them? Assuredly, if once the sluices be opened the waters must needs run amain: if the gate be set open, the besieging enemy will enter. What shall we say likewise to those, that think it no such great matter to yield to shows and appearances of idolatry? As for travelers into idolatrous places to show some kind of reverence to the host, to kiss the Pope's toe, if yet these be shows only of idolatry. Certainly these are but shoehorns to draw on further matters. Therefore the least sins in every commandment are reproached with the name of the greatest, as the unchaste glance of the eye with adultery, and Paul calls the Corinthians sitting down at the idolaters' feast, though without all intent of honoring the idol, by the odious name of idolatry: because these lesser and petty matters (as we count them) make way, and pave a causeway for the greater. Hence it was that Job freed himself, not only from the grosser idolatry, but even from the least show of it, in outward fashions; not only from worshipping the sun and moon, but even from his hands kissing of his mouth, a gesture only of adoring. And because herein our hearts notably juggle, therefore he says, If my heart has been deceived in secret, or if my hand has kissed my mouth (Job 31:27). Thereby showing that it is a part of our heart's deceitfulness to draw us on first to these matters of less account, that afterward we might the more easily digest the greater. Of this Moses seems to speak, when he says to Israel, Beware lest your hearts deceive you (Deuteronomy 11:16), namely upon occasion of that great prosperity before spoken of, that going back, at the first only from your fervor, and zeal in his true service, at length, by degrees, you should worship strange gods, and bow down to them. Therefore let no man deceive himself, saying, O this is but a small matter, why should any stand so much upon this? Yes but this small matter is a strong cart-rope to pull greater after it. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little spark often kindles a great fire, devouring to destruction. Assuredly in the justice of God, punishing smaller sins with greater, they that make no conscience of smaller untruths, in time come to have such large consciences, and wide throats, that they can swallow down gross errors, as it were great gobs at once. Having fallen to the Devil's porridge, they will shortly eat of his flesh, and from eating of the husks of grapes, they will come at length to eat of the grapes themselves, and from this to the drinking of wine itself. For whereas it is only the commandment of the Lord that binds us in the greater matters, he that has boldly begun to shake off this yoke in the lesser, what is there that can hold him fast to the Lord in the greater? Chrysostom is very zealous in this point, writing upon those words of Paul concerning those that urged the ceremonies of Moses, But there are some that would overthrow the Gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6). Why but, says that Father, they retained the Gospel, only they would have brought in a Jewish rite, or two. And yet the Apostle says that hereby the Gospel is subverted, to show how but a little thing, being untowardly mingled, mars all. For as in the King's coin, he that clips off but a little of his image stamped thereon, debases the whole piece: so if any shall overthrow but the least parcel of the truth, it is wholly corrupted, from these beginnings proceeding always to worse things: where are they now who condemn us as contentious, because of our disagreement with heretics? — let them hear what Paul says, namely that they did overthrow the Gospel, who brought in but a little innovation. So dangerous did this holy man hold it, to yield though never so little, to error, because of this deceit, whereby the whole truth is secretly undermined. We would not give place says Paul, by subjection one hour to Mosaic rites urged by the false Apostles that the truth of the Gospel (endangered by those rites) might continue. If we never so little sip of the cup of error, we shall drink our full draught, yes we shall go on in carousing, till we be drunk therewith. If we begin never so little to nibble upon these meats, we shall fill ourselves with them, and eat till we surfeit.

Neither is this persuasion from the smallness of the sin deceitful only in matter of doctrine, but also of life, and conversation. Witness the many experiences of God's children, who, winking at smaller sins, have been plunged into greater, and yet (so cunningly and closely is this deceit carried) they have not espied the change. For that which our Savior speaks concerning the growth of grace, that it is insensible, like to that of the corn, where the seed springs and grows, first the blade, then the ears, then the full corn, the husbandman not knowing how, may as truly be said concerning the growth of wickedness; after that the smaller seeds of this unhappy cockle and darnel are once received into our hearts, they shoot forth, and still rise higher and higher, without our feeling or discerning: because of this creeping, stealing, and deceitful pace of sin whereby step by step, by little and little it ascends up in us, till it has come to its full height. Hence that admonition, Remember from where you are fallen (Revelation 2:4). For we, because we fall by degrees, our hearts deceitfully gaining this little, do not so well perceive how far we are fallen, till we cast back our eyes to that high hill where we stood before, and then we see how miserably we have been deceived.

Let us not flatter ourselves in this deceit. Say not of any of your infirmities, as Lot of his Zoar, oh is not this a little one? May I not be dispensed with, for this little, so I go no further? May I not give my eye liberty to wander a little in wanton glances? May I not let loose the reins to my tongue to frisk it out a little, in some idle, and lascivious speeches? May I not unshackle my feet, and give them leave to carry me to such and such places? May I not do all this, so I do no more, so I break not out into the outward acts of uncleanness? No more, O fool? How can you but do more? Do you think a dog will run away from you, as long as you cast him bread? Or that flax will not conceive flame, when you put fire to it? Or that you can carry burning coals in your bosom, and not be burnt? No, no. If once you have let loose the reins to these mad horses, you may not look to stay them when you would. If once you give leave to your corrupt affections to begin to play their parts, you shall hardly make them give over. Though at first they be but weak, yet afterward they raise up their spirits, and get strength in going. Easier it is to keep them out, than to trust them out. Hear not then these cunning insinuations of your heart, oh but a little idleness, but a little wantonness, a little foolishness, and then we have done; oh but this little stretches itself far. This somewhat goes a great way, and will not stay where we would. The proverb is false here, Modicum non nocet, A little hurts not. Yes, a little hurts a great deal. Little sins usher great ones, and bring them into the closets of our hearts. And here behold a notable piece of cunning fraud in these crafty hearts of ours. In persuading and inveigling us to sin, they urge hard that it is but a little they crave: what? Will you stick with us for so little? But when this little is once yielded them, then they tell us, that having done so much, it makes no great matter, if now we go a little further: we cannot be much worse than we are. As when we have misspent some part of the day in idleness, then it reasons thus with us: now you have lost this part of it, you can do no great good with the remainder: it were even best to be idle still. The like may be said in the matter of lying, thieving, uncleanness. When we have but yielded a little, then our hearts tell us, we have cracked our credit with that we have done already; we were as good go forward now, as stand still. Hence it is, that when men have once begun to sin in any kind, they have so lustily lashed on: as Jacob in his lying to his father Isaac, first, I am Esau, etc. then being demanded how he came to his venison so quickly, he goes further, most indignly abusing the holy name of God himself, The Lord your God brought it to my hand. So Saul in his swearing and cursing: first, Cursed be the man that eats food till night: then, As the Lord lives that saves Israel; though it be Jonathan he shall die. And again, God do so, and more also, unless you die the death Jonathan. So Peter, from one denial, rushes on to a second, a third; and from a simple denial, to a denial with execration. Over shoes, over boots, as we say. So like in this regard are the waters of sin to those in Ezekiel. For they come stealing on us by degrees, and arise from the ankles to the knees, and so higher and higher. Yet herein unlike, that they stay not at the chin, as those do, but go over head and ears, and drown us in perpetual perdition. We must then carry a strait hand over our hearts, and be as far from gratifying them in these their littles of sin, as wiser physicians are their patients, in their littles of meats and drinks hurtful. For it fares with us in sinning, as in eating, where one bit draws down another; though at first we purposed to eat little, or nothing. And as we get a stomach, and provoke our appetite, sometimes by eating, so is our fitness for, and desire after sin increased by beginning to sin. For as every good work increases our holiness, and so ability for obedience, according to that of Saint Paul, Being made the servants of God you have your fruit in holiness (Romans 6:22): so every sin adds to our pollution, leaving behind it a kind of stain in the soul, whereby it is the readier for further disobedience. From this it comes to pass, that having begun to say yes to sin, but for a little, we find it so hard afterward to say it no in far greater matters, and having satisfied the smaller requests of sin we are made far more easy, and inclinable to her greater demands. Hence that warning of the Apostle: Be not deceived. Evil words corrupt good manners. Your deceitful heart will bear you in hand, that it matters not so much for words. It is but a small matter, what words or phrases one uses. But the truth is, evil words, as small as you make of them, will bring on evil deeds. Monica, Augustine's mother (as he himself reports it) when she was a maid, began to sip a little wine, as she poured it forth for her parents. But mark what followed upon this sipping. Daily adding, says Saint Augustine, to her first little new littles, because he that makes no bones of small matters, by little and little will fall to greater, she came to that pass, that she could with great greediness draw dry almost whole cups full of wine. Lo what comes but of sipping, and kissing the cup. But the example of Alipius, related also by the same father, is far more remarkable; who being importuned by his companions to go to those bloody spectacles of the gladiatorial combats, at length with much ado he yielded, yet purposing with himself (and telling them so much) that he would keep his eyes shut, and so be absent, even while he was present, overcoming both his friends, by going with them, and also the sights to which he went with them, by being but a blind beholder of them. But being come there, and upon the fall of one of the fighters the people making a great outcry, he could no longer hold his eyes shut, but longing to see what the matter was, opened them, fixed them upon that barbarous sight, and fed them with the cruel pleasure thereof. So that now, says Augustine, he was not the same he that came there, but one of that multitude to which he was come, a right companion of those with whom he came. He beheld and looked on with the rest, cried out with them, was inflamed with them, and carried from there that madness, which wrought in him an itch of returning, not only with them that brought him there, as a companion, but before them, as a captain and ringleader of many others. But among all examples there is none to that of Solomon. The beginning of whose overthrow was from this deceit. It had been a hard matter for so excellent a man at the first dash to have been brought to that height of defection; no. No man suddenly becomes notoriously wicked, especially having been eminently virtuous before, but step by step, piece and piece, here a little, and there a little. Lo therefore how Solomon's deceitful heart foiled him; first only drawing him to the more immoderate use of pleasures, in themselves lawful, persuading him yet that he should still, together with the use of them, retain his wisdom, his piety. But in the event it proved otherwise. As the love of pleasures went in, so the love of godliness went out by degrees, his zeal cooled, his forwardness slackened. The excessive use and love of lawful pleasures brought him first to a defective love of God's word, and from there to the love of unlawful pleasures in women; and then bodily adultery brought him at length to spiritual, even to fearful idolatry, as is observed by Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:26).

Our wisdom then must be to take heed (as the Apostle admonishes) of this deceitfulness of sin, lest we be hardened, and habituated in sin. For a habit, and hardness in sin comes not at first, but by degrees, when, by receiving the seed of evil, and enticing thoughts, we come to conceive, and then, as James shows, lust having conceived, sin is brought forth, and being brought forth is perfected by daily practice, which brings custom, and custom necessity. So that now we are miserably enthralled to sin. Since then we cannot well be rid of this guest, if once entertained, let us be wary how we enter into the least parley with him; since when we are once entered but a little into this country, we know not well how to get out, it is best for us not to come near so much as to the confines, and borders thereof. It is not good coming within the reach of the Lion, for fear of being caught. Neither is it good to come near the bank side, for fear of falling. Chrysostom tells us that it is a safe rule, not only to avoid sin itself, but also things seeming indifferent, that may lure and draw us on to sin. And he instances in laughter, and quipping, and delicious feasting, from where have flowed many mischiefs. These indifferent things, at least so seeming, he accounts the edge of the hill, and bids us take heed how we use them. And in truth though such things may seem nothing, yet there is much deceit, and danger in them. They are like Elijah's cloud, which at first seemed very little, no bigger than one's hand, yet by and by it overspreads the whole sky, and causes a dashing shower. Therefore as the Prophet, in the first rising of the cloud bade the king hurry to his chariot, to avoid the tempest so must we, foreseeing the danger of a great tempest even in these so little clouds, fly to our shelter presently. The Jews being forbidden to make covenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them, because that was a ceremony used in striking of covenants, and so it might have drawn them on to that. And Eve having received a commandment from God only not to eat, says she must not touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For touching might have drawn on tasting. The like wariness if we shall use, then may we escape this deceitful snare of our false and fraudulent hearts. Otherwise if we be too too regardless of smaller matters, of the occasions and preparations to sin, quickly shall we be caught. And as in the body little pricks of a pin neglected have bred wranklings in the flesh, and from there worse matters have followed, even death itself at last: so here in the soul, our connivance and over favorable indulgence to our smaller sins cannot but invite and call, indeed and with a magnetical kind of attraction forcibly draw to us further, and far more dangerous mischiefs.

The third deceit is to tickle our affections, and set our desires afloat, by presenting to us the mere and pure pleasure of sin. For however the pleasure of sin be a painful pleasure, a sour-sweet, which has much bitterness mixed; yet our hearts cunningly hide and conceal that. The flesh by vehemence of temptation raises such clouds, that the light of our understanding is taken away, as in David, in his adultery, the flesh did so possess him with the apprehension of the present pleasurable delight of his sin, that he could not think of that shame, that grief, those wounds of conscience, those broken bones, those sharp corrections that were to follow. Thus the Devil dealt with our Savior, he showed him the world, and all the glory thereof. But there was also much grief as well as glory in the world: but he would show him none of that. So there is far more gall, and bitterness, than honey and sweetness in sin; yet our deceitful hearts will not let us take any notice thereof. Like the Israelites, that could remember the flesh pots and onions, but not the bricks, not the bondage of Egypt. Thus we divide that of Solomon, Go, young man, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, etc.: suppressing that which follows, But know that for all this, God will bring you to judgment. Thus the impure wanton deceives himself, who harkens to the sweet voice of the flattering harlot, Stolen waters are sweet and the bread of deceit is pleasant. But he knows not, says Solomon, that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of hell. This deceit is much like that of boys, hiding a pin in a fair rose, and so pricking those that smell of them; or like that of tradesmen, that show their customers the better part of the cloth, and hide the worse. But to deliver ourselves from the danger of this deceit; we must, when we are thus tempted with the sense of present pleasure, cast our eyes beyond it, and look behind it, to see the long tail it has of many sorrows, and vexations. We must labor as well to foresee what is to come as we see what is present: does the Devil show you, as once our Savior a goodly sight of honor, glory, pleasure, profit, etc. in sin? That you may not be inveigled therewith, you must put down his sight with another sight of shame, terror, torment here and in hell, and other such like attendants of sin, which are to be seen in the word. Think as well of the sour sauce, as of the sweet meat, as well of Jael's nail to pierce our temples, as of her milk, and lodging to relieve our thirst and weariness; as well of Delilah's scissors to cut our hair, as of her lap to lull us asleep; as well of the pricking, as of the pleasantness of the hawthorns. The Greek Poet says wittily, If the pain of the headache were before the pleasure of the wine, none would be drunk. If we could in our apprehension, feel the pain of sin beforehand, we should escape the snake that lies hid under the green grass, the hook that lies covered under the pleasant bait. This is Solomon's advice in the temptation to drunkenness even then when our teeth are set on water with the pleasant color of the wine sprinkling and leaping in the glass, to remember that yet in the end it will [reconstructed: bite] like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrice. And so in temptation to uncleanness by the fair speech, and alluring beauty of the harlot, to remember that her latter end is bitter as wormwood, and sharper than any two-edged sword. For here truly has place that speech of Abner to Joab, Do you not know it will be bitterness in the latter end. Sin may well bring with it a flattering pleasure in the entry, but it always closes with a bitter remorse in the end.

The fourth deceit is, when it persuades us to sin, upon hope of God's mercy for pardon. This is a very usual and dangerous deceit. Like that of the Devil to our Savior, Cast yourself down headlong, for the Angels shall bear you up. So our hearts to us, cast yourselves, plunge yourselves into this or that sin: The mercy of God shall help you out. Poison yourself: here is a counter-poison. Break your head: here is a plaster. Surfeit: here is a Physician. An intolerable thing it is, that the mercy of God, the only inviter and provoker of our obedience, through the sophistry of these naughty hearts of ours, should be made an allurer and very bawd as it were to all filthiness. There is mercy with you, says the Prophet, what? That you might be despised, blasphemed? No; that you might be feared. And the love of Christ constrains Paul to duty. Therefore see what noble deceivers our hearts are, that can make that an enticer to sin, which of itself is the only powerful, and constraining persuader to godliness. But let them take heed lest their hope of mercy be not presumption. As a man passing over a bridge, which his false spectacles make to seem broader, than indeed it is, being thereby deceived, goes besides the bridge and so is drowned: so is it with those, whose deceitful hearts make the bridge of God's mercy larger than it is, they are in danger of falling beside it into the waters of eternal destruction. For though God's mercy be of the largest extent, yet it is bounded with his truth. And therefore usually in the Scriptures we find these two coupled together, God's mercy and his truth. So that God's mercy may not be such, whereby his truth in any sort should be impeached. As it should if it prostituted itself indifferently, and promiscuously to all, as well the insolent and impenitent, as the poor, humble and broken hearted sinner. For to these latter only is the promise of mercy made. And if to the others the gate of mercy should be set open; God's mercies (as Solomon says of the wicked's that they are cruel mercies) should be false, and unjust mercies. But God never yet learned so to be merciful, as to make himself false, and unfaithful.

The fifth deceit is, when our hearts, the better to hearten us to sin, plead the necessity of living in this world, and maintaining ourselves and our charges. O we must needs live, say some. And unless we do thus, and thus (say break the Sabbath, lie, swear, defraud, etc.) we cannot live. Esau under this pretence sold away heaven. He was very hungry, and knowing not how to relieve the necessity of hunger otherwise, than by accepting of Jacob's conditions, accepted them. I must maintain my life, says Esau. At this present I cannot without some food, food I see none but my brother's pottage. This I cannot have, without I buy it with my birthright. And thus he deceived himself. The like deceit we shall see in Demetrius the silversmith, who pleads hard for Diana, and the worship of her images by this very argument, Sirs you know that by this craft we have our goods. If Diana goes down, our living goes down with her. Thus would Satan have beguiled Christ, when in his hunger he persuaded him to relieve himself by turning stones into bread. And indeed to get our bread by falsehood, oppression, wrong, or any indirect course is a kind of turning stones into bread. And, what good will such bread do us? Bread made of stones shall turn into stones, even in the very eating. The bread of deceit though never so pleasant, yet in the mouth proves but gravel, says Solomon (Proverbs 20:17). And no marvel. It was made of gravel and stones. And so returns to his first substance. Another remedy against this deceit is to oppose a greater necessity of our souls living both here and hereafter with God. What do you tell me of the necessity of your living here? There is one only necessity for which there is no excuse, and is, not to offend God. One thing is needful, says Christ, to provide for your soul against hereafter, whatever become of this earthly body of yours. This is the far greater necessity of the two. It is not then simply necessary for you to live here. Or if it were, yet not to live by such wicked means, which your own unbelieving heart suggests. Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And the just man lives, even this his temporal life also, not by these and those shifts, but by his faith. And that is his meat in the want of other things, according to that of the Prophet, Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land, and feed yourself by or with your faith, as Tremellius reads it. And thus we have handled five deceits which our hearts use in persuading us to sin. There remain yet diverse others, which we will speak of in the chapter following.